Thomas Brooks On Reading The Bible

Quoting Thomas Brooks:

• Remember that it is not hasty reading, but serious meditation on holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul.
• It is not the mere touching of the flower by the bee that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time on the flower that draws out the sweet.
• It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove to be the choicest, sweetest, wisest, and strongest Christian.

James Wilson On Religion And Law

James Wilson

Quoting James Wilson (Signer of the Constitution):

Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The divine law, as discovered by reason and the moral sense, forms an essential part of both. (Source: James Wilson, The Works of the Honorable James Wilson (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), Vol. I, p. 106.)

God Leads Us On Paths We Have Not Known

Maurice Roberts

Men cannot bring salvation to their own souls. It is impossible! How then shall anyone be saved? Maurice Roberts provides below a wonderful look into the process by which God brings men to salvation:

“And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42:16)

Let me ask you, has your heart received this light or are you still blind? Are you a blind person sitting here? Oh I know you’re not physically blind, but are you spiritually blind? Well my friends, the answer is in my text. God promises to bring you by a way that you never thought of. It’s the gospel. It’s Christ’s way. It’s the way of life and of salvation. So your duty is to say to God, “Lord, I take thy promise and I ask thee to bring me by this gospel way, that I might find eternal life.” That’s the first thing.

Now the second thing is this. God says in this text, “I will lead them in paths that they have not known” – unknown paths, that’s the next thing. God leads people to salvation by unknown paths. That is to say, people don’t know how to be saved. . . .

Now, how is it that God does this? He does it by making people feel a sense of their need, but they don’t even know what it is they need! But God somehow, in a wonderful way, touches their hearts and consciences and makes people feel their sense of need. . . .

My dear friend, have you a sense of need and you don’t know what to do about it? Have you felt in your heart of hearts that something is missing in your life? Well, it’s God speaking to you, and he’s saying, “What you need is my spiritual blessing. You can’t do without it.” Oh, we can do without many things but we can’t do without God’s spiritual blessing. Why? Well because God made us for himself and our heart is restless till we find our rest in God. . . .

Everything in the Old Testament pointed forward, you remember, to the coming of Jesus. Well, this is it, you see: “I will lead the blind in the way they have not known.” Do you know the gospel way? Do you understand the secret of the gospel? . . . The secret of the gospel is this: faith in Christ. Leave out trusting in prayer, leave out trusting in going to church, leave out trusting in being good – they have their place, oh yes, they have their place. But if you want to be saved the secret of the gospel is Faith Alone in Christ Alone. That’s the whole gospel. But people don’t know that, and nobody knows that until God shines in their heart and gives them that knowledge. And God here tells us he will do that.