Being out of commission for 20 days can add up some backlog of sorts. So for all who enjoy the quotes as much as I do, here's a smattering of some I meant to post, but couldn't.
“I perceived my danger, and cried out in horror, and then, at the very moment of my extremity, came the needed help, “thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.” Often enough is this the case, we feel our weakness, and see our danger, and in fear and trembling we cry out. At such times nothing can help us but mercy; we can make no appeal to any fancied merit, for we feel that it is our inbred sin which makes our feet so ready to fail us; our joy is that mercy endureth for ever, and is always at hand to pluck us out of the danger, and hold us up, where else we should fall to our destruction.
Ten thousand times has this verse been true in relation to some of us, and especially to the writer of this comment. The danger was imminent, it was upon us, we were going; the peril was apparent, we saw it, and were aghast at the sight; our own heart was failing, and we concluded that it was all over with us; but then came the almighty interposition: we did not fall, we were help up by an unseen hand, the devices of the enemy were frustrated, and we sang for joy.”
- Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers), 146.
“No one can truly change who does not know and rely on gifts from the hand of the Lord. Since Christ is both Giver and Gift, attempts to change without grace are barren of the very purpose, power, and Person that change is about. Self-manufactured change does not dislodge almighty me from the center of my tiny self-manufactured universe.
Still in the futility of my mind and the hardness of my heart, I only act a bit different. Successful living without grace describes mere self-reformation: get your act together, save your marriage, get off your duff and get a job. Failure in living describes failed self-efforts: when you can’t get a grip, you despair. Christless, grace-less attempts at change conclude either with the praise of your own glory or with your shame.”
- David Powlison, Seeing With New Eyes
“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” - Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed
“In a word, there is not the meanest, the weakest, the poorest believer on the earth, but Christ prizeth him more than all the world besides. Were our hearts filled much with thoughts hereof, it would tend much to our consolation.” - John Owen, Communion with God
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