Results

When I go to the sunny south in the winter for my health, I am advised by the physician to keep myself as much as possible in the sun. I am told to let my rooms look towards the sun rising and to keep clear of sunless streets and courts. This is the advice of wisdom, for if you lodge in rooms upon which…

When a farmer comes to thrash out his wheat and get it ready for the market, there are two things that he desires—that there may be plenty of it of the right sort, and that when he takes it to market he may be able to carry a clean sample there. He does not look on the quantity alone, for what is the…

See how everything that the apostle thought of was connected with Christ—how he had concentrated every passion, every power, every thought, every act, every word, and set the whole upon Christ. I believe that there are many who love Christ after a sort, just as the sun shines today; but you know if you…

There is no use in mere formality. If your religion is without spiritual life, what is the use of it? Could you ride home on a dead horse? Would you hunt with dead dogs? Would anyone like to go into battle with a pasteboard helmet? When the sword fell on it, what use would such a helmet be? In the depth…

In the olden time when the gospel was preached in Persia, Hamedatha, a courtier of the king, having embraced the faith, was stripped of all his offices, driven from the palace, and compelled to feed camels. This he did with great content. The king passing by one day saw his former favorite at his ignoble…

How many Christians are like the miser who never feels sure about the safety of his money, even though he has locked up the iron safe, and secured the room in which he keeps it, and locked up the house, and bolted and barred every door! In the dead of night, he thinks he hears a footstep, and tremblingly…

When John Bunyan was a boy, he was so foolhardy that when a snake rose against him, he took it in his hand and plucked the sting out of its mouth, but he was not harmed. It was his turn to stand sentinel at the siege of Nottingham, and as he was going forth, another man offered to take his place. That…

There is a river flowing along in a gentle slope toward the sea. A boatman is upon it. His vessel is here, then it is there, and soon it will be at the river’s mouth. Only that part of the river upon which he is sailing is present to him. But up yonder, on a lofty mountain, stands a traveler. As he looks…

Turn to Acts 12, where you have the record of Peter lying asleep in the prison, watched by soldiers. And yet at the dead of night, an angel of the Lord came into the prison, smote Peter on the side, bade him bind on his sandals and gird himself, and follow him. Peter went through all the doors of the…

In many of our dissenting places of worship very great encouragement is held out to doubting. A person comes before the pastor, and says, “Oh! Sir, I am so afraid I am not converted; I tremble lest I should not be a child of God. Oh! I fear I am not one of the Lord’s elect.” The pastor will put out his…

If this glory is to be had, do we not feel like the heroes in Bunyan’s picture? Before the dreamer there stood a fair palace, and he saw persons walking upon the top of it, clad in light and singing. Around the door stood armed men to keep back those who would enter. Then a brave man came up to one who…

An Englishman may happen to be in Spain—he wishes a thousand things were different from what they are, but he does not trouble himself much about them. He says, “If I were a Spaniard I would see what I could do to alter this government. But, being an Englishman, let the Spaniards see to their own matters.…

I remember seeing a somewhat famous portrait of our Lord in which the artist never lifted his pencil from the paper from beginning to end, but drew the whole of it with one continuous series of circles. So here I may say the whole Christian life is drawn in one line—coming unto Christ. “To whom you are…

All that is of nature’s spinning must be unraveled. The natural building must come down, lath and plaster, roof and foundation, and we must have a house not made with hands. It was a great mercy for our city of London that the great fire cleared away all the old buildings that were the lair of the plague;…

When I was seeking the Lord, I not only believed that I could not pray without divine help, but I felt in my very soul that I could not. Then I could not even feel aright, or mourn as I would, or groan as I would. I longed to long more after Christ. Alas! I could not even feel that I needed Him as I…

John Bunyan speaks of the law as coming to sweep a chamber like a maid with a broom. When she began to sweep there was a great dust that almost choked people and got into their eyes. But then came the gospel with its drops of water and laid the dust, and then the broom might be used far better. Now it…

You shall go into a wood when you please, but if you are very quiet you will not know whether there is a partridge or a pheasant or a rabbit in it. But when you begin to move about or make a noise, you very soon see the living creatures. They rise or they run. So when affliction comes into the soul and…

Had Abraham stopped in Ur of the Chaldees with his friends and rested there and enjoyed himself, where would his faith have been? He had God’s command to leave his country to go to a land that he had never seen, to sojourn there with God as a stranger, dwelling in tents, and in his obedience to that…

In Pilgrim’s Progress, when Mr. Greatheart went with Miss Much-afraid and Mr. Feeble-mind on the road to the Celestial City, he had his hands full. He says of poor Mr. Feeble-mind that, when he came to the lions, he said, “Oh, the lions will have me!” And he was afraid of the giants, and afraid of everything…

A man takes a mass of metal. It appears to you very pure, and very beautiful to look at. It is alloyed. He puts it into his refining pot, he heats the coals, and he begins to stir it. You say to him, “What are you doing? You are spoiling that precious metal. See how foul the surface is! What a scum floats…

We despise the chastening of the Lord when we despise those that God chastens. You say, “Poor old Mrs. So-and-so. The last seven years she has been bedridden; what is the good of her in the church? Would it not be a mercy if she were dead? We always have to be keeping her—someone or other giving her…

I would compare faith to an emperor who summoned his counselors and judged whether he should go to war by their opinion, but he did it in the following manner: if they warned him that it would be a very fearful war, if they said that the enemy’s cities would never be taken, that the armies on the other…

The Israelites in Egypt had no doubt caught very much the spirit of the Egyptians, and the spirit of the Egyptians was the exact opposite of the spirit of a true-born Englishman. We rejoice that we are free. We are in the habit of discussing laws and criticizing statutes, and if there were an unjust…

Many Christians resemble the nautilus, which in fine smooth weather swims on the surface of the sea in a splendid little squadron, like the mighty ships. But the moment the first breath of wind ruffles the waves, they take in their sails and sink into the depths. Many Christians are the same. In good…

We are never so subject to impatience as when there is nothing we can do. While the farmer is occupied with ploughing, harrowing, tilling, drilling, hoeing, and the like, he is too busy to be fretful. It is when the work is done, and there is nothing more to occupy his hands, that the very leisure he…