Richard Cecil Quotes

Abraham teaches us the right way of conversing with God : "And Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him." When we plead with Him, our faces should be in the dust.

When a founder has cast a bell he does not presently fix it in the steeple, but tries it with his hammer, and beats it on every side to see if there be any flaw in it. So Christ doth not presently after he hath converted a man, convey him to heaven; but suffers him first to be beaten upon by many temptations and then exalts him to his crown.

The only instance of praying to saints, mentioned in the Bible, is that of the rich man in torment calling upon Abraham; and let it be remembered, that it was practised only by a lost soul and without success.

An accession of wealth is a dangerous predicament for a man. At first he is stunned if the accession be sudden, and is very humble and very grateful. Then he begins to speak a little louder, people think him more sensible, and soon he thinks himself so.

We are urgent about the body; He is about the soul. We call for present comforts; He considers our everlasting rest. And therefore when He sends not the very things we ask, He hears us by sending greater than we can ask or think.

The Christian's fellowship with God is rather a habit than a rapture.

Prayer is faith passing into action.

The nurse of infidelity is sensuality.

There is no such thing as a fixed policy, because policy like all organic entities is always in the making.

He who sows, even with tears, the precious seed of faith, hope, and love, shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with him, because it is the very nature of that seed to yield a joyful harvest.

Sin, without strong restraints, would pull God from His throne, make the world the minion of its lusts, and all beings bow down and worship.

Let family worship be short, savory, simple, plain, tender, heavenly.

If I have made an appointment with you, I owe you punctuality, I have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own.

The world looks at preachers out of church to know what they mean in it.

The Old and New Testaments contain but one scheme of religion. Neither part of this scheme can be understood without the other.

Unbelief starves the soul; faith finds food in famine.

Religion is such a belief of the Bible as maintains a living influence on the heart.

The Christian will find his parentheses for prayer even in the busiest hours of life.

The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence: They acquainted themselves with God, and acquiesced His will in all things.

Every man is an original and solitary character. None can either understand or feel the book of his own life like himself.

In viewing the scheme of redemption, I seem like one viewing a vast and complicated machine of exquisite contrivance; what I comprehend of it is wonderful, what I do not, is, perhaps, more so still.

In the midst of sorrow, faith draws the sting out of every trouble, and takes out the bitterness from every affliction.

The man who labors to please his neighbor for his good to edification has the mind that was in Christ. It is a sinner trying to help a sinner. Even a feeble, but kind and tender man, will effect more than a genius, who is rough and artificial.

Philosophy is a proud, sullen detector of the poverty and misery of man. It may turn him from the world with a proud, sturdy contempt; but it cannot come forward and say, here are rest, grace, pardon, peace, strength, and consolation.

Providence is a greater mystery than revelation.

You can't revisit a place where you were happy,
as you can't re-love someone you've loved and left"
~from "Package Tour

Nothing can be proposed so wild or so absurd as not to find a party, and often a very large party to espouse it.

Duties are ours; events are God's. This removes an infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, tempted, dying creature. On this consideration only, can he securely lay down his head, and close his eyes.

All extremes are error. The reverse of error is not truth, but error still. Truth lies between extremes.