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This collection of timeless quotes and Bible verses have been gathered with you in mind. You will have access to the writings of great Christians of early days and also great Christians of our times, right at your fingertips. It is my hope that your walk with God will be influenced in a very deep way as you go through those pages. 

Get this jam-packed treasure chest for less than the price of a cup of coffee, It is filled with a wide range of Bible verses listed by subjects. You will also get a section with Bible study helps along with a vast array of Christian quotes on various subjects such as: Blessings, character, children, marriage, contentment, faith, encouragement, friendship, life, love, God, the Church, Christ, salvation, The Holy Spirit, the soul, sin, virtues, God's Will, the spiritual life, spiritual walk, eternity, heaven, unbelief, spiritual gifts, leadership, eternal life, surrender, obedience ,loving God, marriage, prayer, relationship, and much more. Here is a list of names of puritans, classics and great theologians that you will find within the pages of this book: 

Brother Lawrence, C. S. Lewis, R. C. Sproul, Charles Colson, Charles Spurgeon, Dallas Willard, D. L Moody, D. Martyn LLoyd-Jones, DeWitt Talmage, Dietrick Bonhoeffer, E. M. Bounds, Henry Blackaby, John calvin, Ebenezer Erskine, F. B. Myer, F W Krummacher Francis Chan, G K Chesterton, J. C. Ryle, J. R. Miller, James Hudson Taylor, J. I. Packer, James Smith, Jerry bridges, John Piper, John Wesley, Johnathan Edwards, Leonard Ravenhill, Martin Luther, Mathew Henry, Paul Washer, John F MacArthur John Newton, Oswald Chambers, and much more 

The Love of Your Espousals

By James Smith

Love is a noble passion, and when fixed upon a worthy object, and wisely reciprocated — it is a source of the sweetest pleasure. God intended Himself to be the highest object of our love; and that He might win back our affections to Himself — He has revealed Himself in Jesus, in the most lovely and attractive form. God in Jesus is love, and only love — unto all who come to Him in His name. He prizes our love, and has therefore entered into every near and dear relation, in order to draw forth and fix our love upon himself. He proposes a union with himself, as near and dear as the marriage union is among men. This was set forth in his dealings with his people of old, and in their attachment to him, alluding to which he says, "I remember the love of your espousals." Jeremiah 2:2.

THE FACT. God and man become united, as does the husband and the wife. Just so it is with Jesus, and those who believe on his name.

Just look at the parties. Israel, a poor, sinful, unworthy people; and the infinitely great and glorious God. So still. On the one side a poor sinner, so insignificant, so base, so vile, so miserable, that it is difficult to set it forth. On the other side, Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His person. Jesus, who is infinitely great, supremely glorious, perfectly holy, and eternally happy. 

Look to the act, "your espousals." Jesus moved first, by His word and Spirit, on the conscience and the affections. Then the sinner moved toward Him with fear, desire, hope, faith, and at length love. 

Then came the agreement, Jesus said, "I will be for you, and you shall be for me." And the soul said, "I am yours, yours only, yours forever!" The union was now formed, the soul was betrothed to the Savior; and by and by, the union will be consummated at the marriage supper of the Lamb. 

THE AFFECTION. "The love of your espousals." There was a love of pity and benevolence before — now there is the love of delight, on the part of Jesus. There may have been a love of gratitude on the part of the sinner — but now it is his purest, strongest love. It is more than filial love, or the love of a child to its parent. It is more than fraternal love, or the love of brother to his brother. It is espousal love, or the love of the espoused one toward Him whom she desired, and preferred to all others. It is love to the person, and the person alone; and such love as leads us to surrender all for Him, and to Him. It is as strong as death — nothing can destroy it. It is more pleasing than all things besides. It is a source of the sweetest, purest, sublimest happiness. 

It is love, near akin to the love of Jesus, being reflected by it, and flowing from it. It is an increasing love, for the more we know of Jesus — the more we love Him, and shall do so, to all eternity. 

Where there is no love, there is no espousal. Jesus never espouses one who does not love Him. He first wins the heart — and then gives the hand. He fixes on the person, determines to be united, wins the affection, and the espousal follows. No espousal — no marriage. If we are not espoused to Jesus while He is away — we shall not be married to Him at His glorious appearing. 

This is the design of the preaching of the gospel, as Paul said to the Corinthians, "I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 

No marriage — no inheritance. We inherit through Jesus, and by virtue of our union with Him. If we are Christ's — then His wealth is ours! And if the wealth of Christ is ours — then we shall possess the kingdom, and reign forever and ever. No possession — no real Heaven. Our Heaven, is having Christ for ours, and being with Him, and enjoying Him forever and ever.

As espoused to Him — we expect to be publicly married; as married to Him — we shall have full and eternal possession of Him; and eternally possessing Him — we shall have a Heaven comprising all we can desire or enjoy!

Reader, are you espoused? Has He taken your hand — and have you given Him your heart? Have you forsaken all besides — to seek your happiness, your all, in him alone? He is worthy of your highest love. He is necessary to your perfect happiness. 

Do you desire to be espoused to Jesus? You may be. Jesus is willing to be the husband, of every soul that desires to be married to Him. He has sent His servants, as Abraham sent Eliezer, to woo and win a wife for Him. He has beauty, He has nobility, He has wealth. In Him dwells, and dwells in perfection — all that is necessary to meet the wants, wishes, or desires of anyone, and everyone who is willing to be holy and happy. 

Espoused to Jesus — your fortune is made. You have an ever-living, ever-loving, never-changing husband. He will never leave, never forsake, never fail you. He will . . .
guide you with His eye, 
guard you with His hand,
and satisfy you with His love.

O happy, happy soul, that is espoused to Jesus!

Holy and eternal Spirit, lead every reader to Jesus, unfold His beauty, reveal His love — and so win the heart; and may the reading of these few remarks lead some to love Jesus, to give their hearts to Jesus, and so join themselves to Jesus in an everlasting covenant, which shall neither be forgotten nor broken!

Agent & Instrument & Secret of Efficiency - D. L. Moody

The Holy Spirit is closely identified with the words of the Lord Jesus. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” The Gospel proclamation can not be divorced from the Holy Spirit. Unless He attend the word in power, vain will be the attempt in preaching it. Human eloquence or persuasiveness of speech are the mere trappings of the dead, if the living Spirit be absent; the prophet may preach to the bones in the valley, but it must be the breath from Heaven which will cause the slain to live.

In the third chapter of the First Epistle of Peter, it reads, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”

Here we see that Christ was raised up from the grave by this same Spirit, and the power exercised to raise Christ’s dead body must raise our dead souls and quicken them. No other power on earth can quicken a dead soul, but the same power that raised the body of Jesus Christ out of Joseph’s sepulcher. And if we want that power to quicken our friends who are dead in sin, we must look to God, and not be looking to man to do it. If we look alone to ministers, if we look alone to Christ’s disciples to do this work, we shall be disappointed; but if we look to the Spirit of God and expect it to come from Him and Him alone, then we shall honor the Spirit, and the Spirit will do His work.

I can not help but believe there are many Christians who want to be more efficient in the Lord’s service, and the object of this book is to take up this subject of the Holy Spirit, that they may see from whom to expect this power. In the teaching of Christ, we find the last words recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the 28th chapter and 19th verse, “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Here we find that the Holy Spirit and the Son are equal with the Father—are one with Him, “teaching them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Christ was now handing His commission over to His Apostles.

 He was going to leave them. His work on earth was finished, and He was now just about ready to take His seat at the right hand of God, and He spoke unto them and said: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth.” All power, so then He had authority. If Christ was mere man, as some people try to make out, it would have been blasphemy for Him to have said to the disciples, go and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and in His own name, and in that of the Holy Ghost, making Himself equal with the Father.

There are three things: All power is given unto Me; go teach all nations. Teach them what? To observe all things. There are a great many people now that are willing to observe what they like about Christ, but the things that they don’t like they just dismiss and turn away from. But His commission to His disciples was, “Go teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” And what right has a messenger who has been sent of God to change the message? If I had sent a servant to deliver a message, and the servant thought the message didn’t sound exactly right—a little harsh—and that servant went and changed the message, I should change servants very quickly; he could not serve me any longer. And when a minister or a messenger of Christ begins to change the message because he thinks it is not exactly what it ought to be, and thinks he is wiser than God, God just dismisses that man.

They haven’t taught “all things.” They have left out some of the things that Christ has commanded us to teach, because they didn’t correspond with man’s reason. Now we have to take the Word of God just as it is; and if we are going to take it, we have no authority to take out just what we like, what we think is appropriate, and let dark reason be our guide.

It is the work of the Spirit to impress the heart and seal the preached word. His office is to take of the things of Christ and reveal them unto us.

Some people have got an idea that this is the only dispensation of the Holy Ghost; that He didn’t work until Christ was glorified. But Simeon felt the Holy Ghost when he went into the temple. In 2d Peter, i, 21, we read: “Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” We find the same Spirit in Genesis as is seen in Revelation. The same Spirit that guided the hand that wrote Exodus inspired also the epistles, and we find the same Spirit speaking from one end of the Bible to the other. So holy men in all ages have spoken as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

A Solemn Sham and an Impudent Mockery!

By Charles Spurgeon

"Rend your heart—and not your garments." Joel 2:13

Garment-rending and other external signs of religious emotion, are easily manifested, and are frequently hypocritical. True repentance is far more difficult, and consequently far less common. Unsaved men will attend to the most multiplied and minute religious ceremonies and regulations—for such things are pleasing to their flesh. But true godliness is too humbling, too heart-searching, too spiritual for the tastes of carnal men! They prefer something more ostentatious, flimsy, and worldly. External religious rituals are temporarily comfortable; eye and ear are pleased; self-conceit is fed, and self-righteousness is puffed up. But they are ultimately delusive, for at the day of judgment, the soul needs something more substantial than religious ceremonies and rituals to lean upon.

Apart from vital godliness—all religion is utterly vain! When offered without a sincere heart, every form of religious worship is a solemn sham and an impudent mockery of the majesty of God!

Heart-rending is divinely wrought—and solemnly felt. It is a secret grief which is personally experienced, not in mere form—but as a deep, soul-moving work of the Holy Spirit upon the inmost heart of each believer. It is not a matter to be merely talked of—but keenly and sensitively felt in every living child of the living God. It is powerfully humiliating and sin-purging! But also, it is sweetly preparative for those gracious consolations which proud unhumbled souls are unable to receive! This heart-rending  distinctly belongs to the elect of God—and to them alone.

The text commands us to rend our hearts—but they are naturally as hard as marble! How then, can this be done? We must take them to Calvary! A dying Savior's voice rent the rocks once—and it is just as powerful now. O blessed Spirit, let us effectually hear the death-cries of Jesus—and our hearts shall be rent!

Salvation by Grace!—Charles Spurgeon

from Spurgeon
No sinner will ever come to Christ apart from the quickening,
enlightening, drawing, converting power of the Holy Spirit,
supernaturally exercised upon the conscience and heart.

Until grace comes into our souls we have no heart for the things
of God. We may be fussily religious so far as to be attentive to
every 'outward form of worship'; but there is no heart-work, no
light of truth in all our devotion. But when once the divine light
comes in, then we become intensely real in our dealings with God.

When the grace of God comes, the Holy Spirit brings us out from
under the dominion of the old nature by creating within us a
new life, and he brings us out from under the tyranny of the
Prince of Darkness by opening our eyes to see, and our minds to
understand celestial truth. The opening of our blind eyes and
the pouring in of the light of truth are from the Lord.

The entrance of God's word into the mind by the power of the Holy
Spirit gives us light as to-- ourselves, our sin, and our danger.
With this comes light as to the way of salvation through Jesus
Christ, and light as to the mind of God concerning our
sanctification. True knowledge takes the place of ignorance,
and a desire for purity becomes supreme over the love of sin.

Not all the temptations of life, nor all the terrors of death,
nor all the furies of hell, shall prevent any soul upon whom God
has begun his work of grace from reaching eternal salvation.
What a blessing is this, and what a comfort it is!

"The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord."

Meditating On The Word Of God!

I want to share something with you that God has taught me this morning when I was meditating. I have to say I had no idea how to meditate. But, in 2005 after I lost my job God was preparing me to learn to buckle up for the ride that was going to change my life forever, because things were going to get messier and way worse than I ever thought possible. So the Holy Spirit taught me to “still” my heart, not by myself but with His help. Then, I let my mind, my heart and soul be taken up completely with God’s Word, the beauty of it, how each iota of His word is true, how He works things out in our lives, how to apply each verse of the Bible to our lives, etc… As you learn to do this with the Holy Spirit, not only it becomes easier to apply in all circumstances in your life, but you learn to become so immersed and so taken up that you could spend hours in His Company. It is as if time does not exist. As the matter of fact, when I first learned to meditate with God in the wilderness, I could meditate on His word for hours and I never knew until I snapped out of it, that most of the day was gone.

For those of you who are tempted to say this is what it means to be caught up in third heaven, let me tell you it is not. Because being caught up in the third heaven changes your soul in a way that you can never explain and the thing is, you never know when God is going to take you there. What I explained above is simple meditation done in the spirit and with the Holy Spirit. But, anyway, as I was immersed in my meditation this morning, God felt the need to help me understand something deeper. The past two days I wrote about how a life of oneness with God takes you from fearing His wrath to appreciate it as an attribute of His holiness.  What I learned this morning reminded me of something very important, as Christians, it is so important we do not take lightly our postings whether through social media, Blogs, websites etc. Because in the end, we are what we think and we are what we write about. (If we do not use ghost writers)

I don’t know about you, but as I write my posts, I too am learning from God. It gives me an opportunity to meditate on things that I might have forgotten to thank Him about or take for granted. It keeps me living with an awareness of God constantly on a daily basis to the point where, if I spend time thinking about anything that did not lead to God, I need to know what did I waste my time with? Through my postings, I learned to acquire more gratitude as I recall the things He has done for me and the grace He lavishes on me.

So, this morning was not any different. I was having such an awesome time with Him, and then He told me “do you know why you wrote the past two days about finding balance between God’s wrath and His Holiness?” Do you understand why this knowledge and its effect are suddenly part of who you are? I smile and though to myself, “no I don’t know because you never told me”. Before I finish my thought, He said to me, well this is part of what it means to behold me like in a glass of glory. It is also part of changing into the same image.” As he said that to me, I smiled with joy and gratitude in my heart, then I came out of the meditation time.

I was elated with what He taught me, but at the same time it was a learning process that corrected some of my faulty thinking. Why? Because a few years back, I thought (from what I lived with Him) 2 Corinthians 3:18 was mainly about God’s face being etched in yours and my face based on a life spent looking at Him through sitting at His feet. Today I understand that beholding His face is just part of the process and this little verse means so much more to God, in the way He plans to do it in us. I understand that we are learning to behold Him as He works it out in us, in all His facets. It is about our whole spiritual makeup from head to toes.

The funny thing is, I used to see my transformation from the wilderness walk with Him as having gone through the process of being a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. But unlike the butterfly after its transformation, God has just begun the process of transformation through those who belongs to Him. My dear brothers and sisters, if you could only take a pick out the work that is left to be done in us by Him, you would definitely make different choices with the time you are allocated to live out his life on earth. (Look who’s talking! LOL - I did not know that until he hit me with a 4X4 to get my attention)

Just so you know, yesterday, God has given me instructions on the subject of my post for today. But, after my time with Him, I obtained permission from Him to switch things around. And like a true daddy, it was okay with Him! I actually got His blessings with gladness in both of our hearts. 

I love my God & I truly love you guys!

To my litte community on Wordpress, you  are so precious to my heart, you will never know how much! I appreciate the time you take to write me, encourage me and to comments.  God showed me how not to worry about fans lost on Facebook, because you remained faithful and you matter. Thanks so much

VIDEOS

I am including these very short videos. The reason being is that, the seven years I spent in the wilderness with Him, truly reflects what you see in these videos. When He first started with me after I lost my job, not only my life was turned upside down, I could feel as if there was a demolition and construction happening inside me. It was so real, like an idiot I sent an email to my pastor for help because I did not know it was normal with God.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY-Fiyq8jc4

2) Then for a while it was this video. It represents all the changes that he was doing within me

http://gizmodo.com/watch-a-caterpillar-transform-into-a-butterfly-from-ins-506894053

Through this stage I learned the meaning of what Paul said in Galatians 4:19 and why He was in pain for the Galatians to go forward claiming what they were missing. I also learned first hand why the first work that truly matters to God and in the absence of this work, whatever else we have done in His name has no importance and no value. This change that comes only from the power of the cross is what true salvation is about. I learned the true meaning through the Holy Spirit’s teaching what God had in mind when He penned James 2:18. This transformation process is “faith by your deeds.” Your only deed as a human being is the willingness to embrace this life in Him and allowing Him to move freely in your life through your faith in Him.

As He showed me the whole process He allowed me to see the extend of my involvement.  Only then, I understood how greatly we Christians misunderstand the grace of God. Because, even the willingness to allow Him to move freely in my life through all the circumstances, is still a work of grace that I received from Him through Salvation. I just put it to work through faith in Him. Without salvation entering my soul, I would never feel the urge to let Him move freely in my life. Why would I care? So, this process is also the work of our Salvation.  It is pure and unadulterated grace. So when the word of God says to us “unless you believe in vain…” Yeah! There is something there you should take into consideration. God did not pen those words down to hear His Holy voice. He was talking to you and me.

3) Then, on the third stage where the butterfly came out… http://www.wimp.com/monarchbutterfly/ He taught me what His word meant in Song of Solomon 8:5 “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?” You see, through this process He teaches you to trust Him and to depend on Him. You can lean on Him because your will is handed back to you, but not before it has become His will. Your soul takes Him on as your lover. Through each stage I had a song in this one I learned to sing the song, “Jesus lover of my soul….. It’s all about you”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD-ZdMOx_HY

Are you truly born again? Examine yourself… Unless you believe in vain!

 

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2 Corinthians 3:18 – King James Version

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 

Faith - Spiritual Knowledge - Part 5

December 8, 1775

My Dear Friend,

......You say, a death-bed repentance is what you would be sorry to give any hope of. My dear friend, it is well for poor sinners that God's thoughts and ways are as much above men's as the Heavens are higher than the earth. We agreed to communicate our sentiments freely, and promised not to be offended with each other's freedom if we could help it. I am afraid of offending you by a thought just now upon my mind, and yet I dare not in conscience suppress it: I must, therefore, venture to say, that I hope they who depend upon such a repentance as your scheme points out, will repent of their repentance itself upon their death-bed at least, if not sooner. You and I, perhaps, would have encouraged the fair-spoken young man, who said he had kept all the commandments from his youth, and rather have left the thief upon the cross to perish like a villain as he lived. But Jesus thought differently.

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I do not encourage sinners to defer their repentance to their death-beds- I press the necessity of a repentance this moment. But then I take care to tell them, that repentance is the gift of God; that Jesus is exalted to bestow it; and that all their endeavours that way, unless they seek to Him for grace, will be vain as washing a blackmoor, and transient as washing a swine which will soon return to the mire again. I know the evil heart will abuse the grace of God; the apostle knew this likewise, Rom. iii. 8, and vi. 1. But this did not tempt him to suppress the glorious grace of the Gospel, the power of Jesus to save to the uttermost, and His merciful promise that whosoever cometh unto Him, He will in no wise cast out. The repentance of a natural heart proceeding wholly from fear, like that of some malefactors, who are sorry, not that they have committed robbery or murder, but that they must be hanged for it; this undoubtedly is nothing worth, whether in time of health or in a dying hour. But that metanoia, that gracious change of heart, views, and dispositions, which always takes place when Jesus is made known to the soul as having died that the sinner might live, and been wounded that he might be healed; this, at whatever period God is pleased to afford and effect it by His Spirit, brings a sure and everlasting salvation with it.

Still I find I have not finished; you ask my exposition of the parables of the talents and pounds; but at present I can write no more. I have only just time to tell you, that when I begged your acceptance of Omicron, nothing was farther from my expectation than a correspondence with you. The frank and kind manner in which you wrote, presently won upon my heart. In the course of our letters upon Subscription, I observed an integrity and disinterestedness in you, which endeared you to me still more. Since that our debates have taken a much more interesting turn; I have considered it as a call, and an opportunity put in my hand, by the especial providence of Him who ruleth over all. I have embraced the occasion to lay before you simply, and rather in a way of testimony than argumentation, what (in the main) I am sure is truth. I have done enough to discharge my conscience, but shall never think I do enough to answer the affection I bear you. I have done enough likewise to make you weary of my correspondence, unless it should please God to fix the subject deeply upon your mind, and make you attentive to the possibility and vast importance of a mistake in matters of everlasting concernment.

I pray that the good Spirit of God may guide you into all truth. He only is the effectual Teacher. I still retain a cheerful hope, that some things you cannot at present receive, will hereafter be the joy and comfort of your heart; but I know it cannot be till the Lord's own time. I cannot promise to give such long answers as your letters require, to clear up every text that may be proposed, and to answer every objection that may be started; yet I shall be glad to exchange a letter now and then. At present it remains with you whether our correspondence continues or not, as this is the third letter I have written since I heard from you, and therefore must be the last till I do. I should think what remains might be better settled viva voce (in personal conversation) for which purpose I shall be glad to see you, or ready to wait on you when leisure will permit, and when I know it will be agreeable; but if (as life and all its affairs are precarious) we should never meet in this world, I pray God we may meet at the right hand of Jesus, in the great day when He shall come to gather up His jewels, and to judge the world. There is an endless diversity of opinions in matters of religion; which of them are right and safe, and will lead to eternal glory, Dies iste indicabit (the day itself will show) I am still in a manner lost amidst more engagements than I have time to comply with; but I feel and know that I am, &c.

Faith - Spiritual Knowledge - Part 4

December 8, 1775

My Dear Friend,

.........On the other hand, there is a sober decent way of speaking of God, and goodness, and benevolence, and sobriety, which the world will bear well enough;-nay, we may say a little about Jesus Christ, as ready to make up the deficiencies of our honest and good endeavours, and this will not displease them. But if we preach Him as the only foundation, lay open the horrid evils of the human heart, tell our hearers that they are dead in trespasses and sins, and have no better ground of hope in themselves than the vilest malefactors in order to exalt the glory of Jesus, as saving those who are saved wholly and freely for His own name's sake; if we tell the virtuous and decent, as well as the profligate, that unless they are born again, and made partakers of living faith, and count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, they cannot be saved; this the world cannot bear. We shall be called knaves or fools, uncharitable bigots, and twenty hard names. If you have met with nothing like this, I wish it may lead you to suspect whether you have yet received the right key to the doctrines of Christ; for, depend upon it, the offense of the cross is not ceased.

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I am grieved and surprised that you seem to take little notice of any thing in the account of my deceased friend, but his wishing himself to be a Deist, and his having playbooks about him in his illness. As to the plays, they were Shakespeare's, which, as a man of taste, it is no great wonder he should sometimes look into. Your remark on the other point shows, that you are not much acquainted with the exercises of the human mind, under certain circumstances. I believe I observed formerly, that it was not a libertine wish. Had you known him, you would have known one of the most amiable and unblemished characters. Few were more beloved and admired for a uniform course of integrity, moderation, and benevolence; but he was discouraged. He studied the Bible, believed it in general to be the word of God; but his wisdom, his strong turn for reasoning, stood so in his way, that he could get no solid comfort from it. He felt the vanity of the schemes proposed by many men admired in the world as teachers of divinity; and he felt the vanity likewise of his own. He was also a minister, and had a sincere design of doing good.

He wished to reform the profligate, and comfort the afflicted by his preaching; but as he was not acquainted with that one kind of preaching which God owns to the edification of the hearers, he found he could do neither. A sense of disappointments of this kind distressed him. Finding in himself none of that peace which the Scripture speaks of, and none of the influence he hoped for attending his ministry, he was led sometimes to question the truth of the Scripture. 

We have a spiritual enemy always near, to press upon a mind in this desponding situation: nor am I surprised that he should then wish himself a Deist; since, if there were any hope for a sinner but by faith in the blood of Jesus, he had as much of his own goodness to depend upon as most I have known. As for the rest, if you could see nothing admirable and wonderful in the clearness, the dignity, the spirituality of his expressions, after the Lord revealed the Gospel to him, I can only say I am sorry for it. This I know, that some persons of sense, taste, learning, and reason, and far enough from my sentiments, have been greatly struck with them.