“Till the understanding be born of the Spirit, it will delight in, and think nothing of, nothing but things suitable to its fleshly original: but when it is spiritual, it receives new impressions, new reasonings and motions, suitable to the Holy Ghost, of Whom it is born.”—Stephen Charnock.
NO TRUE COMFORT WITHOUT CHRIST.—Nothing can comfort the soul without Christ. Temporal enjoyments, riches, honours, health, relations yield not a drop of true comfort without Christ. Spiritual enjoyments, ministers, ordinances, and promises are fountains sealed up, and springs closed. Until Christ opens them a man may go comfortless in the midst of them all. No troubles or trials can deject the soul that Christ comforts. “As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6. 10).—Flavel.
THE PURE JOYS OF HEAVEN.—There is no good in this life but what is mingled with some evil. Honours perplex, riches disquiet, and pleasures ruin health; but in heaven we shall find blessings in their purity, without any ingredient to embitter, with everything to sweeten them. Oh! who is able to conceive the inexpressible, inconceivable joys that are there? None but they who have tasted of them!—John Bunyan.