Words Old and New: or, Gems from the Christian authorship of all ages. Selected by H. Bonar

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J. Nisbet & Company, 1866 - Christianity - 356 pages

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Page 109 - O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom all the world hath flattered, thou only hast cast out of the world and despised: thou hast drawn together all the far-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man, and covered it all over with these two narrow words, Hie jacet.
Page 111 - Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of His Name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him, not indeed as He is, neither can know Him; and our safest eloquence concerning Him is our silence, when we confess without confession that His 'glory is inexplicable, His greatness above our capacity and reach.
Page 176 - And yet. on the other hand, unless wariness be used, as good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were, in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious lifeblood of a master-spirit embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
Page 314 - Truths, of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true, that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors.
Page 121 - The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his Spirit.
Page 2 - Let us behold the fruits of the earth : every one sees how the seed is sown : the sower goes forth...
Page 173 - To be nameless in worthy deeds, exceeds an infamous history. The Canaanitish woman lives more happily without a name, than Herodias with one. And who had not rather have been the good thief than Pilate...
Page 121 - We see in needle-works and embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground : judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed : for Prosperity doth best discover vice, but Adversity doth best discover virtue.
Page 112 - We have already shewed, that there be two kinds of Christian righteousness: the one without us, which we have by imputation ; the other in us, which consisteth of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and other Christian virtues: and P"^",St.
Page 304 - For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion 16 So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

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