There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. . . . No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God. . . . But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. . . . nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.
~ C. H. Spurgeon, quoted by J.I. Packer in Knowing God
An ill life will effectually drown the voice of the most eloquent ministry.
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.
As sure as God puts His children in the furnace He will be in the furnace with them.
Be masters of your Bibles, brethren, whatever other works you have not searched, be at home with the writings of the prophets and apostles.
By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
Faith is reason at rest in God.
Fiery trials make golden Christians.
I do not look for any other means of converting men beyond the simple preaching of the Gospel and the opening of men’s ears to hear it.
It were a sad dishonour to a child of God to be the world’s favourite. It is a very ill omen to hear a wicked world clap its hands and shout ‘Well done’ to the Christian man.
Nobody ever outgrows Scripture; the Book widens and deepens with our years.
Our outer life is the test of our inner life; and if the outer life be not purified, rest assured the heart is not changed.
Quietude, which some men cannot abide because it reveals their inward poverty, is as a palace of cedar to the wise, for along its hallowed courts the King in His beauty deigns to walk.
The ministry is a matter which wears the brain and strains the heart, and drains out the life of a man if he attends to it as he should.
Train up a child in the way he should go–but be sure you go that way yourself.
We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would be dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.
Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.
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“But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. . . . nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.” I am taken aback by the truth in those words.
Would that present day Christian leaders would listen to his clear words on issues of the day:
“The Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the gospel.”
“If there be anything which this book denounces and counts the hugest of all crimes, it is the crime of war.”
Instead, they snub Christians who hold the historic Christian position like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Pacifism-Fruit-Narrow-ebook/dp/B005RIKH62/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_t_1