As this round of Reading Classics Together draws near to a close (we’ve got just one more week after this) I’m already thinking ahead to the next book. But I guess I need to keep my head in the game and first finish up this one. It’s been a great read and I’ve learned a lot from Sibbes. Let me share a few of the highlights from this week’s reading.
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Highlights
As I do every few weeks, I want to share some of the best quotes from these two chapters. So rather than provide a wrap-up or summary, I want to simply share some of Sibbes’ best quotes. I continue to marvel at the way he can coin a phrase and the way he can so succintly summarize great truths. Here are some examples:
“All sin is either from false principles, or ignorance, or thoughtlessness, or unbelief of what is true.”
“What the heart likes best, the mind studies most. Those that can bring their hearts to delight in Christ know most of his ways. Wisdom loves him that loves her.”
“We should be ready at all times to depart [to heaven], and to live in such a condition as we would be content to die in.”
On explaining why all our strivings toward godliness matter before God: “The tree falls upon the last stroke, yet all the strokes help the work forward.”
“The happiness of weaker things stands in being ruled by stronger. It is best for a blind man to be guided by him that has sight. It is best for sheep, and other feckless creatures, to be guided by man. And it is happiest for man to be guided by Christ”
“[Christ] will declare to all the world that he is, and then there shall be no glory but that of Christ and his spouse.”
“There shall be a resurrection, not only of bodies but of reputations.”
“Let us take heed that we not follow the ways of those men whose ends we shall tremble at.”
“This is the difference between a godly, wise man and a deluded worldling: that which the one now judges to be vain the other shall hereafter feel to be so when it is too late.”
“Nothing is stronger than humility, which goes out of itself, or weaker than pride, which rests on its own foundation.”
“We often fail in lesser conflicts and stand firm in greater, because in the lesser we rest more in ourselves, in the greater we fly to the rock of our salvation, which is higher than we.”
“Since the fall, God will not trust us with our own salvation, but it is both purchased and kept by Christ for us, and we for it through faith, wrought by the power of God, which we lay hold of.”
It seems to me that any or all of those phrases would be worthy of some reflection and meditation!
Next Week
For next Thursday please read chapter 16. This will bring us to the end of the book.
Your Turn
The purpose of this program is to read classics together. So if there are things that stood out to you in this chapter, if there are questions you had, this is the time and place to have your say. Feel free to post a comment below or to link to your blog if you’ve chosen to write about this on your own site.