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Prayers Belong Strictly To The Worship Of God. Fasting Is A Subordinate Aid, Which Is Pleasing To God No Farther Than As It Aids The Earnestness And Fervency Of Prayer.

-John Calvin

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Prayers Belong Strictly To

John Calvin

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Prayers Belong Strictly To The Worship Of God. Fasting Is A Subordinate Aid, Which Is Pleasing To God No Farther Than As It Aids The Earnestness And Fervency Of Prayer.

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But We Have Nothing Of The Spirit Except Through Regeneration. Everything, Therefore, Which We Have From Nature Is Flesh.

No Task Will Be So Sordid And Base, Provided You Obey Your Calling In It, That It Will Not Shine And Be Reckoned Very Precious In God's Sight.

When We Hear Any Mention Of Our Mystical Union With Christ, We Should Remember That Holiness Is The Channel To Do It.

The Gospel Acts Without Threats... It Teaches Us About The Supreme Goodwill Of God Towards Us.

There Are People Who Are Known To Be Very Liberal, Yet They Never Give Without Scolding Or Pride Or Even Insolence.

The First Part Of A Good Work Is The Will, The Second Is Vigorous Effort In The Doing Of It. God Is The Author Of Both. It Is, Therefore, Robbery From God To Arrogate Anything To Ourselves, Either In The Will Or The Act.

Justification By Faith Is The Hinge On Which All True Religion Turns.

There Is Not One Blade Of Grass, There Is No Color In This World That Is Not Intended To Make Men Rejoice.

Christians Rejoice Even While They Truly Sorrow - Because Their Rejoicing Is In The Hope Of Heaven... While Joy Overcomes Sorrow, It Does Not Put An End To It.

All Things Being At God's Disposal, And The Decision Of Salvation Or Death Belonging To Him, He Orders All Things By His Counsel And Decree In Such A Manner, That Some Men Are Born Devoted From The Womb To Certain Death, That His Name May Be Glorified In Their Destruction.

All Whom The Lord Has Chosen And Received Into The Society Of His Saints Ought To Prepare Themselves For A Life That Is Hard, Difficult, Laborious And Full Of Countless Griefs.

If We Are Proud Of Our Talents We Betray Our Lack Of Gratitude To God.

We Cannot Rely On God's Promises Without Obeying His Commandments.

We Are Surrounded By God’s Benefits. The Best Use Of These Benefits Is An Unceasing Expression Of Gratitude.

Pagan Philosophers Set Up Reason As The Sole Guide Of Life, Of Wisdom And Conduct; But Christian Philosophy Demands Of Us That We Surrender Our Reason To The Holy Spirit; And This Means That We No Longer Live For Ourselves, But That Christ Lives And Reigns Within Us (rom 12:1; Eph 4:23; Gal 2:20).

Let Us Be Peaceable As Near As We Can: Let Us Relent Of Our Own Right: Let Us Not Strive For These Worldly Goods, Honour And Reputation: Let Us Bear All Wrongs And Outrages, Rather Than Be Moved To Any Debate Through Our Own Fault. But In The Meanwhile, Let Us Fight For God's Truth With Tooth And Nail.

Scripture Is Like A Pair Of Spectacles Which Dispels The Darkness And Gives Us A Clear View Of God.

Wherever We See The Word Of God Purely Preached And Heard, There A Church Of God Exists, Even If It Swarms With Many Faults.

We Are Not To Look To What Men In Themselves Deserve But To Attend To The Image Of God Which Exists In All And To Which We Owe All Honor And Love.

Angels Are The Dispensers And Administrators Of The Divine Beneficence Toward Us.

If We Are Given Gold, Would We Not Test It To Determine It's Value? If We Doubted Its Genuineness - We Would Test It By Fire...and So God With Us.

Our Prayer Must Not Be Self-centered. It Must Arise Not Only Because We Feel Our Own Need As A Burden We Must Lay Upon God, But Also Because We Are So Bound Up In Love For Our Fellow Men That We Feel Their Need As Acutely As Our Own. To Make Intercession For Men Is The Most Powerful And Practical Way In Which We Can Express Our Love For Them.

When Our Faith Is Tested By Suffering "as Gold Is Tried In A Furnace" And We Depend With Confidence On God And Rely Entirely On His Help, We Will Be Granted The Most Excellent Gift Of Patience And Through Faith We May Victoriously Persevere To The End.

For Our Hearts Are Enfeebled By Prosperity, So That We Cannot Make The Effort To Pray.

Man With All His Shrewdness Is As Stupid About Understanding By Himself The Mysteries Of God, As An Ass Is Incapable Of Understanding Musical Harmony.

The Invention Of The Arts, And Other Things Which Serve The Common Use And Convenience Of Life, Is A Gift Of God By No Means To Be Despised, And A Faculty Worthy Of Commendation.

Each Eye Can Have Its Vision Separately; But When We Are Looking At Anything Our Vision, Which In Itself Is Divided, Joins Up And Unites In Order To Give Itself As A Whole To The Object That Is Put Before It.

Prayer Unaccompanied By Perseverance Leads To No Result.

All Our Words Ought To Be Filled With True Sweetness And Grace; And This Will Be So If We Mingle The Useful With The Sweet.

The Answer Of Our Prayers Is Secured By The Fact That In Rejecting Them God Would In A Certain Sense Deny His Own Nature.

No One Will Calmly And Quietly Submit To Bear The Cross Except Those Who Have Learned To Seek Their Happiness Beyond This World.

Everyone Flatters Himself And Carries A Kingdom In His Breast.

Only Those Who Have Learned Well To Be Earnestly Dissatisfied With Themselves, And To Be Confounded With Shame At Their Wretchedness Truly Understand The Christian Gospel.

Man's Nature, So To Speak, Is A Perpetual Factory Of Idols.

To Have A Proper Understanding Of The Gospel, We Must Recognise That We Need To Lean Entirely Upon The Lord Jesus Christ And His Mercy Alone As Our Only Hope Of Salvation. ... No One Can Be Justified By The Law; Justification Is Through Faith Alone.

How Can It Be Said That The Weakness Of The Human Will Is Aided So As To Enable It To Aspire Effectually To The Choice Of Good, When The Fact Is, That It Must Be Wholly Transformed And Renewed?

While Sin Is Overflowing, [grace] Pours Itself Forth So Exuberantly, That It Not Only Overcomes The Flood Of Sin, But Wholly Absorbs It.

It Is A Promise Which Eminently Deserves Our Observation That All Who Are United To Christ And Acknowledge Him To Be Christ And Mediator Will Remain To The End Safe From All Danger, For What Is Said Of The Body Of The Church Belongs To Each Of Its Members Since They Are One In Christ.

Acknowledge Him

Scripture Will Ultimately Suffice For A Saving Knowledge Of God Only When Its Certainty Is Founded Upon The Inward Persuasion Of The Holy Spirit. Indeed, These Human Testimonies Which Exist To Confirm It Will Not Be Vain If, As Secondary Aids To Our Feebleness, They Follow That Chief And Highest Testimony. But Those Who Wish To Prove To Unbelievers That Scripture Is The Word Of God Are Acting Foolishly, For Only By Faith Can This Be Known.

The Door Is Closed To Prayer Unless It Is Opened With The Key Of Trust.

We Must Not Think That [god] Takes No Notice Of Us, When He Does Not Answer Our Wishes: For He Has A Right To Distinguish What We Actually Need.

We Unjustly Defraud God Of His Right, Unless Each Of Us Lives And Dies In Dependence On His Sovereign Pleasure.

A Soul, Therefore, When Deprived Of The Word Of God, Is Given Up Unarmed To The Devil For Destruction

There Is No Worse Screen To Block Out The Spirit Than Confidence In Our Own Intelligence.

Christian Inspirational

It Is A Sign Of A Perverse And Treacherous Disposition To Wound The Good Name Of Another, When He Has No Opportunity Of Defending Himself.

In Vain People Busy Themselves With Finding Any Good Of Man's Own In His Will. For Any Mixture Of The Power Of Freewill That Men Strive To Mingle With God's Grace Is Nothing But A Corruption Of Grace. It Is Just As If One Were To Dilute Wine With Muddy, Bitter Water.

We Say, Then, That Scripture Clearly Proves This Much, That God By His Eternal And Immutable Counsel Determined Once For All Those Whom It Was His Pleasure One Day To Admit To Salvation, And Those Whom, On The Other Hand, It Was His Pleasure To Doom To Destruction. We Maintain That This Counsel, As Regards The Elect, Is Founded On His Free Mercy, Without Any Respect To Human Worth, While Those Whom He Dooms To Destruction Are Excluded From Access To Life By A Just And Blameless, But At The Same Time Incomprehensible Judgment

After 50 Years, Is It Not Clear That God Has Raised Up New Illnesses Connected With Fornication? From Where Do These Things Come If Not From The Hand Of God? [in Response To These Diseases] The World Was Astounded, And People Were Terrified For A Time, But They Have Not, To This Day, Observed The Hand Of God.

Unless We Ardently And Prayerfully Devote Ourselves To Christ's Righteousness We Do Not Only Faithlessly Revolt From Our Creator, But We Also Abjure Him As Our Savior.

As Far As Sacred Scripture Is Concerned, However Much Froward Men Try To Gnaw At It, Nevertheless It Clearly Is Crammed With Thoughts That Could Not Be Humanly Conceived. Let Each Of The Prophets Be Looked Into: None Will Be Found Who Does Not Far Exceed Human Measure. Consequently, Those For Whom Prophetic Doctrine Is Tasteless Ought To Be Thought Of As Lacking Taste Buds.

Prayer Is The Chief Exercise Of Faith.

There Is No Work, However Vile Or Sordid, That Does Not Glisten Before God.

The Subject Then Of These Chapters May Be Stated Thus, - Man's Only Righteousness Is Through The Mercy Of God In Christ, Which Being Offered By The Gospel Is Apprehended By Faith.

Integrity Is The Best Of All Protectors...we Cannot Be More Secure Than When Fortified By A Good Conscience.

Faith And Patience Are Exceptional Virtues In Those That Suffer. Patience Is The Fruit And Evidence Of Faith.

The Whole Gospel Is Contained In Christ.

Nearly All The Wisdom We Possess, That Is To Say, True And Sound Wisdom, Consists Of Two Parts: The Knowledge Of God And Of Ourselves.

Knowledge Of God

Assuredly There Is But One Way In Which To Achieve What Is Not Merely Difficult But Utterly Against Human Nature: To Love Those Who Hate Us, To Repay Their Evil Deeds With Benefits, To Return Blessings For Reproaches. It Is That We Remember Not To Consider Men's Evil Intention But To Look Upon The Image Of God In Them, Which Cancels And Effaces Their Transgressions, And With Its Beauty And Dignity Allures Us To Love And Embrace Them.

Though Satan Instils His Poison, And Fans The Flames Of Our Corrupt Desires Within Us,we Are Yet Not Carried By Any External Force To The Commission Of Sin, But Our Own Flesh Entices Us, And We Willingly Yield To Its Allurements.

We Must Remember That Satan Has His Miracles, Too.

Christian Inspirational

Faith Consists, Not In Ignorance, But In Knowledge, And That, Not Only Of God, But Also Of The Divine Will.

Joy Is A Quiet Gladness Of Heart As One Contemplates The Goodness Of God's Saving Grace In Christ Jesus.

To Know God As The Sovereign Disposer Of All Good, Inviting Us To Present Our Requests, And Yet Not To Approach Or Ask Of Him, Were So Far From Availing Us, That It Were Just As If One Told Of A Treasure Were To Allow It To Remain Buried In The Ground.

For, Since The Fall Of Adam Had Brought Disgrace Upon All His Posterity, God Restores Those, Whom He Separates As His Own, So That Their Condition May Be Better Than That Of All Other Nations. At The Same Time It Must Be Remarked, That This Grace Of Renewal Is Effaced In Many Who Have Afterwards Profaned It

Faith Alone Saves, But The Faith That Saves Is Not Alone.

This Is What Entertainment Is All About- Idiots, Explosives And Falling Anvils.

In Our Good Works Nothing Is Our Own.

God Works In His Elect In Two Ways: Inwardly, By His Spirit; Outwardly, By His Word.

If The Gospel Be Not Preached, Jesus Christ Is, As It Were, Buried.

Involvement In Public Life Provides The Opportunity To Shape Our Manners In Accordance With Civil Justice.

A Man That Extols Himself Is A Fool And An Idiot

To Crave Wealth And Honor, To Demand Power, To Pile Up Riches, To Gather All Those Vanities Which Seem To Make For Pomp And Empty Display, That Is Our Furious Passion And Our Unbounded Desire.on The Other Hand, We Fear And Abhor Poverty, Obscurity, And Humility, And We Seek To Avoid Them By All Possible Means.

Now The Great Thing Is This: We Are Consecrated And Dedicated To God In Order That We May Thereafter Think, Speak, Meditate, And Do, Nothing Except To His Glory. For A Sacred Thing May Not Be Applied To Profane Uses Without Marked Injury To Him.

I Exhort All, Who Reverence The Word Of The Lord, To Read It, And Diligently Imprint It On Their Memory.

No One In This Earthly Prison Of The Body Has Sufficient Strength Of His Own To Press Forward With A Due Degree Of Watchfulness, And The Great Majority [of Christians] Are Kept Down With Such Great Weakness That They Stagger And Halt And Even Creep On The Ground, And So Make Very Slight Advances.

The Whole Comes To This, That Christ, When He Produces Faith In Us By The Agency Of His Spirit, At The Same Time Ingrafts Us Into His Body, That We May Become Partakers Of All Spiritual Blessings.

How Do We Know That God Has Elected Us Before The Creation Of The World? By Believing In Jesus Christ.

For As The Aged, Or Those Whose Sight Is Defective, When Any Book, However Fair, Is Set Before Them, Though They Perceive That There Is Something Written, Are Scarcely Able To Make Out Two Consecutive Words, But, When Aided By Glasses, Begin To Read Distinctly, So Scripture, Gathering Together The Impressions Of Deity, Which, Till Then, Lay Confused In Our Minds, Dissipates The Darkness, And Shows Us The True God Clearly.

Wherefore All Theology, When Separated From Christ, Is Not Only Vain And Confused, But Is Also Mad, Deceitful, And Spurious; For, Though The Philosophers Sometimes Utter Excellent Sayings, Yet They Have Nothing But What Is Short-lived, And Even Mixed Up With Wicked And Erroneous Sentiments.

The Church Is The Gathering Of God's Children, Where They Can Be Helped And Fed Like Babies And Then Guided By Her Motherly Care, Grow Up To Manhood In Maturity Of Faith.

I Consider Looseness With Words No Less Of A Defect Than Looseness Of The Bowels.

Unless Men Establish Their Complete Happiness In God, They Will Never Give Themselves Truly And Sincerely To Him.

Christ's Intercession Is The Continual Application Of His Death To Our Salvation.

Whoever Is Not Satisfied With Christ Alone, Strives After Something Beyond Absolute Perfection.

Where God's Spirit Does Not Reign, There Is No Humility, And Men Ever Swell With Inward Pride.

All The Blessings We Enjoy Are Divine Deposits, Committed To Our Trust On This Condition, That They Should Be Dispensed For The Benefit Of Our Neighbors.

Let That Ethical Philosophy Therefore Of Free-will Be Far From A Christian Mind.

God Tolerates Even Our Stammering, And Pardons Our Ignorance Whenever Something Inadvertently Escapes Us - As, Indeed, Without This Mercy There Would Be No Freedom To Pray.

Against The Persecution Of A Tyrant The Godly Have No Remedy But Prayer.

Is It Faith To Understand Nothing, And Merely Submit Your Convictions Implicitly To The Church?

Whomever The Lord Has Adopted And Deemed Worthy Of His Fellowship Ought To Prepare Themselves For A Hard, Toilsome, And Unquiet Life, Crammed With Very Many And Various Kinds Of Evil.

But Prosperity, And The Happy Issue Of Events, Ought Also To Be Attributed To His Grace, In Order That He May Always Receive The Praise Which He Deserves, That Of Being A Merciful Father, And An Impartial Judge. About The Close Of The Psalm, He Inveighs Against Those Ungodly Men Who Will Not Acknowledge God's Hand, Amid Such Palpable Demonstrations Of His Providence.

When We Recognize The Rod Of A Father, Should We Not Show Ourselves Docile Children Rather Than Rebelliously Desperate Men Who Have Been Hardened In Their Evil Doings?

Surely In Judas' Betrayal It Will Be No More Right, Because God Both Willed That His Son Be Delivered Up, And Delivered Him Up To Death, To Ascribe The Guilt Of The Crime To God Than To Transfer The Credit For Redemption To Judas.

Indeed, A Christian Ought To Be Disposed And Prepared To Keep In Mind That He Has To Reckon With God Every Moment Of His Life.

I Don't Need To Compromise My Principles, Because They Don't Have The Slightest Bearing On What Happens To Me Anyway.

Unless We Fix Certain Hours In The Day For Prayer, It Easily Slips From Our Memory.

Hours In The Day

Since No Daily Responses Are Given From Heaven, And The Scriptures Are The Only Record In Which God Has Been Pleased To Consign His Truth To Perpetual Remembrance, The Full Authority Which They Ought To Possess With The Faithful Is Not Recognized Unless They Are Believed To Have Come From Heaven As Directly As If God Had Been Heard Giving Utterance To Them.

... Let Everyone Regard Himself As The Steward Of God In All Things Which He Possesses.

For, To My Mind, This Is A Certain Principle, That Nothing Is Here Treated Of But The Visible Form Of The World. He Who Would Learn Astronomy, And Other Recondite Arts, Let Him Go Elsewhere. (on Commenting The Text Of Genesis 1:6)

He Who Has Learned To Look To God In Everything He Does Is At The Same Time Diverted From All Vain Thoughts.

So Great And Boundless Is God's Wisdom That He Knows Right Well How To Use Evil Instruments To Do Good.

Hatred Grows Into Insolence When We Desire To Excel The Rest Of Mankind And Imagine We Do Not Belong To The Common Lot; We Even Severely And Haughtily Despise Others As Our Inferiors.

But As A Heathen Tells Us, There Is No Nation So Barbarous, No Race So Brutish As Not To Be Imbued With The Conviction That There Is A God.

Doctrine Is Not An Affair Of The Tongue But Of The Life.

We Should Ask God To Increase Our Hope When It Is Small, Awaken It When It Is Dormant, Confirm It When It Is Wavering, Strengthen It When It Is Weak, And Raise It Up When It Is Overthrown.

The Very Word Baptizé, However, Signifies To Immerse; And It Is Certain That Immersion Was The Practice Of The Ancient Church.

Whatever A Person May Be Like, We Must Still Love Them Because We Love God.

Let Us Not Cease To Do The Utmost, That We May Incessantly Go Forward In The Way Of The Lord; And Let Us Not Despair Of The Smallness Of Our Accomplishments.

The Fanaticism Which Discards The Scripture, Under The Pretense Of Resorting To Immediate Revelations Is Subversive Of Every Principle Of Christianity. For When They Boast Extravagantly Of The Spirit, The Tendency Is Always To Bury The Word Of God So They May Make Room For Their Own Falsehoods.

Man Is Never Sufficiently Touched And Affected By The Awareness Of His Lowly State Until He Has Compared Himself With God's Majesty.

The Human Heart Is A Factory Of Idols...everyon E Of Us Is, From His Mother's Womb, Expert In Inventing Idols.

We Are Not To Reflect On The Wickedness Of Men But To Look To The Image Of God In Them, An Image Which, Covering And Obliterating Their Faults, An Image Which, By Its Beauty And Dignity, Should Allure Us To Love And Embrace Them.

It Cannot Be Denied That God In Choosing And Destining Mary To Be The Mother Of His Son, Granted Her The Highest Honor.

It Having Been Said Above That God Bends All The Reprobate, And Even Satan Himself, At His Will, Three Objections Are Started. First, That This Happens By The Permission, Not By The Will Of God. To This Objection There Is A Twofold Reply, The One, That Angels And Men, Good And Bad, Do Nothing But What Is Appointed By God; The Second, That All Movements Are Secretly Directed To Their End By The Hidden Inspiration Of God.

They Who Prematurely Put Themselves Forward To Root Out Whatever Is Displeasing To Them Overthrow The Judgment Of God And Rashly Intrude Upon The Office Of Angels.

We Ought Always To Beware Of Making The Smallest Claim For Ourselves.

Seeing God Hath Thus Set Us At Liberty, What Rashness It Is For Worms Of The Earth To Make New Laws; As Though God Had Not Been Wise Enough.

The Sufferings Of Christ Are The Means Of Forgiveness Of Sin And Eternal Glory

It Is Entirely The Work Of Grace And A Benefit Conferred By It That Our Heart Is Changed From A Stony One To One Of Flesh, That Our Will Is Made New, And That We, Created Anew In Heart And Mind, At Length Will What We Ought To Will.

This Is Plainly To Ascribe Divinity To 'free Will.'

Augustine Does Not Disagree With This When He Teaches That It Is A Faculty Of The Reason And The Will To Choose Good With The Assistance Of Grace; Evil, When Grace Is Absent.

The Lord Has Given Us A Table At Which To Feast, Not An Altar On Which A Victim Is To Be Offered; He Has Not Consecrated Priests To Make Sacrifice, But Servants To Distribute The Sacred Feast.

Men Are Idol Factories.

If True Religion Is To Beam Upon Us, Our Principle Must Be, That It Is Necessary To Begin With Heavenly Teaching, And That It Is Impossible For Any Man To Obtain Even The Minutest Portion Of Right And Sound Doctrine Without Being A Disciple Of Scripture.

To Search For Wisdom Apart From Christ Means Not Simply Foolhardiness But Utter Insanity.

There Is No Group Or Type Of People Anywhere In The World That Is Excluded From Salvation, Because God Desires That The Gospel Be Proclaimed To All Without Exception.

I Have Never Seen Either A Drop Of Piety Or A Grain Of Truth Or Ingenuousness - Nay, I Have Never Found Common Sense In Any Jew.

Christ Is The Most Perfect Image Of God, Into Which We Are So Renewed As To Bear The Image Of God, In Knowledge, Purity, Righteousness, And True Holiness.

Our Assurance, Our Glory, And The Sole Anchor Of Our Salvation Are That Christ The Son Of God Is Ours, And We In Turn Are In Him Sons Of God And Heirs Of The Kingdom Of Heaven, Called To The Hope Of Eternal Blessedness By God's Grace, Not By Our Worth.

Where Is Our Acknowledgement Of God If Our Thoughts Are Fixed On The Glamour Of Our Garments?

But A Most Pernicious Error Widely Prevails That Scripture Has Only So Much Weight As Is Conceded To It By The Consent Of The Church. As If The Eternal And Inviolable Truth Of God Depended Upon The Decision Of Men!

As By The Revolt Of The First Man, The Image Of God Could Be Effaced From His Mind And Soul, So There Is Nothing Strange In His Shedding Some Rays Of Grace On The Reprobate, And Afterwards Allowing These To Be Extinguished.

Wherever We Find The Word Of God Surely Preached And Heard, And The Sacraments Administered According To The Institution Of Christ, There, It Is Not To Be Doubted, Is A Church Of God.

The Only Skills I Have The Patience To Learn Are Those That Have No Real Application In Life.

Whoever Shall Now Contend That It Is Unjust To Put Heretics And Blasphemers To Death Will Knowingly And Willingly Incur Their Very Guilt.

A Perfect Faith Is Nowhere To Be Found, So It Follows That All Of Us Are Partly Unbelievers.

Faith Is Like An Empty, Open Hand Stretched Out Towards God, With Nothing To Offer And Everything To Recieve

Those Who Fall Away Have Never Been Thoroughly Imbued With The Knowledge Of Christ But Only Had A Slight And Passing Taste Of It.

Faith Consists Not In Ignorance, But In Knowledge - Knowledge Not Of God Merely...but When We Recognize God As A Propitious Father Through The Reconciliation Made By Christ, And Christ As Given To Us For Righteousness, Sanctification, And Life.

Men Will Never Worship God With A Sincere Heart, Or Be Roused To Fear And Obey Him With Sufficient Zeal, Until They Properly Understand How Much They Are Indebted To His Mercy.

There Is Nothing In Afflictions Which Ought To Disturb Our Joy.

Bien Que Les étoiles Ne Parlent Pas, Même En étant Silencieux, Ils Crient. Although The Stars Do Not Speak, Even In Being Silent They Cry Out.

Joy And Patience Are Far Above Our Strength... We Must Persevere In Prayer That He May Not Permit Our Hearts To Faint... Prayer And Perseverance Are Necessary In Our Daily Conflicts. The Best Remedy To The Weariness Is Diligence In Prayer.

God Is Not Limited To Any Person, But Calls Freely Whomsoever He Pleases, And Bestows On Those Who Are Called Whatever Rewards He Thinks Fit.

Rejoicing Refers To Moderation Of Spirit When The Mind Keeps Itself In Calmness Under Adversity And Does Not Give Indulgence To Grief. Constant Praying Is The Way Of 'rejoicing Perpetually', For By This Means We Ask From God Alleviation In Connection With All Our Distresses.

For Astronomy Is Not Only Pleasant, But Also Very Useful To Be Known: It Cannot Be Denied That This Art Unfolds The Admirable Wisdom Of God.

It Is Evident That Man Never Attains To A True Self-knowledge Until He Has Previously Contemplated The Face Of God, And Come Down After Such Contemplation To Look Into Himself.

In A Way, The Futile Excuses Many People Use To Cover Their Superstitions Are Demolished. They Think It Is Enough To Have Some Sort Of Religious Fervor, However Ridiculous, Not Realizing That True Religion Must Be According To God's Will As The Perfect Measure; That He Can Never Deny Himself And Is No Mere Spirit Form To Be Changed Around According To Individual Preference.

Satan, Who Is A Wonderful Contriver Of Delusions, Is Constantly Laying Snares To Entrap Ignorant And Heedless People.

We Can Experience Joy In Adverse Circumstances By Holding God's Benefits In Such Esteem That The Recognition Of Them And Meditation Upon Them Shall Overcome All Sorrow.

Because The Will Renewed Is The Lord's Work, It Is Wrongly Attributed To Man That He Obeys Prevenient Grace With His Will As Attendant.

Doubtful Prayer Is No Prayer At All.

Things That Are Seen Are Temporal; Things That Are Unseen Are Eternal.

For Though We Very Truly Hear That The Kingdom Of God Will Be Filled With Splendor, Joy, Happiness And Glory, Yet When These Things Are Spoken Of, They Remain Utterly Remote From Our Perception, And As It Were, Wrapped In Obscurities, Until That Day.

The Unborn Baby, Though Enclosed In The Womb Of Its Mother, Is Already A Human Being, And Should Not Be Robbed Of The Life Which It Has Not Yet Begun To Enjoy.

Without Knowledge Of Self There Is No Knowledge Of God.

Knowledge Of God

Prayers Will Never Reach God Unless They Are Founded On Free Mercy.

The Flesh Is Willing To Flatter Itself, And Many Who Now Give Themselves Every Indulgence, Promise To Themselves An Easy Entrance Into Life. Thus Men Practice Mutual Deception On Each Other And Fall Asleep In Wicked Indifference.

True Faith Is Ever Connected With Hope.

If There Had Been Any Unbelief In Mary, That Could Not Prevent God From Accomplishing His Work In Any Other Way Which He Might Choose. But She Is Called Blessed, Because She Received By Faith The Blessing Offered To Her, And Opened Up The Way To God For Its Accomplishment.

Then Let Every One Of Us, Being Warned By This Sentence Of The Angel, Acknowledge That He As Yet Cleaves To First Principles, Or, At Least, Does Not Comprehend All Those Things Which Are Necessary To Be Known; And That Therefore Progress Is To Be Made To The Very End Of Life: For This Is Our Wisdom, To Be Learners To The End.

We Shall Never Be Clothed With The Righteousness Of Christ Except We First Know Assuredly That We Have No Righteousness Of Our Own.

There Is No Inconsistency In Saying That God Rewards Good Works, Provided We Understand That Nevertheless Men Obtain Eternal Life Gratuitously.

The Lord Has Not Redeemed You So You Might Enjoy Pleasures And Luxuries Or So That You Might Abandon Yourself To Ease And Indolence, But Rather So You Should Be Prepared To Endure All Sorts Of Evils.

The Glory Of God Shines, Indeed, In All Creatures On High And Below, But Never More Brightly Than In The Cross.

Thus The Woman, Who Had Perversely Exceeded Her Proper Bounds, Is Forced Back To Her Own Position. She Had, Indeed, Previously Been Subject To Her Husband, But That Was A Liberal And Gentle Subjection; Now, However, She Is Cast Into Servitude.

No One Can Travel So Far That He Does Not Make Some Progess Each Day. So Let Us Never Give Up. Then We Shall Move Forward Daily In The Lord's Way. And Let Us Never Despair Because Of Our Limited Success. Even Though It Is So Much Less Than We Would Like, Our Labour Is Not Wasted When Today Is Better Than Yesterday!

Prayers Belong Strictly To The Worship Of God. Fasting Is A Subordinate Aid, Which Is Pleasing To God No Farther Than As It Aids The Earnestness And Fervency Of Prayer.

Whenever The Lord Holds Us In Suspense, And Delays His Aid, He Is Not Therefore Asleep, But, On The Contrary, Regulates All His Works In Such A Manner That He Does Nothing But At The Proper Time.

Where Riches Hold The Dominion Of The Heart, God Has Lost His Authority.

Faith Is Tossed About By Various Doubts, So That The Minds Of The Godly Are Rarely At Peace.

The Whole World Is A Theatre For The Display Of The Divine Goodness, Wisdom, Justice, And Power, But The Church Is The Orchestra, As It Were—the Most Conspicuous Part Of It; And The Nearer The Approaches Are That God Makes To Us, The More Intimate And Condescending The Communication Of His Benefits, The More Attentively Are We Called To Consider Them.

Men Are Undoubtedly More In Danger From Prosperity Than From Adversity. For When Matters Go Smoothly, They Flatter Themselves, And Are Intoxicated By Their Success

To Be Christians Under The Law Of Grace Does Not Mean To Wander Unbridled Outside The Law, But To Be Engrafted In Christ, By Whose Grace We Are Free From The Curse Of The Law, And By Whose Spirit We Have The Law Engraved Upon Our Hearts.

All The More Vile Is The Stupidity Of Those Persons Who Open Heaven To All The Impious And Unbelieving Without The Grace Of Him Whom Scripture Commonly Teaches To Be The Only Door Whereby We Enter Into Salvation.

Scripture Points Out This Difference Between Believers And Unbelievers; The Latter, As Old Slaves Of Their Incurable Perversity, Cannot Endure The Rod; But The Former, Like Children Of Noble Birth, Profit By Repentance And Correction.

Prayer Doesn't Change Things - God Changes Things In Answer To Prayer.

The Blindness Of Unbelievers In No Way Detracts From The Clarity Of The Gospel; The Sun Is No Less Bright Because Blind Men Do Not Perceive Its Light.

Man's Mind Is Like A Store Of Idolatry And Superstition; So Much So That If A Man Believes His Own Mind It Is Certain That He Will Forsake God And Forge Some Idol In His Own Brain.

The Creation Is Quite Like A Spacious And Splendid House, Provided And Filled With The Most Exquisite, And At The Same Time, The Most Abundant Furnishings. Everything In It Tells Of God.

No Man Is Excluded From Calling Upon God, The Gate Of Salvation Is Set Open Unto All Men: Neither Is There Any Other Thing Which Keepeth Us Back From Entering In, Save Only Our Own Unbelief.

While All Men Seek After Happiness, Scarcely One In A Hundred Looks For It From God.

The Denial Of Ourselves Which Christ Has So Diligently Commanded His Disciples From The Beginning Will At Last Dominate All The Desires Of Our Heart.

For Even If The Word In His Immeasurable Essence United With The Nature Of Man Into One Person, We Do Not Imagine That He Was Confined Therein. Here Is Something Marvellous: The Son Of God Descended From Heaven In Such A Way That, Without Leaving Heaven, He Willed To Be Borne In The Virgin's Womb, To Go About The Earth, And To Hang Upon The Cross; Yet He Continuously Filled The World Even As He Had Done From The Beginning.

When God Wants To Judge A Nation, He Gives Them Wicked Rulers.

Let Our Chief Goal, O God, Be Your Glory, And To Enjoy You Forever.

Whether Each Of The Faithful Has A Particular Angel Assigned Him For His Defence, I Cannot Venture Certainly To Affirm... Not One Angel Only Has The Care Of Every One Of Us, But That They All With One Consent Watch For Our Salvation.

At This Day . . . The Earth Sustains On Her Bosom Many Monster Minds, Minds Which Are Not Afraid To Employ The Seed Of Deity Deposited In Human Nature As A Means Of Suppressing The Name Of God. Can Anything Be More Detestable Than This Madness In Man, Who, Finding God A Hundred Times Both In His Body And His Soul, Makes His Excellence In This Respect A Pretext For Denying That There Is A God? He Will Not Say That Chance Has Made Him Different From The Brutes; . . . But, Substituting Nature As The Architect Of The Universe, He Suppresses The Name Of God.

Without The Gospel Everything Is Useless And Vain.

If We Believe Heaven To Be Our Country, It Is Better For Us To Transmit Our Wealth Thither, Than To Retain It Here, Where We May Lose It By A Sudden Removal.

The Word "hope" I Take For Faith; And Indeed Hope Is Nothing Else But The Constancy Of Faith.

Christian Inspirational

The Angels Are The Dispensers And Administrators Of The Divine Beneficence Toward Us. They Regard Our Safety, Undertake Our Defense, Direct Our Ways, And Exercise A Constant Solicitude That No Evil Befall Us.

When We See That The Whole Sum Of Our Salvation, And Every Single Part Of It, Are Comprehended In Christ, We Must Beware Of Deriving Even The Minutest Portion Of It From Any Other Quarter.

We Are Promised Abundance Of All Good Things--yet We Are Rich Only In Hunger And Thirst. What Would Become Of Us If We Did Not Take Our Stand On Hope, And If Our Heart Did Not Hasten Beyond This World!

It Is No Small Honour That God For Our Sake Has So Magnificently Adorned The World, In Order That We May Not Only Be Spectators Of This Beauteous Theatre, But Also Enjoy The Multiplied Abundance And Variety Of Good Things Which Are Presented To Us In It.

We May Rest Assured That God Would Never Have Suffered Any Infants To Be Slain Except Those Who Were Already Damned And Predestined For Eternal Death.

The Sum Is, That The Worship Of God Must Be Spiritual, In Order That It May Correspond With His Nature. For Although Moses Only Speaks Of Idolatry, Yet There Is No Doubt But That By Synecdoche, As In All The Rest Of The Law, He Condemns All Fictitious Services Which Men In Their Ingenuity Have Invented.

God Is Undoubtedly Ready To Pardon Whenever The Sinner Turns. Therefore, He Does Not Will His Death, In So Far As He Wills Repentance. But Experience Shows That This Will, For The Repentance Of Those Whom He Invites To Himself, Is Not Such As To Make Him Touch All Their Hearts. Still, It Cannot Be Said That He Acts Deceitfully; For Though The External Word Only Renders, Those Who Hear It, And Do Not Obey It, Inexcusable, It Is Still Truly Regarded As An Evidence Of The Grace By Which He Reconciles Men To Himself.

By Predestination We Mean The Eternal Decree Of God, By Which He Determined With Himself Whatever He Wished To Happen With Regard To Every Man

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