Matthew Henry Quotes

Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offences, we should be less apt to judge other people.

We read of preaching the Word out of season, but we do not read of praying out of season, for that is never out of season.

None so blind, so deaf, as those that will not hear, that will not see.

Nature is content with little; grace with less; but lust with nothing.

When he [the slothful person] is pressed to be diligent, either in his worldly affairs or in the business of religion, this is his excuse (and a sorry excuse it is as bad as none).

Sanctified afflictions are spiritual promotions.

Prayer is the midwife of mercy, that helps to bring it forth.

Be careful if you make a women cry, because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man’s ribs. Not from his feet to be walked on, not from his head to be superior, but from his side to be equal, under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.

He rolls it under his tongue as a sweet morsel.

By the light of nature we see God as a God above us, by the light of the law we see Him as a God against us, but by the light of the gospel we see Him as Emmanuel, God with us.

May Christ be our joy, our confidence, our all. May we daily be made more like to Him, and more devoted to His service.

The more reverence we have for the Word of God, the more joy we shall find in it.

God cannot be represented by an image. We ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. We wrong God, and put an affront upon him, if we think so. God honoured man in making his soul after his own likeness; but man dishonours God if he makes him after the likeness of his body. The Godhead is spiritual, infinite, immaterial, incomprehensible, and therefore it is a very false and unjust conception which an image gives us of God.

Better to get up late and be wide awake then, than to get up early and be asleep all day.

Though He had so much work to do with others, yet He [Jesus] chose sometimes to be alone, to set us an example.

We have no sufficient strength of our own. All our sufficiency is of God. We should stir up ourselves to resist temptations in a reliance upon God's all-sufficiency and the omnipotence of his might.

The God of Israel is sometimes a God who hides Himself, but never a God who absents Himself; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.

It is not fit the public trusts should be lodged in the hands of any, till they are first proved and found fit for the business they are to be entrusted with.

If ill thoughts at any time enter into the mind of a good man, he doth not roll them under his tongue as a sweet morsel.

God took Eve from the side of Adam, not from his foot to be his menial or slave or servant, not from his head to be his mental superior, and did take him from that which is nearest his heart, that he might love her, and that which is under his arm, that he might protect her.

Not lost, but gone before.

Riches, in the hands of a man that is wise and generous, are good for something, but in the hands of a sordid, sneaking, covetous miser, they are good for nothing.

Prayer is the breath of the new man, drawing in the air of mercy in petitions, and returning it in praises; it proves and maintains the spiritual life.

Days of trouble must be days of prayer.

Shallows where a lamb could wade and depths where an elephant would drown.

The counsels and decrees of God do not truckle to the frail and fickle will of man.

The streams of religion run deep or shallow, according as the banks of the Sabbath are kept up or neglected.

For love is of God. He is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of his law and gospel.

Humility is the great preserver of peace and order in all Christian churches and societies, consequently pride is the great disturber of them, and the cause of most dissensions and breaches in the church.

Take Jesus for your king, and by baptism swear allegiance to him; take him for your prophet, and hear him; take him for your priest, to make atonement for you.

Brown bread and the Gospel is good fare.

Grace in the soul is heaven in that soul.

Conscience is that candle of the Lord which was not quite put out.

The provisions of Christ's gospel appear mean and scanty to the world, yet they satisfy all that feed on him in their hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

Goodness makes greatness truly valuable, and greatness make goodness much more serviceable.

When God intends great mercy for his people, the first thing he doth is to set them a praying.

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.

Whatever we have of this world in our hands, our care must be to keep it out of our hearts, lest it come between us and Christ.

Wherever the fear of God rules in the heart, it will appear both in works of charity and piety, and neither will excuse us from the other.

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.

We must never promise ourselves any more than God has promised us.

God warns before he wounds.

There are remains of great and good men, which, like this mantle, ought to be gathered up and preserved by the survivors, their sayings, their writings, their examples, that, as their works follow them in the reward of them, they may stay behind in the benefit of them.

Some people do not like to hear much of repentance; but I think it is so necessary that if I should die in the pulpit, I would desire to die preaching repentance, and if out of the pulpit I would desire to die practicing it.

Those that set God always before them and walk before him with all their hearts, shall find him as good as his word and better; he will both keep covenant with them and show mercy to them.

Why wilt thou be so sottish, such an enemy to thyself, as to prefer puddle-water, and that poisoned too and stolen, before pure living waters out of thy own well?