Kindle Notes & Highlights
He has time to visit, for he rises at three in the morning, and at that early hour meets his God in prayer and meditation, and has space for study besides.
He was known to fall asleep at night talking of
Christ, and even to speak of Him during his sleep. Indeed, himself speaks of his dreams being of Christ.[11]
"Christ is an unknown Christ to young ones; and therefore they seek Him not, because they know Him not."
"An afflicted life looks very like the way that leads to the kingdom."
It might be instructive to inquire why it is that wherever godliness is healthy and progressive, we almost invariably find learning in the Church of Christ attendant on it: while on the other hand, neglect of study is attended sooner or later by decay of vital godliness.
observing, with a submissiveness which we might wonder at
how we need seriousnees when we address Almighty God
Do you think her lost, when she is but sleeping in the bosom of the Almighty?
Take heed, then, that in showing your affection in mourning for your daughter, ye be not, out of self-affection, mourning for yourself.
Call to mind the days of old.
The Lord yet liveth. Trust in Him, although He should slay you. Faith is exceeding charitable, and believeth no evil of God.[85]
Prepare yourself; you[36] are nearer your daughter this day than you were yesterday.
Run your race with patience. Let God have His own; and ask of Him, instead of your daughter which He hath taken from you, the daughter of faith, which is patience; and in patience possess your soul. Lift up your head:
He, who seeth perfectly through all your evils, and knoweth the frame and constitution of your nature, and what is most healthful for your soul, holdeth every cup of affliction to your head, with His own gracious hand. Never believe that your tender-hearted[38] Saviour, who knoweth the strength of your stomach, will mix that cup with one drachm-weight of poison. Drink then with the patience of the saints, and the God of patience bless your physic.
So that when ye die, a piece of death shall only seize upon you, or the least part of you shall die, and that is the dissolution of the body; for in Christ ye are delivered from the second death; and, therefore, as one born of God, commit not sin (although ye cannot live and not sin), and that serpent shall but eat your earthly part.
Ye have lost a child: nay she is not lost to you who is found to Christ.
She is not sent away, but only sent before, like unto a star, which going out of our sight doth not die and evanish, but shineth in another hemisphere.
Show yourself a Christian, by suffering without murmuring, for which sin fourteen thousand and seven hundred were slain (Numb. xvi. 49). In patience possess your soul.
They lose nothing who gain Christ.
I and they are not worthy of Jesus Christ, who will not suffer forty years' trouble for Him, since they have such glorious promises.
But we fools believe those promises as the man that read Plato's writings concerning the immortality of the soul: so long as the book was in his hand he believed all was true, and that the soul could not die; but so soon as he laid by the book, he began to imagine that the soul is but a smoke or airy vapour, that perisheth with the expiring of the breath.
And sure I am, it is better to be sick, providing Christ come to the bedside and draw by the curtains, and say, "Courage, I am Thy salvation," than to enjoy health, being lusty and strong, and never to be visited of God.
The spouse of Jesus will ever be in the fire;
the wicked may hold the bitter cup to your head, but God mixeth it,
and beware of yourself: yourself is a more dangerous enemy than I, or any without you.
But the way to overcome is by patience, forgiving and praying for your enemies, in doing whereof you heap coals upon their heads, and your Lord shall open a door to you in your troubles.
I entreat you in the Lord, be submissive to His will; for the higher that their pride mounts up, they are the nearer to a fall.
Your body is the dwelling-house of the Spirit; and therefore, for the love you carry to the sweet Guest, give a due regard to His house of clay.
