Meg

“The gifts do not belong to us. They are given to us to be used for a purpose. They whisper to us. The greatest among us are not the most gifted. They are the ones who listen to their purpose, no matter how small.”
― Nelson, Rachelle

“I remember on one occasion, when we met, he asked what my last Sabbath's subject had been. It had been, 'The wicked shall be turned into hell.' On hearing this awful text, he asked, 'Were you able to preach it *with tenderness*?' Certain it is that the tone of reproach and upbraiding is widely different from the voice of solemn warning. It is not saying hard things that pierces the consciences of our people; it is the voice of Divine love heard amid the thunder. The sharpest point of the two-edged sword is not *death* but *life*; and against self-righteous souls this latter ought to be more used than the former. For such souls can hear us tell of the open gates of hell and the unquenchable fire far more unconcernedly than of the gates of heaven wide-open for their immediate return. When we preach that the glad tidings *were intended to impart immediate assurance of eternal life to every sinner that believes them*, we strike deeper upon the proud enmity of the world to God, than when we show the eternal curse and the second death.”
― Andrew Bonar;R. M. McCheyne

“The principle was, death should not be entered like some snug harbor. It should be an unambiguous refusal to surrender.”
― Thomas Keneally, Schindler’s List

“Do not focus your thoughts among the confused wheels of secondary causes, as -'O if this had been, this had not followed!' Look up to the master motion of the first wheel. In building, we see hewn stones and timbers under hammers and axes, yet the house in this beauty we do not see at the present, but it is in the mind of this builder. We also see unbroken clods, furrows, and stones, but we do not see the summer lilies, roses, and the beauty of a garden. Even so we do not presently see the outcome of God's decrees with his blessed purpose. It is hard to believe when his purpose is hidden and under the ground. Providence has a thousand keys to deliver his own even when all hope is gone. Let us be faithful and care for our own part, which is to do and suffer for him, and lay Christ's part on himself and leave it there; duties are ours, events are the Lord's.”
― Samuel Rutherford