It is not for us to attempt to explain why some receive and believe the Gospel, while others do not. The sovereignty of God in this matter is a deep mystery - we cannot fathom it. But one thing, at all events, stands out in Scripture, as a great practical truth to be had in everlasting remembrance. Those from whom the Gospel is hidden are generally "the wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight." [Isaiah 5:21] Those to whom the Gospel is revealed are generally humble, simpleminded and willing to learn. The words of the Virgin Mary are continually being fulfilled, "He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty." (Luke 1:53.) ~ J.C. Ryle Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 116.

A happy marriage is still the greatest treasure within the gift of fortune.- Eden Phillpotts, 1862 - 1960

We always think every other man's job is easier than our own. The better he does it, the easier it looks.- Eden Phillpotts, 1862 - 1960

You never know what a fool you can be till life gives you the chance.- Eden Phillpotts, 1862 - 1960

Love is a grace which many professing Christians think far too little about; but it is of infinite value in the eyes of God. Love is the most characteristic feature of Christ’s image in a renewed man. Love is the most precious fruit of grace; and yet the fruit which too many of His professed followers seem to think themselves hardly under any obligation to cultivate.- John Angell James

If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider “not spiritual work” I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and the exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.- Amy Carmichael

Nothing is a surprise to God; nothing is a setback to His plans; nothing can thwart His purposes; and nothing is beyond His control. His sovereignty is absolute. Everything that happens is uniquely ordained by God. Sovereignty is a weighty thing to ascribe to the nature and character of God. Yet if He were not sovereign, He would not be God. The Bible is clear that God is in control of everything that happens.- Joni Eareckson Tada, Is God Really in Control, Joni and Friends, 1987, p. 1

Are we honest and sincere in our professed desire to be true Christians? Have we given up all our idols? Is there no secret sin that we are silently clinging to, and refusing to give up? Is there no thing or person that we are privately loving more than Christ and our souls? These are questions that ought to be answered. The true explanation of the unsatisfactory state of many hearers of the Gospel, is spiritual idolatry. We need not wonder that John says, "Keep yourselves from idols." (1 John 5:21.) ~ J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 240, 241.

We ought not to withdraw entirely from all communion with unconverted people. It would be cowardice and indolence to do so, even if it were possible. It would shut us out from many opportunities of doing good. But we ought to go into their society moderately, watchfully, and prayerfully, and with a firm resolution to carry our Master and our Master's business with us.~ J.C. Ryle Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 2 , [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 147

In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.- Henry Ward Beecher, 1813 - 1887

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Worry is rust upon the blade.- Henry Ward Beecher, 1813 - 1887

If you are humble, nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.-Mother Teresa

We must not conceal from ourselves that true Christianity brings with it a daily cross in this life,
while it offers us a crown of glory in the life to come.
The flesh must be daily crucified.
The devil must be daily resisted.
The world must be daily overcome.
There is a warfare to be waged, and a battle to be fought.
All this is the inseparable accompaniment of true religion. Heaven is not to be won without it.
Never was there a truer word than the old saying, "No cross, no crown!"
If we never found this out by experience, our souls are in a poor condition. ~ J.C. Ryle

Thou are preparing joy for me and me for joy;
I pray for joy, wait for joy, long for joy;
Give me more than I can hold, desire, or think of.
Measure out to me my times and degrees of joy,
at my work, business, duties.
If I weep at night, give me joy in the morning.
Let me rest in the thought of thy love,
pardon for sin, my title to heaven,
my future unspotted state. - A Bennett, Valley of Vision)

A Lottery is a Taxation,
Upon all the Fools in Creation;
And Heav’n be praised,
It is easily raised,
Credulity’s always in Fashion:
For, Folly’s a Fund,
Will Never Lose Ground,
While Fools are so rife in the Nation.
Henry Fielding, "The Lottery", 1731

A good upbringing means not that you won't spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won't notice it when someone else does.- Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, 1860 - 1904

It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place, ... It's when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood.- David Hume, 1711 - 1776

He who distributes the milk of human kindness cannot help but spill a little on himself.- James Matthew Barrie, 1860 - 1937

There is no use for the incantation that Islam is a religion of peace. The incantation is false; Islam, like other religions, is theologically a religion of war and a religion of peace. In our time, it is a religion in distress, fought over, hijacked at times, by a militant breed at war with the modern world. -FOUAD AJAMI

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries
of poverty, sickness, of captivity, would, without
this comfort, be insupportable. --Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) _The Rambler_ [1750-1752], Number 67

Derive happiness in oneself from a good day's work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us. - Henri Matisse, 1869 - 1954

Sometimes one has simply to endure a period of depression for what it may hold of illumination if one can live through it, attentive to what it exposes or demands.
- May Sarton, 1912 - 1995

Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate. - Thomas Aquinas, 1225 - 1274

The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. - Frank Herbert

The great cause of neglecting the Scriptures is not want of time, but want of heart, some idol taking the place of Christ. - Robert Chapman

We must remember that our experience of union with God, our
feeling of His presence, is altogether accidental and
secondary. It is only a side effect of His actual presence in
our souls, and gives no sure indication of that presence in any
case. For God Himself is above all apprehensions and ideas and
sensations, however spiritual, that can ever be experienced by
the spirit of man in this life. - Thomas Merton (1915-1968), No Man is an Island, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1955; reprint,Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 225

Do not trust your memory, it is a net full of holes; the most beautiful prizes slip through it. - Georges Duhamel

It is commonly observed that a sudden wealth, like a prize drawn in a lottery or a large bequest to a poor family, does not permanently enrich.- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 - 1882

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.- Theodore Roosevelt, 1858 - 1919

I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize. - George Bernard Shaw, 1856 - 1950

"While we were still sinners--Christ died for us!" Romans 5:8
He loved us more than His own life! The 'pelican' feeds her young ones with her own blood. Oh! sirs, Christ is our pelican, who has nourished and fed us with His own blood. "My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink," says Christ.
Christ's red blood--has taken away our red guilt!
Scarlet-red sinners--have become milk-white saints, when washed in His blood!
All our precious mercies--come swimming to us in Christ's precious blood!
Christ bled love at every vein! His drops of blood--were drops of love! Yes, the more bloody He was--the more lovely! He was most lovely upon the cross--because then He showed most love to us!
Christ took upon Him our shame--that we might be partakers of His glory!
He died our death--that we might live His life!
He suffered our hell--that we might enjoy His heaven!
He endured the sorest pains--that we might enjoy the sweetest pleasures!
He went through the furnace of wrath--to keep us out of the flames of hell!
Oh! how infinitely does He love us-William Dyer, "Christ's Famous Titles" Christ is Our Pelican!

I hope you will never forget that the Bible is the history of God's acts to men, not of men's thoughts about God. It begins from Him. He is acting and speaking in it throughout.- Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), Ecclesiastical History, London: Macmillan, 1854, p. 222, 2

Oh, let none think his labor is lost because the fruit does not immediately appear. - John Wesley, 1703 - 1791

A small daily task if it really be daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules -Anthony Trollope, 1815 - 1882

25 Jul 10

Whatever be our conception of the universe we must, it is
obvious, start somehow; we must begin with something; and the
something with which we begin, from the very fact that we do
begin with it, must itself be without explanation, since, if
something else were invoked to explain it, then the "something
else" must needs be logically prior to that which it is invoked
to explain. Thus the "something" being explained by a logically
prior "something else" could not have been ultimate.-C. E. M. Joad (1891-1953), God and Evil, New York: Harper, 1943, p. 87

Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.- Joyce Carol Oates

Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make famous.- Joyce Carol Oates

The blow you can't see coming is the blow that knocks you out.- Joyce Carol Oates

Art does the same things dreams do. We have a hunger for dreams and art fulfills that hunger. So much of real life is a disappointment. That's why we have art.- Joyce Carol Oates

I have forced myself to begin writing when I've been utterly exhausted, when I've felt my soul as thin as a playing card ... and somehow the activity of writing changes everything.- Joyce Carol Oates

We are linked by blood, and blood is memory without language.- Joyce Carol Oates