I heard of one in the backwoods of America who was unloading his furniture, and
while doing so up rode a Methodist minister. “Confound you,” said he, “I have moved
half-a-dozen times to get away from you Methodist fellows: I am never comfortable
where you are. I will put the things on the cart again, and find a spot where I shall
be free from you.” On they went to another clearing, but when they reached it the
first thing that happened, before the man took up his lodging, was the appearance of
a Methodist minister. “Where shall I go to get away from you Methodist preachers?”
“There is nowhere I know of,” said the minister, “that you can go, for I am afraid if
you go to hell, you will find some of them there, for preachers have been lost. The
very best thing you can do is to yield at once, and let me hold a service to-night in
your camp.” 1672.426

Reverently hearing the word exercises our humility, instructs our faith, irradiates us
with joy, inflames us with love, inspires us with zeal, and lifts us up towards heaven. 1LS53

Surely if men’s hearts were right, short sermons would be enough. 975.94

Faithful preachers are among God’s best gifts. Cherish them, and be obedient to their
admonitions. I have known persons become offended when a minister is “too
personal;” but wise men always prize a ministry in proportion as it is personal to
themselves. He who never tells me of my faults, nor makes me feel uneasy, is not
likely to be the means of good to my soul. What is the use of a dog that never barks? 996.344

Little is that ministry worth that never chides you. If God never uses his minister as
a rod, depend upon it he will never use him as a pot of manna, for the rod of Aaron
and the pot of manna always go together, and he who is God’s true servant will be
both to your soul. 1171.259

If you want to hear soft falsehoods, go elsewhere: I will have none of your blood on
my skirts. 1878.15

If you always enjoy sermons, the minister is not a good steward. He is not acting
wisely who deals out nothing but sweets. 2097.417

You are listening to a man who professes to speak by God, and for God, and to speak
for your good; and his heart yearns over you. Oh, it is solemn work to preach, and it
should be solemn work to hear! 2554.58

“It is bitter,” say you, when we bring you the honey of the gospel. It is not the honey
that is bitter; it is your mouth; it is your mouth that is out of order. How often people
ought to recollect this when they hear a true gospel sermon! George Herbert says,
“Judge not the preacher; he is thy judge.” And very often when the man has
condemned the sermon he had far better condemn himself. He has not agreed with it!
No; if he had, it would not have been true. 3521.347

We hear complaints that the minister speaks too harshly and talks too much of
judgment. Saved sinners never make that complaint. 550.41

I do believe that some folk go to hear ministers with the idea that there will be
something to find fault with, and, of course, they find that it is so; and when people
come to hear another preacher, with the hope and expectation that God will bless
them, of course God does bless them. 2404.124

Fate is a blind man who rushes madly on because he must; predestination is full of
eyes, and proceeds in one line, because it is the best path which could be taken. 1121.388

Teaching is often judged, not by its own value, but by the prejudices which people
may happen to have concerning the source from which it comes. “I do not like him,”
says one. Well, what does it matter whether you like him or not? What does he say?
If a thing is true, never mind who says it, believe it. BA164

Nothing is more cruel than prejudice, its eye colours all with the medium through
which it looks, and its tongue rails at all indiscriminately. TD69:10

Do we not lose opportunities of doing good by dwelling too much upon the past
characters of those to whom we are sent? 1838.248

But the mass of men are prejudiced,—prejudiced against the Saviour and against
their own salvation. Men sit and make up their minds what the gospel ought to be,
and then they do not come to hear what it is but to judge what is preached by their
own preconceived notions. 3166.497

I gravely question whether some of us will find our vessels, when far out at sea, to be
quite so seaworthy as we think them. 1LS39

Experienced Christian, boast not in your experience; you will trip yet if you look
away from Him who is able to keep you from falling. ME153

He who thinks he stands is in danger of a fall. The true Christian cannot possibly
suffer a fatal fall, but he is very much disposed to a foul fall. 22.169

“All men count men mortal but themselves.” 2242.63

We none of us know what stuff we are really made of until we are tried and tested. It
is a very easy thing to imagine yourself to be strong, but it is a very different matter
to find that you have sufficient strength when you actually need it. 2912.577

But, I pray you, sirs, never gather from the success of a wrong action that God is
willing for you to repeat it; rather say, “God was very gracious to me in not punishing
me that time, but I will never run such a risk as that again.” I do not believe that
Jonah, after having been once thrown into the sea, and been cast forth upon the
shore by the whale, ever wanted to be flung into the sea again; he might not have felt
certain about another whale coming along to carry him to land. 2969.15

Transient beings like ourselves must not venture to say, “I will never do this or that;”
for, alas! we know not what we may do, or may not do! 3150.307

In the nature of things, you cannot live much longer; yet how strange it is that men
often think that they will continue to live though they expect that others will die! I
heard, only this week, of a man of eighty-six, who expects some property to come to
him, but there is another man’s life that delays his possession of it, and he is
eighty-four; yet the older man told a friend of mine that he expected very soon to
inherit the property as the person who held it was a very old man, and could not live
much longer, though he himself was two years older;—an admirable commentary on
the words of the poet, “All men think men mortal but themselves.” 3051.377

We can be very high and mighty, if we please; and the smaller we are, the more
easily do we swell out. AM269

We have reasons for almost everything, but we have no reasons for pride. Pride is a
thing which should be unnatural to us, for we have nothing to be proud of. WWi5

That demon of pride was born with us, and it will not die one hour before us. 156.393

Pride is the inherent sin of man, and yet it is of all sins the most foolish. A thousand
arguments might be used to show its absurdity; but none of these would be sufficient
to quench its vitality. 262.297

Here we are, the offspring of a day; unclean things brought out of an unclean thing;
children that are corrupters; the seed of evildoers; what are we at the best but mere
animated earth? and ere long we shall be brought into that lowly bed where the
worms shall be under us, and the worms shall cover us; we shall become a puff of
wind, a handful of brown dust: and shall we glory? We who sprang from nothing, and
must go back to nothing, shall we boast ourselves? O worm of the dust, know thyself,
and cease from pride! 748.246

Your understanding will greatly help you, for true humility is forming a just estimate
of oneself, and to humble oneself is to bring oneself down to the place where one
ought to be. 748.248

It is much easier to be puffed up than to be built up, much easier to grow in
self-conceit than in vital godliness, a little advancement turns many brains. 1193.519

Oh, how easy it is to exaggerate a virtue until it becomes a vice. 1344.159

Pride takes a thousand forms and hides itself under numberless disguises. Many talk
of lowliness, but humility still remains among the rarest of jewels. Many take a pride
in what they call having no pride about them. 1392.14

Pride goeth not before salvation, but before destruction; and a haughty spirit is no
prophecy of elevation, but the herald of a fall. 1732.417

None have more pride than those who dream that they have none. You may labour
against vainglory till you conceive that you are humble, and the fond conceit of your
humility will prove to be pride in full bloom. It apes humility full well, and is then
most truly pride. Pride is a sin with a thousand lives; it seems impossible to kill it, it
flourishes on that which should be its poison, glorying in its shame. It is a sin with a
thousand shapes; by perpetual change it escapes capture. It seems impossible to hold
it; the vapoury imp slips from you, only to appear in another form and mock your
fruitless pursuit. To die to pride and self one would need to die himself. 1733.421

One’s pride may carry him far if he is a great fool; but let him not suffer his pride to
carry him into hell, for it certainly will never carry him out again. 1929.621

God has made something of you, and now you are too respectable to look after those
who are no worse than you were once. 2070.96

When a man admires himself he never adores God. 2109.556

The difficulty with some people is that they are always wanting to practise the
sublime. 2183.19

Whatever God gives thee be grateful for, for if too proud to take from the raven’s
mouth, it will be well for thee to go without, until thine hunger consume thy pride. 3264.399

A man never lowers himself more than when he tries to lift himself up. 3399.148

Trust not in any man who pretends to priesthood. Priests are liars by trade, and
deceivers by profession. 850.29

Hands off, ye priests! Ye are too feeble for such weights as ours. Our sins are too
stupendous for your puny strength. But the Lord comes with his own right hand of
majesty, puts away our sins, and lifts them on to Christ, and Christ comes and flings
them into his sepulchre, and they are gone and buried for ever: “As far as the east is
from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” 1108.237

When a fellow comes forward in all sorts of curious garments, and says he is a priest,
the poorest child of God may say, “Stand away, and don’t interfere with my office: I
am a priest; I know not what you may be. You surely must be a priest of Baal, for the
only mention of the word vestments in Scripture is in connection with the temple of
Baal.” 1225.177

I reckon it of all crimes the greatest for a man to assume to mediate between men
and God. Little as I respect the devil I prefer him to a priest who pretends to forgive
sins; for even the devil has too much honesty about him to pretend to give absolution
in God’s name. 1250.480

O sirs, the most brutish delusion in the world is to rely upon any priest of our own
sinful race. I would sooner trust my salvation with the Norwood gypsy as with a
Cardinal Archbishop. Her imposture is not so daring as his. What can priests do for
us? “They can give absolution.” The Lord absolve them from the blasphemy of such a
pretence. There is one pardoning Priest, and there is none other under heaven. 1597.264

One said to me the other day, “I should like to tell you some of my sins!” I answered
quickly, “I would like you would not; I have enough of my own without being infected
with yours.” 1799.504

Do not tolerate those who would share his work. Do not believe in priests of any
church who pretend to offer sacrifice for the quick and the dead. 1923.549

I am no father confessor; I should not like to make my ear into a common sewer. 2773.167

I suppose it is use and habit that makes men do strange things, at which an
unsophisticated conscience shudders; but, to me, the blasphemer’s coarse oath, that
makes my blood curdle as I go down the street, has not half the iniquity in it of the
man, who deliberately puts on certain specified vestments, claims to be a priest of the
Most High God, and then says to a sinner like himself, “I absolve thee.” 2882.220

Can your “priest” grant you pardon? Did you offend the priest? Then the priest can
forgive you for offending him; but he cannot forgive you for offending God. 3016.584

Hours for the world! Moments for Christ! The world has the best, and our closet the
parings of our time. We give our strength and freshness to the ways of mammon, and
our fatigue and languor to the ways of God. 619.146

If one thing be needful, it devours, like Aaron’s rod, all the matters which are merely
pleasurable. 1015.570

Your hand is not big enough to lay hold of two things. Therefore, since you can only
have one, see that it is the vital thing. 2226.530

If Christ be not first with thee, Christ is nothing to thee. 2273.438

Most readers and hearers become moved so far as to purpose to amend; but, alas!
the proposal is a blossom which has not been knit, and therefore no fruit comes of it;
they wait, they waver, and then they forget, till, like the ponds in nights of frost,
when the sun shines by day, they are only thawed in time to be frozen again. ME345

He that hath time, and looks for better time, time comes that he repents himself of
time. PT52

Probably the worst people in the world are those who have the best intentions, but
never carry them out. TN82

See then, O ye ungodly ones that are present to-day, you often think our company a
great nuisance, and perhaps while I am preaching, my alarming words annoy you.
Ah, we shall not annoy you long. Does your mother tease you when she bids you seek
the Lord? She will not tease you long. When I bring home the judgment to come, is
the subject obnoxious to you? I shall not ask your patience long. We shall be
separated; if you go your way and follow after sin and wrath, there will come a
dividing time, and O let me say to you, you would give worlds if you had them; you
would give them if they were solid diamonds, to hear again the voice which now
fatigues you, and to listen once more to those plaintive invitations which vex you and
spoil your mirth. 518.377

Remember that, if thou hast missed Christ by but the ticking of a clock, thou hast
missed Christ for ever; so that minutes and ticks of clocks may be invested with a
very solemn power, if we come to look at them in that light. 772.533

Delay is the devil’s great net. All men mean to repent. Alas! they will repent one day
that they did not repent at once. 841.642

Why, you are almost saved; you are awakened, you are aroused, you have many good
desires, but a man who is only almost saved will be altogether damned. There was a
householder who almost bolted his house at night, but the thief came in; a prisoner
was condemned to be hanged, and was almost pardoned, but he hung on the gallows;
a ship was almost saved from ship-wreck, but she went to the bottom with all hands
on board; a fire was almost extinguished, but it consumed a city; a man almost
decided remains to perish in the flames of hell. 898.611

Life is like an evening; the longer you wait the darker it becomes. Delay bristles with
danger, and the best fruit it can possibly bear is regret. 1670.405

Duty neglected to-day will have to be done some time or other; and the arrears of
neglected service are grim debts. 1948.101

O my busy hearer! you will have to find time to die before long: why not think of that
solemn certainty? You are very busy, and yet you find time to eat. Have you no time
to feed your soul? You find time to put on your dress, have you no time to dress your
soul? You seek out the surgeon when you are ill; have you no time to seek out a
Saviour for your sin-sick soul? Ah! it is not that: you have the time, but you have not
the heart. 2051.607

A certain lady, staying in the parish of that devoted minister Mr. Cecil, was asked by
him to undertake some particular work. She answered him, “My dear sir, I should be
very glad to do it, but I am not certain of being in the parish more than three
months.” “Ah!” said he, “I am not certain of being in the parish three hours, and yet
I go on with my duty, and I pray you, madam, to go on with yours.” Let us look at our
time, not as having a great deal of it, but as having so little. 3116.519

To-morrow! oh, thou cursed word to-morrow! How has man made thee cursed! I find
thee not in the almanack of the wise; thou art only in the calendar of fools.
To-morrow! there is no such thing except in dreamland, for when that comes which
we call to-morrow it will be to-day, and still for ever to-day, to-day, to-day. There is no
time but that which is. Time was, is not, and time to come, is not. 3160.422

Keep clear of the man who does not value his own character. Beware of everyone
who swears: he who would blaspheme his Maker would make no bones of lying or
stealing. PT56

Certain profane men have gone so far as to kick at God himself. They do not hesitate
in their malice, but they out with it in plain plump oaths, and dare their Maker to do
most terrible things to them. Mind that he does not answer you, blasphemer. He is a
hearer of prayer, and when you pray him to damn you, he may one of these days do
it, sinner! Do not ask him again lest he should do it at once. He has a way of doing
what men ask him to do; do not trifle with him. 709.501

I suppose the devil himself is not such a blasphemer some people are whom we have
the misery to hear, even in our streets, as we walk along, for I suppose he has some
method in his profanity, but they use it in mere lack of other words. 1279.100

I would to God that every blasphemer here (if such there be, and I have no doubt that
there are), would abandon that vile, inexcusable, useless habit, which lowers men in
society, defiles them before God, and ensures their condemnation. Filthy speech
puts those who are guilty of it among the chief of sinners, and to them will certainly
be meted out a terrible vengeance in that day when God shall solemnly curse those
who have so glibly cursed themselves. 1837.233

Have you not felt, when you have heard his holy name blasphemed, as if you would
blot that blasphemy out with your blood if you could? 2126.53

Those who are quick to promise are generally slow to perform. PP18

Promising men are not great favourites if they are not performing men. PP18
We are most of us better at saying than doing. PP29

It is foolish to keep a foolish promise. 1938.7

Many a man would have been called to wider fields of labour if he had not been
discontented or slothful in his narrow sphere. 1118.358

No one goes free by the naked mercy of God. Every captive exposed to God’s
vengeance must be redeemed before he is delivered, otherwise he must continue a
captive. Broad as the statement may appear, I venture to assert by divine warrant
that there never was beneath the cope of heaven a sin forgiven without satisfaction
being rendered. No sin against God is pardoned without a propitiation. 3532.475

The Christian far oftener disgraces his profession in prosperity than in adversity. ME82

Men may be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. ME495

But I must remind you that a greater than Solomon—the Spirit of God—inspired
the Proverbs. They are not mere jewels from earthly mines, but they are also
precious treasures from the heavenly hills; so that the advice we have here is not only
the counsel of a wise man, but the advice of that Incarnate Wisdom who speaks to us
out of the Word of God. GS45

I have been told, but I do not know how true it is, that Scotland owes very much of
its practical shrewdness to the fact that the Book of Proverbs used to be printed in a
small form, and was one of the first books read by all the children at the public
schools. 1948.98

It is a cruel thing to tease quick tempered people, for, though it may be sport to you,
it is death to them; at least, it is death to their peace, and may be something worse.
PP145

It is imagined that, now we have School-boards, we shall not want Sabbath-schools
so much, but may give over the young to the Secularists. Because the children are to
be taught the multiplication table, they will not need to be taught the fear of the
Lord! Strange reasoning this! Can geography teach them the way to Heaven, or
arithmetic remove their countless sins? The more of secular knowledge our juveniles
acquire, the more will they need to be taught in the fear of the Lord. To leave our
youthful population in the hands of secular teachers, will be to sell them to the
Ishmaelites. PM102

And you teachers, go on teaching the young the ways of God. In these days the State
is giving them secular instruction all the day long, six days in the week; and religious
teaching is greatly needed to balance it, or we shall soon become a nation of infidels.
1804.563

Late attendance frequently means heartless worship, disturbance, and distraction. 1540.314

I like the thought of the good woman who said that she never went to a service late,
for it was part of her religion not to disturb the worship of other people; I wish many
more agreed with her. 2593.507

Purgatory is an impossibility, if full assurance be possible. 384.290

For what does Rome offer when you have done all? Purgatory and its pains! It tells
you that when you have done all, you may have to lie for hundreds of years in a place
of misery till you have been purged from sin. 684.196

Be not deceived about it, you are either in the way to heaven or on the road to hell.
There is no purgatory or middle condition in the next world. Purgatory is an
invention of the Pope for the filling of his cellar and his larder; and no more profitable
speculation has ever been set agoing than the saying of masses and the robbing of
dupes, under the pretence of altering that state which is fixed for ever. Purgatory
Pickpurse was the name the first reformers gave it. You will go to heaven or to hell,
and you will remain in one place or the other; for you have either a character that is
fit for heaven or a character that is fit for hell, and there is no character which can be
supposed, if we understand the Scriptures aright, which would be fit for a middle
place, neither is there any middle place prepared for it. 1234.280

I have no authentic communication by which to describe purgatory, but by Romish
report it is a terrible place; now, if true believers go there, then God either does
remember their sins, which he says he will not do; or else he punishes them for sins
which he does not recollect. 1685.585

I have been charged with being a mere echo of the Puritans, but I had rather be the
echo of truth, than the voice of falsehood. AM10

A Puritan was told that he was too precise; but he replied, “I serve a precise God.”
AM268

He has power to give us back again a golden age of preachers, a time as fertile of
great divines and mighty ministers as was the Puritan age, which many of us
account to have been the golden age of theology. 1200.605

We have few Puritans because we have few penitents. 2241.56

In the old Puritanic times, sermons must have been tiresome to the thoughtless; but,
nowadays, I should think they are more tiresome to the thoughtful. 3147.267

A philosopher has remarked that if a man knew that he had thirty years of life before
him, it would not be an unwise thing to spend twenty of those in mapping out a plan
of living and putting himself under rule; for he would do more with the ten
well-arranged years than with the whole thirty if he spent them at random. There is
much truth in that saying. A man will do little by firing off his gun if he has not
learned to take aim. BA155

Every child of God is where God has placed him for some purpose, and the practical
use of this first point is to lead you to inquire for what practical purpose has God
placed each one of you where you now are? GS88

It is never worthwhile to do unnecessary things. PT71

Only one thing can be the master-passion, only one power can completely master
us, so as to be the supremely dominant, and exercise imperial lordship over us. No
man can have two imperial master-faculties, master-motives, and master-ambitions.
One is our Master, and that one is Christ. 1118.351

No life can surpass that of a man who quietly continues to serve God in the place
where providence has placed him. 1307.439

No man becomes eminent in any pursuit unless he gives himself up to it with all the
powers and passions of his nature—body and soul. 3536.517