SOME SHORT SAYINGS OF JOHN FLAVEL

John Flavel was a Puritan who lived from 1628-1691. He had some very spiritual writings. His works are available in our day from Banner of Truth, and much of it online. Among his best known works are "The Mystery of Providence" and "Keeping the Heart".

"One act of faith in the Lord Jesus pleases God more than all thy strivings to meet the claims of his law, through thy whole life, can do."

"Take away the knowledge of Christ, and Christians would be the most sad and melancholy beings in the world."

"As God did not at first choose you because you were high, He will not now forsake you because you are low."

"Though you cannot make the gospel effectual, yet the Spirit of God can make the means you are capable of using effectual."

"The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying."

JELLYFISH CHRISTIANITY--J.C. RYLE

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900), the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, was one of the soundest preachers and writers of his time. There were so many good things he had to say. He battled against the creeping liberalism of his denomination. He is remembered with fondness by the majority of Reformed Christians of our day. One of my favorite excerpts of his follows. You can still obtain most of his writings today.

“One plague of our age is the widespread dislike to what men are pleased to call dogmatic theology. In the place of it, the idol of the day is a kind of jellyfish Christianity – a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or sinew, – without any distinct teaching about the atonement or the work of the Spirit, or justification, or the way of peace with God – a vague, foggy, misty Christianity, of which the only watchwords seem to be, ‘You must be…liberal and kind. You must condemn no man’s doctrinal views. You must consider everybody is right and nobody is wrong’. And this creedless kind of religion, we are told, is to give us peace of conscience! And not to be satisfied with it in a sorrowful, dying world, is a proof that you are very narrow-minded! Satisfied, indeed! Such a religion might possibly do for unfallen angels! But to tell sinful, dying men and women, with the blood of our father Adam in our veins, to be satisfied with it, is an insult to common sense and a mockery of our distress. We need something far better than this. We need the blood of Christ."

The Upper Room; chapter six, “One Blood”, page 99; Banner of Truth, London, 1977 reprint

EXPOSITION OF PSALM 8:1- CHARLES SPURGEON

Mr. Spurgeon! He has been called an Arminian, and a Hyper-Calvinist and everything in between. He must have been doing something right! When you go with the word of God as it is, you will be opposed by many enemies, but God will see you through. During this series of Spurgeon short articles, I am again enjoying his depth and love of Christ. Here he gives exposition of the first verse of one of my favorite Psalms. I hope you enjoy it as much as I, a few quaint words and all. cw


Verse 1. Unable to express the glory of God, the Psalmist utters a note of exclamation. O Jehovah our Lord! We need not wonder at this, for no heart can measure, no tongue can utter, the half of the greatness of Jehovah. The whole creation is full of his glory and radiant with the
excellency of his power; his goodness and his wisdom are manifested on every hand. The countless myriads of terrestrial beings, from man the head, to the creeping worm at the foot, are all supported and nourished by the Divine bounty. The solid fabric of the universe leans upon his eternal arm.

Universally is he present, and everywhere is his name excellent. God worketh ever and everywhere. There is no place where God is not. The miracles of his power await us on all sides. Traverse the silent valleys where the rocks enclose you on either side, rising like the battlements of heaven till you can see but a strip of the blue sky far overhead; you may be the only traveler who has passed through that glen; the bird may start up affrighted, and the moss may tremble beneath the first tread of human foot; but God is there in a thousand wonders, upholding yon rocky barriers, filling the flowercups with their perfume, and refreshing the lonely pines with the breath of his mouth. Descend, if you will, into the lowest depths of the ocean. where undisturbed the water sleeps, and the very sand is motionless in unbroken quiet, but the glory of the Lord is there, revealing its excellence in the silent palace of the sea. Borrow the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, but God is there. Mount to the highest heaven, or dive into the deepest hell, and God is in both hymned in everlasting song, or justified in terrible vengeance. Everywhere, and in every place, God dwells and is manifestly at work. Nor on earth alone is Jehovah extolled, for his brightness shines forth in the firmament
above the earth. His glory exceeds the glory of the starry heavens; above the region of the stars he hath set fast his everlasting throne, and there he dwells in light ineffable. Let us adore him "who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; who maketh Arcturus,Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south." (Job 9:8-9.) We can scarcely find more fitting words than those of Nehemiah 9:6, "Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee"

Returning to the text we are led to observe that this Psalm is addressed to God, because none but the Lord himself can fully know his own glory. The believing heart is ravished with what it sees, but God only knows the glory of God. What a sweetness lies in the little word our, how
much is God's glory endeared to us when we consider our interest in him as our Lord.
How excellent is thy name! no words can express that excellency; and therefore it is left as a note of exclamation. The very name of Jehovah is excellent, what must his person be. Note the fact that even the heavens cannot contain his glory, it is set above the heavens, since it is and ever must be too great for the creature to express. When wandering among the Alps, we felt that the Lord was infinitely greater than all his grandest works, and under that feeling we roughly wrote these few lines:—

Yet in all these how great soe'er they be, We see not Him.
The glass is all too dense And dark, or else our earthborn eyes too dim.
Yon Alps, that lift their heads above the clouds
And hold familiar converse with the stars,
Are dust, at which the balance trembleth not,
Compared with His divine immensity.
The snow-crown'd summits fail to set Him forth,
Who dwelleth in Eternity, and bears Alone, the name of High and Lofty One.
Depths unfathomed are too shallow to express
The wisdom and the knowledge of the Lord.
The mirror of the creatures has no space To bear the image of the Infinite. '
Tis true the Lord hath fairly writ his name,
And set his seal upon creation's brow.
But as the skilful potter much excels
The vessel which he fashions on the wheel,
E'en so, but in proportion greater far,
Jehovah's self transcends his noblest works.
Earth's ponderous wheels would break, her axles snap,
If freighted with the load of Deity.
Space is too narrow for the Eternal's rest,
And time too short a footstool for his throne.
E'en avalanche and thunder lack a voice,
To utter the full volume of his praise.
How then can I declare him?
Where are words With which my glowing tongue may speak his name?
Silent I bow, and humbly I adore.

From Treasury of David, Volume One, on Psalm eight, verse one.