Where persons love little, do little, and give little, we may shrewdly suspect that they have never had much affliction of heart for their sins and that they think they owe but very little to divine grace.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that those who do not love or give much may lack a deep sense of remorse for their sins and may undervalue divine grace.
Charles Spurgeon's quote reflects on the connection between an individual's ability to love and their sense of gratitude towards divine grace. It implies that those who exhibit little love, action, or generosity may not have experienced significant struggle or guilt in their lives, leading them to believe they owe little to a higher power. This highlights the relationship between personal suffering, moral reflection, and the capacity for compassion towards others.
In practice
This quote could be used in a sermon to emphasize the importance of love and humility in one’s relationship with God.
Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
Civilization is a progress from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity toward a definite, coherent heterogeneity.
Hours and days and months and years go by; the past returns no more, and what is to be we cannot know; but whatever the time gives us in which we live, we should therefore be content.
We know all their gods; they ignore ours. What they call our sins are our gods, and what they call their gods, we name otherwise.
The essence of the question is the opening up, and keeping open, of possibilities.
Gamergate is ostensibly about journalistic ethics. Supporters say they want to address conflicts of interest between the people that make games and the people that support them. In reality, Gamergate is a group of gamers that are willing to destroy the women who have invaded their clubhouse.
...like a magnetic compass turning north, I always tried to head in the direction of the better, which is the direction to God. ...the directions that appeared to lead away from Christianity led me deeper into it.
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