John Bunyan

Feast of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, c.678 Read and read again, and do not despair of help to understand read more

Feast of Etheldreda, Abbess of Ely, c.678 Read and read again, and do not despair of help to understand the will and mind of God though you think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble your heads though you have not commentaries and exposition. Pray and read, read and pray; for a little from God is better than a great deal from men. Also, what is from men is uncertain, and is often lost and tumbled over by men; but what is from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place. There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God; and the reason why the Christians in this day are at such a loss as to some things is that they are contented with what comes from men's mouths, without searching and kneeling before God to know of Him the truth of things. Things we receive at God's hands come to us as truths from the minting house, though old in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us if they come with the smell of Heaven upon them.

The life blood streaming thro' my heart,
Or my more dear immortal part,
Is not more fondly read more

The life blood streaming thro' my heart,
Or my more dear immortal part,
Is not more fondly dear.

If that a pearl may in a toad's head dwell,
And may be found too in an oyster shell.

If that a pearl may in a toad's head dwell,
And may be found too in an oyster shell.

[Mr. Gifford] made it much his business to deliver the people of God from all those false and unsound rests read more

[Mr. Gifford] made it much his business to deliver the people of God from all those false and unsound rests that by nature we are prone to take and make to our souls. He pressed us to take special heed that we took not up any truth upon trust -- as from this or that, or any other man or men -- but to cry mightily to God that He would convince us of the reality thereof, and set us down therein by his own Spirit in the holy word.

Yestreen, when to the trembling string
The dance gaed thro' the lighted ha',
To thee my fancy read more

Yestreen, when to the trembling string
The dance gaed thro' the lighted ha',
To thee my fancy took its wing;
I sat, but neither heard nor saw.