Thou art beaten that thou mayest be better.

I have often thought that the best Christians are found in the worst of times.

The life blood streaming thro' my heart, Or my more dear immortal part, Is not more fondly dear.

Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think... It is wounding work, this breaking of the hearts, but without wounding there is no saving... Where there is grafting there will always be a cutting, the graft must be let in with a wound; to stick it onto the outside or to tie it on with a string would be of no use. Heart must be set to heart and back to back or there will be no sap from root to branch. And this, I say, must be done by a wound, by a cut.

There is a warning here for true pilgrims. Beware of the talker, but also be careful not to judge too quickly those whom God has blessed with both genuine grace and a fluency to speak of divine mercy in ways more eloquent than others. The proof is in the life-not a perfect life, but a life that both delights in divine truth and magnifies God, the only giver of the sovereign grace that always produces the truly fruitful, fragrant life.

Care, mad to see a man sae happy, E'en drouned himsel amang the nappy.

You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.