Life

Are You a Reservoir or a Canal? – Bernard of Clairvaux

If then you are wise, you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal. A canal spreads abroad water as it receives it, and a reservoir waits until it is filled before overflowing, and thus without loss to itself communicates its superabundant water. In the Church at the present day we have many canals but few reservoirs.

– Bernard of Clairvaux –

Holiness in the Here and Now – Duncan Campbell

True holiness is a Revival of Holiness. Personal holiness is more desirable than happiness … and it is not in heaven alone that God wants our saintliness —it is here and now; holiness is not just a doctrine to be taught, it is a way of life —it is the life of Jesus.

– Duncan Campbell –

Abide in Christ – JC Ryle

Abide in Me says Jesus. Cling to Me. Stick fast to Me. Live the life of close and intimate communion with Me. Get nearer to Me. Roll every burden on Me. Cast your whole weight on Me. Never let go your hold on Me for a moment. Be, as it were, rooted and planted in Me. Do this and I will never fail you. I will ever abide in you.

– JC Ryle –

True Pleasure in True Religion – Matthew Henry

There is true pleasure in true religion. … You startle at it, and start from it as a hard saying, like Nathaniel, when he said, ‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ (John 1.46). So you are ready to say, can there be any pleasure in religion? Believe it, sirs, there can be, there cannot but be pleasure in it. 

– Matthew Henry – 
from The Pleasantness of a Religious Life, 1714