Grace

I remember being in a city where I noticed that the people resorted to a favorite well in one of the parks. I said to a man one day: “Does the well never run dry?”

The man was drinking of the water out of the well; and as he stopped drinking, he smacked his lips, and said: “They have never been able to pump it dry yet. They tried it a few years ago. They put the fire-engines to work, and tried all they could to pump the well dry; but they found there was a river flowing right under the city.”

Thank God, the well of salvation can never run dry either!

Elizabeth Keckley was a slave in Missouri before the Civil War. Her greatest desire was to purchase freedom for herself and her son. Her owner agreed that if she could raise $1,200 she could gain her freedom. Keckley worked as a seamstress and came up with a plan to go to New York City and work there to raise the money, but her owner feared that she would not return.

Sir Edwin Landseer was one of the most famous painters of the Victorian era. His talent developed early, and he had the first showing of his work at the Royal Academy when he was just thirteen years old. He was commissioned to do a number of official portraits of the royal family, and even gave private drawing lessons to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. But he was best known for his depictions of the natural settings and life in the Scottish highlands.

“Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”—A. W. Tozer

Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker both had churches in London in the 19th century. On one occasion, Parker commented on the poor condition of children admitted to Spurgeon’s orphanage. It was reported to Spurgeon however, that Parker had criticized the orphanage itself. Spurgeon blasted Parker the next week from the pulpit. The attack was printed in the newspapers and became the talk of the town. People flocked to Parker’s church the next Sunday to hear his rebuttal. “I understand Dr.

Imagine you are half a million dollars in debt. Someone comes to you and writes out a check for $500,000, saying, “This is all for you, to cancel your debt. You don’t have to do anything but reach out and take it, and it’s yours.” So you take the money and pay your debt. You are now debt-free and totally in the clear.

John Newton’s epitaph reads:

John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.

Grace did not free him to serve no master, but a new Master.

Source: Amazing Grace in John Newton: Slave Ship Captain, Hymn Writer, and Abolitionist, William E. Phipps

Spurgeon told of an evening when he was riding home after a heavy day’s work. He felt weary and depressed, when as suddenly as a lightning flash he thought of 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” He said, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst out laughing. He said that it seemed to make unbelief so absurd.