The Puritannical Blog

Do you belong to that class of persons who really profess Christian faith and Christian obedience, and are you trying, however weakly, to follow Christ in the midst of an evil world?

I think I know something of what goes on in your heart. You sometimes feel that you will never persevere to the end, and will some day give up your profession of faith. You are sometimes tempted to write bitter things against yourself, and to believe that you have no grace at all.

I am afraid there are myriads of true Christians in this condition, who go trembling and doubting toward heaven. However, in spite of all their groans and doubts and fears, they do not turn back, but press on, though faint.

Now, my advice to all such persons is very simple. Pray every morning and evening of your life, "Lord, increase my faith." Cultivate the habit of fixing your eyes more simply on Jesus Christ, and try to know more of the fulness there is laid up in Him for every one of His believing people.

Do not be always pouring over the imperfections of your own heart, and dissecting your own sins. Look up! Look more to your risen Head in heaven, and try to realize more and more that the Lord Jesus not only died for you, but that He also rose again, and that He is ever living at God's right hand as your Priest, your advocate, and your Almighty Friend. [J.C. Ryle]

Feb. 15. My discouragements increase daily among this people, by reason of the divisive temper inflamed by the late fast, so that there are several of them whose face I have not seen since that time. My circumstances are extremely heavy: they seem to have little desire for the gospel: the most weighty truths look as nauseous to them; though if any thing relating to the public fall in, they use to prick up their ears. Some have never come to the ordinance since I came, being led by mere laziness and profane neglect; besides those that were always dissenters from the established church. Those that come, many of them think nothing of staying away several Sabbaths; and when they come, they are generally very uncomfortable. My wonted exercise of conversing with exercised souls is gone; there is no converse but about the division; the practice of godliness is thereby stifled, and burnt up with the fire. The crown is fallen from my head, and I am brought very low! The approaching Sabbath, that sometimes was my delight, is now a terror to me; so that it is my business now, to get my forehead steeled against brass and iron. On Sabbath was fourteen days, I felt the sad effects of giving way to discouragement, and this has put me on my guard. I have sometimes asked myself, Whether, if I had known all that has befallen me here, I would have accepted the call, or not? And I cannot say, I durst have refused. Two things are supporting to me: 1. My clearness as to my call from the Lord, which has not been perplexed by all that I have met with, but still remained as a ground of comfort. 2. An amazing conduct of Providence in preaching the word, whereby I am guided in my ordinary to speak in their case. As, particularly, these two last Sabbaths it fell in my ordinary to lecture the 7th and 8th chapters of the Revelation, where I had occasion to speak largely of schism and division, with the effects thereof. And in this very time Mr. Macmillan was preaching in the bounds. And in my ordinary sermons I find the same conduct of Providence. [Thomas Boston]

Those that are at peace in their own consciences will be peaceable towards others. A busy, contentious, quarrelsome disposition, argues that it never felt peace from God, and though many men think it commendable to censure the infirmities of others, yet it argues their own weakness; for it is a sign of strength, where we see in men anything good, to bear with their weakness. Who was more indulgent than Christ? He bore with the infirmities of His disciples from time to time; therefore we should labor to carry ourselves lovingly towards them that are weak. Nothing should raise us so high in our own esteem above others as to forget them to be our brethren, inasmuch as those infirmities that we see, shall be buried with them. [Richard Sibbes]

It will therefore be no small advantage unto us to have our souls and consciences always affected with and in due subjection unto the power of this truth, — namely, that "to be spiritually minded is life and peace;" whence it will follow, that whatever we may think otherwise, if we are not so, we have neither of them, neither life nor peace. It will, I say, be of use unto us if we are affected with the power of it; for many greatly deceive themselves in hearing the word. They admit of sacred truths in their understanding, and assent unto them, but take not in the power of them on their consciences, nor strictly judge of their state and condition by them, which proves their ruin; for hereby they seem to themselves to believe that whereof in truth they believe not one syllable as they ought. They hear it, they understand it in the notion of it, they assent unto it, at least they do not contradict it, yea, they commend it oftentimes and approve of it, but yet they believe it not; for if they did, they would judge themselves by it, and reckon on it that it will be with them at the last day according as things are determined therein. [John Owen]

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Broken bones occassion pain, strong pain, yea, pain that will make a man or woman groan 'with the groanings of a deadly wounded man' (Ezek 30:24). Soul pain is the sorest pain, in comparison to which the pain of the body is a very tolerable thing (Prov 18:14). Now here is soul pain, here is heart pain; here we are discoursing of a wounded, or a broken spirit; wherefore this is pain to be felt to the sinking of the whole man, neither can any support this but God. Here is death in this pain, death forever, without God's special mercy. This pain will bring the soul to, and this the broken hearted man doth feel. 'The sorrows of death,' says David, 'compassed me and the pain of hell gat hold of me, I found trouble and sorrow.' (Psa 116:3).

Ay, I'll warrant thee poor man thou foundest sorrow and trouble indeed; for the pains of hell and sorrows of death are pains and sorrow the most intolerable. But this the man is acquainted with that has his heart broken. [John Bunyan]

How easily do we bear our brethren's pains and reproaches, wants and afflictions, in comparison of our own! How few thoughts, and how little cost and labour. do we use for their supply, in comparison of what we do for ourselves! Nature indeed teaches us to be sensible of our own case, but grace tells us, that we should not make so great a difference as we do, but should love our neighbour as ourselves. [Richard Baxter]

There are times when solitude is better than company, and silence is wiser than speech. We would be better Christians if we were alone more often, waiting on God and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for service in His kingdom. We ought to ponder the things of God, because that is how we get the real nutriment out of them. [Charles Spurgeon ]

Many men hear sermons much—and yet remain worldly. They may pray like angels—and yet live as if there were no heaven nor hell. They will talk much of heaven—and yet those who are spiritual and wise, smell their breath to stink strong of earth. All their endeavors can never cure them of this soul-killing disease—until faith breaks forth in its glorious actings. A man may hear sermons and pray many years—and yet remain as carnal, base, and worldly as ever! There is no way under heaven to remove this burden—but the exercise of faith![Thomas Brooks]

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With what mighty intention of spirit should the heart be put forth towards Jesus Christ in all things! Though God gives you an estate and honor in the world, if you have not Christ you have nothing. You have not that which makes way for you to eternity. Therefore, do not be satisfied with anything without Christ. As Abraham said, What wilt Thou give me Lord, seeing I go childless? So you say, "Lord, You have given me a portion in this world. You have given me credit and reputation among men, but, Lord, what is all this to me if I go Christless and do not have Him that is the conveyance of grace to my soul, Him that is all in all? Oh, Lord, You have taught me this day that such is the distance and breach between You and me that, unless it is made up through a Mediator, I must eternally perish. Therefore, give me Christ, whatever else You deny me.[Jeremiah Burroughs]

That which carnal Hearers make light of, includes in it, Christ himself, and the Blessings, which he bestows."Concerning Christ himself, the Gospel declares his Person and Nature, and the great Things he has done and suffered for Men, his redeeming us from the Wrath of God by his Blood, and purchasing a Grantof Salvation for us. The same Gospel makes an Offerof Christ to Sinners, that if they will accept him on his easy and reasonable Terms, he will be their Saviour, the Physician of their Souls, their Head, and their Husband.—the Blessings which Christ bestows upon Sinners, are the Pardon of all their past Sins, and Deliverance from the Wrath of God, and a sure Way of obtaining Pardon for all the Sins they shall commit hereafter, provided they obey sincerely, and turn not again to the Rebellion of their unregenerate State. They shall have the Holy Spirit to be their Guide and
Sanctifier, to dwell in their Souls, to help them against their spiritual Enemies, and conform them more and more to a divine Likeness, to heal their spiritual Diseases, and bring them back to God. They shall, also have a right to everlasting Glory, when this Life is ended, and their Bodies shall be raised up to partake of it at the great Day. Besides these, they shall have many excellent Priviledges and Means, abundant Preservation and Provision in their Way, and the Foretaste of their future Joy. All these Blessings the Gospel offers to them that will accept of Christ on his reasonable Terms. For this is the Record, that God hath given to us eternal Life; and this Life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath Life, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not Life. [Richard Baxter]

Inordinate and immoderate sorrow for any affliction doth many times provoke God to lay on greater and heavier afflictions upon a people; it is the way to provoke the Lord to double his strokes upon you, to make your burdens heavier and your bondage greater. God deals with us, as a Father with his child; if the father sees that the child bears his corrections kindly he will give him the less; but if he be stubborn and frets and takes on, it will not make the father lessen his strokes, but to give him more and more; so if we do patiently bear the indignation of the Lord in these afflictions he lays upon us, it is the way to have them alleiviated; but if we murmur and repine against God, are immoderate in our sorrows, this is the way to have them increased. [Christopher Love]

I WILL now call to mind my past foulness, and the carnal corruptions
my soul, not because I love them, but that I may love Thee, O my God.
For love of Thy love do I it, recalling, in the very bitterness of my
remembrance, my most vicious ways, that Thou mayest grow sweet to
me, — Thou sweetness without deception! Thou sweetness happy and
assured! and re-collecting myself out of that my dissipation, in which I
was torn to pieces, while, turned away from Thee the One, I lost myself
among many vanities. For I even longed in my youth formerly to be
satisfied with worldly things, and I dared to grow wild again with various
and shadowy loves; my form consumed away, and I became corrupt in
Thine eyes, pleasing myself, and eager to please in the eyes of men. [Augustine]

It is a most singular honor of the saints' rest, to be called the purchased possession; that is, the fruit of the blood of the Son of God; yea, the chief fruit, the end and perfection of all the fruits and efficacy of that blood. Greater love than this there is not, to lay down the life of the lover. And to have this our Redeemer ever before our eyes, and the liveliest sense and freshest remembrance of that dying, bleeding love, still upon our souls! How will it fill our souls with perpetuaL joy, to think that in the streams of this blood we have swum through the violence of the world, the snares of Satan, the seductions of flesh, the curse of the law, the wrath of an offended God, the accusations of a guilty conscience, and the vexing doubts and fears of an unbelieving heart, and are arrived safely at the presence of God! Now he cries to us, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow!" And we scarce regard the mournful voice, -- scarce turn aside to view the wounds. But then our perfected souls will feel, and flame in love for love. With what astonishing apprehensions will redeemed saints everlastingly behold their blessed Redeemer! the purchaser, and the price, together with the possession! Neither will the view of his wounds of love renew our wounds of sorrow. He, whose first words after his resurrection were to a great sinner, "Woman, why weepest thou?" knows how to raise love and joy, without any cloud of sorrow or storm of tears. If any thing we enjoy was purchased with the life of our dearest friend, how highly should we value it! If a dying friend deliver us but a token of his love, how carefully do we preserve it, and still remember him when we behold it, as if his own name were written on it! And will not, then, the death and blood of our Lord everlastingly sweeten our possessed glory? As we write down the price our goods cost us; so, on our righteousness and glory write down the price, The precious blood of Christ. His sufferings were to satisfy the justice that required blood, and to bear what was due to sinners, and so to restore them to the life they lost, and the happiness from which they fell. The work of Christ's redemption so well pleased the Father, that he gave him power to advance his chosen, and give them the glory which was given to himself; and all this "according to his good pleasure and the counsel of his own will.[Richard Baxter]

Our reproofs of sin must come from a warm heart. Paul's spirit was stirred within him when he saw the city given to idolatry. Jeremiah tells us the word of God was a fire in his bones; it broke out of his mouth like a flame out of a furnace. The word is a hammer; but it breaks not the stony heart when lightly laid on. King James said of a minister in his time, that he preached as if death were at his back. Ministers should set forth judgment as if it were at the sinner's back to take hold of him. Cold reproofs or threatenings are like the rumble of thunder afar off, which affrights not as a clap over our head. I told you the minister's boldness must be meek and merciful; but not to prejudice zeal. [William Gurnall]

And as it serves to render the mind more judicious, so it causes the memory to be more tenacious, and retentive of truths. The chain of truth is easily held in the memory, when one truth links in another; but the loosing of a link endangers the scattering of the whole chain. We use to say, order is the mother of memory; I am sure it is a singular friend to it: hence it is observed, those that write of the art of memory, lay so great a stress upon place and number. The memory would not so soon be overcharged with a multitude of truths, if that multitude were but orderly disposed. It is the incoherence and confusion of truths, rather than their number, that distracts. Let but the understanding receive then regularly, and the memory will retain them with much more facility. A bad memory is a common complaint among Christians: all the benefit that many of you have in hearing, is from the present influence of truths upon your hearts; there is but little that sticks by you, to make a second and third impression upon them. I know it may be said of some of you, that if your affections were not better than your memories, you would need a very large charity to pass for Christians.[John Flavel]

Labels: John Flavel

Covetousness, the cutthroat of grace, and canker of the soul, like an eating, insatiable wolf, will either still feed upon gain, or else gnaw upon the heart with fretting… The Father of spirits hath inspired into our immortal souls a large capacity, and such an infinite appetite, that no finite excellency, created comfort, or earthly thing can possibly fill. Gold, silver, riches, honours, crowns, kingdoms, are no fit matter or adequate object for such an immaterial and heaven-born spirit to repose and feed upon, with final rest and full contentment. [Robert Bolton]

I well know that the poor coward flesh is fretful and impatient under afflictions, and would gladly have a smoother, easier path. But we cannot choose our own trials, nor our own afflictions. All are appointed in fixed weight and measure;and the promise is that all things shall work together for good to those who love God.

Wherever we go, and wherever we are, we must expect trials to arise. But it will be our wisdom and mercy to submit to what we cannot alter, and not fret or repine under the trial--but accept it as sent for our good.

We need trial upon trial, and stroke upon stroke to bring our soul out of carnality. We slip insensibly into carnal ease; but afflictions and trials of body and mind stir us up to some degree of earnestness
in prayer, show us the emptiness and vanity of earthly things, make us feel the suitability and preciousness of the Lord Jesus.

The path in which you have been led so many years is a safe way, though a rough and rugged way. [J.C. Philpot]

The Christian also looks to the end of afflictions! The end may sometimes come in this world. In reference to this, the utmost that the believer can be sure of is--that they will end in God's time. They may last for his whole life. The sickness which afflicts his body may be unto death! The loss which he has sustained in his property may be irreparable, and poverty may go down with him to the grave! The trial which beclouds and distresses his spirits may be his lot for life! But on the other hand, they may not! God may be bringing him "through fire and through water to bring him out into a wealthy place." But the Christian leaves this in the hand of God, and endeavors to maintain a hope which shall save him from despondency-- checked at the same time by a reverence that guards him from unwarranted presumption. [J.A. James]

With men it is confess and have execution, but with God confess and have mercy. We should never lay open our sins but for mercy. So it honors God; and when he is honored,he honors the soul with inward peace and tranquility. We can never have peace in our souls till we have dealt roundly with our sins,and favour them not a whit [bit]; till we have ripened our confession to be a thorough confession. What is the difference between a Christian and another man? Another person slubbers [is careless] over his sin and he thinks if he comes to the congregation, and follows the minister, it will serve the turn [end]But a Christian knows that religion is another manner of matter,another kind of work than so.He must deal thoroughly and seriously,and lay open his sin as the chief enemy in the world,and labor to raise all the hatred he can against it and make it the object of his bitter displeasure, as being that that hath done him more hurt than all the world besides;and so he confess it all the aggravations of hatred and envy that he can…That we in our confessions (in our fastings especially) ought to rank ourselves among the rest of sinners. Perhaps we are not guilty of some sins that they have been guilty of. God has been merciful to us and kept us in obedience in some things. But, alas! There is none of us all but we have had a hand in the sins of the times.[Richard Sibbes]

Consider the suddenness of judgment. Who among all the burnt citizens did ever expect to see London laid in ashes in four days time? God's judgments many times seize upon men's persons, houses, and estates, as the soldiers did Archimedes whilst he was busy drawing lines in the dust. Isa. lxiv. 3. 'When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for.' When the citizens saw London in flames, they might truly have said, This is a terrible thing, which we looked not for; we were minding our own business, our shops, our trades, our profits, our pleasures, our delights; we were studying and plotting, and contriving how to make ourselves and our children great and rich, and high and honorable in the earth, and it never entered into our thoughts that the destruction of London by fire was so near at hand as now we have found it to be. Isa. xlvii. 7-9, 11. 'Thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart,' (which things were the judgments of God that were threatened.). 'neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, that thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly; that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children; but these two things shall come to thee in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection. Evil shall come upon thee; and thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.' Was not London the lady-city of our land? Did the inhabitants of London lay those judgments of God to heart that they either felt or feared? Did London remember her latter end? Were not most of the inhabitants of London given to sinful pleasures and delights? Did they not live carelessly and securely? Were they ever so secure and inapprehensive of their danger than at this very time when the flames broke forth in the midst of them? They had newly escaped the most sweeping plague that ever was in the city and suburbs, but instead of finding out the plague of their hearts, and mourning over the plague of their hearts, and repenting of the evil of their doings, and returning to the Most High, 1 Kings viii. 37, 38; Isa. ix. 13-15; Jer. viii. 6, they returned to their sins and their trades together, from both which for a time the plague had frighted them, concluding in themselves that surely the bitterness of death was past and that after so dreadful a storm they should have a blessed calm; and dreamed of nothing but peace, and quiet, and safety, and trade, striving with all their might to make up those losses that they had sustained by the pestilence. They having escaped the grave when so many score thousands were carried to their long homes, were very secure; they never thought that the city, which had been so lately infected by a contagious plague, was so near being burned in its own ruins; they never imagined that the whole city should be put in flames to purge that air that their sins had infected. Judgments are never so near, as when men are most secure. 1 Thess. v3. [Thomas Brooks]

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Happiness of heaven. When the body enjoys the perfections of health and strength, the motions of the animal spirits are not only brisk and free, but also harmonious; there is a regular proportion in the motion from all parts of the body, that begets delight in the soul, and makes the body feel pleasantly all over God has excellently contrived the nerves and parts of the human body. But few men since the fall, especially since the flood, have health to so great a perfection as to have much of this harmonious motion. When it is enjoyed, one whose nature is not very much vitiated and depraved, is very much assisted thereby in every exercise of body or mind; and it fits one for the contemplation of more exalted and spiritual excellencies and harmonies, as music does. But we need not doubt but this harmony will be in its proportion in the bodies of the saints after the resurrection; and that as every part of the bodies of the wicked shall be excruciated with intolerable pain, so every part of the saints’ refined bodies shall be as full of pleasure as they can hold; and that this will not take the mind off from, but prompt and help it in, spiritual delight, to which even the delight of their spiritual bodies shall be but a shadow.[Johnathan Edwards]

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I insist not that the life of the Christian shall breathe nothing but the perfect Gospel, though this is to be desired, and ought to be attempted. I insist not so strictly on evangelical perfection, as to refuse to acknowledge as a Christian any man who has not attained it. In this way all would be excluded from the Church, since there is no man who is not far removed from this perfection, while many, who have made but little progress, would be undeservedly rejected. What then? Let us set this before our eye as the end at which we ought constantly to aim. Let it be regarded as the goal towards which we are to run. For you cannot divide the matter with God, undertaking part of what his word enjoins, and omitting part at pleasure. For, in the first place, God uniformly recommends integrity as the principal part of his worship, meaning by integrity real singleness of mind, devoid of gloss and fiction, and to this is opposed a double mind; as if it had been said, that the spiritual commencement of a good life is when the internal affections are sincerely devoted to God, in the cultivation of holiness and justice. But seeing that, in this earthly prison of the body, no man is supplied with strength sufficient to hasten in his course with due alacrity, while the greater number are so oppressed with weakness, that hesitating, and halting, and even crawling on the ground, they make little progress, let every one of us go as far as his humble ability enables him, and prosecute the journey once begun. No one will travel so badly as not daily to make some degree of progress. This, therefore, let us never cease to do, that we may daily advance in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair because of the slender measure of success. How little soever the success may correspond with our wish, our labour is not lost when to-day is better than yesterday, provided with true singleness of mind we keep our aim, and aspire to the goal, not speaking flattering things to ourselves, nor indulging our vices, but making it our constant endeavour to become better, until we attain to goodness itself. If during the whole course of our life we seek and follow, we shall at length attain it, when relieved from the infirmity of flesh we are admitted to full fellowship with God.[John Calvin]

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Let your company be always such as you may get good from, and do good unto. When you are alone, think of good things; and when you are in company, speak of good things. Keep the truth, and the truth will keep you. And whatever mercy or blessing you recieve, trace it to Heaven's gates, and to Christ's blood; for it flowed from Christ's blood, and leads you to Heaven. [William Bridge]

For at my first entry into this trial (being cast down and troubled
with challenges and jealousies of His love, whose name and testimony
I now bear in my bonds), I feared nothing more than that I was casten
over the dyke of the vineyard, as a dry tree. But, blessed be His
dear name, the dry tree was in the fire, and was not burnt; His dew
came down and quickened the root of a withered plant. And now He is
come again with joy, and has been pleased to feast His exiled and
afflicted prisoner with the joy of His consolations. Now I weep, but
am not sad; I am chastened, but I die not; I have loss, but I want
nothing; this water cannot drown me, this fire cannot burn me,
because of the good-will of Him that dwelt in the Bush. The worst
things of Christ, His reproaches, His cross, are better than Egypt's
treasures. I would not give, nor exchange, my bonds for the prelates'
velvets; nor my prison for their coaches; nor my sighs for all the
world's laughter. This clay-idol, the world, has no great court in my
soul. Christ has come and run away to heaven with my heart and my
love, so that neither love is mine:- Samuel Rutherford, Letter
XXVII. To LADY HALHILL,ABERDEEN, March 14, 1637

Labels: Samuel Rutherford

3. Elevation, and often lifting up of the heart towards heaven. What Christian heart can endure to discontinue its sweet familiarity and humble intercourse with God for one day? Let thy broken heart, therefore, every day, besides solemn and ordinary ejaculations, evening and morning, and upon other special occasions, be sure, 1. To bathe itself deliciously in the blissful depths of God's boundless mercies in Christ, that it may be happily kept, spiritually joyful, thankful, and in love with all holy duties. 2. To kiss sweetly the glorified body of our crucified Lord, with the lips of infinitely dearest, and inexpressibly affectionate love,—though the distance be great, yet the hand of faith will bring them easily together,—that it may be preserved in peace, purity, and revengeful opposition unto sin. For, as the application of his meritorious blood is a sovereign remedy to heal the wounded conscience, to turn crimson and scarlet into snow and wool, so, methinks, a serious and compassionate commemoration of the dear effusion thereof should be both a precious corrosive to eat out the heart of corruption, and a special preservative to keep from sin, since sin was the principal in slaughtering the Lord of life. 3. To cast the eye of hope upon the glory, everlastingness, and unutterable excellences of that immortal, shining crown above, which, after this life, (and this life is but a bubble, a smoke, a shadow, a thought,) shall be set upon thy head by the hand of God; a very glimpse of the goodly splendour and enrapturing beauty whereof, is able both to sweeten the bitterest villanies and basest wrongs from the world and wicked men, and to dispel those mists of fading vanities and hurtful fumes of honours, riches, and earthly pleasures, which this great dunghill of the world, heated by the fire of inordinate lusts, is wont to evaporate, and interpose between the sight of men's souls and the bliss of heaven. [Robert Bolton]

Here is a just reproof to such as are discontented with their condition. This disease is almost epidemical. Some not content with the calling which God hath set them in, must be a step higher, from the plough to the throne; who like the spider in the Proverbs, will “take hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” Others from the shop to the pulpit; (Nu. 12. 2) they would be in the temple of honour, before they are in the temple of virtue; who step into Moses’ chair, without Aaron’s bells and pomegranates; like apes, which do most show their deformity when they are climbing. It is not enough that God hath bestowed gifts upon men, in private to edify; that he hath enriched them with many mercies? but, “seek ye the priesthood also?” (Nu. 16. 10) What is this but discontent arising from high flown pride? These do secretly tax the wisdom of God, that he hath not screwed them up in their condition a peg higher. Every man is complaining that his estate is no better, though he seldom complains that his heart is no better. One man commends this kind of life, another commends that; one man thinks a country-life best, another a city-life; the soldier thinks it best to be a merchant, and the merchant to be a soldier. Men can be content to be anything but what God would have them. How is it that no man is contented? Very few Christians have learned St Paul’s lesson: neither poor nor rich know how to be content, they can learn anything but this. [Thomas Watson]

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Presbyterians Do Not Observe Holy Days. We believe, and teach, in our public formularies, that "there is no day, under the Gospel dispensation, commanded to be kept holy, except the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath." We believe, indeed, and declare, in the same formula, that it is both scriptural and rational, to observe special days of Fasting and Thanksgiving, as the extraordinary dispensations of Divine Providence may direct. But we are persuaded, that even the keeping of these days, when they are made stated observances, recurring, of course, at particular times, whatever the aspect of Providence may be, is calculated to promote formality and superstition, rather than the edification of the body of Christ. [Samuel Miller]