John Newton
@JohnNewtonProj
(1725-1807) Pastor, hymn writer, friend to many, sinner saved by amazing grace.
'LOOKING UNTO JESUS.' The duty, the privilege, the safety, the unspeakable happiness, of a believer, are all comprised in that one sentence.
The Lord Jesus is our best Friend: his character is supremely excellent, our obligations to him are inexpressible, our dependence upon him is absolute, and our happiness, in every sense, is in his hands.
By nature we are hateful and abominable in the sight of a holy God and full of enmity and hatred towards each other. By faith, uniting us to Christ, we have fellowship with the Father the Son, and joint communion among ourselves.
He can pull down what sin builds up, and build up what sin pulls down; that which was impossible to us, is easy to him; and he has bid us expect seasons of refreshment from his presence.
All our abatements, declension, and languors arise from a defect of faith; from the imperfect manner in which we take up the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture.
Conformity to the world is the bane of many professors in this day. They have found a way, as they think, to serve both God and mammon.
Fire and Water are not more opposite, than that peace of God which passeth all understanding, and that poor precarious pleasure which is sought in a compliance with the world.
What will it profit a man if he gains his cause, and silences his adversary, if at the same time he loses that humble, tender frame of spirit in which the Lord delights, and to which the promise of his presence is made!
I would wish for a thousand hands and eyes, and feet, and tongues, for ten thousand lives, that I might devote them all to his service: he should have all then; and surely he shall have all now!
"[Religion is] the love of God & the love of our fellow creatures for God’s sake. We cannot love Him, till we begin to know how he has loved us. And then we must love him of course. His real character, his whole Name, if I may so speak, is exhibited by the Cross."
"[Wilberforce] mustered seventy votes for the abolition of the slave trade. There were seventy-four against. Wilberforce was devastated by the defeat. He walked out of Parliament utterly dejected."
He will guide us with his eye, guard us with his power, and his fulness and bounty will supply all our wants.
What is the great design of the gospel? It is not to introduce us into a state of the most honourable and interesting friendship, and to perpetuate to us the pleasure which we find in pleasing those who are dearest to us?
The humble spirit, the principle of faith, the heart-felt repentance, and every other gracious disposition to which the promises are made, are all his gifts, which he bestows freely on the unworthy.
He rules and manages all things; but in so secret a way, that most people think he does nothing, when, in reality, he does all.
Though he may seem to treat you like the woman of Canaan for a time, yet he is full of compassion and mercy.
Shall the enemy urge you to draw discouragements from these multiplied instances of the Lord's goodness? I hope not.
He is about our path by day, and our bed by night, and preserves us from innumerable evils, which would come upon us every hour if his watchful providence did not protect us.
Dreaming of sure satisfaction, in the prosecution, or enjoyment, of our own desires, we do but imitate the builders of Babel, who said, Go to, let us build a tower, to get ourselves a name.