Wisdom saith, “This is the way, walk in it”; and you shall not only find life at the end, but pleasure in the way. That which is the only right way to happiness we must resolve to travel, and to proceed and persevere in it, whether it be fair or foul, pleasant or unpleasant: but it is a great encouragement to a traveller, to know that his way is not only the right way, but a pleasant way: and such the way to heaven is.
– Matthew Henry –
from The Pleasantness of a Religious Life, 1714
It is not falling into water that drowns, but lying in it. It is not falling into sin that damns, but lying in it without repentance.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Doctrine of Repentance, 1668
The man who remains in his sin will be damned just as surely as the sun comes up in the east and goes down in the west.
– AW Tozer –
We have in false cults a horrible picture of lost men seeking lost men to lead them to a lost eternity.
– Leonard Ravenhill –
You may say, “God doesn’t hate anybody. God is love.” No, my friend. You need to understand something. Jesus Christ taught, the prophets taught, the apostles taught this: that apart from the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord the only thing left for you is the wrath, the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin.
– Paul Washer –
Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men go there.
– Hudson Taylor –
It is but a vain thing to talk of going to heaven, if thou let thy heart be encumbered with those things that would hinder. Would you not say that such a man would be in danger of losing, though he run, if he fill his pockets with stones, hang heavy garments on his shoulders, and great lumpish shoes on his feet? So it is here. Thou talkest of going to heaven, and yet fillest thy pockets with stones; that is, fillest thy heart with this world; lettest that hang on thy shoulders with its profits and pleasures. Alas, alas! thou art widely mistaken. If thou intendest to win, thou must strip, thou must lay aside every weight, thou must be temperate in all things. Thou must so run.
– John Bunyan –
If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence…? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now!
– Keith Green –
What is our knowledge and faith, but to know and believe that heaven consists in the glory and love of God there manifested, and that it was purchased by his covenant?
– Richard Baxter –
from Dying Thoughts, 1683