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  • CHARLES SPURGEON - THE SALT-CELLARS -
    PROVERBS & QUAINT SAYINGS -
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    GAIN when. badly gotten Is sure to turn rotten, This has been seen to be so in a thousand instances. It is no pious dream, or religious superstition, but a matter of common observation. I have noted it often.

    Galled horses can’t endure the comb, Plain truth suits not the man whose conscience it annoys. Those who live upon abases are very savage against reformers.

    Gamblers and swindlers are first cousins.

    Gambling is an express train to ruin.

    Nothing corrupts the entire nature and character of a man more fully than gambling. Who but gamblers would have rattled dice at the foot of the cross? Thousands of young men are led to embezzlement through betting, and from fear of discovery they plunge on from one crime to another.

    Gambling is play in name, but crime in reality., So common is this vice, in one form or another, that it would seem as if the devil were firing dice and slaying his tens of thousands.

    This vice brings every other in its train, including suicide and murder. Great families have been dragged down to degradation by this infatuation. That old prophecy has been fulfilled many a time: — “An ancient house and a noble name, An honest heart and a spotless fame, By the viper’s song and the demon of play, Shall be blighted and lost for ever and aye.” Games of chance are best avoided altogether. “Some play for gain; or to pass time; others play For nothing.

    Both do play the fool I say:

    Not time nor coin rd lose, or idly spend.

    Who gets by play proves loser in the end.” Garments should never be made too tight:

    Homes should be healthy with air and with light, Gather of patience enow; it’s in season, I trow.

    For certain it is greatly needed in these trying times; but it does not grow in all gardens. Go with the Man of Sorrows, and learn of him, and you will be made patient under all trials.

    Geese can hiss, but who minds them?

    The same is true of foolish persons and their censures, they hiss but cannot bite. Why should their opinions influence us?

    Geese with geese; sots with sots.

    Every man by the choice of his society confesses what he is.

    Gentle answers kill growling speeches.

    Gentle manners make the gentleman.

    Gentle words are hard to answer.

    A company of drinking men in Boston, New England, saw Mr.

    Cotton, the venerable pastor, coming along the street. “I will go,” said one of them, “and put a trick upon old Cotton.” Crossing over the road the rude fellow whispers into the minister’s’ ear: “Cotton, thou art an old fool. Mr. Cotton replied, “I am afraid I am so. The Lord make both thee and me wiser than we are, even wise to salvation.” The fellow returned to his companions thoroughly ashamed; and, when they had forced him to repeat good Mr.

    Cotton’s words, their frolic came to an end. Hard language would have set them on reply, but the soft word silenced them.

    Gentle words fall lightly, but they have great weight.

    Get clean money, or none:

    Mark this, my son!

    The reverse of the old advice — “Get money: get it honestly, if you can; but if not, get it — anyhow.” Some money ought to smell badly. If the conscience had a nose, and the man had a conscience, he would not be able to live within ten miles of his money.

    Get light from smoke, not smoke from light.

    Learn from obscure sayings, but do not make plain doctrines obscure. German smoke has hail a good deal to do with “modern theology. Many follow the negro’s advice when he said “Bredren, let us proceed to confound this text.”

    Get rid of slugs and sluggards.

    Neither of them are good in gardens, or anywhere else.

    Get the coffin ready, and the man won’t die.

    Often it happens that the expected comes not, but the unexpected happens. Some men find all things go wrong with them. If they went to the sea it would be dry. One of them wrote: — ‘T was ever thus from childhood’s hour, That chilling fate has on me fell, There always comes a soaking shower, When I hain’t got no umberell!

    Others are so fortunate that if they fell overboard they would come out of water with their pockets full of fish. Thus is a manifest sovereignty seen in providence in more ways than some men care to own.

    Gifts are not grace, yet grace is the gift of gifts. “He that hath the least grace is a Christian; he that hath the greatest gifts may be no more than almost a Christian.” — Mead.

    Give a dog an ill name, and hang him.

    The Quaker is reputed to have said to the cur, “I’ll not beat thee, nor hang thee, but I’ll give thee an ill name.”

    Give a Yorkshireman a halter, and he’ll find a horse.

    Both because he is a shrewd man, and also because he is fond of horses. No doubt there is a hint here of something worse; but we do not suppose that there is any ground for the charge. Yorkshiremen, like all other men, look well to their own interests.

    Give alms to the lazy, and you license their laziness.

    Giving should be performed with discretion, or we may do harms with our alms. Some give only to indulge their kindly feeling, like one of whom it was said, “He would have held an umbrella over a duck in a shower of rain.”

    Give an inch, and he’ll take an ell.

    This is called “cheek;” and cheek is commonly indulged at the expense of those whose generosity verges upon greenness.

    Give no man counsel or physic till he asks it.

    He will not value it even if it should prove to be wise, and you will have the blame if it turns out to be unsuitable. Advice gratis Seldom great is.

    Give rocks and rascals a wide berth.

    Either of them may wreck you; they cannot do your ship or yourself any good. Distance lends enchantment to the view.

    Give the benefit of doubt Till the truth is fully out.

    This is what you would choose if it were your own case, and therefore act thus towards others.

    Give the bird crumbs; God gives you loaves.

    In the winter pay the birds for the songs of spring by feeding them.

    In Sweden, sheaf is always left for the birds.

    Give the devil your eye, and he’ll win your whole body.

    It was so with mother Eve. “And when she saw.” — Genesis 3:6. Trapp says, that “thousands thus die of a wound in the eye.”

    Give the man his bread and cheese, Then applaud him if you please.

    But many give a man praise, but no pudding; and this is poor pay. Luis Camoens, author of the. “Lusiad,” was god of poetry in Portugal, but was allowed to die in the streets of Lisbon like a dog, literally of starvation. Poor fellow, he would gladly have exchanged for solid pudding some of his empty praise!

    Give the mouse a hole, and wonder not that the cheese is taken.

    Let in an ill habit, and it will soon work mischief. Other interpretations readily suggest themselves.

    Give thy purse rather than thy time.

    You may earn more in the time than the money would come to.

    Time, though little thought of, is worth more than gold.

    Give to Peter; but save a penny for Paul.

    Why should one good person, or work, absorb all that you have?

    Give to some people once, and they will expect for ever.

    The Kashmirs say: “An old woman found an apple under a tree, and afterwards she went to that tree every day with a basket.”

    Give to the poor and you shall have more.

    Generosity is not a waster of man’s substance, but an improver of it. “We all can do better than yet we have done, And not be a whit the worse; It never was loving that emptied the heart, Nor giving that emptied the purse.” Give us the meat, and the bones won’t choke us. Rowland Hill, combating the doctrine of priestcraft, that the common people should not be trusted with the Bible, because there are in it things hard to be understood, said: “A boy came running to his father, crying, ‘ I am very hungry; do please give me some meat.’ ‘No, my dear son, for there are hard bones in it, and you cannot eat the bones.’

    Give your horse more corn than cord.

    Give your order, and then do it yourself..

    Thus only can you be sure that it will be done. There is an old saying, “If you send your man, your man will send his dog, and the dog will send his tail, and the tail will be busy wagging, and so nothing will go.”

    Give your tongue more holidays than your head.

    Old Sir Richard Baker says — “The tongue hath this most rare but certain notion, Its virtue shows as much in rest as motion.” And indeed, O rare Sir Richard, in rest it shows more excellence than in any other state! How musical is its silence! Woman, with all thy faults I love thee still! Thy stillness is no mean part of thy loveliness. “The ornament of a quiet spirit” is an ornament indeed.

    Giving feeds love, and lending loses it.

    Because the borrower is shy of you.; and, as he does not repay you, you soon grow shy of him.

    Giving is generally a kind of fishing.

    Pray give a sprat to catch a salmon. Orientals are great at this art, and some in these western parts are becoming proficient.

    Giving is living. Give strength, give thought, give deeds, give self, Give love, give tears, and give thyself.

    Give, give, be always giving:

    Who gives not, is not living.

    Giving is sowing; the larger the sowing, the larger the reaping.

    For this we have inspired assurance, “He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” — 2 Corinthians 9:6.

    Glowing coals will sparkle.

    Where there’s passion there will be burning words: where there’s great talent there will be indications of it, etc.

    Gluttons dig their graves with their teeth.

    Very curious are the instances of this. Here is one, which is reported as an epitaph; but we take leave to doubt if it ever was carved, on a stone: — This disease you ne’er heard tell on, I died from eating too much melon, Be careful, then, all you that feed, I died because I was too greedy.” Gnaw your own bone, and let others alone.

    Many need this advice, for they are always prying and interfering. It is wonderful how few people mind their own business.

    Go after wisdom, or it will never come to you.

    A suggestive preacher once said, “Do not suppose that wisdom is so much flattered at having you for a pupil that she will set you easy lessons, and yet give you the gold medal.”

    Go down for a wife, and up for a friend.

    We are nor sure of the wisdom of this proverb. Still a very superior wife may look down on her husband, if the superiority lies only in rank; but this a true friend will not do.

    Go into the country to hear town news.

    It is often so that which is done in our own street may be first known to us when we are far from home.

    Go not astray from the King’s highway.

    It is the best, and safest road, and on it you are under royal protection. “It shall be called the way of holiness.” — Isaiah 35:8.

    Go not every day to your neighbor’s house.

    So Solomon saith: — “Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor’s house; lest he be weary of thee, and so hate thee.” — Providence 25:17.

    Go through your closet to your Shop or your field.

    Let prayer be the preface to all your business. “Go to Bath!”

    This is good advice if taken literally: the oftener the better. The saying is, however, varied, and takes the form of “Go to Halifax!” “Go to Jericho!” and “Go to Hanover!” In the last shape it may have been a Jacobite wish for the reigning house.

    Go to bed with the lamb, and rise with the lark.

    Go to strangers for charity, to acquaintances for advice, and to relations for nothing — and you will generally get a fair supply.

    Go to the ant — but don’t go to your uncle’s.

    The pawnbroker’s shop is not for the industrious and thrifty.

    God and the doctor we alike adore, But only when in danger, not before.

    The danger o’er, both are alike requited:

    God is forgotten, and the doctor slighted.

    God can send meat by ravens as well as by angels.

    He can make bad men the servants of providence for his people..

    God defends the right.

    God gives sleep to the bad that the good may be undisturbed.

    If lions and wolves never slept, it would be all the harder for the sheep: if knaves were always awake, where were honest men? No doubt wicked men are allowed prosperity, that they may be goodtempered, and the righteous may have rest.

    God gives thee six days; steal not the seventh.

    God helps those who help themselves.

    God helps those who cannot help themselves.

    These two proverbs are equally true; but the last is very sweet to the hopeless and helpless. Our extremity is God’s opportunity; and he is never slow to begin when we have reached the end of our own power and wisdom.

    God is no man’s debtor, but every man’s creditor.

    God knows best how the weather should be, It is better with him than if left to thee.

    God pities weakness, but punishes wickedness.

    God sends clothes when he sends cold.

    This is a matter of experience. God’s own children affirmed it to be so. Though, sometimes, the clothes are not quite what we would prefers they are better than we deserve. We are “gentlemen commoners upon the bounty of Providence;” or, as another puts it, “Our Lord finds us our livery.”

    God sends meat and the devil sends cooks.

    The gift of his providence is often spoiled by those who have the management of it. Cooks, however, to turn to the letter of the proverb, would appear to come from a better quarter than that which is mentioned, for the rhyme has it: — We may live without learning, may live without books; But educated men cannot live without cooks.

    God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.

    Does he? Should lambs be shorn? Is this an excuse for cruelty?

    Some have been quoting this saying as a Scriptural text! — Find it!

    God, who thinks of sparrows, cares for souls.

    God will grind to powder those who grind the poor.

    Godliness is gain; but gain is not godliness.

    God’s mills grind slowly, but they grind small. Longfellow puts it: — “The mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small.

    Though with patience he stands waiting, With exactness grinds he all’ God’s providence is mine inheritance.

    The motto on the old house in Chester. A glorious one.

    God’s wrath comes by measure; his mercy without measure.

    Gold is a base metal in base hands, “Gold begets in brethren hate; Gold in families debate; Gold does friendship separate; Gold does civil wars create.

    A curse, all curses else above, On him who used it; first in love.” Golden cups may carry deadly draughts.

    Riches, fame, honor, may be ruinous temptations. Eloquence, architecture, pomp, music, and so forth, are the golden cup in which the doctrine is proffered to the unwary. — Revelation 17:4.

    Broken dreams cannot fill an empty purse.

    Gone is gone, for ever gone, No Jew will lend a groat thereon.

    Once spent there is no calling money back into the purse, and there is no use in saying, “I used to be worth my hundreds.”

    Good articles sell themselves. “Good wine needs no bush;” and yet who is to know where they sell wine, if there is no sign over the door? Suppose it is true that “the six is in the cellar,” who is to see it when walking the street?

    And who is to know where goods can be bought, if there is no advertisement? Yet it is true that “Good stuffs need no puffs;” and “the best advertisement for the shop must be kept inside” — the quarry of the merchandise must attract purchasers.

    Good bees never turn into drones.

    Such a miracle of natural history has never been reported; there is a final perseverance of workers and of saints.

    Good books enrich; bad books bewitch.

    Yet there is a third class which simply weary the reader. Of such books one wrote: — If there should be another flood, For refuge hither fly; Though all the world should be submerged, This book will still be dry.

    Good cakes and bad customs ought to be broken.

    The older the cakes and the customs, the more need that they be at once broken. A courageous man will never sin because others do, but will instantly bear his practical protest.

    Good comes to better, and Bad to worse.

    There is a law of development in character which runs on this wise: but bad does not come to good except by Conversion.

    Good fences make good neighbors.

    Experience has proved that all rights must be respected between friends as well as foes. Meum and tuum must be rigidly distinguised among the dearest relatives. A dear separation of properties and a keeping out of strays, are both very needful for harmony. Even a wandering hen may scratch up a quarrel, and a hog may uproot an old friendship.

    Good health is above wealth.

    Sir Richard Baker says: To gather riches do net hazard health; For, truth to say, health is the wealth of wealth.

    Good husbands like the Fireside Club best.

    Some philanthropists advocate clubs for working-men; but it is to be feared that they disturb the home, and keep away the husband who should be the band of the house.

    Good is good, But Better Beats it.

    It is for us to endeavor to reach the highest degree of comparison. “Not as though I had already attained.” — Philippians 3:12.

    Good leading deserves good following.

    With such a Leader as Christians have, what manner of people ought they to be?

    Good men take good advice.

    Good milk, good water; But the mixture is not good milk.

    Londoners have abundant opportunity of proving the truth of this sentence. Our skies are not often blue; but we too often see “sky blue.”

    Good nature and good sense must ever join:

    To err is human, to forgive divine.

    Good pastures make fat sheep.

    A ministry rich in gracious doctrine will produce useful and holy Christians.

    Good people live wide apart.

    Yet not so wide apart as they think. There are thousands of reserved ones who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

    Good professors can make good scholars, Good mothers only can make good men. Sydney Smith said, “An ounce of parishioner is worth a pound of clergy.” The future of society is in the hands of mothers.

    Good sees good, and foul sees foul.

    This accounts for the various reports which men give indications of the moral condition of a neighborhood. Each man notices that which is after his own mind. If a vulture should fly over a region it would spy out carcases, where a dove would note clean corn.

    Good sermons need not be long, and bad ones ought not to be.

    Yet, when sermons are very good, the length is not noticed; and bad sermons are always too long, however short they may be.

    Good stuff is often twisted into queer shapes.

    The truth can be distorted. Excellent people are sometimes ugly.

    Good tales marred in the telling, Like peas lost in the shelling.

    Good temper oils the wheels of life — But bad temper puts grit into them. Some men are the pickles, a little of them at a time is quite enough; others are like saccharin, a dust of them sweetens the cup of life.

    Good things are often hard.

    Of course. A thing that can be produced without labor must necessarily be of small value. In this evil world virtue and holiness can never be easy things.

    Good ware makes a good market.

    Few seem to believe this, for they palm off all manner of trumpery; but, in the end, when it is well known, the really good article will win its place.

    Good wine ruins the purse, and bad wine ruins the stomach.

    It is marvelous what connoisseurs spend on choice wines. It is still more marvelous that men suck in, as wine, the vilest mixtures that can be concocted.

    Good wives if they were sold, Were well worth crowns of gold.

    But nobody wishes to sell them; and nobody could buy them if he wished to do so.

    Good wives, like echo, should be true, And speak but when they’re spoken to; Yet not like echo, so absurd, To have for ever the last word!

    This “last word” business is a miserable one. It would seem the best for both husband and wife to leave off angry words at once, and so both hasten to have the last word. As for the wifes being quite so humble as to speak only when she is spoken to, the notion is a relic of savage life, and finds no echo in a Christian man’s head. Among true Christians the wife is the equal of her husband, and is had in honor by him. The wife is not the head, but she is the crown, and that; is higher still.

    Good words cost little, but are worth much.

    Good words without deeds are rushes and reeds.

    Good work ought to get good wages:

    Good wages ought to get good work.

    If master would accept the first line, and workmen the second line, we should be all upon a good line of things. Too often the master cuts down the wage, and the man cuts clown his work, and not only do both sides suffer, but the public suffer also. “Good-fellow” is a costly name.

    To keep up its repute many a foolish person has made of himself a poor fellow, and at last a sad fellow, and a bad fellow.

    Goods are not good unless we do good with them. “To have, and not to use the same, Is not our glory, ‘but our shame.” Goose and Gander are very much alike.

    What is true of woman is true of men, for bad or good.

    Gospel truth must reform us, as well as inform us.

    Religion is practical, if true: it is a light which removes the darkness of sin, as well as the darkness of ignorance.

    Gossiping and lying are brother and sister.

    Alas, for the misery which is caused by a long tongue! The quantity of the gossip could not be kept up if it were restricted to truth, and so evil inventions are added thereto. These at first are a sort of spice and flavoring but in time they become the principal ingredient.

    A modern essayist defines gossip as “the putting of two and two together, and making five of them.” Say fifty, and your are nearer the mark.

    Gossips and frogs drink: and croak.

    Certainly it is so with the gossips. Is it tea they drink? Their gossip is tedious. Do they take spirits? There is an evil spirit in them.

    Gossips speak ill of all till all speak ill of them.

    Grace will last when gold is past.

    Graciousness is better than greatness.

    Grantham gruel: nine grits in a gallon of water.

    Why Grantham is mentioned we know not, except it be that it begins with the letter G. The gruel is nearly as poor as a modern sermon, one globule of gospel in an ocean of words.

    Grape-juice kills more than grape-shot.

    Is it grape-juice? Perhaps Cette and Hamburg can tell us. Much wine comes from places where grapes do not grow. Whether or no, we feel sure that the bottle kills more than the battle.

    Grass, grow while you may!

    Alas! how soon you’ll turn to hay.

    Life is short, death is sure. Let us live while we live.

    Graves are the same: bedeck them how you may.

    The grave is the common bed of rich and poor; and so long as we moulder back to dust, it matters little how we are buried. Yet some distinction is aimed at even among ashes and worms, Witness the complaint upon the tomb at the church door: — “Here I lie beside the door, here I lie because I’m poor, Further in the more they pay, Here I lie as warm as they.” Great bargains are great thieves.

    It usually turns out so. The cheap thing is soon worn out, or there is some concealed flaw which makes it practically useless.

    Great boast, little roast. The more of the mouth, the less of the meat The bigger the brag, the poorer the feat.

    It is so almost always; the smallest boy beats the biggest drum.

    Great bodies move slowly.

    It must be so. Hence the difficulty of moving a corporation, a parliament, or a committee.

    Great cry and little wool, as the man said when he sheared the hog.

    Where there is wool there is no cry, for the sheep before her shearers is dumb.” Where there’s nothing but bristles, the cry is enough to wake the whole parish, and the church too.

    Great greediness to rear, heirs not the money hear.

    In his haste the covetous man makes ducks and drakes of his money. He is apt to try some shady scheme, and his investment shades off into nothing.

    Great oaks were once little acorns.

    Despise not the day of small things. Despair not because your strength is little. Who knows what you may be or do?

    Great peace is better than a great purse.

    Those who have had experience of both of these can certify to the truth of the proverb. Money breeds care, but peace is a jewel.

    Great promisers are bad paymasters.

    This is frequently and notably the case.

    Great quarrels have small beginnings.

    Oh, that they could be crushed in the egg. By a little word, and a slight concession, years of hate would be avoided.

    Great scholars are not always wise men.

    They are sometimes very foolish. Indeed, to make a very special fool the best raw material is a man of unusual education.

    Great scholars may be great sinners.

    Learning does not necessarily better men morally. Satan knows more than any of us, and yet he is not improved by all he knows.

    An educated villain has all the more tools at command with which to do evil.

    Great show and spread, no beef, and little head.

    Like the Hidalgo’s dinner: very little meat, and a great deal of table-cloth, How often is this the cease with mental and spiritual feasts!

    Great thieves wear gold chains, while little thieves have iron ones.

    It would be very shocking to steal a loaf, but to set up a sham company, and net ten thousand pounds by other peoples’ folly, is quite respectable. “A little stealing is a dangerous part, but stealing largely is a noble art: ‘Tis mean to rob a hen-roost or a hen, but stealing thousands makes us gentlemen.” Great weights may hang on small wires.

    On a word or even a book the history of a nation has depended. On a single act a man’s whole life may turn.

    Greed gathers itself poor, and generosity gives itself rich.

    Those who watch men fast have seen that this is frequently true. I have noticed remarkable instances of it. — C.H.S.

    Greed wants the first cut, and all the rest of the joint.

    In the Hindoo story a guest is asked whether he would take biscuits, or a cold breakfast; he replied that he would take biscuits, and a cold breakfast first, and a hot breakfast afterwards. Thus would some men have all they can get, and a great deal they will never get.

    Greedy carvers lay all the meat on their own plates.

    Have you noticed how they save up the green fat of the turtle, and carve the breast of the fowl for themselves?

    Greedy grabbers grudge gleaners.

    It is a miserable policy which keeps out the poor from the stubbles, and sends the horse-rake again and again to get in every single ear.

    Let the poor have their portion; they get little enough. A correspondent of The Guardian writes: — “The remarkable progress of engineering skill in agriculture has well-nigh abolished sweet Ruth and her friends. The modern reaping-machine and selfraking reaper leave behind them no ears of corn of appreciable value to be picked up by industrious mothers and their children.”

    Green are the hills that are far away, But greener the garden where I stay.

    There’s no place like home.

    Grey and green make a bad marriage mixture.

    If the husband is greatly older than the wife he cannot live to bring up the children, and he will probably leave his wife a widow. It is not seemly, and hardly natural, to see sixty wedding twenty.

    Grey hairs are death’s heralds.

    Are they not also the snows of past winters, and the silver of crowns of glory?

    Grief grows by repression; joy by expression.

    Silence causes petty griefs to swell; it is a great solace to tell your sorrow. Sorrow shared is half a trouble, Joy that’s shared is joy made double.

    Grind no man’s name; seek other grist.

    Yet some are never so pleased as when they have a gracious man between their disputes, and are reducing his character to dust.

    Grow angry slowly; there’s plenty of time.

    If you must let anger rise sooner or later, prefer later, and the later the better. In this matter better never than late.

    Growling will not make the kettle boil.

    Grumbling makes the loaf no larger.

    Grunting won’t buy me new shoes.

    These three sayings, and many more, show the timelessness of murmuring; yet we go on with this worthless business, and almost regard it as an Englishman’s privilege to complain. Well may we call the world “a howling wilderness,” if we will persist in howling!

    Guilt on the conscience puts grief on the countenance.

    Where it is real and deep, it is a hard matter to conceal conviction of sin. This heaviness of the heart makes a man stoop.

    Guilty persons are always suspicious.

    They measure others by themselves, and expect others to treat them as they have treated their fellows. One reason for “setting a thief to catch a thief” is because the thief is quick to suspect.

    Gut no fish fill you get them.

    A rough form of the same advice is contained in the warning, “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.”

    SAYINGS OF A MORE SPIRITUAL SORT Give me the Christian that is better seen than heard.

    God breaks the cistern to bring us to the fountain.

    Our creature comforts fail us, and then we go to the Creator Himself. Gainful are the losses which bring us nearer to God.

    God can strike straight strokes with crooked sticks.

    He can work out a holy purpose by overruling the actions of the vilest of men.

    God chose his people for his love, and he loves them for his choice.

    God conceals his purposes, that we may live on his promises.

    It is not for us to pry into his decrees, or seek to know the future; the promise should be sufficient to stay the heart as to the Lord’s ways.

    God fills the empty, and empties the full.

    See the Virgin’s Song. — Luke 1:53.

    God furrows the heart, and then sows it with grace.

    Conviction prepares the soul to receive gospel truth.

    God gives much grace, that he may give more grace.

    God gives to thee his firm decree, That as thy days, thy strength shall be.

    God grants grace, and we should give gratitude. “Many favors which God giveth us ravel out for want of hemming, through our unthankfulness — Fuller.

    God hath promised to keep his people, and he will keep his promise.

    God is a sun that never sets.

    God is both the rewarder and the reward of his people.

    God is where he was.

    He has not changed in place or power. Go to him By prayer and He will hear your requests.

    God looks most, where man looks least at the heart.

    God loves his people when he strikes them as well as when he strokes them, God loves us, not for what we are, but for what he can make us.

    God never yet forsook in need The soul that trusted him indeed.

    God not only gives his people promises to believe, but gives them to believe his promises.

    God may as soon cease to be God as cease to be good.

    Let this be a settled matter of faith with us, for it is even so.

    God may cast thee down, but he will not cast thee off.

    God provides a full Christ for empty sinners.

    God sees Christ in his people, and his people in Christ.

    God sees grace where we see none.

    We judge hastily, but He knows the circumstances, and the inward thoughts of the feeble in grace.

    God sends us food by our own hands.

    It is God’s plan to employ us to provide food for his children, and for ourselves among the rest.

    God waits to be gracious, and the gracious wait on God. God, who feeds his pawns, will feed his doves.

    Or, as Matthew Henry puts it, “He that feeds his birds will not starve his babes.”

    God will be only theirs who are truly his.

    God wills changes, but changes not his will.

    God works with and without means. With, that man should not be indolent; and without, that he should not be self-confident.

    God’s best comforts are reserved for our worst times.

    One who was greatly afflicted, but graciously comforted, bore this testimony: — “The love of Jesus, what it is, None but his sufferers know.”

    God’s chariots of fire conquer men’s chariots of iron.

    He has forces of a spiritual order which prevail over the most stubborn wills and the strongest arms God’s children are made to smart when they yield to sin. “But woe to the man that sins without pain; We feels no correction, and sinneth again.”

    God’s crumbs are better than the world’s loaves.

    God’s ear lies close to the believer’s lip.

    God’s friends should be one another’s friends.

    Christians should know, love, and help one another.

    God‘s gentleness makes his saints great and grateful.

    David said, “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” — Psalms 18:35.

    God’s giving deserves our thanksgiving.

    God’s patience is lasting, but not everlasting.

    God’s rest-day is our best day.

    God’s thoughts of have should move us to deeds of love.

    God’s Word is the soul’s medicine.

    God’s worst is ‘better than the devil’s best.

    The reproach of Christ is greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt — Hebrews 11:23.

    Gospel commandings are gracious enablings.

    John Berridge wrote: — Run, John., and work, the law commands, Yet finds me neither feet nor hands; But, sweeter news the gospel brings, It bids me fly, and lends me wings.

    Grace make no man proud.

    He that is proud of the grace he thinks he possesses must therefore be a mere pretender.

    Grace not only makes a man more a man, but it also makes him more than a man.

    Great sorrows the nothing compared with great sins.

    Holy men would prefer life-long sickness to willful sin. He was a wise man who prayed that he might sooner die than deny his Lord.

    Greatest evils oft begin In some unsuspected sill.

    Greatness is the fairest object to the eye of the world; goodness, to the eye of heaven.

    Groanings unutterable lead to joys unspeakable. “These are they that came out of great tribulation.” — Revelation 7:14.

    Guard well thy thoughts; for thoughts are heard in heaven.

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