Do men die forever because they will? Then who are you, O man who charges God with destruction? Surely herein you charge God foolishly. As He does not delight in your sin, so neither does He delight in your death. The malefactor must not be angry with the Judge for passing a sentence of condemnation upon him, but he ought to blame himself for doing that which he deserves to be condemned? How often has He stretched forth his hand all the day long, but all the day long you have been disobedient and contrary? How speechless will this make you when He comes to judge the world in righteousness!
Do men die forever because they will? Then the death of the wicked is most just and righteous? It is but equal that the willing slaves of sin who would not become the Lord's freemen should be fettered in chains of darkness. The offender who refuses a pardon offered justly, nay, doubly deserves to have judgment executed, both because of his offense and because he slights mercy. The patient who thrusts away the physician who would heal him of a sore distemper very well deserves to die for it, and the sinner who will not turn to God, who rejects the Lord Jesus who is both able both to pardon and to heal him, though he perishes and is condemned, yet is not in the least wronged.
—Nathaniel Vincent "The Conversion of a Sinner"
Filed under A Puritan at Heart, Daily Quote, Misc Quotes by on Aug 24th, 2010. Comment. 
On Psalm 6:10
If this were an imprecation, a malediction, yet it was medicinal, and had rationem boni, a charitable tincture and nature in it; he wished the men no harm as men. But it is rather prædictorium, a prophetical vehemence, that if they will take no knowledge of God's declaring himself in the protection of his servants, if they would not consider that God had heard, and would hear, had rescued, and would rescue his children, but would continue their opposition against him, heavy judgments would certainly fall upon them; their punishment should be certain, but the effect should be uncertain; for God only knows whether his correction shall work upon his enemies to their mollifying, or to their obduration. . . . In the second word, "Let them be sore vexed," he wishes his enemies no worse than himself had been, for he had used the same word of himself before, Ossa turbata, My bones are vexed; and Anima turbata, My soul is vexed; and considering that David had found this vexation to be his way to God, it was no malicious imprecation to wish that enemy the same physic that he had taken, who was more sick of the same disease than he was. For this is like a troubled sea after a tempest; the danger is past, but yet the billow is great still; the danger was in the calm, in the security, or in the tempest, by misinterpreting God's correction to our obduration, and to a remorseless stupefication; but when a man is come to this holy vexation, to be troubled, to be shaken with the sense of the indignation of God, the storm is past, and the indignation of God is blown over. That soul is in a fair and near way of being restored to a calmness, and to reposed security of conscience that is come to this holy vexation.
— John Donne.
Filed under A Puritan at Heart, Daily Quote, Misc Quotes, Psalms by on Aug 18th, 2010. Comment.
This is something very close to my heart for reasons I will spare the reader. Though I am no fan of the Papists, Mother Theresa put ti well when she said:
Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat…We must find each other."
Mother Theresa
Til the church starts to make a difference to the hurting, the wounded, the rejected, unwanted and unloved, the dying, the people forgotten and overlooked by society instead of increasing the hurt and wounds of such, she is never going to be taken seriously as it goes against all the teachings of Christ–to an unbelieving world, believers who behave such like make Christ and the Bible look like a lie, so it will never make a difference where that attitude reigns, and will do anything but glorify God. Till she becomes a solution to rather than an adding to the problem, people are always going to be hurting and suffering. Sadly even in Christendom this does happen, I know up close and personal and will be counting the cost till I die. It's not all-prevailing, thankfully, but it is TOO prevalent.
Are there not many good, commendable, and imitable things in the Godly, which are not to be found in others? Why should all these be quite overlooked and passed by, and a few failings in all, or more gross faults in some of the Godly, be only taken notice of, and narrowly observed, and more exaggerated in them,then these same, or grosser ones in others are,who yet are quite destitute of those many other good things which the Godly have? Sure this is not fair nor equal dealing; It’s very like the disposition of a sort of Insects, that can flee over the whole of a meadow full of fragrant sweet-smelling and pleasant flowers, and sit down upon, and suck a little dung in it.
From the Epistle to the Reader in James Durham's, The Great Gain of Contenting Godliness
Filed under Crazy Calvinist, James Durham, affliction by on Aug 15th, 2010. Comment.
IT was the strange lot of David, that those whom he pursued, preserved him from those whom he has preserved. The Philistines, whom David had newly smitten in Keilah, call off Saul from smiting David in the wilderness, when there was but a hillock betwixt him and death. Wicked purposes are easily checked, not easily broken off. Saul's sword is scarce dry from the blood of the Philistines, when it thirsts anew for the blood of David, and now, in a renewed chase, hunts him dry-foot through every wilderness. The very desert is too fair a refuge for innocence. The hills and rocks are searched in an angry jealousy; the very wild goats of the mountains were not allowed to be companions for him who had no fault but his virtue. O the seemingly unequal distribution of these earthly things! Cruelty and oppression reign in a palace, while goodness lurks among the rocks and caves, and thinks it happiness enough to steal a life.
Like a dead man, David is fain to be hid under the earth, and seeks the comfort of protection in darkness: and now the wise providence of God leads Saul to his enemy without blood. He, which before brought them within a hill's distance without interview, brings them now both within one roof; so as that, while Saul seeks David and finds him not, he is found of David unsought. If Saul had known of his own opportunities, how David and his men had interred themselves, he had saved a treble labour of chase, of execution, and burial; for had he but stopt the mouth of that cave, his enemies had laid themselves down in their own graves. The wisdom of God thinks fit to hide from evil men and spirits, those means and seasons, which might be if they had been taken , most prejudicial to his own. We had been oft foiled, if Satan could but have known our hearts. Sometimes we lie open to evils, and happy it is for us, that he only knows it, who pities us instead of tempting.
It is not long since Saul said of David, lodged then in Keilah, God hath delivered him into mine hands, for he is shut in, seeing he is come into a city that hath gates and bars; but now contrarily God delivers Saul, ere he was aware, into the hands of David, and without the help of gates and bars, hath enclosed him within the valley of death. How just is it with God, that those who seek mischief to others, find it to themselves, and, even while they are spreading nets, are ensnared, their deliberate plotting of evil is surprised with a sudden judgment.
—Joseph Hall "Contemplations" Volume I
David Spares Saul's life
Filed under A Puritan at Heart, Daily Quote, Joseph Hall by on Aug 10th, 2010. Comment.
…Not from strength, works, or ability or any good thing in ourself.
"For I am weak." Behold what rhetoric he useth to move God to cure him, "I am weak," an argument taken from his weakness, which indeed were a weak argument to move any man to show his favour, but is a strong argument to prevail with God. If a diseased person would come to a physician, and only lament the heaviness of his sickness, he would say, God help thee; or an oppressed person come to a lawyer, and show him the estate of his action and ask his advice, that is a golden question; or to a merchant to crave raiment, he will either have present money or a surety; or a courtier favour, you must have your reward ready in your hand. But coming before God, the most forcible argument that you can use is your necessity, poverty, tears, misery, unworthiness, and confessing them to him, it shall be an open door to furnish you with all things that he hath. . . . The tears of our misery are forcible arrows to pierce the heart of our heavenly Father, to deliver us and pity our hard case. The beggars lay open their sores to the view of the world, that the more they may move men to pity them. So let us deplore our miseries to God, that he, with the pitiful Samaritan, at the sight of our wounds, may help us in due time.
Archibald Symson. on Psalm 6:2
Filed under Archibald Symson, Covenanted Reformation, Daily Quote by on Aug 8th, 2010. Comment.
Psalm 23:1
You must distinguish 'twixt absence, and 'twixt indigence. Absence is when something is not present; indigence or want, is when a needful good is not present. If a man were to walk, and had not a staff, here were something absent. If a man were to walk, and had but one leg, here were something whereof he were indigent. It is confessed that there are many good things which are absent from a good person, but no good thing which he wants or is indigent of. If the good be absent and I need it not, this is no want; he that walks without his cloak, walks well enough, for he needs it not. As long as I can walk carefully and cheerfully in my general or particular calling, though I have not such a load of accessories as other men have, yet I want nothing, for my little is enough and serves the turn. . . . Our corruptions are still craving, and they are always inordinate, they can find more wants than God needs to supply. As they say of fools, they can propose more questions than twenty wise men need to answer. They in James 4:3, did ask, but received not; and he gives two reasons for it:—1. This asking was but a lusting: "ye lust and have not" (verse 4): another, they did ask to consume it upon their lusts (verse 3). God will see that his people shall not want; but withal, he will never engage himself to the satisfying of their corruptions, though he doth to the supply of their conditions. It is one thing what the sick man wants, another what his disease wants. Your ignorance, your discontents, your pride, your unthankful hearts, may make you to believe that you dwell in a barren land, far from mercies (as melancholy makes a person to imagine that he is drowning, or killing, etc.); whereas if God did open your eyes as he did Hagar's, you might see fountains and streams, mercies and blessings sufficient; though not many, yet enough, though not so rich, yet proper, and every way convenient for your good and comfort; and thus you have the genuine sense, so far as I can judge of David's assertion, "I shall not want."
—-Obadiah Sedgwick
Filed under A Puritan at Heart, Daily Quote, Various puritans by on Jul 11th, 2010. Comment.
God being a Father, if He hides His face from His child, it is in love. Desertion is sad in itself, a short hell (Job 6:9). Yet when the light is withdrawn, dew falls. We may see a rainbow in the cloud, the love of a Father in all this.
Firstly, God hereby quickens grace. Perhaps grace lay dormant (Canticles 5:2). It was as fire in the members; and God withdraws comfort, to invigorate and exercise grace. Faith is a grace that sometimes shines brightest in the dark night of desertion (Jon 2:4).
Secondly, when God hides His face from His child, He is still a Father, and His heart is towards His child. Joseph spoke roughly to his brethren and made them believe he would take them for spies; still his heart was full of love, and he was fain to go aside and weep. So God's heart yearns for His children, and even He seems to look strange. "In a little wrath I hid my face from thee…but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee." Though God may have the look of an enemy, He still has the heart of a Father.
—Thomas Watson "A Homiletic Encyclopedia" p. 1656
Filed under A Puritan at Heart, Daily Quote, Thomas Watson by on Jun 25th, 2010. Comment.
1 Cor 13:1 sums up really the commandment that Christ himself gave to us, to love one another. [John 13:34-35] Yet how often do we witness the opposite being done by some of those who profess His Name? In 1 Cor 13:1 the word love depending on which translation one is reading from is interchangeable with charity. Amy Carmichael's life seemed to sum up the essence of those things to the utmost degree. A life of self denial and no matter what it took, to love, and not love selectively, but, the love of Christ shone from her it seems.
To quote a little more from her book, " Fragments that Remain":
What a difference it makes when people give "not grudgingly or of necessity" (2 Cor. 9:7) but loving their Lord and His cause enough to give Him that which they would naturally want for themselves! I turn again and again to the Word which says, "If thou bestow on the hungry that which thy soul desireth… THEN the Lord shall satisfy thy soul in dry places." (Isa. 58:10-11, RV, margin).
When they see Him whom their souls love will they regret they had in very truth "nothing too precious for Jesus?"
It still seems to me as the Christ spoke of in Luke: Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
And once again, whether it be love, or being doers of the word rather than talkers, or not looking further than our own cosy little nook, it still seems to me to boil down to the sum and substance of the law, and the golden rule. Of love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and love our neighbour as ourselves. And do unto others as we would want done unto us. Yet from this seat, and the experience I have had, the labourers truly do seem few. And Scripture foretells, that things are likely to get worse before they get better, which is a pretty terrible thought.
Again, from Amy Carmichael:
Many crowd the Saviour’s Kingdom,
Few receive His Cross,
Many seek His consolation,
Few will suffer loss,
For the dear sake of the Master,
Counting all but dross.
Many sit at Jesus’ table,
Few will fast with Him
When the sorrow-cup of anguish
Trembles to the brim-
Few watch with Him in the garden
Who have sung the hymn.
Many will confess His wisdom,
Few embrace His shame,
Many, should He smile upon them,
Will His praise proclaim;
Then, if for awhile He leave them,
They desert His Name.
But the souls who love Him truly
Whether for woe or bliss,
These will count their truest heart’s blood
Not their own but His:
Saviour, Thou who thus hast loved me,
Give me love like this.
—Amy Carmichael
The Lord knows I have very little in this world besides pretty dreadful sufferring. At least in ways that matter to most. I pray He gives me grace enough that while running on empty, I will still have a heart to give in whatever small way that maybe to minister to others. My name will be forgotten in an instant when I die, there is no one to carry my name on, no spiritual legacy to leave to any loved ones; when we are dead it is too late to make any difference in any case, for our own eternal welfare or others; the time is NOW; what happens to our name or memory after we die, is of little concern, if we have the promise of heaven, our sufferings and tears here will be as if all in a distant dream; I feel a little like the man spoken of in Ecclesiastes in the ways above, not because I consider myself wise, but I aim to be faithful, yet no man will remember me as the man in the verse below it feels.
Ecclesiastes 9:13-15 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me: There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
Filed under Amy Carmichael, Blagging for England, Chief Covie Know-all, Covenanter in bonds, Crazy Calvinist, Poetry, Quotes, affliction, faith by on Jun 23rd, 2010. Comment.
I have long desired to read some of Amy Carmichael, and at last that has now become a reality. Starting my first book of hers today, some of the messages within the opening pages spoke loudly to my heart, as the things that often leave me bound in grief. I don't intend to repeat my tale of woe on this website, those who have read this site for any length of time may have some idea of why it felt so personal, and resonated, as will some of my friends who may read. But whether you know the reasons or not, the message that Amy gives in these short excerpts are in my opinion golden, as we often seem to rarely look further than our own back yard. And if all is well there, we sit down content and complacent, too often. Loving one's neighbour as our self is in my experience the rarity rather than the norm, yet its the sum and substance of God's moral law, to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and souls and to love our neighbour as ourselves. It doesn't always have to be on the foreign mission field, we often have a mission field right on our own doorstep. But it has seemed to me, that the sentiments of Amy Carmichael below, has been demonstrated in my own lot in life over and over for a long time now. And the poor in whatever way the word poor may mean to the individual, are the ones to be consistently overlooked, whether at home, or in some foreign heathen land.
Is it that we are so busy with the front rows, which we can see, that we have no time for the back rows out of sight? But is it fair? Is it what Jesus our Master intends? Can this unequal distribution of the Bread of Life really be called fair?
Could you say to a heathen woman, "I am very sorry for you. I know this will not show you the way from the dark where you are to the light where I am. To show you the way I must go to you, or send someone whom I want for myself, or do without something which I wish to have. And this of course is impossible. It might be done if I loved God enough. But I love myself more than God or you.
You would not say such a thing. But—"Whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him how does the love of God abide in him? (1 John 3:17 NKJV)
Resignation:
There are some brave souls and God knows them well,
Though magazines may not their praises swell,
Whose life breathes a fragrance, just felt, not seen,
Like the scent of the violet lost in green.
Trusted with pain in a shaded room,
Trusted with office, or shop, or loom,
Trusted with pen or needle or broom,
Such, day by day, toil, suffer and pray
Contented to serve their God anyway.
But some there are, super-finely molded,
Who sit with hands submissively folded;
Who vegetate rather than live, and suggest
Good cabbages—doing no harm at best.
Of the poor dark worlds dark need they know;
They take a great interest in missions, and oh!
At times they are almost ready to go—
But then by some flaw in their calculation
They mistake laziness for resignation.For they are so speedily persuaded
That all the reasons by which they are aided
To gravitate back to the easy chair
Are fully as solid as they are fair.
They "Can't be spared," they have surely heard,
And they don't recollect the rather absurd
Little fad that, most certainly, never a word
Would be raised did the question involve a Ring,
For, "of course, that is quite a different thing."They have "so few gifts," and they "cannot speak,"
'Tis their "cross in life" to be timid and weak—
Alas that we call by such sacred name
Excuses invented to save us from pain,
Far, far removed from the Cross and shame!
Perhaps the societies door was locked
When with somewhat uncertain knuckle they knocked,
And everyone said, "Ah now it is plain
You cannot be meant to try again.
How terrible should you the business shirk
Of life's most serious fancy work
For our Father's business in temple's murk!"
They sigh and suppose so. The argumentation
Transforms laziness into resignation.
If such a deluded one reads this rhyme
Oh will she not waken while their is time?
Don't think that "sit still" must infallibly be
A life-motto written expressly for thee.
It may be the word is "Go forward"—if not,
If before the Master you stand in your lot,
He will flame your soul with a burning hot
And passionate fire, and you shall know
The joy of setting some other aglow.
—Excerpts from Amy Carmichael's "Fragment's that Remain"
Filed under Amy Carmichael, Blagging for England, Chief Covie Know-all, Crazy Calvinist, Poetry, affliction, faith by on Jun 22nd, 2010. Comment.
O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more. Man in his corrupt state is like Nebuchadnezzar, he hath a beast's heart, that craves no more than the satisfaction of his sensual appetite; but when renewed by grace, then his understanding returns to him, by which he is enabled in praying for temporals to elevate his desires to a nobler end. Doth David pray that some farther time may be added to his temporal life? It is not out of a fond love for this world, but to prepare himself the better for another. Is he comforted with hopes of a longer stay here? It is not this world's carnal pleasures that kindle this joy in his holy breast, but the advantage that thereby he shall have for praising God in the land of the living…O spare me, that I may recover strength. David was not yet recovered out of that sin which had brought him exceeding low as you may perceive, Ps 39:10-11. And the good man cannot think of dying with any willingness till his heart be in a holier frame: and for the peace of the gospel, serenity of conscience, and inward joy; alas! all unholiness is to it as poison is to the spirits which drink them up.
—-William Gurnall on Psalm 39:13
Filed under A Puritan at Heart, Daily Quote, William Gurnall by on Jun 16th, 2010. Comment.
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