You are God’s creature, and yet you have rendered to Him no obedience! You would
not keep a horse or a dog that did not do you some service, or follow at your whistle. BA175

“Sir,” said the Duke of Wellington to an officer of engineers, who urged the
impossibility of executing the directions he had received, “I did not ask your opinion,
I gave you my orders, and I expect them to be obeyed.” Such should be the obedience
of every follower of Jesus. The words which he has spoken are our law, not our
judgments or fancies. Even if death were in the way it is—

“Not ours to reason why—
Ours, but to dare and die;”

and, at our Master’s bidding, advance through flood or flame. FA158

That obedience which is not voluntary is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the
heart, and if He seeth that we serve Him from force, and not because we love Him,
He will reject our offering. ME19

The very essence of obedience, I have said, lies in exactness. Probably your child, if
sometimes disobedient, would still, as a general rule, do what you told him. It would
be in the little things that thorough-going and commendable obedience would
appear. WCo51

Things non-essential to salvation are nevertheless essential to obedience. 374.213

You and I must be willing to do what God tells us, as God tells us, when God tells us,
because God tells us, but only strong faith will be equal to such complete obedience.
1367.442

Some Christians are very curious, but not obedient. Plain precepts are neglected,
but difficult problems they seek to solve. 1817.18

Do what the Lord bids you, where he bids you, as he bids you, as long as he bids you,
and do it at once. 1823.94

Love is the chief jewel in the bracelet of obedience. 1932.653

Obedience rendered without delight in rendering it is only half obedience. 2203.251

A great part of obedience lies in not doing. 2317.339

A servant’s true obedience can sometimes be as well seen in what he does not do, as
in what he does. 2641.458

The less the thing is in itself, the more does it become the test of our obedience. 2699.524

It seems to me that half the beauty of obedience consists in obeying the command at
once. 2944.339

Brother, you cannot expect God to listen to you if you will not listen to him; and when
you ask of God, you must not imagine that he will give to you what you ask of him if
you do not give to him what he asks of you. 2978.129

Which is the best servant—the man who must always have his orders written for
him every morning, and who at night excuses himself for the neglect of many an
obvious duty because, as he says, “It was not down on the paper, sir; I have followed
your instructions,”—is he the better servant, or the other man who thinks, after he
has obeyed his orders, “What ought I to do for my master? Is there not this thing, or
that thing which, though it may not be absolutely recorded or written down, yet is
intended in the spirit of my instructions?” Do you not love the child who looks out for
occasions and opportunities to please you? Do you not feel a satisfaction in accepting
from a friend a kindness which may be almost unexpected, and which manifests to
you that he must have been thinking about you, and has, perhaps, lain awake all
night to consider how he could gratify or serve you? You feel that this is sincere
friendship. So is it with your service for God. 3263.387

No man is really saved unless he is in his heart obedient to Christ. 3310.326

Obedience is one of the lessons of wisdom which this age needs to learn, for
everybody must be master or mistress nowadays. We all desire to rule, and we all feel
that we could do it far better than the present leaders are doing it. 3370.429

I think we may delight ourselves in the works of God, and find much pleasure
therein, and get much advanced towards God Himself by considering His works. WCo41

One of the purest and most innocent of joys, apart from spiritual things, in which a
man can indulge, is a joy in the works of God. 2211.351

He who is a stranger to wonder is a stranger to God, for God is wonderful everyway,
and everywhere, and everyhow. 2318.353

The true Christian, when he is in a healthy spiritual state, has always some good
work on hand,—something on the anvil, or something heating in the fire, or
something cooling in the water,—something that he is planning for the future,
something that has yet to be completed, or something that is just finished, and ready
to be presented to God,—a prayer to offer, a hymn to sing, the sick to visit, the poor
to relieve, the ignorant to instruct. 3260.355

If I had to engage in a trade, I should like to spend my time and strength in a pursuit
which did no hurt to anybody, and did good to many. Somehow, I do not think that I
should like to deal in deadly weapons—certainly not in the accursed drink. I would
sooner starve than earn my bread by selling that or anything else that would debase
my fellow-men, and degrade them below the level of brute beasts. GS65

If they did neglect their business they would also be failing, I think, in the service of
their God, since there is no sharp line of division to be made between business and
religion: when rightly viewed, our religion becomes our business, and our business is
a living part of our religion. GS300

The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and
women do all to the glory of God! ME693

What! shall Christ forgive you all your myriad offences, and you not forgive your
brother? What was it, after all? “Well, he did not treat me respectfully.” Ah! that is
it,—a poor worm wants to be treated respectfully! “But he spoke disparagingly of
me.” Well, yes; but what does it matter? I have often thought, when people have
spoken ill of me, and they have been very, very false in it, perhaps, if they had known
me better, they might have found something true to say, and so I must be like we
sometimes say of a boy when he is beaten and does not deserve it, “Well, he did
deserve it, some time or other, for something else.” 2448.32

Be content to be old-fashioned, God’s choice of you is older than the fashions, and if
that stands, you may well stand by the truth of it. 2031.366

It bids us ask for the old paths. True religion is no new thing. Your mother was
saved: you could not doubt it. Be saved in the way which led your mother safely. If
there might be a new way, I would not try it: one cannot afford to play experiments
with the only soul he has. That which has saved those who have gone before is quite
good enough for me. 2152.369

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,” refers to works that are possible. There are
many things which our heart findeth to do which we never shall do. It is well it is in
our heart; but if we would be eminently useful, we must not be content with forming
schemes in our heart, and talking of them; we must practically carry out “whatsoever
our hand findeth to do.” ME662

It is by no means pleasant when reading an interesting article in your magazine to
find yourself pulled up short with the ominous words, “to be continued.” Yet they are
words of good cheer if applied to other matters. What a comfort to remember that the
Lord’s mercy and lovingkindness is to be continued! Much as we have experienced in
the long years of our pilgrimage, we have by no means outlived eternal love.
Providential goodness is an endless chain, a stream which follows the pilgrim, a
wheel perpetually revolving, a star for ever shining, and leading us to the place
where he is who was once a babe in Bethlehem. All the volumes which record the
doings of divine grace are but part of a series to be continued. FA62

Let us look for the silver which lines every cloud, and when we do not see it let us
believe that it is there. PP120

It is no wonder that it is well with the believer when you consider that his greatest
trouble is past. His greatest trouble was the guilt of sin. 729.19

We suffer for a moment that we may reign for ever. We stoop for a second that we
may be lifted up world without end. We shall get back the seed-corn multiplied ten
thousand times ten thousand, and we shall bless and magnify for ever and ever the
glorious Sower who sowed such a harvest for us. The drift, the whole drift, and
meaning of this sown light is just this—that the righteous have their best things yet
to come. 836.581

Ever since the Lord Jesus Christ saved me, I made up my mind to one thing, namely,
that I should never meet another person who was harder to save than I. Somebody
said to me once when I was a child, when it was very dark, and I was afraid to go out,
“What are you afraid of? You won’t meet anything uglier than yourself.” Surely as to
my spiritual condition that is true, I never did meet anything uglier than myself, and
I never shall. 1289.228

Is there nothing to sing about to-day? Then borrow a song from to-morrow; sing of
what is yet to be. Is this world dreary? Then think of the next. 2582.374

There are some desponding, morbid, murmuring, ungrateful souls who find reasons
for complaining everywhere, but a man of David’s spirit, on the contrary, sucks honey
out of every flower and praises God in connection with everything. 3417.361

It is forbidden even to batter a penny which bears the king’s face upon it; and it is far
worse to alter an ordinance which is stamped with divine authority. 1924.555

Brethren, I do not believe in the wisdom of these men, and their changes I abhor; but
had there been any ground for such changes, the Lord’s Supper would not have been
made of perpetual obligation. The perpetuity of ordinances indicates a perpetuity of
doctrine. But hear the moderns talk—“The Apostles, the Fathers, the Puritans, they
were excellent men, no doubt, but then, you see, they lived before the uprise of those
wonderful scientific men who have enlightened us so much.” Let me repeat what I
have said. If we had come to a new point as to believing, should we not have come to
a new point as to the ordinances in which those beliefs are embodied? I think so. The
evident intent of Christ in giving us settled ordinances, and especially in settling this
one which so clearly commemorates his bloodshedding, was that we might know that
the truth of his sacrifice is for ever fixed and settled, and must unchangeably remain
the essence of his gospel. Neither nineteen centuries, nor nineteen thousand
centuries, can make the slightest difference in this truth, nor in the relative
proportion of this truth to other truths, so long as this dispensation lasts. 1971.378

Put no confidence in the mere fact that you hold to an orthodox faith, for a dead
orthodoxy soon corrupts. 1826.118

“Ye are Christ’s.” You are His by donation, for the Father gave you to the Son; His by
His bloody purchase, for He counted down the price for your redemption; His by
dedication, for you have consecrated yourself to Him; His by relation, for you are
named by His name, and made one of His brethren and joint-heirs. ME24