Cowards never won heaven. Do not claim that you are begotten of God and have His royal blood running in your veins unless you can prove your lineage by this heroic spirit: to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils.
– William Gurnall –
Heaven – Hell
Self-Love is Self-Hatred – Thomas Watson
Exercise great self-denial: “Let him deny himself” (Matthew 16:24). Self-ease, self-ends, whatever comes in competition with (or stand in opposition to) Christ’s glory and interest must be denied. Self is the great snare; self-love undermines the power of godliness. The young man in the Gospel might have followed Christ, but something of self-hindered (Matthew 19:20-22). Self-love is self-hatred. The man who cannot get beyond himself will never get to heaven.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Godly Man’s Picture, 1666
How Important is Sin in Your Life? – Charles Spurgeon
Is any sin so luscious, that it is worth burning in hell forever?
– Charles Spurgeon –
Gaze Upon Heaven in Prayer – GA Jarquin
If we would shut our eyes more often to this world in prayer to gaze upon heaven; then they would not bulge out our sockets with the lust of the eyes as we scan over earth’s treasures.
– GA Jarquin –
Fix Your Mind On Above – Henry Scougal
Let us often withdraw our thoughts from this earth, this scene of misery, and folly, and sin, and raise them toward that more vast and glorious world, whose innocent and blessed inhabitants solace themselves eternally in the divine presence, and know no other passion but an unmixed joy, and an unbound love.
– Henry Scougal –
from The Life of God in the Soul of Man
Don’t Invent New Sins – William Gurnall
Think twice before you use your intelligence to invent new sins! You may provoke God to new punishments. Sodom devised a new way to sin, so God devised a new way to discipline them: He sent hell from above upon them.
– William Gurnall –
What Makes Heaven, Heaven? – Thomas Watson
This is that which makes heaven to be heaven, “We shall be ever with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
– Thomas Watson –
The Way to Be Saved – Charles Spurgeon
The way to be saved is simply to trust in what the Son of man did when He became man, and suffered punishment for all those who trust Him. For all His people, Christ was a Substitute. His people are those who trust Him. If you trust Him, he was punished for your sins; and you cannot be punished for them, for God cannot punish sin twice, first in Christ, and then in you. If you trust Jesus, who now liveth at the right hand of God, you are this moment pardoned, and you shall forever be saved.
– Charles Spurgeon –
from The Soul Winner
Till Sin Be Bitter, Christ Will Not Be Sweet – Thomas Watson
There is no rowing to paradise except upon the stream of repenting tears. Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.
– Thomas Watson –