Page images
PDF
EPUB

pence, there goes a great quantity to a little amount. There are silver books, and a very few golden books, but I have one book, the bible, worth more than them all, and that is a book of bank notes-John Newton.

On Meditation.

244. The most weighty truths may strike, but without meditation cannot enter and influence the mind.

245. To read or hear the scriptures without considering them, is to resemble a person who gets a remedy but never applies it.

246. He whose thoughts are calmly, steadily, and frequently employed on eternal things, is fitted for arduous duties and afflictive sufferings.

247. Meditation is to the mind what exercise is to the body, it warms and envigorates.

248. You may glean knowledge by reading, but you must separate the chaff from the wheat by thinking.

E

[ocr errors]

249. There is a sweetness in divine meditation, which as far exceeds the banquet of the sensualist, as the joy of an angel excels that of a beast.

250. Retire from the multitude if you would commune with your own heart. Ps. iv. 4.

251. "O sacred solitude, divine retreat, Choice of the prudent, envy of the great! There, blessed with health, with business unperplex'd,

This life we relish and ensure the next."

252. Meditation is the nurse of prayer.— Gerson.

253. Reading gathers, memory keeps, and meditation enjoys the rich fruits of wisdom and experience.

254. Be earth with all her scenes withdrawn, Let noise and vanity be gone,

In secret silence of the mind,

My heaven and there my God I find.

[ocr errors]

Dr. Watts.

255. Meditate on the best things, that thy profiting may appear unto all.

256. A musing mind will not stand neuter a minute, but presently side with legions of good or bad thoughts.-T. Fuller.

them in her heart.

257. Mary kept all these sayings and pondered Let it be your daily aim to keep the sayings of God's word, that you may ponder them and put them in practice.

On Prayer.

258. Prayer consists in the soul's drawing nigh to God, and pleading his promises.

259. Prayer is called pouring out the heart before God. Is the heart full of sins? pour them out in penitent confessions; full of sorrows? pour them out in humble complaints; full of desires? pour them out in earnest petitions; full of joys? pour them out into rapturous praises.

[ocr errors]

260. The morning is a friend to the muses, that is, a good studying time; nor is it less a friend to the graces, that is, a good praying time.-Caryl.

262. Prayer must be daily. As the camel in sandy deserts is said to drink but once in seven days, so many seem to make their sabbath-day prayers do for all the week. Yea, some defer all their praying to their last day.-T. Fuller.

[ocr errors]

263. A small boat may bring relief into a shallow harbour which a great vessel cannot en

[ocr errors]

ter; so when you are time-bound, place-bound, and person-bound, and unable to compose yourself to large solemn prayer, then is the season for short ejaculations.-Ibid.

264. When you address God in prayer, be careful that your petitions be agreeable to his revealed will, and presented in the name of Christ.

265. The Holy Spirit is called the spirit of grace and of supplication. His influence helps our infirmities, enlightens our views, inclines our wills, and animates our affections.

266. The prayers of a man in his unconverted state are like motes which fluctuate to and fro in the air, without any vigorous impulse or certain aim; but after he is renewed, they are like the arrow which springs from the strained bow, and quick as lightning flies to the mark.—Hervey.

267. Prayer must be sincere. If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord will not hear you. Let there be no reserve, no false box in the cabinet of the soul to lock up a darling sin.-Gurnall.

268. Prayer must be persevering. Pray without ceasing is the scripture precept. While you have one sin unsubdued, or one want unsupplied, you will always have an errand to the throne of Grace.

269. If God give not all the things you ask,

his denial may be in mercy. What father would give his child a knife or a loaded pistol?

Jay.

270. Prayer suits every employment, and sanctifies every enjoyment.

271. "He that either lives without prayer or prays without life, hath not the spirit of God."

272. Prayer is a key which unlocks the blessings of the day, and locks up the dangers of the night."

273. He who neglects seeking God to-day, may not have an opportunity of finding him tomorrow.-Archbishop Leighton.

274. Let prayer and reading be your assiduous employment; one while speak with God, another while hear him speak to you.-Cyprian.

275. Our prayer and God's mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends the other descends.-Bishop Hopkins. ·

276. Devotion when lukewarm is undevout, But when glows, its heat is struck to heaven.

Dr. Young.

Ja

« EelmineJätka »