If you find yourself loving any pleasure more than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of the Lord, any table better than the Lord's table, any persons better than Christ, or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven – be alarmed.
Interpretation
Prioritize spiritual devotion over worldly pleasures.
This quote by Thomas Guthrie emphasizes the importance of maintaining spiritual focus and devotion in a world filled with distractions and temptations. It warns that if one starts valuing earthly pleasures and possessions above their prayers, religious texts, communal worship, or deeper connections with Christ, it is a cause for concern, suggesting a misalignment of priorities that could lead to spiritual decline.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a sermon to encourage parishioners to focus on their spiritual lives.
It is not with a rush and a spring that we are to reach Christ's character, and attain to perfect saintship; but step by step, foot by foot, hand over hand, we are slowly and often painfully to mount the ladder that rests on earth, and rises to heaven.
Something of vengeance I had tasted for the first time; as aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy: its after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I had been poisoned.
What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth?
Some think I wink at them when I shut my eyes to avoid their sight.
And that was all the part of it - the way you were obliged to live. You stifled a groan, you lied about your love, you deceived your legal wife, and all in the name of honour. That was the damned paradox of it - in order to behave well, you have to behave badly.
I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.
Solitude is as needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character.
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