Pardon is not properly prized without a solemn sense of the fount, folly, filth, and fruit of sin.
See how David felt all this, and set it forth in the fifty-first Psalm.
Tennyson wrote —
“He taught me all the mercy, for he show’d me all the sin.”
Pardoned sin makes peace within.
It is the first in the catalogue of blessings, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.” — Psalm 103:3. Stillingfleet asks: “How can we be at peace with ourselves till we have reason to believe that God. is at peace with us?”
Partners in sin are justly made partners in punishment.
Therefore, both body and soul will suffer the future punishment of unrepented sin.
Patience is the livery of Christ’s servants.
In it they are known to be of the household of the Crucified. It requires more grace to suffer patiently than to serve laboriously.
Peacemakers are the children of God: peace-breakers are the children of the devil.
John Trapp says: “Peace-making is as sure and as sweet a sign of a son of the God of Peace, as the parti-coloured clothes were
anciently signs of a king’s daughters. — 2 Samuel 13:18.”
Penitent sighs bring forth exulting songs.
“Sin, repentance, and pardon, are like to the three vernal months of the year, March, April, and May. Sin comes in like March, blus- tering, stormy, and full of bold violence. Repentance succeeds like April, showering, weeping, and hal of tears. Pardon follows like
May, springing, singing, full of joys ana flowers. If our hands have been full of March, with the tempests of unrighteousness, our eyes must be full of April with the sorrow of repentance; and then our hearts shall be full of May, in the true joy of forgiveness.” — T.
Adams.
Perfect trust in a perfect Savior brings perfect peace.
“We may trust him solely, all for us to do:
They who trust him wholly, find him wholly true.” — R. F. Havergal.
Pharisees and Publicans both pour out their hearts before God, the one in bragging, the other in begging.
Plead for Jesus, for he pleads for you.
Please God, and you will please good men.
Please God in all you do, and be pleased with all God does.
This would be heaven on earth ff we could fulfill it.
Poor are they that think themselves rich in grace: rich are they that see themselves poor.
A clergyman once said to Mr. Newton, “Really, sir, what a beautiful tract that is of yours, ‘ The Progress of Grace’! I never saw so clearly that I was in the full ear.” “Why,” said Mr. Newton,
“I put, or intended to put, as one mark of it, a humble opinion of ourselves.”
Poor sinners have a rich gospel.
Poverty in the way of duty is to be chosen rather than plenty in the way of sin.
When Philip Henry was fined for holding services, and his goods seized, he said, “Ah, well! we may be losers for Christ, but wo cannot in the end be losers by Christ: praise his name.”
Poverty of spirit is the riches of the soul.
“Humility is not only a precious grace, but the preserver of all other graces; and without it (if that could be) they are but as a box of
precious powder carried in the wind without a cover, in danger of being scattered and blown away. “ — Leighton.
Practical holiness is the seal of personal election.
Pray against sin, but don’t sin against prayer.
We sin against prayer when we ask for what we will not seek, and pray one thing and act another. To forget our own petitions, or to refuse their answers when they come, is an offense against the mercy-seat. So also to pray holiness and live ungodliness is a crime against the throne of grace.
Pray David’s prayer if you would sing David’s song.
Pray for a blessing, and your prayer will be a blessing.
In the very seeking of a benediction grace is put into action, and is strengthened by the exercise.
Pray for those who do not pray for themselves.
Some one prayed for you when you were yet unsaved: return that effectual prayer to the treasury of the church by pleading for others.
Plead hard for the hard heart which never pleads.
Pray for your minister, and you will be praying for yourself.
Whatever blessing he obtains will appear in his ministry, and you will be a partaker of it.
Prayer breathes in the air of heaven, and praise breathes it out again.
Thus we have heavenly respiration, and by it we live unto God.
Prayer and praise, with sins forgiven, Bring down to earth the bliss of heaven.
Prayer bringeth heaven down to man, and carrieth man up to heaven.
Prayer is God’s rod which fetches forth streams of blessing from the Rock of affliction.
Prayer knocks till the door opens.
Open it will, for so runs the promise of our faithful God, “To him that knocketh it shall be opened.” “If the angel opened the door of the prison to let Peter out it was prayer that opened the door of heaven to let the angel out.”
Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.
“Prayer is a creature’s strength, his very breath and being; Prayer is the golden key that cart open the wicket of Mercy. Prayer is the magic sound that saith to Fate, ‘ So be it ‘;
Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of Omnipotence.” — Martin Tupper.
Prayer must not come from the roof of the mouth, but from the root of the heart.
Prayer oils the wheels of the waggon of life.
Try the effect of it when the wheel begins to creak. A missionary in a heathen land had groom sadly weary and discouraged. He was going forth to his work with a joyless face, when his young wife called him back, went to him, put her hands on his shoulders, and, with tears in her eyes, said, “O Willie, Willie! much work and little prayer is hard work.” Then she led him to a private room, and there, kneeling down, prayed with him as only one who loved with a true heavenly love could pray. From that room he went forth strong in the strength which never failed him; never again was he tempted to sever work and prayer.
Prayer rightly offered is richly answered.
Prayer, like Jonathan’s bow, returns not empty; never was faithful prayer lost. No tradesman trades with such certainty as the praying saint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage, than others, but then they return with richer lading at last; the praying soul is a gainer by waiting for an answer.” — Gurnall.
Prayer should be, pillared on promises, and pinnaclod with praises.
Prayer without words can win:
Words without heart are sin.
“She also prayed who touched Christ’s garment’s hem with reverent faith; ay, and was answered too, although no word escaped her.” — Partridge.
Preach Christ to sinners if you would preach sinners to Christ.
David Wilson suggested to a friend, as a text for a sermon, the word “Christ.” “Begin with Christ, go on with Christ, and end with Christ, and I am sure your hearers will never be tired, for his name is as ointment poured forth.”
Preachers are apt to think more of their own credit as God’s messengers, than of the credit given to God’s messages.
Faithful preachers will get little credit from men of the world, or from worldly Christians; for the religion, of to-day leans to unfaithfulness:
“It calls for pleasing pulpiteers, Modern, and brilliant, and fast;
Who will show how men may live as they list, And go to heaven at last.”
Preachers often draw the bow at a venture, but the Spirit of God takes sure aim.
Preaching in pride is doing God’s work in the devil’s livery.
Precious promises are the provender of faith.
Dr. Gordon says, “We would commend a faith that even seems audacious, like that of the sturdy covenanter Robert Bruce, who requested, as he was dying, that his finger might be placeit on one of God’s strong promises, as though to challenge the Judge of all with it as he should enter his presence. As we stand face to face with the Word we cannot be too bold.”
Pride climbs up, not as Zacchaeus to see Jesus, but to be seen itself.
Prize the doctrine of grace and the grace of the doctrine.
Take care that these go together, for so hath God appointed Providence may change, but the promise must stand.
The wheel of providence revolves, but the axle of divine faithfulness remains in its place. “He cannot deny himself.”
Punishment usually bears upon it the image of the sin.
Jacob deceived his brother, and his sons deceived him; David took another man’s wife, and his own bed was defiled by Absalom.
These are two instances out of thousands. The Lord makes his children see their sin in the smart which it brings upon them.
Q
QUACKERY has no friend like gullibility.
If none would swallow, none would make the pill. Persons invite deception by the eager way in which they snap at the bait.
Advertise enough, unit you may sell liquorice water at a guinea a gill.
Quality is better than quantity.
They do not often go together. Prefer to do a little well rather than a great deal in a poor style.
Quarrel only at twelve o’clock, and get it over at noon.
Which is much the same as — Never quarrel at all.
Quarrellers seldom grow fat.
They worry the flesh off their bones by agitation, waste their substance in litigation, and weary their minds in disputation.
Quarrelling dogs come Hmping home.
They give and receive hurts; and many a painful footstep they cause themselves by their fighting propensities.
Since dogs delight to bark and bite, When they get hurt it serves them right.
Quarter on the enemy.
It is a wise thing to make missions and other good works as nearly as possible self-supporting. It has been done in several cases; and in the process many good purposes have been answered, for the people have been trained to independence and generosity.
“Queen Elizabeth is dead.”
A sarcastic remark when stale news is reported.
Queries from queer quarters may be left to answer themselves.
If we are to answer all questions, we have our work cut out for the next thousand years. We are bound to tell the truth if we tell
anything; but we are not bound to tell anything at all. Here is a neat answer which says nothing :—
Said a mortgagee to a mortgagor, What do you want my money for?
Said the mortgager to the mortgagee, Lend me the money, and then you’ll see, Quick and well seldom go together.
“Hurry and Cunning are the two apprentices of Dispatch and Skill;
but neither of them ever learns his master’s trade.” — Colton.
Quick believers need broad shoulders.
To support the burden of all which they accept as gospel.
Quick believers will need wide swallows.
To take in all that is told them. Better be a little inhospitable when the story looks like a traveler; for if you take it in, it may take you in. The foolish believeth every word, but the wise man enquireth.
Quick removals are slow prosperings.
Two removals are as bad as a fire. He who shifts his place often, is like a tree frequently transplanted, whose fruit is very small.
“Change for spite and rue it, And wish you could undo it.”
Quick steps are best over miry ground.
When you come into a dangerous place, and must needs pass through it, use all speed, and be away as soon as possible. If in the course of your calling you must needs speak with bad men, have done with them as soon as ever you can, and be on your guard all the while. A person caught in a shower puts up his umbrella and mends his pace; so shotlid we protect ourselves, and hurry on.
Quick to borrow is always slow to pay.
Those, on the other hand, who will never borrow till they are driven to it are the people who are eager to get out of debt.
Quickly come is often quickly go.
Easy gainings make easy spendings. Is this why a spendthrift is said to be fast? He cares by his money on a sudden, and as suddenly he makes it vanish.
Quiet is sweet when riot is over.
Nobody values peace more than he who knows the evll of
contention. “Then are they glad, because, they be quiet.” — Psalm 107:30.
Quiet sleep feels no foal weather.
Once off into the land of Nod, we are to the east of Eden, and care not whether it rains or snows. Bertford is a quiet place.
Quiet sleep is the best patent medicine.
What a blessing to be able to enjoy it! Hood calls bed —
“That heaven upon earth to the weary head;
But a place that to name would be ill-bred To the head with a wakeful trouble —
‘Tis held by such a different lease!
To one, a place of comfort and peace, All stuffed with the down of stubble geese,
To another with only the stubble!”
Quit not certainty for hope.
Better a sure shilling than a sovereign in the clouds, to come or not to come. Never trust promising appearances so as to give up what you have realized.
Quit your pots, and your potations;
Yield to wisdom’s exhortations.
“Will you take something?” said a teetotaler to a friend standing near a tavern. “I don’t care if I do,” was the reply. “Well,” said the teetotaler “let’s take a walk.”
Quizzing is pleasant, but it is a game which two can play at.
This is a bit of Judge Halyburton’s humor, and he practically illustrated it in his own way. For a very clever fellow to be quietly
taken in while he thinks he is showing his superiority to others, is a merited chastisement which is likely to do him good.
Quoth the dog to the Bishop, “Every man to his trade.”
A capital specimen of impudence, cool as a cucumber. We have met with observations quite as cheeky from very small puppies.