If I were a Roman Catholic, I should turn a heretic, in sheer desperation, because I would rather go to heaven than go to purgatory.
— Charles Spurgeon
I believe that nothing happens apart from divine determination and decree. We shall never be able to escape from the doctrine of divine predestination - the doctrine that God has foreordained certain people unto eternal life.
If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word - prayer. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell.
Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.
No one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the appearance of wealth.
We are all at times unconscious prophets.
Giving is true having.
It is not well to make great changes in old age.
By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.
Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self.
In prayer, we stand where angels bow with veiled faces. There, even there, the cherubim and seraphim adore before that selfsame throne to which our prayers ascend. And shall we come there with stunted requests and narrow, contracted faith?
We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.
A sinner can no more repent and believe without the Holy Spirit's aid than he can create a world.
I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.
Of two evils, choose neither.
The goose that lays the golden eggs likes to lay where there are eggs already.
Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.
Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.
None are more unjust in their judgments of others than those who have a high opinion of themselves.
Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.
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.
A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation.
Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.
Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of God's grace.
The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.
Sincerity makes the very least person to be of more value than the most talented hypocrite.
No one knows who is listening, say nothing you would not wish put in the newspapers.
Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.
A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.
As for our great King, when we venture into His presence, let us have a purpose there. Let us beware of playing at praying; it is insolence toward God.
