I HAVE taken much pains," said the learned Selden," to know everything that was esteemed worth knowing amongst men; but with all my disquisitions and reading, nothing now remains with me to comfort me at the close of life, but this passage of St. Paul, ‘This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners' —to this I cleave, and herein I find rest.”
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“If God should restore me to health," wrote Mr. Cecil, during a tedious and dangerous illness (1798)," I have determined to study nothing but the Bible. Literature is inimical to spirituality if it be not kept under with a firm hand.
“I have learned more within these curtains than from all the books I ever read.
“Should it please God ever to raise me up to preach again, CHRIST shall be my only subject.