Remarks Made by Mr. Newton in Familiar Conversation
While the mariner uses the loadstone, the philosopher may attempt to investigate the cause; but after all, in steering through the ocean, he can make no other use of it than the mariner.
If an angel were sent to find the most perfect man, he would probably not find him composing a body of divinity, but perhaps a cripple in a poor house, whom the parish wish dead, and humbled before God with far lower thoughts of himself than others have of him.
When a christian goes into the world because he sees it is his call, yet, while he feels it also his cross, it will not hurt him.
FAMILIAR. REMARKS. 23f Satan will seldom come to a christian with a gross temptation: a green log and a candle may be safely left together; but bring a few shavings, then some small sticks, and then larger, and you may soon bring the green log to ashes.
If two angels were sent from heaven to execute a divine command, one to conduct an empire, and the other to sweep a street in it, they would feel no inclination to change employments.
What some call providential openings are often powerful temptations; the heart, in wandering, cries, Here is a way opened before me : — but, perhaps, not to be trodden but rejected.
I should have thought mowers very idle people; but they work while they whet their scythes. Now devotedness to God, whether it mows or whets the scythe, still goes on with the work
A christian should never plead spirituality for being a sloven; if he be but a shoe-cleaner, he should be the best in the parish.
My course of study, like that of a surgeon, has principally consisted in walking the hospital.
My principal method of defeating heresy, is by establishing truth. One proposes to fill a bushel with ¢ares; now if I can fill it first with wheat, I shall defy his attempts.
When some people talk of religion, they mean they have heard so many sermons, and performed so many devotions, and thus mistake the means for the end. But true religion is an habitual recollection of God and intention to serve him, and this turns every thing into gold. We are apt tow - suppose that we need something splendid to evince our devotion, but true devotion equals” things — washing plates and cleaning shoes is a high office, if performed ina right spirit. If three angels were sent to earth, they would feel perfect indifference who should perform the part of prime minister, parish minister, or watchman. When a ship goes to sea, among a vast variety ’ of its articles and circumstances, there is but one object regarded, namely, doing the business of the voyage: every bucket is employed with respect to that.. Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil; I observe there 7s evil, and that there is a way to escape it, and with this I begin and end. Conseerated things under the law were first sprinkled with. blood, and then anointed with oil, and thenceforward were no more common. Thus under the Gospel, every christian has been a common vessel for profane purposes; but when sprinkled with the blood of Christ, and anointed by God the Father, (2 Cor. 1:2,) he becomes separated and consecrated to God. I would not give a straw for that assurance which sin will not damp. If David had come from his adultery, and had talked of his assuuM rance at that time, I should have despised his speech.
A spirit of adoption is the spirit of a child; he
may disoblige his father, yet he is not afraid of
‘being turned out of doors: the union is not dissolved, though the communion is. He is not well with his father, therefore must be unhappy, as their interests are inseparable.
We often seek to apply cordials when the patient is not prepared for them, and it is the patient’s advantage, that he cannot take a medicine when prematurely offered. When a man comes to me and says, ‘I am quite happy,” I am not sorry to find him come again with some fears. I never saw a work stand well without a check. “I only want,” says one, “te be sure of being safe, and then I will go on.” No; perhaps, then you will go off.
For an.old christian to say to a young one, ‘Stand in my evidence,” is like a man who has
with difficulty climbed by a ladder or scaffolding to the top of the house, and cries to one at the bottom, “Lous is a place for a prospect — come up ata step.”
A christian in the world is like a man who has had a long intimacy with one, whom at length he finds out to have been the murderer of a kind father; the intimacy, after this, will surely be
broken.
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ms Excaht a man be born again, he canhot see the kingdom of God.” A man may live in a de mine in Hungary, never having seen the light of the sun; he may have received accounts of prospects, aid by the help of a candle may have examined a few engravings of ftom but let him be brought out of the mine, and set on the mountain, what a difference appears
Candor will always allow much for inexperiences I have been thirty years forming my own views, and in the course of this time some of my hills aa been sinking, and some of my valleys have risen; but how unreasonable would it be to expect all ‘a should take p in another person, and that in the course of a year or two.
“Ss Candor forbids us to estimate a character from. its accidental blots. Yet it is thus that David and others have been treated.
There is the analogy of faith: it is a master-key which not only opens particular doors, but carries you through the whole house; but an attachment to a rigid system is dangerous. Luther once turned out the epistle of St. James, because it - disturbed. his system. I shall preach, perhaps,
hiexy use on two seemingly opposite texts, while rt; but if I attempt nicely to rei, it is ten to one if I don’t begin to
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leg, but not without a head or a heart; so there are some truths essential to vitalietigion, and which all awakened souls are taught.
Apostacy, in all its branches, takes its rise from atheism. * a set the Lord always before me,” &c. ‘
We are surprised at the fall of a famous professor, but, in the sight of God he was gone before; it is only we that have now first discovered it. “He that despiseth small things, shall fall by little and little.”
There are critical times of danger. After great services, honors and consolations, we should stand upon our guard. Noah, Lot, David, Solomon, fell in these circumstances. Satan is a footpad: a footpad will not attack a man in going to the bank, but in returning with his pocket full of money. *
A christian is like a young nobleman, who, on going to receive his estate, is at first enchanted with its prospects; this in a course of time may wear off, but a sense of the value of the estate grows daily.
When we first enter into the divine life, we propose to grow rich; God’s plan is to make us — feel poor. rae
Good men have need to take heed of b uilding upon groundless impressions. Mr. Whitfield had a son who, he imagined, was born to be a very “9 *,
extraordinary man; but the son soon died, and: father was cured of his mistake.
I remember, in going io undertake the care of a congregation, I was reading as I walked in a green lane, ‘‘ Fear not, Paul, I have much people in this city.” But I soon afterward was disappointed in finding that Paul was not John, and that Corinth was not Warwick.
Christ has taken our nature into heaven to represent us; and.has left us on earth with his nature to represent Aim.
Worldly men will be true to their principles; and if we were as true to ours, the visits between the two parties would be short and seldom.
A christian in the world is like a man transacting his affairs in the rain. He will not suddenly leave his client because it rains; but the moment the business is done, he is off: as it is said in the Acts, “Being let go, they went to their own company.”
God’s word is certainly a restraint; but it is such a restraint as the irons which prevent chil dren from getting into the fire. ws
God deals with us as we do with our children; he first speaks, then gives a gentle stroke, at last a blow.
The religion of a sinner stands on two pillars namely, what Christ did for us in his flesh, and what he performs in us by his Spirit. Most erom
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rors arise from an attempt to separate these two.
Man is not taught any thing to purpose till God becomes his teacher, and then the glare of the world is put out, and the value of the soul rises in full view. A man’s present sentiments may not be accurate, but we make too much of sentiments. We pass a field with a few blades, we call it a field of wheat; but here is no wheat; no, not in perfection, but wheat is sown, and full ears may be expected.
Contrivers of sytems on the earth are like contrivers of systems in the heavens; where the sun and moon keep the same course in spite of the philosophers.
I endeavor to walk through the world as a physician goes through Bedlam: the patients make a noise, pester him with impertinence, and hinder him in his business; but he does the best he can, and so gets through.
A man always in society is one always on the spend; on the other hand, a mere solitary is at his best but a candle in an empty room.
If we were upon the watch for improvement, the common news of the day would furnish it; the falling of the tower in Siloam, and the slaughter of the Galileans, were the news of the day which our Lord improved.
The generality make out their righteousness by comparing themselves with some others whom
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they think worse; thus a — of the town,
who was in the Taghe Hospital, was offended at a
minister speaking to her as a sine she
had never picked a pocket.
Take away a toy from a child and a him another, and he is satisfied; but if he be hungry, no toy will do. Thus, as new-born babes, true believers desire the sincere milk of the
ord; and the desire of grace in this way is grace.
One said that the great saints in the calendar were many of them poor sinners; Mr. Newton replied they were poor saints indeed, if they did not feel that they were great sinners.
A wise man looks upon men as he does upon horses, and considers their caparisons of title, wealth and place, but as harness.
The force of what we deliver from the pulpit is often lost by a starched, and what is frequently called a correct style; and, especially, by adding meretricious ornaments. I called upon a lady who had been robbedyvand she gave me a striking account of the fact; but had ait ut it into hetainee
I should neither, so well have understood her,
nor been so well convinced that she had been robbed.
When a man says he received a blessing under a sermon, I begin to inquire the character of the man who speaks of the help he has received
~The Roman people proved the effect they received under a sermon of Antony, when they flew to avenge the death of Cesar.
The Lord has reason far beyond our ken, for opening a wide door while he stops the miok of a useful preacher. John Bunyan would not have done half the good he did if he had remained preaching in Bedford instead of being shut up in Bedford prison.
If I could go to France, and give every man in ita right and peaceable mind by my labor, I should have a statue: but, to produce such an effect in the conversion of one soul, would be a far greater achievement.
Ministers would over-rate their labors, if they did not think it worth while to be born, and spend ten thousand years in labor and contempt, to recover one soul.
Do not tell me of your feelings. A traveller would be glad of fine weather, but if he be a man of business, he will go on. Bunyan says, You must not judge of a man’s haste by his horse, for when the horse can hardly move you may see, by the rider’s urging him, what a hurry he is in.
A man and a beast may stand upon the same mountain, and even touch one another; yet they are in two different worlds: the beast perceives nothing but the grass; but the man contemplates the prospect, and thinks of a thousand remote things. Thus a christian may be solitary at a full exchange: he can converse with the people there upon trade, politics and the stocks; but they cannot talk with him upon the peace of a which passeth all understan
It is a mere fallae o talk of the sins of a short life. The sinner is always a sinner. Put a p into a river, you may throw out some wa ter, Bat the river remains.
Professors who the doctrines of ae. grace, often act inconsistently with their own principles when they Me posty at the defeets of others.
We should take care that we do not make our profession of religion a receipt in full for all other obligations. A an aie will no more despise others than B us, after his own eyes were opened, would take a stick and beat every blind man he met,
We much mistake, in supposing that the removal of a particular objection would satisfy the objector. Suppose I am in bed, and want to know whether it be light, it is not enough if I drat te: *, back the curtain; for though there be light, I
must have eyes to see ite. tt * deep a conside of eternal realities might unfit a man for his sent circumstances.
Walking through St. Bartholginiew’ s Hospital, Bedlam, m affect ampere mind; but,
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in reality, this world is a far worse scene. It has
but two wards: in the one, men are miserable,
in the other, mad..
Some preachers near Olney dwelt on the doctrine of predestination: an old woman said — Ah!; have long settled that point: for, if God had
chosen me before I was born, I am sure he me dhave seen nothing in me to have chosen for afterwards.
Mise unprofitableness of controversy i in the
Job and his frie for, if God had not interposed, had they ie this day, they would have continued the di
It is cere; that negatives a particular request. A miser would yapey corsetiy for gold, if he believed payerwoul gain it; whereas, if Christ had any favor to im he weald take his gold away. A child walks in the garden in spring, and sees cherries; he knows they are good fruit, and therefore asks for them. “No, ar,” says the father, “they are not yet a 3 till the season.”
‘I cannot take pleasure in infirmities, I can sometimes feel the profi rofit of them. I ca ceive a King ‘o to pa bel, an =f
family, a ed appoint you
on to wear a. At a certain season
send a mes y i off. In f
will 1ind you
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“mean time this
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of your state; it may humble you and restrain you from raribling.
Some ohrie femal at a glance, seem of superior order; and are not: they want a certain quality. At a florist’s feast the other day, a cortaithoives was determined to bear the bell; but it was found to be an artificial flower: there is mh ane called GrowtTH which it had not.
Doctor Taylor, of Norwich, said to me, * Sit, I have collated every word in the Hebrew Scriptures seventeen times; and it is very strange if the doctrine of atonement, which you hold, should not have been found by 1 me.” I am not milead at this: I once went to light my candle with the extinguisher on it: now, prejudices from education, learning, &c. often form an extinguisher. It is not enough that you bring the candle: you must remove the extinguisher.
I measure ministers by square measure. I have no idea of the size of a table, if you only tell me how long it is; but, if you also say how wide, 1 can tell its dimensions: So, when you tell me what a man is in the pulpit, you must also tell me what he is out of it, or I shall not know his size.
A man ae’ be born to high things not to lose himself in them. Slaters will walk on the ridge of a house with ease, which would turf our heads. “ge
Much depends on the way we come into trou.
ble. Paul and Jonah were both in a storm, but in very different circumstances.”
I have read of many wicked Popes, but the worst Pope I ever met with is Pore SELF.
The men of this world are children. Offer a child an apple and a bank note, he will doubtless choose the apple. ..*
The heir of a great estate, while a child, thinks more of a few shillings in his pocket than of his inheritance. So a christian is often more elated by some frame of heart than by his title to glory.
A dutiful child is ever looking forward to the holidays, when he shall return to his father; but he does not think of running from school before.
The Gospel is a proclamation of free mercy to guilty creatures — an act of grace to rebels. Now, though a rebel should throw away his pistols, and determine to go into the woods, and make his mind better before he goes to court and pleads the act; he may, indeed, not be found in arms, yet, being taken in his reforming scheme, he will be hanged.
Man is made capable of three births: by nature, he enters into the present world; by grace, into spiritual light and life; by death, into glory.
In my imagination, I sometimes fancy I could make a perfect minister. I take the eloquence of — — , the knowledge of, the zeal of. and the pastoral meekness, tenderness and piety
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244° «LIFE OF REV. JOHN NEWTON.
of: then pysting. them all together into one man, ee to myself, ‘* 7’his would be a perfect minister.”’ Now there is one, who, if he choose it, could actually do this; but he never did. He hes seen fit to do otherwise, and to divifie these gifts fo every man severally as he will.
I feel like a man*‘who has no money in his
pocket, but is allowed to draw for all he wants upon one infinitely rich; I am, therefore, at once” both a beggar and a ae man. I went one day to Mrs. G ’s just after she had lost all her fortune; I could not be surprised to find her in tears, but she said, “I suppose you think I am crying for my Lote, but that is not the case: I am now weeping to think I should feel so much uneasiness on this account.” After that I never heard her speak again upon - the subject as long as she lived.
I have many books that I cannot sit down read: they are, indeed, good and sound; like halfpence, there goes a great quantity to a little amount. There are silver books; and a very few golden books: but I have one book worth more than all, called the Bible; and that is a book of bank notes. ee