I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, "You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will.
We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all.
Topics: Grace Source: High Doctrine, June 3, 1860.
The grace that does not make a man better than others is a worthless counterfeit. Christ saves His people, not IN their sins, but FROM their sins. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.
No doctrine in the whole Word of God has more excited the hatred of mankind than the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. The fact that "the Lord reigneth" is indisputable, and it is this fact that arouses the utmost opposition in the unrenewed human heart.
I venture to say that the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness. Sickness has frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has.
To sit long in one posture, poring over a book, or driving a quill, is in itself a taxing of nature; but add to this a badly-ventilated chamber, a body which has long been without muscular exercise, and a heart burdened with many cares, and we have all the elements for preparing a seething cauldron of despair, especially in the dim months of fog.
Topics: Health Source: The Minister's Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
Grace puts its hand on the boasting mouth, and shuts it once for all.