The first evil choice or act is linked to the second; and each one to the one that follows, both by the tendency of our evil nature and by the power of habit, which holds us as by a destiny.—As Lessing says, “Let the devil catch you but by a single hair, and you are his forever.”
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Evils
Credulity is belief on slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence. In this sense it is the infidel, not the believer, who is credulous. “The simple,” says Solomon, “believeth every word.”
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Belief
Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Anger
Sense, brevity, and point are the elements of a good proverb.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Proverbs
To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Goodness
He that is possessed with a prejudice is possessed with a devil, and one of the worst kinds of devils, for it shuts out the truth, and often leads to ruinous error.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Prejudice
The laws of nature are but the thoughts and agencies of God—the modes in which he works and carries out the designs of his providence and will.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Nature
It is not true that there are no enjoyments in the ways of sin; there are, many and various.—But the great and radical defect of them all is, that they are transitory and unsubstantial, at war with reason and conscience, and always leave a sting behind. We are hungry, and they offer us bread; but it is poisoned bread. We are thirsty, and they offer us drink; but it is from deadly fountains. They may and often do satisfy us for the moment; but it is death in the end. It is only the bread of heaven and the water of life that can so satisfy that we shall hunger no more and thirst no more forever.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Sin
If rich men would remember that shrouds have no pockets, they would, while living, share their wealth with their children, and give for the good of others, and so know the highest pleasure wealth can give.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Charity, Wealth
Happiness is like manna; it is to be gathered in grains, and enjoyed every day. It will not keep; it cannot be accumulated; nor have we got to go out of ourselves or into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from Heaven, at our very doors.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Happiness
Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another—too often ending in the loss of both.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Compromise
Do all that you can to stand, and then fear lest you may fall, and by the grace of God you are safe.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Temptation
Law is often spoken of as uncertain; but the uncertainty is not so much in the law as in the evidence.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Law
The end of our prayers is often gained by an answer very different from what we expect. “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” was the question of Paul; and a large part of the answer was, “I will show him how great things he must suffer.”
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Prayer
Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steadily gains in strength. At first it may be but as the spider’s web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Habit, Habits
Abuse of any one generally shows that he has marked traits of character. The stupid and indifferent are passed by in silence.
—Tryon Edwards
Profanity is both an unreasonable and an unmanly sin, a violation alike of good taste and good morals; an offence against both man and God.—Some sins are productive of temporary profit or pleasure; but profaneness is productive of nothing unless it be shame on earth, and damnation in hell. It is the most gratuitous of all kinds of wickedness—a sort of pepper-corn acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the devil over those who indulge it.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Profanity
Duty performed is a moral tonic; if neglected, the tone and strength of both mind and heart are weakened, and the spiritual health undermined.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Duty
Firmness is adherence to truth and duty is generally most decided when most intelligent and conscientious, and is sometimes mistaken for obstinacy by those who do not comprehend its nature and motive.
—Tryon Edwards
Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Pleasure
The best rules of rhetoric are, to speak intelligently; speak from the heart; have something to say; say it; and stop when you’ve done.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Brevity
Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Duty, Delay
He that is patient will persevere; and he that perseveres will often have occasion for, as well as trial of patience.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Patience
The province of reason in matters of religion is the same as that of the eye in reference to the external world: not to create objects; nor to sit in judgment on the propriety of their existence, but simply to discern them just as they are.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Reason
The benefit of proverbs, or maxims, is that they separate those who act on principle from those who act on impulse; and they lead to promptness and decision in acting.—Their value depends on four things: do they embody correct principles; are they on important subjects; what is the extent, and what the ease of their application?
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Proverbs
Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Responsibility, Sin, Guilt
It has been said that science is opposed to, and in conflict with revelation. But the history of the former shows that the greater its progress, and the more accurate its investigations and results, the more plainly it is seen not only not to clash with the latter, but in all things to confirm it. The very sciences from which objections have been brought against religion have, by their own progress, removed those objections, and in the end furnished full confirmation of the inspired Word of God.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Science
God is infinitely great in himself; we should recognize it in humble adoration: always good; we should acknowledge it by grateful thanksgiving: we have constant need of his blessings; it becomes us to ask them at his hand.
—Tryon Edwards
Topics: Prayer
Liberality was formerly called honesty, as if to imply that unless we are liberal we are not honest, either toward God or man.
—Tryon Edwards
He is one of the noblest conquerors who carries on a successful warfare against his own appetites and passions, and has them under wise and full control.
—Tryon Edwards
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Reinhold Niebuhr American Theologian
- Archibald Alexander Hodge American Presbyterian Theologian
- Anthony de Mello Indian-born American Theologian
- Paul Tillich German-American Theologian
- Samuel Rutherford Scottish Presbyterian Theologian
- George Matheson Scottish Theologian
- Conyers Middleton English Clergyman
- Karl Barth Swiss Protestant Theologian
- Johann Jacob Zimmermann German Nonconformist Theologian
- Henry Liddon English Theologian
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