John Armstrong

“ And now, Lord God, though I be as a grain of sand upon the sea-shore, as a drop of water in the great and wide sea, though I be small and of no reputation, accept my prayers, when I pray for Thy creation; not for that old creation which Thou didst frame easily, in which all things obeyed Thy will, but I pray for that new creation, created anew, with great sorrow, framed painfully, with the sweat of thy brow, even with a bloody sweat, by the pains of Thy most painful death, by the humbling of Thyself to become man, and to die the death, even the death of the Cross. ”

“ When I stand at Thine Altar, grant that I may have the profoundest sense of Thy Presence; take me, as it were, out of the world; shut the gate of my heart against it; lift up my spirit; let the house of prayer be unto me as a heavenly place; let the very rails of the altar remind me of my especial separation from the world; may I feel myself to be on holy ground; I cannot draw nearer unto Thee on the earth, may I feel Thy nearness. Till me with a sense of my own sins and Thy great love, of my own unworthiness and Thy mercy; for who can tell the love wherewith Thou hast loved us ”

“ Or drought, or moisture dwell, they hurt not you,
Skill’d to correct the vices of the sky, 500
And taught already how to each extream
To bend your life. But should the public bane
Infect you, or some trespass of your own,
Or flaw of nature hint mortality:
Soon as a not unpleasing horror glides 505
Along the spine, thro’ all your torpid limbs;
When first: the head throbs, or the stomach feels
A sickly load, a weary pain the loins;
Be Celsus call’d: The fates come rushing on;
The rapid fates admit of no delay. ”

“ My work is to preach the Gospel, in season, out of season, directly, indirectly, publicly, privately, at home, abroad, in sermons, in conversation, in the church, by the way-side, in schools, in sick-rooms. I must preach Thee to the young, to the middle-aged, to the old, to the sickly, to the strong, to those who are without faith that they may believe, to those who have faith that faith may be increased, to the careless that they may have care, to the lukewarm that they may glow with love, to the afflicted that they may seek their consolation in Thee. ”

“ Desperate, and arm'd with more than human strength.
How soon the calm, humane, and polish'd man
Forgets compunction, and starts up a fiend!
425Who pines in Love, or wastes with silent Cares,
Envy, or Ignominy, or tender Grief,
Slowly descends and ling'ring to the shades.
But he whom Anger stings, drops, if he dies,
At once, and rushes apoplectic down;
430Or a fierce fever hurries him to hell.
For, as the Body thro' unnumber'd strings
Reverberates each vibration of the Soul;
As is the Passion, such is still the Pain
The Body feels ”

“ And yet, O Lord, Thou hast said in Thy Holy Word that to whom much is given of him will much be required. Having advantages beyond other men, ought I not to walk more carefully? With so holy an office, ought I not to be a holy person? In what a prepared and watchful state of soul ought I to live, if at any moment I may be called upon to kneel down and pray with the sick, if I must be so frequently offering up prayers, so frequently receiving the Holy Communion, and daily discoursing on heavenly things! ”

“ Almost all the arts have in their turns experienced that disgust and love of change which is natural to mankind. But I don't know that any one of them has felt it more than Poetry; which in some ages has been exalted to a triumphal heighth, in others neglected, discouraged and despised. About sixty years ago, under the administration of one of the greatest geniuses that ever France produced, poetry found itself amongst us at its highest pitch of glory. Those who cultivated the muses were regarded with particular favour: this art was the road to fortune and dignified stations. ”

“ May I have grace to make this a day of unworldly labour and self-denial.
I do greatly fear and distrust myself. Preserve me, holy Jesu, from my own particular faults,—from indolence, from worldliness however secret, from love of self, from love of men’s opinions, from pride, from love of advancement, from cowardice in rebuking sinners, or from harshness in rebuke.
I know that I oftentimes yield to sloth; I am often indolent, a waster of time, an ill husbandman of time ”

“ They present my much esteemed friend under a great variety of feelings and circumstances: but they uniformly exhibit him as the sincere and devoted Christian, and as the warm and substantial friend. Oh, how do I pity that poor soul who has never experienced the exquisite delights of friendship! Believe me, Armstrong, I would not exchange the feelings which at present animate my soul for all the wealth in the universe. It would be bauble when contrasted with the inestimable blessing of a friend, whose heart, whose sentiments, whose pursuits, are congenial with your own. ”

“ If men should listen eagerly to my own fallible words, may I never be puffed up; may I strive against a self-seeking and vain-glorious mind; may I kneel down and meditate upon the multitude of my sins. Easily might my soul be lost through the sweetness and deceivableness of human praise. Or if through lack of eloquence, a gift now over-esteemed to the neglect of prayer, my flock come but ill to the house of prayer, may I by true seriousness seek to edify the more devout and stable souls. It is not a multitude of listeners that bespeaks the growth of piety. ”

“ Thou hast told us in Thy Word what an exceeding love Thou bearest towards children, for Thou didst take them up in Thine arms and bless them; Thou didst stop in Thy path when Thy disciples were minded to pass them by; Thou didst set a child in the midst of Thy disciples as an example of meekness and teachableness; Thy first martyrs were the holy innocents. Behold, then, how Thou didst love them. Teach me this love, that I may be a lover of their souls, a spiritual father, that I may win them to Thy truth before the world has won them through the deceitfulness of sin. ”