Matthew Henry Quotes

What peace can they have who are not at peace with God?

Those that in good earnest set their faces heaven-ward, and will live godly in Christ Jesus, must expect to be set upon by Satan's temptations and terrors.

Whatever we have of this world in our hands, our care must be to keep it out of our hearts, lest it come between us and Christ.

When men's spirits are sinking every thing helps to sink them.

A state of apostasy is worse than a state of ignorance.

Christ, under the law, appeared on a red horse, denoting the terror of that dispensation, and that he had yet his conflict before him, when he was to resist unto blood. But, under the gospel, he appears on a white horse

God will always have a church on earth; but he never said it should be infallible, or perfectly pure from corruption on this side heaven.

The liberty of God's people is a heavy grievance to their enemies, Esth. 5:12, 13; Acts 5:17, 33.

It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for Him.

None shall be saved by Christ but those only who work out their own salvation while God is working in them by His truth and His Holy Spirit. We cannot do without God; and God will not do without us.

It is better to get wisdom than gold. Gold is another's, wisdom is our own; gold is for the body and time, wisdom for the soul and eternity.

Nature is content with little; grace with less; but lust with nothing.

Those who teach by their doctrine must teach by their life, or else they pull down with one hand what they build up with the other.

Those that have so much power over others as to be able to oppress them have seldom so much over themselves as not to oppress.

Poor people are as much in danger from an inordinate desire towards the wealth of the world as rich from an inordinate delight in it.

The treasures of wisdom are hidden not from us, but for us, in Christ.

The first lesson in Christ's school is self-denial.

Pride is at the bottom of a great many errors and corruptions, and even of many evil practices, which have a great show and appearance of humility.

Man takes great pains to heap up riches, and they are like heaps of manure in the furrows of the field, good for nothing unless they be spread.

The God of Israel is sometimes a God who hides Himself, but never a God who absents Himself; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.

None talk more absurdly than murmurers.

Brown bread and the Gospel is good fare.

When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can.

Come, Lord Jesus, put an end to this state of sin, sorrow, and temptation;

God's time to help is when things are at the worst; and Providence verifies the paradox, The worse the better.

It is not enough for us to be where God is worshipped, if we do not ourselves worship him.

When we are to attend upon God in solemn ordinances it concerns us to sanctify ourselves, and to get ready beforehand.

Nor shall any partake of the benefit of Christ's sacrifice, or feast upon it, who are not first circumcised in heart, Col. 2:11.

God will delight to show them mercy, will reckon their conversion a return for all the expense he has been at upon them. There is always joy in heaven. God rejoiceth in all his works, but particularly in the works of his grace. He rejoiceth to do good to penitent sinners, with his whole heart and his whole soul. He rejoiceth not only in the conversion of churches and nations, but even over one sinner that repenteth, though but one.

when God pleads his people's cause he can deal with giants as with grasshoppers. No

Nothing exposes religion more to the reproach of its enemies than the worldliness and half-heartedness of the professors of it.

Saying and doing are two things.

When I cannot enjoy the faith of assurance, I live by the faith of adherence.

No company like good books, especially the book of God.

so we must not come to worship God empty-hearted; our souls must be filled with grace, with pious and devout affections, holy desires towards him, and dedications of ourselves to him, for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased.

Grace in the soul is heaven in that soul.

The more reverence we have for the Word of God, the more joy we shall find in it.

God's work must be done, in every thing, according to his own will. His institutions neither need nor admit men's inventions to make them either more beautiful or more likely to answer the intention of them. 'Add thou not unto his words.' God is pleased with willing worship, but not with will-worship.

Unbelief shall be left inexcusable, and convicted of a wilful obstinacy.

When God is about to give His people the expected good, He pours out a Spirit of prayer, and it is a good sign that He is coming towards them in mercy.

When he [the slothful person] is pressed to be diligent, either in his worldly affairs or in the business of religion, this is his excuse (and a sorry excuse it is as bad as none).

Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life.

That which God plants he will take care to keep watered.

Christ died. He left a will in which He gave His soul to His Father, His body to Joseph of Arimathea, His clothes to the soldiers, and His mother to John. But to His disciples, who had left all to follow Him, He left not silver or gold, but something far better-His PEACE!

Though we must never think to learn above our Bible, as long as we are here in this world, yet we must still be getting forward in it.

They have most satisfaction in themselves, and consequently the sweetest relish of their creature comforts.

Those who complain most are most to be complained of.

The provisions of Christ's gospel appear mean and scanty to the world, yet they satisfy all that feed on him in their hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

it is a great mercy to be reclaimed and called home when we go astray, though it be by a tempest.

Prayer is a salve for every sore, even the sorest, a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous.

Seducers are more dangerous enemies to the church than persecutors.

Days of trouble must be days of prayer.

Cast not away your confidence because God defers his performances. That which does not come in your time, will be hastened in his time, which is always the more convenient season. God will work when he pleases, how he pleases, and by what means he pleases. He is not bound to keep our time, but he will perform his work, honor our faith, and reward them that diligently seek him.

We have no sufficient strength of our own. All our sufficiency is of God. We should stir up ourselves to resist temptations in a reliance upon God's all-sufficiency and the omnipotence of his might.

Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth.

In all God's providences, it is good to compare His word and His works together; for we shall find a beautiful harmony between them, and that they mutually illustrate each other.

JOY in the LORD puts our mouths out of taste for the pleasures with which the tempter baits his hooks.

Those that abide in Christ as their heart's desire shall have, through Christ, their heart's desire.

For love is of God. He is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of his law and gospel:

Esther came to a proud imperious man; we come to the God of love and grace.

When Peter would prove himself no disciple of Christ, he cursed and swore.

Prophets often foretold destruction and sometimes the destruction did not come, yet this did not disprove their divine mission, as in the case of Jonah. For God is gracious, and ready to turn away his wrath from those who turn away from their sins. But the prophet who prophesied peace and prosperity absolutely and unconditionally without adding the necessary proviso, that they do not by willful sin put a bar in their own door and stop the coming of God's favors, will be proved a true prophet only by the accomplishment of his prediction.

Death to a good man is his release from the imprisonment of this world, and his departure to the enjoyments of another world.

The scripture tells us not expressly what day of the year Christ rose (as Moses told the Israelites what day of the year they were brought out of Egypt, that they might remember it yearly), but very particularly what day of the week it was, plainly intimating that, as the more valuable deliverance, and of greater importance, it should be remembered weekly.

It is Christ living in the soul by faith that makes the body a living sacrifice,

None are ruined by the justice of God but those that hate to be reformed by the grace of God.

A garment that is double dyed, dipped again and again, will retain the color a great while; so a truth which is the subject of meditation.

They that pray in the family do well; they that pray and read the Scriptures do better; but they that pray, and read, and sing do best of all.

The fear of God reigning in the heart is the beauty of the soul.

God sends his messengers to those whose hardness and obstinacy he certainly knows and foresees, that it may appear he would have them turn and live.

Events are not determined by the wheel of fortune, which is blind, but by the wheels of Providence, which are full of eyes

those that have received Christ must by faith live upon him, and not receive his grace in vain.

The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved.

What we count the ills of life are often blessings in disguise, resulting in good to us in the end. Though for the present not joyous but grievous, yet, if received in a right spirit, they work out fruits of righteousness for us at last.

Herein Moses was a type of Christ, who stands between God and man, to show us the word of the Lord, a blessed days-man, that has laid his hand upon us both, so that we may both hear from God and speak to him without trembling.

No sooner was the wound given than the remedy was provided and revealed.

Men may die like lambs and yet have their place forever with the goats.

Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth.

Those that look with contempt upon worldly honours shall be recompensed with the honour that cometh from God, which is the true honour.

Knowledge is vain and fruitless which is not reduced to practice.

Let us watch against unbelief, pride, and self-confidence . If we go forth in our own strength, we shall faint, and utterly fall; but having our hearts and our hopes in heaven, we shall be carried above all difficulties, and be enabled to lay hold of the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus.

It is a great happiness to be under the influence of the Holy Ghost.

Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it.

Guilty consciences are apt to take good providences in a bad sense,

The prosperity of the soul is the best prosperity, and what we should be most solicitous about for ourselves and others.

Prayer is the breath of the new man, drawing in the air of mercy in petitions, and returning it in praises; it proves and maintains the spiritual life.

It is not talking but walking that will bring us to heaven.

So great was the extremity of his pain and anguish, that he did not only sigh but roar.

God has wisely kept us in the dark concerning future events and reserved for himself the knowledge of them, that he may train us up in a dependence upon himself and a continued readiness for every event.

The better day, the worse deed.

Those may justly be reckoned void of understanding that do not bless and praise God; nor do men ever rightly use their reason till they begin to be religious, nor live as men till they live to the glory of God. As reason is the substratum or subject of religion (so that creatures which have no reason are not capable of religion), so religion is the crown and glory of reason, and we have our reason in vain, and shall one day wish we had never had it, if we do not glorify God with it.

The Scriptures were written, not to make us astronomers, but to make us saints.

Those that are above business.

Earth is embittered to us, that heaven may be endeared.

A modest dress is a very good thing, if it be the genuine indication of a humble heart, and is to instruct; but it is a bad thing if it be the hypocritical disguise of a proud ambitious heart, and is to deceive. Let men be really as good as they seem to be, but not seem to be better than really they are.

Wherever the fear of God rules in the heart, it will appear both in works of charity and piety, and neither will excuse us from the other.

Those who deceive others, deceive themselves, as they will find at last, to their cost.

God can bring his people through the greatest difficulties, and force a way where he does not find it.

for we are by baptism brought into covenant, that we may be taught to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded us,

Those that name the name of Christ, but do not depart from iniquity, as that name binds them to do, name it in vain; their worship is vain