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Odd Sayings
My dear Friend,—You request me to send you some of Mr. Gadsby's odd sayings. If they are, odd, they are striking, when we consider their spiritual signification. I wish I could send the beautiful truths he conveys in them. He is continually lashing Arminianism. Free-will, he terms a filthy dirty lane, and the poor creatures in it go hobbling along besludged all over. He warns us not to stir a step to hear an Arminian minister, as we each of us carry one in our own bosom. He tells us he has one that gets up with him, and has the assurance to breakfast, dine, drink tea, and sup with him. Our hearts are full of lumber and rubbish, which he earnestly prays for the…
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The Fear Of Death
I do not know that death ever appears to me more terrific than when I feel a fear that I shall die in darkness; I do not want such a death as that. But I can tell you what the Lord has brought me to know a little of, and to feel a little satisfaction in; and that is, that if God should see good that I should be in darkness, I am but level with the Lord Jesus Christ. He was in darkness, and cried out in darkness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
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The Dark Cellar
Go into a close, dark, damp cellar; you can see nothing. But open the shutters. How frightened you are! Toads, spiders, and reptiles of various sorts are there. So with your hearts. You don't see them as they really are until God lets in his light. In our country there is a weed called cadlock; but it never appears on the surface until the land is ploughed up. So with your hearts. When God puts his plough and turns up the fallow ground, O what weeds appear to your sight!
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Man Is Worst Than A Machine
Some people say we make man into a mere machine. Nay, he is worse than a machine; for a machine will keep still if you will let it alone; but man is continually at work, doing evil.
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There Is The Sign
The late Mr. Hatton related the following, stating that the circumstance was well known to him: Many years ago the late Mr. Gadsby was going into the country to preach, and, as was his wont in his younger days, was walking; when he was joined by a “simple faith” professor: Religion soon became the subject of conversation. Mr. G. maintained that true faith was not man's work but the work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of his people, and that without this there can be no real satisfaction for a quickened soul, hungering and thirsting after an assurance of his salvation; while his companion maintained that it was the duty of every man to believe. “There is the Word,” said he, “and we…
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Feeling And Sight
When God, in his rich grace, takes a poor sinner manifestively in hand, the first thing he does is to give life and light; and when this divine life and light are communicated, the dead soul is quickened, and the dark soul is enlightened. We begin to see sin in the light of God's countenance; even our secret sins are laid open to the conscience, and we both feel and see that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against God. The pure life and light of God, placed in the conscience against our vile deadness and darkness, horrifies the soul; and though we may not be able to account for our feelings and sight, we do find that we have such as…
