So when you hold the "Institutes" of John Calvin in your hand, remember that theology, for John Calvin, was forged in the furnace of burning flesh, and that Calvin could not sit idly by without some effort to vindicate the faithful and the God for whom they suffered. I think we would, perhaps, do our theology better today if more were at stake in what we said.

God gets glory when two very different and very imperfect people forge a life of faithfulness in the furnace of affliction by relying on Christ.

Suffering for Jesus is temporary. Pleasure in Jesus is eternal.

The road to heaven is a hard road, but it is not joyless.

That is not just the story of Israel. It's the story of humanity. It's the story of my life and your life.

When you are tempted to forsake God because of the greatness of evil and misery in the world, may you remember that the BIble has prepared us for this temptation.

I suppose it will not be denied by any, that God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity, aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a good [which is] infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come the moment, when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good has been actually bestowed.

In other words, physical evil is a parable, a drama, a signpost pointing to the moral outrage of rebellion against God.

Physical pain is God's trumpet blast to tell us that something is dreadfully wrong in the world.

God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity, aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a good infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come the moment, when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good has been actually bestowed.

It is written that God cursed the ground for man's sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle—the difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care—were appointed for his good as a part of the training needful in God's plan for his uplifting from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought.

Something better" is the watchword... of all true living. Whatever Christ asks us to renounce, He offers in its stead something better...