Rivers to the ocean run,
Nor stay in all their course;
Fire ascending seeks the sun,
Both speed them to their source:
So a soul that’s born of God,
Pants to view his glorious face;
Upward tends to his abode,
To rest in his embrace.
– Robert Seagraves –
A Christian should always have one eye upon his end, and the other eye upon his way. That man lives a brutish life, who knows not what he lives for. And that man acts a fool’s part, who aims at heaven, and lives at random. The end for which a wise Christian lives is, that he may live without end; and therefore his way of living is, that he may live to spend his life continually in the ways of life. He is always walking in those paths in which he can see heaven before him. O my soul, what dost thou aim at? Is it a full enjoyment of thy God? Why then, whilst thou art present in the body, be always drawing near unto the Lord: so when thou shalt be absent from the body, thou shalt be always present with the Lord.
– Thomas Sherman –
He that would be holy must steep himself in the Word, must bask in the sunshine which radiates from each page of revelation … What evil, what enemy within or without is there that can withstand this unconquered and unconquerable Word? Satan’s object at present is to undermine that Word and to disparage its perfection. Let us the more magnify it and the more make constant use of it.
– Horatius Bonar –
…you should be looking out for fresh discovering of the Lord Jesus Christ every moment; you must not build upon your past experiences, you must not build upon a work within you, but always come out of yourselves to the righteousness of Jesus Christ without you; you must be always coming as poor sinners to draw water out of the wells of salvation; you must be forgetting the things that are behind, and be continually pressing forward to the things that are before. My dear friends, you must keep up a tender, close walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
– George Whitefield –
O my Lord Jesus Christ, if I could be in heaven without You, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have You still, it would be a heaven to me, for You are all the heaven I need.
– Samuel Rutherford –
The worldling does not care for Christ because he has never hungered and thirsted after Him. But the Christian is athirst for Christ. He is in a dry and thirsty land where no water is and his heart and his flesh pant after God, yes, for the living God! And as the thirsty soul dying, cries out, “Water! Water! Water!” so the Christian cries out, “Christ! Christ! Christ!” This is the one thing necessary for me and if I have it not, this thirst will destroy me!
– Charles Spurgeon –
The Believer is a silly sheep. What a precious thing is a shepherd and how precious are green pastures and still waters! The Believer is like a desolate woman. What a precious thing is a husband who shall provide for her and shall console and cherish her. The Believer is a pilgrim and the hot sun beats on him. What a precious thing is the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. The Believer is a bond-slave by nature. What a precious thing is the trumpet of jubilee and the ransom price that sets him free. The Believer, by nature, is a sinking, drowning man. How precious to him is that plank of Free Grace, the Cross of Christ, on which he puts his poor trembling hands and secures Glory! But what more shall I say? Time would fail me to tell of all the needs of the Believer and of the all-abounding and ever-flowing streams of love that flow from Christ, the Fountain who fills the Believer to the brim! O say, you children of God, is He not while you are in these lowlands of need and suffering, inconceivably, unutterably, superlatively precious to you?
– Charles Spurgeon –
…my heart is taken with Christ, it is ravished with His love; my soul is burning, my soul is beating towards Christ. Oh, none but Christ, none but Christ! I cannot live in myself, I cannot live in my duties, I cannot live in external privileges, I cannot live in outward mercies; I can live only in Christ, who is my life, my love, my joy, my crown, my all in all. Oh, the more I come to know Him in His natures, in His names, in His offices, in His discoveries, in His visits, in His beauties, the more I find my heart and affections to prize Christ, to run after Christ, to be affected with Christ, and to be wonderfully endeared to Christ!
– Thomas Brooks –
And yet, if it be true that God alone is goodness and joy and love; if it be true that our highest blessedness is in having as much of God as we can; if it be true that Christ has redeemed us wholly for God, and made a life of continual abiding in His presence possible, nothing less ought to satisfy than to be ever breathing this blessed atmosphere, “I wait on Thee.”
– Andrew Murray –