How our tongues are occupied! They run more quickly than our feet, and carry less,
though much mischief sometimes comes from their babble. They are sharper than
razors, some of them, and cut deeper than swords, and kindle fire enough to set the
world in a blaze. 3399.146

Oh, it is a marvellous salvation this! Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an
angel; Christ takes a black and deformed thing and makes it clean and matchless in
His glory, peerless in His beauty, and fit to be the companion of seraphs. ME56

But the man Christ can be but in one place, and he is now at the right hand of the
Majesty on high. It is absurd, it is horrible, both to faith and to reason, to say that
Christ’s body is eaten, and that his blood is drunk in tens of thousands of places
wherever priests choose to offer what they call “the mass.” A “Mass” of profanity,
indeed, it is! 3401.172

When our Lord said, “My flesh is meat indeed,” he could not mean that bread on the
table, for the Lord’s Supper was not then instituted. In this particular text, at any
rate, there can be no allusion of any kind to what is called “the Mass” by some, or by
others called “the Sacrament,” because these things were not brought forward by our
Lord until within a few hours of his death, and he is now speaking months before
that time. 3424.449

I would not wish for any man a long time of sickness and pain; but a twist now and
then one might almost ask for him. A sick wife, a newly-made grave, poverty,
slander, sinking of spirit, might teach lessons nowhere else to be learned so well.
Trials drive us to the realities of religion. AM384

Our lusts are cords. Fiery trials are sent to burn and consume them. Who fears the
flame which will bring him liberty from bonds intolerable? FA138

When that eminent servant of God, Mr. Gilpin, was arrested to be brought up to
London to be tried for preaching the gospel, his captors made mirth of his frequent
remark, “Everything is for the best.” When he fell from his horse and broke his leg,
they were specially merry about it; but the good man quietly remarked, “I have no
doubt but that even this painful accident will prove to be a blessing.” And so it was;
for, as he could not travel quickly, the journey was prolonged, and he arrived at
London some days later than had been expected. When they reached as far as
Highgate, they heard the bells ringing merrily in the city down below. They asked
the meaning, and were told, “Queen Mary is dead, and there will be no more
burnings of Protestants.” “Ah!” said Gilpin, “you see it is all for the best.” It is a
blessing to break a leg if thereby life is saved. How often our calamities are our
preservatives! A less evil may ward off a greater. GS284

Paul, who had more to suffer than we have, called his afflictions light, and yet we
often consider ours to be heavy—surely something must be amiss with the weights! ME497

When we sail in Christ’s company, we may not make sure of fair weather, for great
storms may toss the vessel which carries the Lord Himself, and we must not expect
to find the sea less boisterous around our little boat. ME516

The best remedy for affliction is submitting to providence. What can’t be cured must
be endured. PT44

If there be a man who brings forth much fruit, that man will have much trial,
because it will pay the Vine-dresser to prune him. TN57

I learned to lay my little troubles at the feet of Jesus. Why should we not? Are not our
great ones little? and is there, after all, much difference between great troubles and
little ones in the sight of God? 240.125

My brethren, if God sent us trials such as we would wish for, they would be no trials. 528.496

I have found much spiritual comfort in sitting at the feet of my venerable grandfather,
more than eighty years of age. The last time I saw him I said to him, “I suppose you
have had many trials, grandfather?” He said, “I have not had too many, and the most
of what I have had, I have made myself.” 537.606

Still the best child of God may be the greatest sufferer, and his sufferings may appear
to be crushing, killing, and overwhelming; they may also be so very protracted as to
attend him all his days, and their bitterness may be intense. 1090.14

Troubled one, thou mayest go to thy heavenly Father about anything, about
everything. He will help thee in every trial wherever thou mayest be: though the
thing be little, yet remember everything is little to him, and the difference between
an arch-angel and a sparrow is not so very great with God. 1311.487

You pray against promotion when you pray against affliction. 1982.513

We never have yet experienced a trouble which might not have been worse. 2237.6

The groans of earth shall be surpassed by the songs of heaven, and the woes of time
shall be swallowed up in the hallelujahs of eternity. 3184.81

The sea of life is salt to all men. 643.435

God had one Son without sin, but he never had a son without trial. 1528.170

How happy are tried Christians, afterwards. ME279

Pain past is pleasure, and experience comes by it. PT41

Blessed be God, our calamities are matters of time, but our safety is a matter of
eternity. TD57:1

Our sorrows shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them. 404.449

The nearest way to be at the end of tribulation is to be resigned to it. God will not try
thee when thou canst fully bear any trial. Give up all, and thou shalt keep all. 868.252

The holy man in our text says, “When he hath tried me.” As much to say, he will not
always be doing it; there will come a time when he will have done trying me. Beloved,
put a stout heart to a steep hill, and you will climb it before long. Put the ship in good
trim for a storm; and though the winds may howl for a while, they will at length sob
themselves asleep. 2098.430

Our sorrows are all, like ourselves, mortal. There are no immortal sorrows for
immortal saints. They come; but, blessed be God, they also go. 2983.183

Take life and death just as they come, bit by bit. You know how the Spartans
endeavoured to keep back the Persians. They took possession of the pass of
Thermopylæ, and there the brave two hundred stood and held the way against
myriads. The enemy could only advance one by one. Now, do not think of all the
armies of your troubles that are coming in the future, but meet them one by one.
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” BA270

The thought is full of consolation, that He who has fixed the bounds of our habitation,
has also fixed the bounds of our tribulation. ME461

If he wills that we bear a certain weight, no one can add half an ounce more. 2098.429

Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it.
When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives
a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. ME587

Do not let me mislead anybody into the idea of praying for trouble. I have heard of
one who did so; he never did it but once; many trials made him wiser. 651.537

The habit of resignation is the root of peace. A godly child has a ring given him by his
mother, and he greatly prized it, but on a sudden he unhappily lost his ring, and he
cried bitterly. Recollecting himself, he stepped aside and prayed; after which his
sister laughingly said to him, “Brother, what is the good of praying about a ring? Will
praying bring back your ring?” “No,” said he, “sister, perhaps not, but praying has
done this for me, it has made me quite willing to do without the ring if it is God’s will;
and is not that almost as good as having it?” 866.222

Mighty prayer has often been produced by mighty trial. 1686.590

Brethren, God will have us to pray; and if we will not pray by reason of charm, he
will force us to pray by reason of fear. If we will not pray when the dish is dainty, he
will break our teeth with gravel stones, and make us drunken with wormwood. If
treat will not bring you to your knees, trial shall. 3416.353

His fixed purpose is not the destruction, but the instruction of His people. Wisdom
hangs up the thermometer at the furnace mouth, and regulates the heat. ME461

Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. WC24

The farmer does not sift his wheat because he dislikes it, but just the opposite; he
sifts it because it is precious. And thou, child of God, thy trials and changes, and
constant catastrophes, and afflictions, are no proofs of want of affection on the part of
the Most High, but the very contrary. 825.455

Severe trouble in a true believer has the effect of loosening the roots of his soul
earthward and tightening the anchor-hold of his heart heavenward. 1090.21

A man who should live and die without trials would be like a setting sun without
clouds; he would have scant opportunity for the display of those virtues with which
the grace of God had endowed him. 1182.385

None of us can come to the highest maturity without enduring the summer heat of
trials. As the sycamore fig never ripens if it be not bruised, as the corn does not leave
the husk without threshing, and as wheat makes no fine flour until it be ground, so are
we of little use till we are afflicted. Why should we be so eager to escape such
benefits? 1766.108

A lump of ore may not be so big as when it went into the fire, but it is quite as
precious. There is quite as much gold in it now as there was at first. What has gone?
Nothing but that which is best gone. The dross is gone; but all the gold is there. O
child of God, you may decrease in bulk, but not in bullion! You may lose importance,
but not innocence. You may not talk so big; but there shall be really more to talk of.
2098.431

Our crosses are as continual as our lives; we are seldom long at ease; we are born to
sorrow, and certainly it is an inheritance of which we are never deprived; we suffer
continually. Will it not reconcile us to our sorrows, that they serve some end? 406.466

Now suppose—and the supposition is so easy to make—suppose your best beloved
should sicken and die; you can bless a giving God, could you bless a taking God?
Suppose that your riches took to themselves wings, and every one of them should fly
away; could you still praise the God who is as good when he takes as when he gives?
Brethren, we know not what spirit we are of. 673.67

God is in this life preparing his people for a better world and part of that process is
effected by trial and affliction, so that it frequently happens that the godly are in
adversity while the wicked are in prosperity. 1415.289

“Any cross but the one I have,” cried one. Surely it would not be a cross if you had the
choosing of it, for it is the essence of a cross that it should run counter to our likings. 1994.657

All the dogs of affliction are muzzled until God sets them free. 2098.429

How can a trial be met which is independent of divine rule, and outside of the sacred
zone of providential government? It is hopeful when we find that all our ills lie within
the ring-fence of omnipotent overruling. 2237.5

In attempting to define the Trinity or unveil the essence of Divinity, many men have
lost themselves: here great ships have foundered. What have we to do in such a sea
with our frail skiffs? TD2:7

There is nought that fills the heart of man except the Trinity. God has made man’s
heart a triangle. Men have been for centuries trying to make the globe fill the
triangle, but they cannot do it. 19.148

Any doctrine, which hath not the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as equal persons in one
undivided essence, we cast aside as being unsound, for we are sure that such
doctrines must be derogatory to God’s glory; and if they be so it is enough for us. 79.202

To believe and love the Trinity is to possess the key of theology. 1000.389

There is a mutual delight in each other in the persons of the blessed Trinity, so that
each divine person delights to glorify the rest. 1178.340

A gospel without belief in the living and true God—Trinity in Unity, and Unity in
Trinity—is a rope of sand. As well hope to make a pyramid stand upon its apex as to
make a substantial gospel when the real and personal Deity of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost is left as a moot or disputed point. 505.219

Far be it from us to neglect the adoration of any one person of the adorable Trinity in
Unity, that were a grievous sin; but to worship Jesus does not involve forgetfulness
of the Father or of the Spirit. 1205.669

It needs the Trinity to new-create a soul. Oh, Triune God, our souls which are new
created worship thee with the trinity of their nature—spirit, soul, and body. 1252.494

We do not find the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity set forth in Scripture in formal
terms, such as those which are employed in the Athanasian creed; but the truth is
continually taken for granted, as if it were a fact well known in the church of God. 1435.529

I question whether any man is able to pry into the mystery of the Trinity without
great risk. 2015.174

Beloved friends, I scarcely need say to you, do keep the existence of the Trinity
prominent in your ministry. Remember, you cannot pray without the Trinity. If the
work of salvation requires a Trinity, so does the very breath by which we live. You
cannot draw near to the Father except through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. 2213.374

I suppose, if any man looks long into the doctrine of the Trinity, he will be like one
who gazeth upon the sun, and will be apt, first, to be dazzled, and, then, to be blinded
by the excessive light. If a man asketh that he may understand this great mystery,
and refuseth to believe until he doth comprehend it, then he will be blinded, most
assuredly. 2906.506

We can never understand how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be three and yet one.
For my part, I have long ago given up any desire to understand this great mystery,
for I am perfectly satisfied that, if I could understand it, it would not be true, because
God, from the very nature of things, must be incomprehensible. 2958.506

No study in Scripture is more interesting or profitable to the Christian than the
revelation which is given to us concerning the Sacred Trinity, and the various parts
which the divine Persons take in the work of our salvation. 3127.26

Thus, then, you have the Son suffering for you, the Spirit applying to you the merit
of his atoning sacrifice, and the Father well pleased with you because you are
trusting in his beloved Son. Or, to put the truth in another form, the Father gives the
great gospel feast, the Son is the feast, and the Spirit not only brings the invitations,
but he also gathers the guests around the table. 3298.184

How is it that the Father is God, that the Son is God, and that the Holy Ghost is God,
and yet that there are not three Gods, but one God? I cannot tell you. I know it is so,
for it is revealed; but how it is so is not for us to guess, because it is not revealed or
explained. Our understanding can adventure as far as the testimony, and no farther.
Many attempts have been made by divines to find parallels in Nature to the Unity
and the Trinity of God, but they all seem to me to fail. 3519.315

During an earthquake that occurred a few years since, the inhabitants of a small
village were generally very much alarmed, but they were at the same time surprised
at the calmness and apparent joy of an old lady whom they all knew. At length one of
them, addressing the old lady, said: “Mother, are you not afraid?” “No,” said the
mother in Israel; “I rejoice to know that I have a God that can shake the world.” FA80

Sweet Lord, be thou for ever eye, and soul, and head for us, and let us be content to
know only what Thou choosest to reveal. ME455

Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to resign them, and you
are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of God. 349.11

Even if God conceals anything, it is that we may be able to confide in him; since what
we know yields but little space for trust compared with the unknown. 1294.277

Where thou givest no reason teach my reason to feel that there must be the best of
reasons for no reasons having been given. So make me to understand what can be
understood, and to understand that what I cannot understand is just as reliable as
what I do understand. In understanding I can never find thee out, O God, to
perfection. 1344.161

I once lived where my neighbour’s garden was only divided from me by a very
imperfect hedge. He kept a dog, and his dog was a shockingly bad gardener, and did
not improve my beds. So one evening, while I walked alone, I saw this dog doing
mischief, and being a long way off I threw a stick at him, with some earnest advice as
to his going home. This dog, instead of going home, picked up my stick and came to
me with it in his mouth, wagging his tail. He dropped the stick at my feet, and looked
up to me most kindly. What could I do but pat him and call him a good dog, and
regret that I had ever spoken roughly to him? Why, it brings tears to my eyes as I
talk about it! The dog mastered me by his trust in me. The illustration is to the point.
If thou wilt trust God as that dog trusted me, thou wilt overcome. 1978.467

When we come to the end of self we come to the beginning of Christ. 2018.213

And when you trust God in spite of all outward appearances and surrounding
circumstances, it is a comfortable proof to yourself that you are on good terms with
God, that you are walking in sweet fellowship with him, and it is one of the most
blessed facts in your whole history. 2721.163

Let us never, my friends, think hardly of our God, till we can prove anything against
him. 3036.193

When thou canst trace him, thou canst not trust him. If thou canst understand all
that he does, there is room then for thy judgment rather than for thy faith and for
thy reliance on his judgment. 3368.399

“Oh!” but they will say, “it is ridiculous—a man trusting in God.” Yes, but you do not
think it ridiculous to trust in yourselves. 3512.234

Resting on an arm of flesh seems to be the hereditary disease of God’s people. 1021.646

It usually happens that, when men will not ask counsel of God, if they go to other
sources for guidance, they generally accept the very worst form of advice. When men
trust in men, it is strange how often they trust in the worst and not in the best of
men. 2749.496

He who communes with God in secret may be trusted in public. I always feel safe
with a man who is a visitor to the mercy-seat. WWi84

Better in the abyss of truth than on the summit of falsehood. BA22

The line of truth is narrow as a razor’s edge. BA280

The safest truth is the simplest. BA281

If truth is optional, error is justifiable. DG66

I question whether truth has not generally to be with the minority, and whether it is
not quite as honourable to serve God with two or three as it would be with two or
three millions. WWi111

Truth will only be desired by true men. 547.6

By the ever-living God there is truth somewhere, and that truth we will find out if we
can; and, having found it, we will hold it fast. 1097.105

Men of the world are apt to say, “You are such a set of bigots; you think everybody
wrong but yourselves.” Is it wonderful that if we think we are right, we do not believe
that those who are opposed to us can be right also? 1194.539

Truth is never stronger than when it walks with charity. 1724.322

We hope to understand the truth better, but we shall never discover better truth. 1751.638

He that perverts truth shall soon be incapable of knowing the true from the false. If
you persist in wearing glasses that distort, everything will be distorted to you. 1844.321

He who hates truth soon hates its advocate. 1924.553

Hard words, if they be true, are better than soft words, if they be false. 1940.34

Long ago I ceased to count heads. Truth is usually in the minority in this evil world. 1987.575

False doctrines cannot be proved, and you need not make the attempt. It is only the
truth which is capable of proof. 2014.160

Error is multiform; truth is one. A thousand lies will live together, and tolerate each
other, especially at this time, when errorists are all crying out, “Cast in thy lot with
us; let us all have one purse.” 2041.482

Men cannot see truth, because they love falsehood. The gospel is not seen, because it
is too pure for their loose lives and lewd thoughts. 2109.556

A man’s mind is rich very much in proportion to the truth he knows. 2415.253

Some people say, “Why, you are in such a small minority!” Yes, yes; but as a general
rule minorities are right. Up until now, the majority has never been on the side of
Christ, the majority has never been for God, the majority has never been with the
truth. 2429.424

The truth is as old as the everlasting hills. Therefore, dear friends, be not touched
with that Athenian madness of always seeking after some new thing. Did you ever
hear of new gold? To all intents and purposes, all gold that is worth having is old. 2584.401

I would not give a penny for your love to the truth if it is not accompanied with a
hearty hatred of error. 2604.13

I cannot agree with those who say that they have “new truth” to teach. The two
words seem to me to contradict each other; that which is new is not true. It is the old
that is true, for truth is as old as God. 2612.117

One man abiding in the truth has more weight in his witness than millions under the
power of the father of lies. 3161.439

Only give truth time, and, God being with her, she must prevail. 3188.123

It is a strange thing that if the old evangelistic doctrines should appear for one
moment to be beaten in debate, they always conquer in results. 3410.281