See that you buy the field where the Pearl is; sell all, and make a purchase of salvation. Think it not easy: for it is a steep ascent to eternal glory: many are lying dead by the way, slain with security.
Samuel RutherfordRead
Oh thrice fools are we who like new-born princes weeping in the cradle know not that there is a kingdom before them then let our Lord's sweet hand square us and hammer us and strike off the knots of pride self-love and world-worship and infidelity that He may make us stones and pillars in His Father's house.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the folly of self-deception and the need for spiritual transformation to achieve true greatness.
Samuel Rutherford's quote critiques human ignorance, comparing us to helpless infants unaware of the greatness that lies ahead. It emphasizes the importance of divine intervention to remove our flaws like pride and self-love, shaping us into stronger individuals who can serve a higher purpose in life.
Themes
SpiritualityTransformationHumilitySelf-Awareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon discussing transformation, a pastor might quote this to illustrate the need for divine assistance in overcoming pride.
More from Samuel Rutherford
All quotes →Let your children be as so many flowers, borrowed from God. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them.
Samuel RutherfordRead
I know that, as night and shadows are good for flowers, and moonlight and dews are better than a continual sun, so is Christ's absence of special use, and that it hath some nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap to humility, and putteth an edge on hunger, and funisheth a fairfield to faith to put forth itself, and to exercise its fingers in gripping it seeth not what.
Samuel RutherfordRead
Those who can take that crabbed tree handsomely upon their back, and fasten it on cannily, shall find it such a burden as wings unto a bird, or sails to a ship.
Samuel RutherfordRead
You will not be carried to Heaven lying at ease upon a feather bed.
Samuel RutherfordRead
Millions of hells of sinners cannot come near to exhaust infinite grace.
Samuel RutherfordRead
Similar quotes
And all these questions I ask myself. It is not in a spirit of curiosity. I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric.
Samuel BeckettRead
Switzerland is a country where very few things begin, but many things end.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead
One of the earliest resurrection scenes in the Bible is that of Thomas demanding evidence - he wanted to see, to touch, to prove. Those who question and probe and debate are heirs of the apostles just as much as the most fervent of believers.
Jon MeachamRead
I am but a stranger ... as we all are. Lonely inside our separate skins, we cannot know each others pain and must bear our own in solitude. For my part, I have found that walking soothes it; and that, given luck, sometimes we find one to walk besides us ... at least for a little way.
Alan MooreRead
From the viewpoint of analytic psychology, the theatre, aside from any aesthetic value, may be considered as an institution for the treatment of the mass complex.
Carl JungRead
The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country.
Baron De MontesquieuRead