The Swamp of Despond is that place set before the narrow gate where true and false pilgrims alike are assaulted by their own internal corruption and pollution. The dirt and scum that has attached itself to our hearts and minds is agitated and revealed by both the workings of a guilty conscience and the devouring avarice of the enemy of our souls.The

Breathes there a man, whose judgment clear Can others teach their course to steer, Yet run himself life's mad career Wild as the wave?

No man, without trials and temptations, can attain a true understanding of the Holy Scriptures.

For to speak the truth, there are but few that care thus to spend their time, but choose rather to be speaking of things to no profit.

I live because I am a Warrior and because I wish one day to be in the company of [She] for whom I have fought so hard

Great sins do draw out great grace; and where guilt is most terrible and fierce, there the mercy of God in Christ, when showed to the soul, appears most high and mighty.

Here is the life of prayer, when in or with the Spirit, a man being made sensible of sin, and how to come to the Lord for mercy; he comes, I say, in the strength of the Spirit, and crieth Father. That one word spoken in faith is better than a thousand prayers, as men call them, written and read, in a formal, cold, lukewarm way.