Excerpts From the Fountain of Life

Excerpts From the Fountain of Life # 2

O Wretched Idol

O that dreadful idol - myself!

We have need to be redeemed from ourselves, as much as from the devil and the world!

I would like to make a sweet bargain, and shuffle out self, and substitute Christ my Lord in place of myself! Not I, but Christ! Not my will, but Christ's! Not my ease, not my lusts, not my home - but Christ, Christ!

O wretched idol, myself! When shall I see you wholly cast out, and Christ wholly put in your place?

The Knife that Stabbed Christ to the Heart!

"They will look at Me, whom they have pierced. Then they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and they will cry bitterly for Him as one cries for a firstborn son" (Zechariah 12:10).

Do you complain of the hardness of your hearts, and lack of love to Christ? Behold Him dying for your sins! Such a sight, (if any in the world will do it) will melt your hard hearts.

It is reported of Johannes Milieus, that he was never observed to speak of Christ and His sufferings, but his eyes would drop tears.

Are you too little touched and unaffected with the evil of sin? Look at the Cross of Christ, and see what efficacy there is in it to make sin forever bitter as death to your soul.

Suppose your own father had been stabbed to the heart with a certain knife, and his blood were still upon it. Would you delight to see, or endure to use that knife any more?

Sin is the knife that stabbed Christ to the heart!

Sin shed His blood!

If God Should Damn You for All Eternity

If the death of Christ was that which satisfied God for all the sins of the elect, then certainly there is an infinite evil in sin, since it cannot be expiated but by an infinite satisfaction. Fools make a mock at sin, and there are but few people who are duly sensible of, and affected with - the evil of sin.

If God Should damn you for all Eternity, your eternal sufferings could not pay for the evil that is in one vain thought! Perhaps you think that this is harsh and severe - that God should hold His creatures under everlasting sufferings for sin. But when you have well considered, that the One against whom you sin, is the infinite blessed God; and that sin is an infinite evil committed against Him;and when you consider how God dealt with the angels that fell, for one sin - you will alter your minds about it. 

O the depth of the evil of sin! If ever you will see how dreadful and horrid an evil, sin is, you must measure it either by the infinite holiness and excellency of God, who is wronged by it; or by the infinite sufferings of Christ, who died to pay its penalty; and they you will have deeper apprehensions of the evil of sin.

Its Ensnaring Beauty

"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).

Jesus did not come to amass earthly treasures, but to bestow heavenly ones. His great and heavenly soul neglected and despised those things, that too many of His own people too much admire and live for. He spent not an anxious thought about those things that eat up thousands of our thoughts.

Indeed He came to be humbled, and to teach men by His example the vanity of this world, and pour contempt upon its ensnaring beauty.

Cain's Club!

The greatest innocence and piety cannot exempt from persecution and injury. Who more innocent than Christ? And who more persecuted? The world is the world still. "I have given them your Word, and the world has hated them." The world lies in wait as a thief for those who carry this treasure. Persecution follows piety - as the shadow does the body. "All who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution." Whoever resolves to live holy - must never expect to live quietly.

All who will live godly, manifest holiness in their lives, will gall the consciences of the ungodly. Holiness enrages them,for there is an enmity and antipathy between them! This enmity runs in the blood; and it is transmitted with it from generation to generation. "Just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh, persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now." So it was, and so still it is. Cain's Club is still carried up and down crimsoned with the blood of Abel!"

O that your spirits, as well as your conditions, may better harmonize with Christ. He suffered meekly, quietly, and self-denyingly. Be like Him. Let it not be said of you, as it is of the hypocrite - that he is like flint, which seems cold; but if you strike him, he is all fiery.

To do well, and suffer ill, is Christlike.

Holy Father, Keep Them In Your Name

"I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in Your Name" (John 17:11).

The world is a sinful, infecting and disturbing place; it lies in wickedness. It is a hard thing for such poor, weak, imperfect creatures to escape the pollutions of it. And if they do, yet they cannot escape the troubles, persecutions, and strong oppositions of it. Seeing therefore I must leave Your own dear children, as well as Mine, in the midst of a sinful, troublesome, dangerous world, where they can neither move backward nor forward, without danger of sin or ruin; O, since the case stands so, look after them, provide for them, and take special care of them all. Holy Father, consider who they are - and where I leave them. They are Your children - left in a strange country. They are Your soldiers - in the enemies grounds. They are Your sheep - in the midst of wolves. They are Your precious treasure - among thieves. "And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in Your name" (John 17:11).

Cursed Sin!

O how inflexible and severe is the justice of God! What, no abatement? no sparing mercy? No, not even to His own Son!

Cultivate a deep indignation against sin.

Oh cursed sin! It was you who slew my dear Lord! For your sake He underwent all this! If your vileness had not been so great, His sufferings had not been so many. Cursed sin! You were the knife which stabbed Him! You the sword which pierced Him! 

Empty Titles

"Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey - either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?"

It is but a mockery to give Christ the empty titles of "Lord" and "King" - while you give your real service to sin and satan. What is this but to be like the Jews - to bow the knee to Him, and say, "Hail Master!" and crucify Him? Here is honey in the tongue- and poison in the heart!

~John Flavel~