Our Bible!!

Our Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons, a pharmacy of infallible medicines, a mine of exhaustless wealth, a guidebook for every road, a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady, and a balm for every wound! 

Rob us of our Bible, and our sky has lost its sun! 

[Thomas Guthrie]

2 Timothy 3:16 ... All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Romans 10:17 ... So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Psalm 119:105 ... Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. ❤

They Way To Happiness

Our happiness depends in a very small degree upon what is external to us. The springs of happiness lie deep within. Yet, how common it is to think otherwise! Hence the keen pursuit of pleasure, lovers' sighs, war's fierce ambition, the student's patient labor as he feeds his midnight lamp with the oil of life, the panting race for fleeting riches, the desperate struggles some make to keep themselves from sinking into poverty, and the toil and trouble others endure. And to say nothing of the sins which these may alike commit, simply to rise in the world, as it is called, to keep a better table, to wear a better dress, to live in a better house than satisfied their humble, but happier parents. 

These paths crowded and beaten down though they are by the feet of thousands who are treading on each other's heels never yet conducted any man to happiness. Never! It lies in another direction. Whatever his condition is poor, or rich; pining on a sick bed, or with health glowing on his cheek; to be married tomorrow, or to be hanged tomorrow; "Blessed," or, as we would say, Happy, "is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered!" 

The way to happiness does not lie in attempting to bring our circumstances up to our desires but our desires down to our circumstances. 

[Thomas Guthrie]

Psalm 32:1-2 ... Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.  ❤

Stop Groaning.

There is no such thing as chance. All the reins that guide and govern the world are gathered into the hands of Jesus. His care of His people extends to the most common, minute, and apparently trivial matters all are links in the golden chain of providence. 

Divine Providence is a comforting doctrine, too precious to be parted with! Let the thought that Jesus watches over all your affairs, and guards your welfare, and guides all your ways banish your every anxious care. 

I do not say that you will never be disappointed, but certainly you ought never to be discontented. Many things in your circumstances may occasion anxious thought, but nothing should occasion or can excuse sinful repining. Child of God! He has numbered the hairs of your head, as well as the stars of Heaven! 

[Thomas Guthrie] 

Matthew 10:29-31 ... Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

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Behold, The Creeping Worm

Behold the creeping worm, it is bred in corruption, it crawls on the ground, its food is the coarsest fare. But in time, it undergoes its wonderful metamorphosis. The wriggling caterpillar becomes a winged and painted butterfly! And at this change, along with its old skin, it casts off its old habits and instincts. Now, it has a will as well as wings to fly. Now its bed is the bosom of a flower, its food is the honeyed nectar, its home is the sunny air, and new instincts animate its frame. 

The change within, corresponds to the change without. It now spurns the ground and, as you may gather from its merry, mazy dance the creature is happy, and delights in the new duties which it is called to perform. 

Just so it is in that change which grace works in sinners! Their nature is now so accommodated to their redeemed state, their wishes are so fitted to their wants, their hopes are so fitted to their prospects, their aspirations are so fitted to their honors, and their will is so fitted to their work that they would be less content to return to their old polluted pleasures than the beautiful butterfly would desire to be stripped of its silken wings, and condemned to pass its days amid the old, foul garbage, its former food! 

[Thomas Guthrie]

2 Corinthians 5:17 ... Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

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Amazing Spectacle

A most amazing spectacle is here; the Son of God turns His back on Heaven! He leaves the bosom and happy fellowship of his Father, He bares his own bosom to the sword of justice, and in the depths of a love never to be fathomed.  He dies on that accursed tree, the just for the unjust, that we might be saved!

[Thomas Guthrie]

1 Peter 3:18 ... For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

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More Value!!

All the reins that guide and govern the world are gathered into the hands of Jesus.  There is no such thing as chance.   His care of His people extends to the most common, minute, and apparently trivial matters, all are links in the golden chain of providence. Divine Providence is a comforting doctrine, too precious to be parted with! 

Let the thought that Jesus watches over all your affairs, and guards your welfare, and guides all your ways banish your every anxious care.  I do not say that you will never be disappointed, but certainly you ought never to be discontented. Many things in your circumstances may occasion anxious thought, but nothing should occasion or can excuse sinful repining. Child of God! He has numbered the hairs of your head, as well as the stars of Heaven! Believer, what are you doing, going groaning through the world beneath a load of fears and cares? What should discourage you? What should disturb your peace?  What can ruffle the calm spirit of a man who knows that the hands which were once nailed to the tree for him, now hold the helm of his destiny? 

The blessed Savior, who by love's golden scepter reigns within his heart, holds sovereign sway over earth and Heaven; and by both bitter and sweet providences, by both coffins and cradles, by both disappointments and joys, by both losses and gains, shall cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. 

[Thomas Guthrie]

Matthew 10:29-31 ... Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

✫❤•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫...•°*”˜˜”*°•.❤✫

Same Coat?

You may know a sheep from a swine, when both have fallen into the same mire and are, in fact, so bemired, that neither by coat nor color can the one be distinguished from the other. How then distinguish them? Nothing more easy!

The sheep is a type of the godly, strives and struggles to get out of the muck. But the swine, in circumstances agreeable to its nature, wallows in the filth.

[Thomas Guthrie]

2 Peter 2:22 … But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Matthew 7:15-16 ...Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?❤

The Bible is...

The Bible is an armory of heavenly weapons, a pharmacy of infallible medicines,  a mine of exhaustless wealth, a guidebook for every road,  a chart for every sea, a medicine for every malady,  and a balm for every wound!   Rob us of our Bible, and our sky has lost its sun!"

[Thomas Guthrie]

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Psalm 119:97 ... O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

2 Samuel 22:31 ... As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

Acts 20:32 ... And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.❤

That Cold Creeping Worm

Look at that cold creeping worm! The playful child shudders from its touch!  Yet in a few weeks, and with merry laugh and flying feet, that same child over flowery meadow, is hunting an insect that never lights upon the ground but flitting in painted beauty from flower to flower drinks nectar from their cups, and sleeps the summer night away in the bosom of their perfumes.

If that is the same boy this is also the same creature. The change most wonderful!  Yet this is but a dull, earthly emblem of the divine transformation wrought on those who are converted by God!

Fallen though he is, man is capable of undergoing a more wondrous change than the insect when, no longer a worm, no longer crawling on the ground, no longer feeding on garbage, it leaves its shell to spend its happy days in sport, flitting from flower to flower; its food their sweet juices, and its bed their tender leaves.

The spiritual change which we call conversion, is not a mere reform. It is a mighty revolution, a revolution greater than the tomes of secular history. Conversion changes the heart, the habits, and the eternal destiny of an immortal being!

Conversion does not bestow new faculties. Yet our affections, our temperament, our will, and our judgment partake of this great and holy change. Thus, the understanding is enlightened; the will is renewed; and our whole temperament is sweetened and sanctified by the Spirit of God.

[Thomas Guthrie]

Acts 15:3 ... And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ... Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.


Hebrews 10:10 ... By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.❤

How Many Vile Weeds Grow There?

We should certainly attempt always to follow Jesus, to walk as He walked, to speak as He spoke,  to think as He thought, and to mold our whole conduct and life on the pattern that He has left us. Yet our best attempts will leave us more and more convinced that our only hope for redemption, salvation, and forgiveness, lies in the mercy of the Father, and the merits of the Son.

Even after we have been made new creatures in Jesus Christ, the most that we can do even with the aid of the Holy Spirit is to creep along the path which the Savior walked, and leave the mark of our knees, where He left the prints of His feet.

Christian, your corruptions have suffered a mortal wound but they are not dead.

Your affections rise upward to Heaven yet how much are they held back by the things of earth.

Though your heart turns to Christ, like the compass needle to the pole how easily is it disturbed, how tremblingly it points to Him.

Your spirit has wings yet how short are its flights, and how often, like a half-fledged eaglet, has it to return to its nest on the Rock of Ages.

Your soul is a garden where Christ delights to walk when the north and south winds blow, to inhale its spices yet with many lovely flowers, how many vile weeds grow there!

[Thomas Guthrie]

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Psalm 32:1-2 ... Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.



Ephesians 5:1-2 ... Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;  And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

1 Peter 2:21 ... For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:❤

I Would Not Live Here Always

In his best hours, home, his own sinless home, a home with his Father above that starry sky will be the wish of every Christian. He looks around him, the world is full of suffering; he is distressed by its sorrows, and vexed with its sins. He looks within him, he finds much in his own corruptions to grieve for. In the language of a heart repelled, grieved, vexed, he often turns his eye upward, saying, "I would not live here always!"

Not for all the gold of the world's mines;  not for all the pearls of her seas;  not for all the pleasures of her flashing, frothy cup; not for all the crowns of her kingdoms would I live here always!  Like a bird about to migrate to those sunny lands where no winter sheds her snows, or strips the grove, or binds the dancing streams, the Christian will often in spirit be pruning his wing for the hour of his flight to glory!

[Thomas Guthrie]

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Job 7:16 ... I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

Psalm 55:6 ... And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

Philippians 1:23 ... For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:❤

His Humblest Works

The British Museum possessed in the Portland Vase one of the finest remains of ancient art. It may be remembered how, some years ago, the world of culture was shocked to hear that this precious relic had been shattered by a maniac's hand.

Without disparaging cultured taste, or this exquisite example of it, I venture to say that there is not a poor worm which we tread upon, nor a sere leaf which dances merrily in its fallen state to the autumn winds but has superior claims upon our study and admiration. The child who plucks a lily or rose to pieces, or crushes the fragile form of a fluttering insect destroys an intricate work which the highest human art could not invent, nor man's best skilled hand construct!

There is not a leaf which quivers on the trees of the forest which does not eclipse the brightest glories of the painter's brush or the sculptor's chisel! A simple flower has no rival among the triumphs of invention, which the silly world flocks to see.

Yes, in His humblest works, God infinitely surpasses the highest efforts of all created skill.

[Thomas Guthrie]

Psalm 33:5 ... He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

Psalm 104:24 ... O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

Psalm 19:1-2 ... The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.❤

The Creeping Worm

Behold the creeping worm: it is bred in corruption, it crawls on the ground, its food is the coarsest fare.  But in time, it undergoes its wonderful metamorphosis. The wriggling caterpillar becomes a winged and painted butterfly! And at this change, along with its old skin, it casts off its old habits and instincts. Now, it has a will as well as wings to fly.  Now its bed is the bosom of a flower, its food is the honeyed nectar, its home is the sunny air, and new instincts animate its frame.  The change within, corresponds to the change without. It now spurns the ground and, as you may gather from its merry, mazy dance, the creature is happy, and delights in the new duties which it is called to perform.

Just so it is in that change which grace works in sinners! Their nature is now so accommodated to their redeemed state, their wishes are so fitted to their wants, their hopes are so fitted to their prospects, their aspirations are so fitted to their honors, and their will is so fitted to their work that they would be less content to return to their old polluted pleasures than the beautiful butterfly would desire to be stripped of its silken wings, and condemned to pass its days amid the old, foul garbage, its former food!

[Thomas Guthrie]

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2 Corinthians 5:17 ... Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Galatians 6:14 ... For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Revelation 21:4 ... And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.❤

Fattening For Worms

If you are wealthy, you may reside in a splendid mansion but it is only to leave it one day for a dark and narrow house! You may pamper the body with the costliest luxuries but you are only fattening it for worms! Nor can the flashing blaze of a thousand diamonds blind our eyes to the melancholy fact that this mirthful, beautiful, charming body shall, stripped of all its luxury, be wrapped in a shroud, nailed up in a coffin and thrust down into a black hole to rot!

But give me the treasures of redemption my food is heavenly manna, my wine is divine love, my sweet pillow is the bosom of the Son, my strong defense is the arm of Almighty God, my home is that palace, eternal in the heavens!

[Thomas Guthrie]

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1 Timothy 6:7-10 ... For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Colossians 3:1-3 ... If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Matthew 6:19-21 ... Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.❤

Looking On Us

We cannot shake off the presence of God! When our doors are shut, and curtains drawn, and all is still, and darkest night fills our chamber, and we are left alone to the companionship of our thoughts it might keep them pure and holy to say, as if we saw two shining eyes looking on us out of the darkness, "You, O God, see me!"

[Thomas Guthrie]

Psalm 139:7-12 ... Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;  Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Hebrews 4:13 ... Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.❤

The Eyes of Our Understanding

I can imagine few sadder sights than an entire family, parents and children, all blind, a home where the flowers have no beauty, the night has no stars, the morning no blushing dawn, and the azure sky no glorious sun.  A home where they have never looked on each other's faces; but a blind father sits by the dull fire with a blind boy on his knee and the sightless mother nurses at her bosom, a sightless babe that never gladdened her with its happy smile.

How would such a spectacle touch the most callous feelings, and move to pity even a heart of stone!  But a greater calamity is ours. By nature, the eyes of our understanding are darkened!

[Thomas Guthrie]

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2 Corinthians 4:4 ... In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Ephesians 4:18 ... Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Isaiah 42:7 ...  To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

Ephesians 1:18 ... The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,❤

Distinctly On Jesus

Were Jesus Christ a mere man, how could He guard the interests, and manage the affairs of His innumerable people, scattered far and wide over the face of the habitable globe? What heart would be large enough to embrace them all? What eyes could see them all? What ears could hear them all?

Think of the ten thousand prayers pronounced in a hundred different languages that go up at once, and altogether, to His ear! Yet there is no confusion; none are lost; none are missed in the crowd.

Nor are they heard by Him as, standing on yonder lofty crag, we hear the din of the city that lies stretched out far beneath us, with all its sounds of cries, and rumbling wheels, and human voices mixed up into one deep, confused, hollow roar like the boom of the sea's distant breakers.

No! every believer may feel as if he were alone with God enjoying a private audience with the King in His presence-chamber! Be of good cheer. Every groan of your wounded heart; your every sigh, and cry, and prayer falls as distinctly on Jesus' ear as if you stood beside His throne, or, nearer still, lay with John on His bosom, and felt the beating of His heart against your own!

[Thomas Guthrie]

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Hebrews 4:16 ... Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Romans 8:34 ... Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

1 Timothy 2:5 ... For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;❤

Wherever He Turned, The Sun Was There!

The dimness of sin impairs our vision, but were we to see Jesus, as we shall see Him in Heaven.  I think it would happen to us as once it happened to a celebrated philosopher:  Pursuing his discoveries on the subject of light, he ventured on a bold experiment. He fixed his gaze steadily, for some time, on the sun, exposing his naked eyes to the burning beams of the fiery disc.

And such was the impression made on the organ of sight that wherever he turned, the sun was there! If he looked down, the sun was beneath his feet;  it shone in the top of the sky in the murkiest midnight; it blazed on the page of every book he read; he saw it when he shut his eyes and he saw it when he opened them.  The sun was the last object which he saw when he passed into sleep and it was the first to meet his waking eyes.

Happy would it be for us, if we got some such sight of Jesus, and the glory of that Sun of Righteousness were so impressed upon the eye of faith that we could never forget Him, and, ever seeing Him, ever loved Him!

[Thomas Guthrie]

Hebrews 12:2 ... Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Psalm 144:15 ... Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

Malachi 4:2 ... But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.❤

Flee Temptation

Let me warn you that such a holy life as the text enjoins, is impossible to all but those who are on their guard against the beginnings of evil. Take alarm at an evil thought, wish, or desire! These are the germs of sin, the floating seeds which drop into the heart, and finding in our natural corruption a fat and favorable soil, spring up into actual transgressions. These, like the rattle of the snake, or the hiss of the serpent, reveal the presence and nearness of danger!

The experience of all holy men proves that sin is most easily crushed in the bud and that it is safer to flee from temptation than to fight it. Fight like a man when you cannot avoid the battle but rather flee than fight.

Be afraid of temptation, avoid it, abhor it!

[Thomas Guthrie]

Genesis 39:9 ... There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

Genesis 39:12 ... And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out.

Romans 12:9 ... Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

James 4:7 ... Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.❤

The Journey

Facts are more wonderful than fables. The journey which our Divine Lover took was from Heaven to earth. To win His bride, He exchanged the bosom of the eternal Father to lie, a feeble infant, on a woman's bosom. The Son of God left the throne of the universe, and assumed the guise of humanity to be cradled in a feeding trough and murdered on a cross!

In His people, He found His bride deep in debt and paid it all. Herself under sentence of death, He died in her place. A lost creature, clad in rags, He took off His own royal robes to cover her. To wash her, He shed His blood! To win her, He shed His tears! Finding her poor and miserable and naked, He endowed her with all His goods and heir of all things. Everything that He possessed as His Father's Son, she was to forever enjoy and share with Himself!

[Thomas Guthrie]

Isaiah 53:5 ... But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Ephesians 3:19 ... And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Revelation 1:5 ... And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,❤