Charles Spurgeon On The Best Of Books

Quoting Charles H. Spurgeon:

The best books of men are soon exhausted–they are cisterns, and not springing fountains. You enjoy them very much at the first acquaintance, and you think you could hear them a hundred times over- but you could not- you soon find them wearisome. Very speedily a man eats too much honey: even children at length are cloyed with sweets.

All human books grow stale after a time- but with the Word of God the desire to study it increases, while the more you know of it the less you think you know.

The Book grows upon you: as you dive into its depths you have a fuller perception of the infinity which remains to be explored. You are still sighing to enjoy more of that which it is your bliss to taste.

Benjamin Rush On National Crimes That Will Require National Punishment

Quoting Benjamin Rush (Signer of the Declaration of Independence):

Remember that national crimes require national punishments, and without declaring what punishment awaits this evil, you may venture to assure them that it cannot pass with impunity, unless God shall cease to be just or merciful. (Source: Benjamin Rush, An Address to the Inhabitants of the British Settlements in America Upon Slave-Keeping (Boston: John Boyles, 1773), p. 30.)

The Greatness Of The Cross

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Some in our day would avoid speaking of the cross altogether. It is as if they are too sophisticated to think about or discuss the blood that Christ shed. They do not want to talk about blood or sacrifice because they believe modern man to be so civilized that he is now beyond all this. They would leave this talk of the cross behind. The cross, however, embodies truth that was relevant and necessary then and continues to be so now. To avoid the cross is to avoid Christ. The incarnation of Christ was wonderful, but by itself it cannot save. We must look fully at the life of the crucified One Who hung on the cross at Gethsemane to know the greatness of God’s grace and the greatness of what His Son did for us.

Modern man tries to get away from the cross of Christ and its perfection or to change its meaning into something allegorical to suit his own needs. Such a position denies the cross and its saving power. Our faith does not do the work of the cross. Faith acknowledges that the cross saves. Faith comes to see the glorious work of the cross and to accept the completed propitiation with confidence. Faith is giving up the ineffective efforts to do something in order to induce God to love and pardon us. The cross of Jesus Christ is sufficient and there is no other means of knowing God or enjoying relationship with Him.

Some are disturbed that acknowledging the cross is recognition of the complete absence of any righteousness in us. The whole work of salvation is His from the first to the last. The work of the cross is the work of the Son of God. A crucified Christ is to be the subject of all preaching and teaching. The true Christian will always need the cross as he faces life’s problems.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)