 The only instance of praying to saints, mentioned in the Bible, is that of the rich man in torment calling upon Abraham; and let it be remembered, that it was practised only by a lost soul and without success. Topics: Prayer, The Bible |
| I could write down twenty cases wherein I wished that God had done otherwise than he did, but which I now see, if I had had my own way, would have led to extensive mischief. Topics: Prayer |
| The world looks at preachers out of church to know what they mean in it. Topics: Preaching |
| It requires as much reflection and wisdom to know what is not to be put into a sermon, as what is. Topics: Preaching |
| To love to preach is one thing to love those to whom we preach, quite another. Topics: Preaching, Love |
| We hear much of a decent pride, a becoming pride, a noble pride, a laudable pride. Can that be decent, of which we ought to be ashamed? Can that be becoming, of which God has set forth the deformity? Can that be noble which God resists and is determined to abase? Can that be laudable, which God calls abominable? Providence is a greater mystery than revelation. The state of the world is more humiliating to our reason than the doctrines of the Gospel. A reflecting Christian sees more to excite his astonishment, and to exercise his faith, in the state of things between Temple Bar and St. Paul's, than in what he reads from Genesis to Revelations. Topics: Pride, The Gospel, Providence |
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| Eloquence is vehement simplicity. Topics: Reasoning |
| Solitude shows us what we should be; society shows us what we are. Topics: Reasoning |
| The joy of religion is an exorcist to the mind; it expels the demons of carnal mirth and madness. Topics: Religion, Carnality |
| The religion of a sinner stands on two pillars; namely, what Christ did for us in the flesh, and what he performs in us by his Spirit. Most errors arise from an attempt to separate these two. Topics: Religion |
| Recollection is the life of religion. The Christian wants to know no new thing, but to have his heart elevated more above the world by secluding himself from it as much as his duties will allow, that religion may effect its great end by bringing its sublime hopes and prospects into more steady action on the mind. Topics: Religion |
| The meanness of the earthen vessel which conveys to others the Gospel of treasure, takes nothing from the value of the treasure. A dying hand may sign a deed of gift of incalculable value. A shepherd's boy may point out the way to a philosopher. A beggar may be the bearer of an invaluable present. Topics: Scripture |
