To Thirst For the Living God

"My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" -- King David

"There is in true grace an infinite circle: a man by thirsting receives, and receiving thirsts for more." -- Thomas Shepard

"O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is." -- King David

"I thirst for thirstiness; I weep for tears." -- Thomas Gataker

"I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land." -- King David

"The Samaritan woman at the well found the Lord thirsting, and by him thirsting, she was filled. She first found him thirsting in order that he might drink from her faith. And when he was on the cross, he said, "I thirst," although they did not give him that for which he was thirsting. For he was thirsting for them." -- Augustine

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." -- Isaiah

"We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee stil:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill." -- Bernard of Clairvaux

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." -- The Lord Jesus

"O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still." -- A.W. Tozer

"But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." -- The Lord Jesus

"With meat and drink indeed I'm blest,
Yet feed on hunger, drink on thirst.
My hunger brings a plenteous store,
My plenty makes me hunger more." -- Ralph Erskine

Jacula Prudentum

George Herbert -- who died on this date, March 1, 1633 -- is a favorite poet of mine. But his works are not limited to poetry. If you enjoy reading proverbs, take the opportunity to read his remarkable collection of "outlandish proverbs" entitled Jacula Prudentum. Originally compiled in 1632, it was first published posthumously in 1640, and then in expanded form in 1651. Although the credit assigned to him as the compiler of these proverbs has been challenged (in 1857 by James Yeowell), I think the historical attribution of Herbert as the editor has withstood the challenge.

Herbert was not the author then, of these proverbs, but the compiler, and the credit assigned to him is that of an editor whose collected proverbs have lived on even to our own day. If you recognize the following aphorisms or variations thereof, we owe much to Herbert's recording labors.

"Man proposeth, God disposeth." ["For man proposes, but God disposes." -- Thomas à Kempis]
"He loseth nothing, that loseth not God."
"Love, and a Cough, cannot be hid."
"He that will learn to pray, let him go to Sea."
"Love your neighbour, yet pull not down your hedge." ["Good fences make good neighbors." -- Robert Frost]
"Buy at a fair, but sell at home."
"God heals, and the Physician hath the thanks."
"Hell is full of good meanings and wishings." ["Hell is full of good desires." -- Bernard of Clairvaux]
"Sometimes the best gain is to lose."
"Knowledge is folly except grace guide it."
"Fear nothing but sin." ["Therefore, let us fear nothing so much as sin and transgression." -- John Chrysostom]
"All is not gold that glitters." ["But all thing which that schyneth as the gold / Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told." -- Geoffrey Chaucer]
"Be not a Baker, if your head be of butter."
"Good finds good."
"The greatest step is that out of doors." ["It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to. -- J.R.R. Tolkien]
"Hope is the poor man's bread."
"On a good bargain think twice."
"Help thyself, and God will help thee." ["God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin]
"You may bring a horse to the river, but he will drink when and what he pleaseth."
"More have repented speech than silence."
"God's Mill grinds slow, but sure."
"Give not Saint Peter so much, to leave Saint Paul nothing."
"For want of a nail the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost." [“The want of a nail loseth the shoe, the loss of a shoe troubles the horse, the horse endangereth the rider, the rider breaking his rank molests the company so far as to hazard the whole army.” -- Thomas Adams, 1629]
"A penny spared is twice got."
"Bear with evil, and expect good." ["I am ready for favourable events in every case, but I am prepared for evil." -- Seneca]
"Living well is the best revenge."
"Life is half spent before we know what it is."

Turning Words Into Works

Francis Roberts provides a list of directions for the right use of Scripture in Clavis Bibliorum: The Key of the Bible, Unlocking the Richest Treasury of the Holy Scriptures, and the last (p. 11) I thought particularly worthwhile to post here:

IX Rule.

The last Direction I shall commend to the Reader for the improvement of Heavenly dexterity in, and understanding of the holy Scriptures, is; Endeavor sincerely to practice Scripture, and you shall solidly understand Scripture. Bernard said truly, he rightly reads the Scriptures that turns words into works, Knowing into Doing. The mightiest man in practice, will in the end prove the mightiest man in Scripture. Theory is the guide of Practice, Practice the Life of Theory. Where Scripture contemplation and experience meet both together in the same person, true Scripture understanding must needs be heightned and doubled. To this effect is Christs promise My Doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me; if any man will do his will, he shall of the doctrine whether it be of God. To like purpose subscribes the experience of David. That through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the Ancients, because I keep thy Precepts.

Heaven and Hell Contrasted

Satan in John Milton, Paradise Lost, I.263:

Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.

The Psalmist in Psalm 84.10:

For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Daniel Defoe, The True-Born Englishman:

WHEREVER God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there:1
And 'twill be found upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation:
For ever since he first debauched the mind,
He made a perfect conquest of mankind.
With uniformity of service, he
Reigns with a general aristocracy.
No non-conforming sects disturb his reign,
For of his yoke there's very few complain.
He knows the genius and the inclination,
And matches proper sins for every nation.
He needs no standing-army government;
He always rules us by our own consent:
His laws are easy, and his gentle sway
Makes it exceeding pleasant to obey:
The list of his vicegerents and commanders,
Outdoes your Cæsars or your Alexanders.
They never fail of his infernal aid,
And he's as certain ne'er to be betrayed.
Through all the world they spread his vast command,
And Death's eternal empire is maintained.
They rule so politicly and so well,
As if they were Lords Justices of Hell,
Duly divided to debauch mankind,
And plant infernal dictates in his mind.

James in James 4.7:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Percy Bysshe Shelly, Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said -- "two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away." --

Jesus in Matthew 5.5:

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Man in Black in The Princess Bride:

Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

John in Revelation 21.4:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Faust and Helena in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust:

Nor past nor future now the soul employ,
The present only constitutes our joy.

Paul in Hebrews 11.24-26:

By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:

The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.

Jesus in Matthew 23.11-12:

But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

Screwtape in C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, XII, p. 56:

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is not better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one -- the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

John Ray, A Complete Collection of English Proverbs, 1670 [expanded upon an earlier saying by St. Bernard of Clairvaux]:

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, III.9:

All hope abandon ye who enter here.

The Psalmist in Psalm 16.10-11:

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.