"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."

"Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it."

"Many tradesmen export their best commodities-the Christian should not. He should have all his conversation everywhere of the best savour, but let him have a care to put forth the sweetest fruit of spiritual life and testimony in his own family."

"The voice of Jacob will do a little good if the hands be the hands of Essau."

"Our gifts are very pleasant to Him. He loves to see us lay our time, our talents, our substance on the altar not for the value of what we give, but for the sake of the motive from which the gift springs."

"Jesus is persecuted in every injured saint, and He is mighty to avenge His beloved ones."

"Why do we calculate our forces, and consult with flesh and blood to our grievous wounding? Jehovah has power enough without borrowing from our puny arm."

"Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us."

"Christ's vast benevolence must, from the very nature of things, have afforded Him the deepest possible delight, for benevolence is joy."

"Surely, if there could be regrets in heaven, the saints might mourn that they did not live longer here to do more good."

"Prayers are heard in heaven very much in proportion to your faith. Little faith will get very great mercies but great faith still greater."

"In the sympathy of Christ we find a sustaining power."

"I do not think I should care to go on worshipping a Madonna even if she did wink. One cannot make much out of a wink. We want something more than that from the object of our adoration."

"The Christian should work as if all depended upon him, and pray as if it all depended upon God."

"The most likely man to go to hell is the man who has nothing to do on earth. Idle people tempt the devil to tempt them."

"Though you wear your fingers to the bone with service, weep your eyes out with repentance, make your knees hard with kneeling, and dry your throat with shouting, if your heart does not beat with love, your religion falls to the ground like a withered leaf in autumn."

"What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us."

"Nothing but the infinite can ever satisfy me; I am such a great sinner that I must have infinite merit to wash my sin away;" but we have had our sin removed, and found that there was merit to spare; we have had our hunger relieved at the feast of sacred love."

"My love of consistency with my own doctrinal views is not great enough to allow me knowingly to alter a single text of Scripture. I have great respect for orthodoxy, but my reverence for inspiration is far greater. I would sooner a hundred times over appear to be inconsistent with myself than be inconsistent with the word of God. I never thought it to be any very great crime to seem to be inconsistent with myself; for who am I that I should everlastingly be consistent? But I do think it a great crime to be so inconsistent with the word of God that I should want to lop away a bough or even a twig from so much as a single tree of the forest of Scripture. God forbid that I should cut or shape, even in the least degree, any divine expression."

"The granting of prayer when offered in the name of Jesus reveals the Father's love to him and the honor which he has put upon him."

"No art like the art displayed in our salvation, no cunning workmanship like that beheld in the righteousness of the saints. Justification has engrossed learned pens in all ages of the church, and will be the theme of admiration in eternity."

"[Jesus] did not say, 'Simon, son of Jonas, fearest thou me.' He did not say, 'Dost thou admire me? Dost thou adore me?' Nor was it even a question concerning his faith. He did not say, 'Simon, son of Jonas, believest thou in me?' but he asked him another question, 'Lovest thou me?' I take it, that is because love is the very best evidence of godliness. Love is the brightest of all the graces; and hence it becomes the best evidence."

"See, loving heart, how He delights in you. When you lean your head on His bosom, you not only receive, but you give Him joy; when you gaze with love upon His all-glorious face, you not only obtain comfort, but impart delight."

"Sometimes we think we are too busy to pray. That is a great mistake for praying is a saving of time."

"Evil things are easy things: for they are natural to our fallen nature. Right things are rare flowers that need cultivation."

"One thought fixed upon the mind will be better than 50 thoughts flittering across the ear."

"Speak as educated nature suggests to you, and you will do well, but let it be educated and not raw, rude, uncultivated nature. Demosthenes took unbounded pains with his voice, and Cicero, who was naturally weak, made a long journey into Greece to correct his manner of speaking. With far nobler themes, let us not be less ambitious to excel."

"Let your cares drive you to God. I shall not mind if you have many of them if each one leads you to prayer. If every fret makes you lean more on the Beloved, it will be a benefit."

"Past experiences are doubtful food for Christians, a present coming to Christ alone can give us joy and comfort."

"You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter."

"Great thoughts of your sin alone will drive you to despair, but great thoughts of Christ will pilot you into the haven of peace."

"Confession is the giving up of ALL self-righteousness."

"That eye which sees anything good in the creature is a blind eye; that eye which fancies it can discern anything in man, or anything in anything he can do to win the Divine favor, is as yet stone blind to the Truth of God, and needs to be lanced and cut, and the cataract of pride removed from it!"

"Curses are like chickens, they always come home to roost."

"The weak mind is irritated at a little: the strong mind bears it like a rock which moveth not, though a thousand breakers dash upon it, and cast their pitiful malice in spray upon its summit."

"Every place is now God's temple, and His people can as truly serve Him in their daily employments as in His house. They are to be always "ministering," offering the spiritual sacrifice of prayer and praise, and presenting themselves a "living sacrifice."

"If we cannot prevail with men for God, we will at least endeavor to prevail with God for men."

"The minister is the parish clock. Many people take their time from him."

"If some talents were withheld, the Withholder knows why. He has done all things well."

"A man might as well hope to fight a swarm of flies with a sword as to master his own thoughts when they are set on by the devil."

"When you speak of heaven, let your face light up... When you speak of hell well then, your everyday face will do."

"Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them, digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled from thinking by their putting meditation away for the sake of much reading. In reading let your motto be 'much not many."

"Said will be a little ahead, but done should follow at his heel."

"It is not well to make great changes in old age."

"To cleave wood is a common every-day business, and yet it has its dangers; so then, reader, there are dangers connected with your calling and daily life which it will be well for you to be aware of. Your occupation may be as humble as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so."

"We ought not to tolerate for a minute the ghastly and grievous thought that God will not answer prayer."

"Every unearnest minister is an unfaithful one."

"Winter in the soul is by no means a comfortable season: but there is this comfort, namely, that the Lord makes it."

"Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement."

"Giving is true having."