Too many Grandmothers make the baby thin. - Bulgarian proverb. (This is referring to the fact that if everyone fusses and no-one takes resposibility the job will not get done)
Does the world satisfy thee? Then thou hast thy reward and portion in this life; make much of it, for thou shalt know no other joy. - Charles Spurgeon
I endeavour to keep all Shibboleths, and forms and terms of
distinction out of sight, as we keep knives and razors out of
the way of children; and if my hearers had not some other means
of information, I think they would not know from me that there
are such creatures as Arminians and Calvinists in the world.
But we [would] talk a good deal about Christ.-John Newton (1725-1807), in a letter quoted in John Newton: a biography, Bernard Martin, Heinemann, 1950,
p. 275
My dear friend,
I am very sorry about your accident--but I am thankful that you were not hurt. Such catastrophes, as this may properly be called, have often been attended with dislocated or broken bones, a fractured skull, or instant death--so frail is man!
Often, when he thinks himself safe, and is dreaming of his own importance, as if he were a necessary part in the complicated movements of Divine Providence--he falls like grass before the scythe! And not by the hands of a giant, or the fangs of a tiger--but the smallest trifle is sufficient to destroy him!
For example--how many loose stones do we see in the road; it seems no great matter where they lie. Yet any one of them, by changing the direction of a wheel--is sufficient to confound all the plans of this mighty creature! One stone stumbles him down; he falls with his head upon another--in that very moment all his future plans perish! But the Lord gave His angels charge over you; therefore you fell unhurt, and are still alive to praise and serve Him.
I see so much of the uncertainty of life, and how little I can either foresee or prevent what the next moment may bring forth--that I would be a very great coward--afraid not only of riding in a coach--but of walking across a room--if I was not in some degree enabled to confide in the Lord's protection! "Hold me up--and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117- Letters of John Newton
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