Top 211 Quotes & Sayings by Matthew Henry - Page 2

Seducers are more dangerous enemies to the church than persecutors.

The counsels and decrees of God do not truckle to the frail and fickle will of man.

None so blind as those who will not see.

There is one death bed repentance recorded in the Bible (the thief on the cross), so that no one despair, but there is ONLY one, so that no one will presume.

God's Word must be the guide of your desires and the ground of your expectations in prayer.

Love is the root; obedience is the fruit.

Those that set God always before them and walk before him with all their hearts, shall find him as good as his word and better; he will both keep covenant with them and show mercy to them.

Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth.

Everlasting life is a jewel of too great a value to be purchased by the wealth of this world.

Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offences, we should be less apt to judge other people.

Man takes a great deal of pains to heap up riches, and they are but like heaps of manure in the furrows of the field, good for nothing unless they be spread.

What we count the ills of life are often blessings in disguise, resulting in good to us in the end. Though for the present not joyous but grievous, yet, if received in a right spirit, they work out fruits of righteousness for us at last.

May Christ be our joy, our confidence, our all. May we daily be made more like to Him, and more devoted to His service.

The God of Israel is sometimes a God who hides Himself, but never a God who absents Himself; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.

The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies, and, put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks.

Hard words indeed break no bones, but many a heart has been broken by them.

That which God plants he will take care to keep watered.

We have no sufficient strength of our own. All our sufficiency is of God. We should stir up ourselves to resist temptations in a reliance upon God's all-sufficiency and the omnipotence of his might.

The riches we impart are the only wealth we shall always retain.

God is either your worst enemy or your best friend.

When Christ was about to leave the world, He made His will. His soul He committed to His father; His body He bequeathed to Joseph to be decently interred; His clothes fell to the soldiers; His mother He left to the care of John; but what should He leave to His poor disciples that had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them that which was infinitely better, His peace.

The best evidence of our having the truth is our walking in the truth.

What peace can they have who are not at peace with God?

Anger cannot rest in the bosom where love reigns.

In all God's providences, it is good to compare His word and His works together; for we shall find a beautiful harmony between them, and that they mutually illustrate each other.

. . . when we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can.

The service of sin is perfect slavery.

Prayer is the breath of the new man, drawing in the air of mercy in petitions, and returning it in praises; it proves and maintains the spiritual life.

For love is of God. He is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of his law and gospel.

Knowledge is vain and fruitless which is not reduced to practice.

See what a hidden life the life of a good Christian is, and how much it is concealed from the eye and observation of the world. The most important part of the business lies between God and our own souls, in the frame of our spirits and the working of our hearts, in our actions that no eye sees except the all-seeing God. Justly are the saints called God's hidden ones, and His secret is said to be with them. They have meat to eat and work to do that the world does not know of, as well as joys, griefs, and cares that a stranger does not share.

None so blind, so deaf, as those that will not hear, that will not see.

The grace that saves them is the free undeserved goodness and favor of God.

Nothing exposes religion more to the reproach of its enemies than the worldliness and half-heartedness of the professors of it.

We best oppose error by promoting a solid knowledge of the word of truth, and the greatest kindness we can do to children, is to make them early to know the Bible.

God cannot be represented by an image. We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. We wrong God, and put an affront upon him, if we think so. God honoured man in making his soul after his own likeness; but man dishonours God if he makes him after the likeness of his body. The Godhead is spiritual, infinite, immaterial, incomprehensible, and therefore it is a very false and unjust conception which an image gives us of God.

God's promises are to be our pleas in prayer.

Those who have a heart to do good, never need complain for want of opportunity.

A good man is willing to know the worst of himself, and particularly under affliction, desires to be told wherefore God contends with him and what God designs in correcting him.

It is our duty not to not only hold fast, but to hold forth the Word of life; not only to hold fast for our own benefit, but to hold it forth for the benefit of others, to hold it forth as the candlestick holds forth the candle, which makes it appear to advantage all around, or as the luminaries of the heavens, which shed their influences far and wide.

They that pray in the family do well; they that pray and read the Scriptures do better; but they that pray, and read, and sing do best of all.

We have a cunning adversary, who watches to do mischief, and will promote errors, even by the words of scripture.

No man will say, "There is no God" 'till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest that there should be none to call him to account.

The best we can say to God in prayer, is what He has said to us.

You have been used to take notice of the sayings of dying men — this is mine: That a life spent in the service of God, and communion with him, is the most comfortable and pleasant life that one can live in the present world.

A modest dress is a very good thing, if it be the genuine indication of a humble heart, and is to instruct; but it is a bad thing if it be the hypocritical disguise of a proud ambitious heart, and is to deceive. Let men be really as good as they seem to be, but not seem to be better than really they are.

Those who complain most are most to be complained of.

When God is about to give His people the expected good, He pours out a Spirit of prayer, and it is a good sign that He is coming towards them in mercy.

If ill thoughts at any time enter into the mind of a good man, he doth not roll them under his tongue as a sweet morsel.

Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it.

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before; second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life; third, because although they took my all, it was not much; and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.

God warns before he wounds.

Those whom God will employ are first struck with a sense of their unworthiness to be employed.

It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for Him.

In order to the attaining of all useful knowledge this is most necessary, that we fear God; we are not qualified to profit by the instructions that are given us unless our minds be possessed with a holy reverence of God, and every thought within us be brought into obedience to Him.... As all our knowledge must take rise from the fear of God, so it must tend to it as its perfection and centre. Those know enough who know how to fear God, who are careful in every thing to please Him and fearful of offending Him in any thing; this is the Alpha and Omega of knowledge.

Brotherly love is still the distinguishing badge of every true Christian.

You may as soon find a living man who does not breathe, as a living Christian who does not pray.

None can know their election but by their conformity to the image of Christ; for all that are chosen are chosen to sanctification.

Wherever the fear of God rules in the heart, it will appear both in works of charity and piety, and neither will excuse us from the other.

None live so easily, so pleasantly, as those that live by faith.