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Spend the greatest part of the day in thy particular calling. He that minds not his closet before his shop is an atheist, and he that minds not his shop after his closet is a hypocrite. The world is God's great family, and He will allow none in it to be idle.
An idle person is a fit subject for the devil to work upon.
Idleness is the hour of temptation, and an idle person is the devil's tennis ball, tossed by him at his pleasure.
The proud man is Satan's throne, and the idle man is his pillow.
Idleness is a moth or canker of the mind, and the fruits thereof are wicked cogitations, evil affections, and worse actions; corrupt trees without fruit, twice dead and plucked up by the roots, engendering in the mind a loathing of God and godliness.
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
Long ease will bring either superstition, profaneness, or heresy through our corruption.Time Well Spent
Harbor no idle persons in your family; let your servants have moderate work and meat. If they deserve reproof, let it be without passion; advice, with some natures, may do more than correction.
O the deadly sins, the deadly temptations, the deadly judgments that idle and slothful Christians are given up to; therefore, be active, be diligent, be abundant in the work of the Lord. Idleness is the very source of sin. Standing pools gather mud and nourish and breed venomous creatures, and so do the hearts of idle and slothful Christians.
Idleness is hateful in any, but most abominable and intolerable in ministers; and sooner or later none shall pay so dear for it as such. Witness the frequent woes that are denounced in Scripture against them. Where should a soldier die but in the field? And where should a minister die but in the pulpit?
Idleness is a sin against the law of creation. God creating man to labor, the idle person violates this law, for by his idleness he casts off the authority of his Creator.
Idleness breeds temptation. Our vacation is the devil's term; when we are least at work for God, then is Satan most at work about us. By doing nothing men learn to do evil. Yea, idleness is the burying of a living man.
Avoid idleness, for that is the proper soil for these filthy weeds to grow in. Vile thoughts seldom occur when the soul is usefully employed. A man that is diligent in his calling has employment for his thoughts, but if a man be idle, the devil soon employs him. As a standing pool grows filthy of itself and full of toads and vermin, so the heart that is not engaged in something good and useful is a fit place for the devil to breed evil thoughts and filthy passions in. The inhabitants of Sodom were not worse by nature than other men, but they grew rich in a fertile land, lived at ease in luxury, and then gave themselves up to all abominations.
The good man is weary of doing nothing, for nothing is so laborious as idleness.
Humility will make you easy and contented in every condition of life. You will then be ready to be commanded, easy to be pleased, hard to be provoked, and generally beloved. A humble mind thinks every good it receives more than it deserves, and every evil less. It will not think itself too great or too good to stoop to the meanest services of an honest employment nor be wanting in a modest and respectful behavior to others.
Diligence, as it relates to trade, is a habitual employment of our bodily and mental powers about our proper callings in a just and happy medium between idleness, supineness, and trifling curiosity on the one hand and slavish drudging and immoderate care on the other.
Get a humble spirit if you would have a contented one. Pride causes men to be unthankful for their mercies and impatient under their crosses, but afflictions are easily borne and benefits are ever gratefully acknowledged by the mind that is truly humble under a sense of its defects.
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2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
3. J.C. Ryle (117)
4. John Calvin (107)
5. J.I. Packer (93)
6. John Piper (87)
7. Thomas Brooks (84)
8. George Swinnock (82)
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11. A.W. Pink (68)
12. Louis Berkhof (63)
13. Thomas Manton (60)
14. C.S. Lewis (59)
15. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (58)
16. B.B. Warfield (58)
17. William Gurnall (56)
18. R.C. Sproul (55)
19. Heinrich Bullinger (53)
20. Matthew Henry (51)
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