Quote 4512
1.7K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.
It is not hard to observe that the more holy any person is, the more he is afflicted with others' sin. Lot vexed his righteous soul with the unclean conversation of the Sodomites; David's eyes gushed out rivers of water because men kept not the law. Those who can look with dry and undispleased eyes upon another's sin never truly mourned for their own.
I would rather confess my ignorance than falsely profess knowledge. It is no shame not to know all things, but it is a just shame to overreach in anything.
The idle man is the devil's cushion on which he taketh his free ease, who, as he is incapable of any good, so he is fitly disposed for all evil motions. The standing water soon stinks, whereas the current ever keeps clear and cleanly, conveying down all noisome matter that might infect it by the force of his stream. If I do but little good to others by my endeavors, yet this is great good to me, that by my labor I keep myself from hurt. Meditations and Vows
There is nothing more troublesome to a good mind than to do nothing, for besides the furtherance of our estate, the mind doth both delight and better itself with exercise. There is but this difference, then, betwixt labor and idleness: that labor is a profitable and pleasant trouble; idleness, a trouble both unprofitable and comfortless. I will be ever doing something that either God when He cometh or Satan when he tempteth may find me busied. Meditations and Vows
He can be no true friend to thee that is a friend to thy faults, and thou canst be no friend to thyself if thou be an enemy to him that tells thee of thy faults. Wilt thou like him the worse that would have thee be better?
Dead stones in an arch uphold one another, and shall not living? It is the work of an angel to comfort—nay, it is the office of the Holy Ghost to be a comforter not only immediately but by breathing comfort into our hearts together with the comfortable words of others. Thus, one friend becomes an angel—nay, a God to another, and there is a sweet sight of God in the face of a friend.
True friendship and acquaintance stands not in bare words and complemental visits, but in real communication of offices and benefits. So here, converse and acquaintance with God stands in our improving God and our interest in Him, so as to acquaint Him with all our secrets, so as to impart unto Him all our griefs and fears, so as to rely upon Him to guide us in all our ways and to supply all our wants. This [very thing] God looks we should do and takes it unkindly when we do otherwise, as a true friend that is willing and able to help his friend takes it unkindly if he go to any other, thinks himself either distrusted or slighted, and it is almost a matter of falling out between them.
True friendship will value a great advantage of another's before a small one of our own.
Man is made to be a friend, and apt for friendly offices. He that is not friendly is not worthy to have a friend; and he that has a friend and does not show himself friendly is not worthy to be accounted a man. Friendship is a kind of life, without which there is no comfort of a man's life. Christian friendship ties such a knot that great Alexander cannot cut. Summer friends I value not, but winter friends are worth their weight in gold.
A sincere Christian prays his friends to search him, and he prays soul-searching ministers to search him; but, above all, he begs hard of God to search him: "Search me, O God."
A true friend is neither known in prosperity nor hid in adversity.
Friendship must be cemented by piety. A wicked man can be no true friend.
How often have I found that human friendship is a sweet addition to our woe, a beloved calamity, an affliction which nature will not be without! Not because nature loves evil nor is wholly deceived in its choice, for there is good in friendship and delight in holy love, but because the good which is here accompanied with so much evil is the beginning of a more high and durable friendship and points us to the blessed society and converse which we shall have with Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem.
A Christian in all his ways must have three guides: truth, charity, wisdom—truth to go before him; charity and wisdom on either hand. If any of the three be absent, he walks amiss. I have seen some do hurt by following a truth uncharitably; and others, while they would salve up an error with love, have failed in their wisdom and offended against justice. A charitable untruth and an uncharitable truth, an unwise managing of truth or love are all to be carefully avoided of him that would go with a right foot in the narrow way.
An Ambitious man is the greatest enemy to himself of any in the world besides, for he still torments himself with hopes and desires and cares, which he might avoid if he would remit of the height of his thoughts and live quietly. My only ambition shall be to rest in God's favor on earth and to be a saint in heaven.
Never make an intimate friend of anyone who is not a friend of God.
Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend.
Special OfferTop Authors
1. Thomas Watson (195)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. Thomas Brooks (110)
5. John Calvin (107)
6. J.I. Packer (95)
7. John Flavel (95)
8. William Gurnall (91)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Matthew Henry (54)
20. Richard Baxter (53)
2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. Thomas Brooks (110)
5. John Calvin (107)
6. J.I. Packer (95)
7. John Flavel (95)
8. William Gurnall (91)
9. George Swinnock (88)
10. John Piper (87)
11. John Owen (74)
12. Thomas Manton (70)
13. A.W. Pink (68)
14. Louis Berkhof (63)
15. C.S. Lewis (59)
16. B.B. Warfield (59)
17. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Matthew Henry (54)
20. Richard Baxter (53)
Top Topics
1. Sin (240)2. Prayer (186)
3. Scripture (166)
4. Faith (134)
5. Preaching (130)
6. Gospel (112)
7. The Law (111)
8. Suffering (99)
9. Salvation (94)
10. Sabbath (91)
11. Church (85)
12. Christ (82)
13. Grace (74)
14. Justification (63)
15. Law (61)
16. Truth (53)
17. Death (52)
18. Love (51)
19. Holiness (49)
20. Sanctification (48)
21. Children (46)
22. Pride (46)
23. Heaven (45)
24. Obedience (45)
25. Creation (43)
26. Theology (43)