104 William Gurnall Quotes

The chains of love are stronger than the chains of fear.

A minister, without boldness, is like a smooth file, a knife without an edge, a sentinel that is afraid to let off his gun. If men will be bold in sin, ministers must be bold to reprove.

God would not rub so hard if it were not to fetch out the dirt that is ingrained in our natures. God loves purity so well He had rather see a hole than a spot in His child's garments.

Great comforts do, indeed, bear witness to the truth of thy grace, but not to the degree of it; the weak child is oftener in the lap than the strong one.

Thou must be an attentive hearer; he that is awake, but wanders with his eye or heart, what doth he but sleep with his eyes open?

Hope fills the afflicted soul with such inward joy and consolation, that it can laugh while tears are in the eye, sigh and sing all in a breath; it is called "The rejoicing of hope."

Behold therefore thy God at work, and promise thyself that what he is about will be an excellent piece.

The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin.

And when God comes to reckon with his workmen, the ploughman and the sower shall have his penny, as well as the harvest-man and the reaper.

He that loves the Word and the purity of its precepts cannot turn traitor.

We are bid to take, not to make our cross.

Love refuseth nothing that love sends.

I do not bid thee try the truth of thy grace by such a power as is peculiar to stronger grace, but by that power which will distinguish it from false grace.

To tempt another is worse than to sin thyself. When you tempt, you do that which you cannot undo with your repentance.

A rent garment is catched by every nail, and the rent made wider. Renew therefore thy repentance speedily, whereby this breach may be made up, and worse prevented.

As you love your peace, Christian, be plain-hearted with God and man, and keep the king's highway.

Let your hope of heaven master your fear of death.

Christ bears with the saints' imperfections; well may the saints one with another.

Therefore tremble, O man, at any power thou hast, except thou usest it for God. Art thou strong in body; who hath thy strength? God, or thy lusts?

If thou beest ever so exact in thy morals, and not a worshiper of God, then thou art an atheist.

I had rather be a sober heathen than a drunken Christian.

Least doers are the greatest boasters.

The proper seat of sin is the will, of comfort the conscience.

How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? which is more than if he had said, such a one should dwell with him; for a beggar to live at court is not so much as the king to dwell with him in his cottage.

Praying is the same to the new creature as crying is to the natural. The child is not learned by art or example to cry, but instructed by nature; it comes into the world crying. Praying is not a lesson got by forms and rules of art, but flowing from principles of new life itself.

None sink so far into hell as those that come nearest heaven, because they fall from the greatest heights.

O take heed of this squint eye to our profit, pleasure, honor, or anything beneath Christ and heaven; for they will take away your heart - that is, our love, and if our love be taken away, there will be little courage left for Christ.

Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again.

Cease to pray and thou will begin to sin. Prayer is not only a means to prevail for mercy but also to prevent sin.

No, it is some noble enterprise I would have thee think upon, how thou mayst advance the name of Christ higher in thy heart, and [in the] world too, as much as in thee lies.

As a man, looking steadfastly on a dial, cannot perceive the shadow move at all, yet viewing it after a while, he shall perceive that it hath moved; so, in the hearing of the Word, but especially in the receiving of the Lord's supper, a man may judge even his own faith, and other graces of God, to be little or nothing increased, neither can he perceive the motion of God's Spirit in him at that time; yet by the fruits and effects thereof, he shall afterward perceive that God's Spirit hath little by little wrought greater faith and other graces in him.

Take heart therefore, O ye saints, and be strong; your cause is good, God himself espouseth your quarrel, who hath appointed you his own Son, General of the field, called 'the Captain of our salvation.'

The grace thou hast will soon be less, if thou addest not more to it.

Grace is of a stirring nature, and not such a dead thing, like an image, which you may lock up in a chest, and none shall know what God you worship. No, grace will show itself; it will walk with you into all places and companies; it will buy with you, and sell for you; it will have a hand in all your enterprises.

It is no policy to let thy lusts have arms, which are sure to rise and declare against thee when thine enemy comes.

Thou hast an art above God Himself, if thou canst fetch any true pleasure out of unholiness.

The hungry man needs no help to teach him how to beg.

His subject thou art whom thou crownest in thy heart, and not whom thou flatterest with thy lips.

He cannot be a bold reprover that is not a conscientious liver; such a one must speak softly, for fear of waking his own guilty conscience.

Job's friends chose the right time to visit him, but took not the right course of improving their visit; had they spent the time in praying for him which they did in hot disputes with him, they would have profited him, and pleased God more.

Say not that thou hast royal blood in thy veins and art born of God, unless thou canst prove thy pedigree by daring to be holy.

Thou must be righteous and holy, before thou canst live righteously and holily.

Sacrifice without obedience is sacrilege.

Love cannot think any evil of God, nor endure to hear any speak evil of him, but it must take God's part.

Mercy should make us ashamed, wrath afraid to sin.

Truth with self-denial is a better pennyworth, than error with all its flesh-pleasing.

Compare not thyself with those that have less than thyself, but look on those that have far exceeded thee.

No, the Christian must stand fixed to his principles, and not change his habit; but freely show what countryman he is by his holy constancy in the truth.

Compare Scripture with Scripture. False doctrines, like false witnesses, agree not among themselves.

The minister's work debilitates nature; like the candle, he wastes while he shines.