The human heart is so sensitive, and the human lot is so sorrowful, that it cannot excite surprise when it is found that religion lays great stress upon the provision for true and lasting comfort which Divine wisdom furnishes and offers to the pious. And whilst the consolations of friendship and of philosophy are superficial, those of Christianity go down to the depths of the nature and extend throughout the whole period of life.

I. THE SUPREME AUTHOR OF SPIRITUAL COMFORT. Instead of looking merely to the earthly streams, the apostle goes straight to the living Fountain.

1. The universal sufficiency of this Divine consolation. God is the God of all comfort, and he comforts us in all our tribulation. For he is omniscient and knows all our sorrows: "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." He is infinitely sympathetic: "In all our afflictions he is afflicted."

2. Divine comfort abounds by Christ. Christ is all to his people. If, then, we share his sufferings and benefit by them, the ministration of his consolatory grace is enjoyed by us who recognize him as upon the mediatorial throne.

II. THE MINISTERS OF DIVINE COMPORT TO THEIR FELLOW MEN. The apostle says of himself here what in a measure may be said of all true pastors.

1. They are qualified for this office by their participation in those sorrows which are the common lot of humanity.

2. By their experimental participation in the sufferings of the Redeemer. They know something of that pain which human sin inflicted upon Christ's heart, and something of that sympathy which showed itself in Christ's tears and sighs.

3. By their interest and affection cherished towards those for whose spiritual welfare they are concerned.

III. THE RECIPIENTS OF SPIRITUAL COMFORT.

1. In order to the enjoyment of true consolation, Christians must submit themselves with humility and resignation to the will of God.

2. If they have committed sin or neglected duty, they must not expect consolation except through contrition and repentance.

3. By whatever ministrations consolation may be administered, in order that it may be received aright, it must be. sought from the God of comfort, and it must be sought in the Name and for the sake of Christ. - T.

1. There is no tribulation either for the kind or degree of it, but God can and doth comfort His people therein, and God's comforts do far exceed all philosophical remedies, as much as the sun doth a glow-worm.

2. It is very useful to know what are these apples of comfort (Song of Solomon 2-5), because many of God's children —(1) Are in a great manner ignorant of what foundations and sure grounds they have of comfort. They are like Elisha's servant, who, though there was a great host of angels to help him, yet did not see them. So that the Spirit of God not only illuminates us in the matter of duty, but also in matter of comfort.(2) Though they know many arguments of comfort, yet their memory faileth them, that in the very hour of their temptations they forget what comfortable supports they might make use of. So that it is good to preach of these principles of consolation, that thereby we may be remembrancers to you.

3. Come we then to lead you up into the mount of transfiguration, let us see, even in this life, what are the good things God hath prepared for those that love Him. And take this for a foundation, that God comforts through and by the Scriptures.

I. ALL TRIBULATION IS PRECISELY DETERMINED BY GOD AS A FATHER OUT OF MUCH LOVE.

1. In regard of the beginning, the degree, and the continuance of it. Here is matter of comfort enough; here is more oil than we have vessels to receive (Matthew 5.; Hebrews 12:9, 10). Now as winter and cold is necessary in its season as well as summer, and the night hath its use as well as the day, a time of tribulation is as necessary as a time of rest and quietness.

2. In regard to the time of deliverance from it. The tribulation shall not stay an hour longer than while it may do good to thee; He will not take one drop of blood more from thee than is necessary to prevent thy disease, or abate it (Revelation 2:10). Even as the artificer knoweth how long the gold must be in the fire to take away the dross, and will not suffer it to abide any longer.

II. Another Scripture-cordial is FROM CHRIST, WITH ALL THE FULNESS THAT IS IN HIM. Christ received by faith is able to make us gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles. He that hath this sun cannot be in the dark night. What makes Paul (Romans 8.) to triumph in all manner of tribulations? Is not the foundation of all this Christ dead and Christ risen again? And if He hath given us Christ, how shall He not with Him give us all things? Thus the spiritual influence of Christ into the soul taketh away the bitterness of all troubles.

III. Another Scripture discovery for comfort is to PRESS AND COMMAND THE LIFE OF FAITH UPON GOD'S PROMISE. So that, whatsoever the principles of the world and sense do suggest, yet faith rectifieth all. That finds honey to come out of a dead lion, that can suck honey from a bitter herb. God's thoughts and ours are wholly different; only faith enableth us to know the mind of God; and where flesh is ready to say, God is casting off and utterly forsaking, there faith seeth Him drawing near. The disciples in a tempest thought they had seen a spirit, and were affrighted, but it was Christ. The promise of God and faith applying it, do bear up the soul, and make it rejoice in troubles (Hebrews 6:18).

IV. ETERNAL GLORY IS TO BE POSSESSED AFTER THE TROUBLES (2 Corinthians 4:16, 17).

(A. Burgess.)

Circumstances of life not unfrequently become aids to the revelations of God to the soul. Most of us know how troubles have helped us in the translation of the Bible.

I. OUR AFFLICTIONS AND COMFORTINGS ARE THE SOURCE OF OUR FITNESS FOR INFLUENCING OTHERS.

1. These together bring a peculiar kind of power.(1) How often the very tone of stricken ones has had its power upon us: They were not morbid; not talking always about their past griefs; but our spirits felt as we listened to them the hallowing influence of the passage through suffering. Compare their conversation with that of those whom God has but seldom and lightly smitten. Take those efforts which are made for the conversion of others; hear also the men of sanctified afflictions. They who have been brought to Christ without any great struggles seldom gain the power to aid the early seekings of others.(2) Take any endeavour to express sympathy with those who may now be suffering. The unstricken can find beautiful words, but the stricken can express unutterable things in silence.

2. Then it will but be reasonable to expect that if God has valuable influence for us to exert, He will need to bring us through troubles. The same truth shines out, even more clearly, from the. life and Cross of Christ. "He is able to succour because in all points tempted." Should you not, then, bless God for sorrows that win you Christly powers to bless others?

II. OUR AFFLICTIONS AND COMFORTINGS GAIN FOR US ALL THE POWER OF A NOBLE EXAMPLE, There is an unconscious as well as a conscious influence, forming an atmosphere, living in which men insensibly grow better. Sometimes God's more suffering children become despondent because they can do so little actual work for Christ; but God has done some of His very best things by the example of suffering patience.

1. Estimate the moral influence of sanctified afflictions on men who are living with no sense of spiritual and eternal things. What touches these men? Do sermons? Alas! but faintly. Does Christian life around them? Alas! its witness is too feeble. Does their own part of human trouble? Only a little, for they accept it as their part of the common lot. But in the presence of a sanctified Christian sufferer many a worldly, thoughtless man has said in his heart, "I would gladly change places with him, if I could but know his heart peace."

2. Then estimate the influence exerted by such on doubting and imperfect Christians. For all of us the Christian life is difficult; it is easy for us all to fall into careless, unworthy living, and into doubt and despair. Now those who have passed under God's afflictions and comfortings have a higher life; they excite us all to try and reach up to it.

3. Then think of the power exerted by these sanctified sufferers on children. Religion is in this way set before the young as no mere theory, but the very noblest power to sanctify their life.

(R. Tuck, B. A.)

1. If there is one point of character more than another which belonged to St. Paul it was his power of sympathy. He went through trials of every kind, and this was their issue. He knew how to persuade, for he knew where lay the perplexity; he knew how to console, for he knew the sorrow. His spirit was as some delicate instrument which, as the weather changed about him, accurately marked all its variations, and guided him what to do. "To the Jews he became as a Jew," etc. (2 Corinthians 11:23-30). The same law was fulfilled not only in the case of Christ's servants, but even He Himself condescended to learn to strengthen man, by the experiencing of man's infirmities (Hebrews 2:17, 18; Hebrews 4:14, 15).

2. Now, in speaking of the benefits of suffering, we should never forget that by itself it has no power to make us more heavenly. It makes many men morose and selfish. The only sympathy it creates in many is the wish that others should suffer with them, not they with others. The devils are not incited by their own torments to any endeavour but that of making others devils also. It is only when grace is in the heart that anything outward or inward turns to a man's salvation.

3. And while affliction does not necessarily make us kind, and may even make us cruel, the want of affliction does not mend matters. There is a buoyancy and freshness of mind in those who have never suffered, which, beautiful as it is, is perhaps scarcely suitable and safe in sinful man. Pain and sorrow are the almost necessary medicines of the impetuosity of nature. Without these, men, like spoilt children, act as if they considered everything must give way to their own wishes and conveniences.

4. Such is worldly happiness and worldly trial; but God, while He chose the latter as the portion of His saints, sanctified it. He rescues them from the selfishness of worldly comfort without surrendering them to the selfishness of worldly pain. He brings them into pain, that they may be like Christ, and may be led to think of Him, not of themselves. When they mourn, they are more intimately in His presence than at any other time. Pain, anxiety, bereavement, distress, are to them His forerunners. He who has been long under the rod of God becomes God's possession (Lamentations 3:1, 2, 12). And they who see him gather around like Job's acquaintance, speaking no word to him, yet more reverently than if they did; looking at him with fear yet with confidence, as one who is under God's teaching" and training for the work of consolation towards his brethren. Him they will seek when trouble comes on themselves; turning from all such as delighted them in their prosperity.

5. Surely this is a great blessing to be thus consecrated by affliction as a minister of God's mercies to the afflicted. Thus, instead of being the selfish creatures which we were by nature, grace, acting through suffering, tends to make us ready teachers and witnesses of Truth to all men. Time was when, even at the most necessary times, we found it difficult to speak of heaven to another; but now our affection is eloquent, and "out of the abundance of the heart our mouth speaketh."

6. Such was the high temper of mind instanced in our Lord and His apostles, and thereby impressed upon the Church. And for this we may thank God that the Church has never forgotten that we must all, "through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." She has never forgotten that she was set apart for a comforter of the afflicted, and that comfort well we must first be afflicted ourselves. Those who are set on their own ease most certainly are bad comforters of others; thus the rich man, who fared sumptuously every day, let Lazarus lie at his gate, and left him to be "comforted" after this life by angels. As to comfort the poor and afflicted is the way to heaven, so to have affliction ourselves is the way to comfort them.

(J. H. Newman, D. D.)

I. AS A SCHOOL OF COMFORT. Affliction and comfort — a remarkable connection of two apparent opposites, and yet how indissoluble! For heavenly, as distinguished from mere earthly gladness, is inseparable from suffering. It was so in the life of Christ; it was immediately after the temptation that angels came and ministered to Him; it was in His agony that the angel strengthened Him. And as in His life so in ours, these two are never separated, for the first earnest questions of personal and deep religion are ever born out of personal suffering. As if God had said, "In the sunshine thou canst not see Me; but when the sun is withdrawn the stars of heaven shall appear."

II. A SCHOOL OF ASSURANCE.

1. There is nothing so hard to force upon the soul as the conviction that life is a real, earnest, awful thing. Only see the butterfly life of pleasure men and women are living day by day, flitting from one enjoyment to another; living, working, spending, and exhausting themselves for nothing else but the seen and temporal and unreal.

2. Nothing is harder than to believe in God. When you are well, when hours are pleasant and friends abundant, it is an easy thing to speculate about God; but when sorrow comes, speculation will not do. It is like casting the lead from mere curiosity, when you have a sound strong ship in deep water. But when she is grinding on the rocks, then we sound for God. For God becomes a living God, a home, when once we feel that we are helpless anti homeless in this world without Him.

III. A SCHOOL OF SYMPATHY.

1. Some Christians are rough, hard, and rude: you cannot go to them for sympathy. They have not suffered. Tenderness is got by suffering. Would you be a Barnabas and give something beyond commonplace consolation to a wounded spirit? then "you must suffer being tempted."

2. Now here we have a very peculiar source of consolation in suffering. The thought that the apostle's suffering benefited others soothed him in his afflictions, and this is a consolation which is essentially Christian. Consider how the old Stoicism groped in the dark to solve the mystery of grief, telling you it must be, and that it benefits and perfects you. Yes, that is true enough. But Christianity says much more; it says, Your suffering blesses others; it gives them firmness. Here is the law of the Cross: "No man dieth to himself"; for his pain and loss is for others, and brings with it to others joy and gain.

(F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Corinthians, Paul, Silas, Silvanus, Timotheus, TimothyAchaia, Asia, Corinth, Judea, MacedoniaAble, Affliction, Comfort, Comforted, Comforteth, Comforting, Comforts, Consolation, Encourage, Encouraged, Encouragement, Encourages, Gives, Kind, Ourselves, Received, Tribulation, Trouble, Troubles, Whatever, Wherewith1. Paul salutes the Corinthians;
3. he encourages them against troubles,
5. by the comforts and deliverances which God had given him,
8. so particularly in his late danger in Asia.
12. And calling both his own conscience and theirs,
15. he excuses his not coming to them, as proceeding not of lightness,
23. but of his care for them.

2 Corinthians 1:4

     5436   pain
     6233   rejection, experience

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

     5398   loss
     5567   suffering, emotional
     5797   bereavement, comfort in
     5853   experience, of life
     8416   encouragement, promises

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

     5565   suffering, of believers
     5809   compassion, human

2 Corinthians 1:3-6

     4019   life, believers' experience
     6705   peace, experience
     8298   love, for one another

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

     5805   comfort
     5963   sympathy

2 Corinthians 1:4-5

     6214   participation, in Christ

June the Eighteenth the Benefitted as Benefactors
"Who comforteth us ... that we may be able to comfort." --2 CORINTHIANS i. 3-7. And how does the Lord comfort us? He has a thousand different ways, and no one can ever tell by what way the comfort will come to his soul. Sometimes it comes by the door of memory, and sometimes by the door of hope. Sometimes it is borne to us through the ministry of nature, and at other times through the ministry of human speech and kindness. But always, I think, it brings us the sense of a Presence, as though we …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Corinthians. God's Yea; Man's Amen
'For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea: wherefore also through Him is the Amen.'--2 COR. i. 20 (R.V.). This is one of the many passages the force and beauty of which are, for the first time, brought within the reach of an English reader by the alterations in the Revised Version. These are partly dependent upon the reading of the text and partly upon the translation. As the words stand in the Authorised Version, 'yea' and 'amen' seem to be very nearly synonymous expressions, …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Anointed and Stablished
'Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God.'--2 COR. i. 21. The connection in which these words occur is a remarkable illustration of the Apostle's habit of looking at the most trivial things in the light of the highest truths. He had been obliged, as the context informs us, to abandon an intended visit to Corinth. The miserable crew of antagonists, who yelped at his heels all his life, seized this change of purpose as the occasion for a double-barrelled charge. …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Seal and Earnest
'Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.'--2 COR. i. 23. There are three strong metaphors in this and the preceding verse--'anointing,' 'sealing,' and 'giving the earnest'--all of which find their reality in the same divine act. These three metaphors all refer to the same subject, and what that subject is is sufficiently explained in the last of them. The 'earnest' consists of 'the Spirit in our hearts,' and the same explanation might have been appended to both …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Consolation Proportionate to Spiritual Sufferings
There are four things in my text to which I invite your attention: the first is the sufferings to be expected--"The sufferings of Christ abound in us;" secondly, the distinction to be noticed--they are the sufferings of Christ; thirdly, a proportion to be experienced--as the sufferings of Christ abound, so our consolations abound; and fourthly, the person to be honored--"So our consolation aboundeth by CHRIST." I. Our first division then is, THE SUFFERINGS TO BE EXCPECTED. Our holy Apostle says "The …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

The Tenses
"Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us."--2 Corinthians 1:10. WHEN children are learning their grammar, they have to pay particular attention to the tenses of the verbs; and it is important for Christians also to remember their tenses,--to recollect the past, the present, and the future. Our text brings all three very vividly before us, and reminds us that God hath delivered, doth deliver, and will yet deliver. First, let us think for …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 47: 1901

Eighth Day for the Spirit on all Christian Workers
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Spirit on all Christian Workers "Ye also helping together on our behalf; that for the gift bestowed upon us by means of many, thanks may be given by many on our behalf."--2 COR. i. 11. What multitudes of workers in connection with our churches and missions, our railways and postmen, our soldiers and sailors, our young men and young women, our fallen men and women, our poor and sick. God be praised for this! What could they accomplish if each were living in the fulness of …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

"Now the End of the Commandment," &C.
1 Tim. i. 5.--"Now the end of the commandment," &c. We come now, as was proposed, to observe, Thirdly,(474) That faith unfeigned is the only thing which gives the answer of a good conscience towards God. Conscience, in general, is nothing else but a practical knowledge of the rule a man should walk by, and of himself in reference to that rule. It is the laying down a man's state, and condition, and actions beside the rule of God's word, or the principles of nature's light. It is the chief piece …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Of the Wonderful Power of the Divine Love
I bless Thee, O Heavenly Father, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, for that Thou hast vouchsafed to think of me, poor that I am. O, Father of Mercies and God of all comfort,(1) I give thanks unto Thee, who refreshest me sometimes with thine own comfort, when I am unworthy of any comfort. I bless and glorify Thee continually, with thine only begotten Son and the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, for ever and ever. O Lord God, Holy lover of my soul, when Thou shalt come into my heart, all my inward parts …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

St. Malachy's Apostolic Labours, Praises and Miracles.
[Sidenote: 1140, October] 42. (23). Malachy embarked in a ship, and after a prosperous voyage landed at his monastery of Bangor,[576] so that his first sons might receive the first benefit.[577] In what state of mind do you suppose they were when they received their father--and such a father--in good health from so long a journey? No wonder if their whole heart gave itself over to joy at his return, when swift rumour soon brought incredible gladness even to the tribes[578] outside round about them. …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Seventh Day for the Power of the Holy Spirit on Ministers
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Power of the Holy Spirit on Ministers "I beseech you that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me."--ROM. xv. 30. "He will deliver us; ye also helping together by your supplication on our behalf."--2 COR. i. 10, 11. What a great host of ministers there are in Christ's Church. What need they have of prayer. What a power they might be, if they were all clothed with the power of the Holy Ghost. Pray definitely for this; long for it. Think of your own minister, …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Twenty-Sixth Day for the Holy Spirit on Young Converts
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Holy Spirit on Young Converts "Peter and John prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost; for as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus."--ACTS viii. 15, 16. "Now He which establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; who also gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."--2 COR. i. 21, 22. How many new converts who remain feeble; how many who fall into sin; how many who backslide …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Fifteenth Lesson. If Two Agree
If two agree;' Or, The Power of United Prayer Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them.--Matt. xviii. 19, 20. ONE of the first lessons of our Lord in His school of prayer was: Not to be seen of men. Enter thy inner chamber; be alone with the Father. When He has thus taught us that the …
Andrew Murray—With Christ in the School of Prayer

Sanctification.
PAUL ENTIRELY SANCTIFIED. I might urge a great many other considerations, and as I have said, fill a book with scriptures, and arguments, and demonstrations, of the attainability of entire sanctification in this life. But I forbear, and will present only one more consideration--a consideration which has great weight in some minds. It is a question of great importance, whether any actually ever did attain this state. Some who believe it attainable, do not consider it of much importance to show that …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

Epistle Xlv. To Theoctista, Patrician .
To Theoctista, Patrician [153] . Gregory to Theoctista, &c. We ought to give great thanks to Almighty God, that our most pious and most benignant Emperors have near them kinsfolk of their race, whose life and conversation is such as to give us all great joy. Hence too we should continually pray for these our lords, that their life, with that of all who belong to them, may by the protection of heavenly grace be preserved through long and tranquil times. I have to inform you, however, that I have …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Concerning Baptism.
Concerning Baptism. [967] As there is one Lord, and one faith, so there is one baptism; which is not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience before God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And this baptism is a pure and spiritual thing, to wit, the baptism of the Spirit and Fire, by which we are buried with him, that being washed and purged from our sins, we may walk in newness of life: of which the baptism of John was a figure, which was commanded for a time, …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters Purely Religious, and Pertaining to the Conscience.
Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters purely Religious, and pertaining to the Conscience. Since God hath assumed to himself the power and Dominion of the Conscience, who alone can rightly instruct and govern it, therefore it is not lawful [1226] for any whosoever, by virtue of any authority or principality they bear in the government of this world, to force the consciences of others; and therefore all killing, banishing, fining, imprisoning, and other such things which are inflicted …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Vanity of Human Glory.
"The world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not."--1 John iii. 1 Of St. Simon and St. Jude, the Saints whom we this day commemorate, little is known[1]. St. Jude, indeed, still lives in the Church in his Catholic epistle; but of his history we only know that he was brother to St. James the Less, and nearly related to our Lord and that, like St. Peter, he had been a married man. Besides his name of Jude or Judas, he is also called Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus in the Gospels. Of St. Simon we only …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Christ all and in All.
(Colossians iii. 11.) Christ is all to us that we make Him to be. I want to emphasize that word "all." Some men make Him to be "a root out of a dry ground," "without form or comeliness." He is nothing to them; they do not want Him. Some Christians have a very small Saviour, for they are not willing to receive Him fully, and let Him do great and mighty things for them. Others have a mighty Saviour, because they make Him to be great and mighty. If we would know what Christ wants to be to us, we …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

Epistle vii. To Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius.
To Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius. Gregory to Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius, Bishops [1688] . I rejoice exceedingly that you welcomed with great joy the ordination of the most holy Cyriacus, my brother and fellow-priest. And since we have learnt from the preaching of Paul the apostle that If one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. xii. 26), you must needs consider with how great exultation I rejoice with you in this thing, wherein not one member, but many members of Christ have …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Epistle xxxix. To Anastasius, Bishop .
To Anastasius, Bishop [1602] . Gregory to Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will (Luke ii. 14), because that great river which once had left the rocks of Antioch dry has returned at length to its proper channel, and waters the subject valleys that are near, so as also to bring forth fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, and some an hundred-fold. For now there is no doubt that many flowers of souls are growing up in its valleys, and that …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Letter xvi to Rainald, Abbot of Foigny
To Rainald, Abbot of Foigny Bernard declares to him how little he loves praise; that the yoke of Christ is light; that he declines the name of father, and is content with that of brother. 1. In the first place, do not wonder if titles of honour affright me, when I feel myself so unworthy of the honours themselves; and if it is fitting that you should give them to me, it is not expedient for me to accept them. For if you think that you ought to observe that saying, In honour preferring one another …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

How the Obstinate and the Fickle are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 19.) Differently to be admonished are the obstinate and the fickle. The former are to be told that they think more of themselves than they are, and therefore do not acquiesce in the counsels of others: but the latter are to be given to understand that they undervalue and disregard themselves too much, and so are turned aside from their own judgment in successive moments of time. Those are to be told that, unless they esteemed themselves better than the rest of men, they would by no …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Why all Things Work for Good
1. The grand reason why all things work for good, is the near and dear interest which God has in His people. The Lord has made a covenant with them. "They shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Jer. xxxii. 38). By virtue of this compact, all things do, and must work, for good to them. "I am God, even thy God" (Psalm l. 7). This word, Thy God,' is the sweetest word in the Bible, it implies the best relations; and it is impossible there should be these relations between God and His people, and …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

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