Robert Lewis Dabney on Standards of Right

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 8:00 AM


"It is only the atheist who adopts success as the criterion of right."  
Robert Lewis Dabney


John Bunyan on the Fear of God

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 8:00 AM


“Christian, let God's distinguishing love to you be a motive to you to fear Him greatly. He has put His fear in your heart, and may not have given that blessing to your neighbor, perhaps not to your husband, your wife, your child, or your parent. Oh, what an obligation should this thought lay upon your heart to greatly fear the Lord! Remember also that this fear of the Lord is His treasure, a choice jewel, given only to favorites, and to those who are greatly beloved.”
John Bunyan


Samuel Langdon on Training Children

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, February 27, 2012 at 8:17 AM


“Train them [your children] up in the fear of God, in an acquaintance with his word, and all such useful knowledge as your abilities will allow, and they will soon know how to provide for themselves, perhaps may take care of their aged parents, and fill the various stations in life with honor and advantage.”
Samuel Langdon
(1723 –1797)

John Taylor on Agriculture

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, February 24, 2012 at 8:00 AM


“A patient must know that he is sick, before he will take a physick. A collection of a very few facts, to ascertain the ill health of agriculture, is necessary to invigorate our efforts towards a cure. One, apparent to the most superficial observer, is, that our land has diminished in fertility. Arts improve the work of nature–when they injure it, they are not arts but barbarous customs. It is the office of agriculture as, as an art, not to impoverish, but to fertilize the soil, and make it more useful than in its natural state. Such is the effect of every species of agriculture, which can aspire to the character of an art. It’s object being to furnish man with articles of the first necessity, whatever defeats that object, is a crime of the first magnitude. Had men the power to obscure or brighten the light of the sun, by obscuring it, they would imitate the morality of diminishing the fertility of the earth. Is not one as criminal as the other?”
John Taylor (1753-1824)


Isaac Backus on Reliance on the Word of God

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 8:22 AM

"How are men deluded to think they do God service, when they violate his word"

“By which it appears, that to fix our dependence upon any other beside the divine Being, and to pursue any method beside his directions, to obtain the necessaries and comforts of life, is whoredom; and does not the chief sin of the mother of harlots lie in her fixing this dependence upon the kings of the earth? Rev. 18. 3–13.”
Isaac Backus

Robert Lewis Dabney on Public School

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 10:50 AM


"They say: "It costs less money to build schoolhouses than jails."  But what if it turns out that the state's expenditure is one of the things which necessitates the expenditure in jails?"
Robert Lewis Dabney



Charles Hodge on Education

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 8:00 AM


"This whole process of education is to be religious, and not only religious, but Christian.  And as Christianity is the only true religion, and God, in Christ, the only true God, the only possible means of profitable education is the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
Charles Hodge


William B. Sprague on Young Converts

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Monday, February 20, 2012 at 8:24 AM

"Impress the young convert from the very beginning with the coviction that God has called him into His kingdom to struggle with the corruptions of his heart."
William B. Sprague (1795 - 1876)

Matthew Henry on Modesty and Humility

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Friday, February 17, 2012 at 8:00 AM

“A modest dress is a very good thing, if it be the genuine indication of a humble heart, and is to instruct; but it is a bad thing if it be the hypocritical disguise of a proud ambitious heart, and is to deceive. Let men be really as good as they seem to be, but not seem to be better than really they are.”
Matthew Henry


Matthew Henry on God's Sovereignty

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 8:00 AM

“We must believe that He is able to do what He will, wise to do what is best, and good, according to His promise, to do what is best for us, if we love Him, and serve Him.” 
Matthew Henry


Matthew Henry on Religion

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 8:00 AM

“It is easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it is an evidence of strong faith and resolution to swim against a stream to heaven, and to appear for God when no one else appears for Him.” 
Matthew Henry


Matthew Henry on Peace and Truth

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , , | Posted On Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 8:00 AM

“Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth.” 
Matthew Henry


Matthew Henry on Trials

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, February 13, 2012 at 8:00 AM

“Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.” 
Matthew Henry

Stephen Charnock on Hypocrits

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, February 10, 2012 at 8:00 AM

"It is a sad thing to be a Christian at a supper, heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets."
Stephen Charnock


Henry Smith on Persecution

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:00 AM

"God examineth with trials, the devil examineth with temptation, the world examineth with persecution."
Henry Smith


Samuel Rodigast on God's sovereignty

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 8:00 AM


Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Holy his will abideth;
I will be still whate'er he doth;
And follow where he guideth:
He is my God: though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to him I leave it all.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path;
I know he will not leave me:
I take, content, what he hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait his day.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking:
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet am I not forsaken;
My Father's care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to him I leave it all.

Samuel Rodigast, 1649-1708
(Trinity Hymnal #94)

John Flavel on Forgiveness

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 8:00 AM

"By revenge thou canst but satisfy a lust, but by forgiveness thou shalt conquer a lust."
John Flavel


William Gurnall on Heaven

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Monday, February 6, 2012 at 8:00 AM

"Nothing is more contrary to a heavenly hope than an earthly heart."
William Gurnall


Thomas Manton on the Law of God

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Friday, February 3, 2012 at 8:00 AM

"Human laws are good to establish converse with man, but too short to establish communion with God; and  therefore we must consult with the rule which is the law of the Lord, that we may not come short of true blessedness."
Thomas Manton


Stephen Charnock on Mercy

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 8:00 AM

"Without faith we are not fit to desire mercy, without humility we are not fit to receive it, without affection we are not fit to value it, without sincerity we are not fit to improve it."
Stephen Charnock


Samuel Rutherford on Humility

Posted by Bluegrass Endurance | Labels: , | Posted On Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 8:00 AM


"Humility is a strange flower; it grows best in winter weather, and under storms of affliction."
Samuel Rutherford