Amusement should be used to do us good “like a medicine”: it must never be used as the food of the man...Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure so called is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement: everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle.
Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Prayer connects us to a higher power, enabling us to influence the course of our lives and the world.
This quote by Charles Spurgeon illustrates the power of prayer as a vital link between human intention and divine capability. It suggests that through prayer, our desires and requests are transmitted to a higher power, referred to as omnipotence, allowing our actions to be empowered and effective in the world. Essentially, it conveys the belief that prayer can be a driving force for change and support in our lives.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a church sermon discussing the importance of faith, one might say, 'As Charles Spurgeon noted, prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.'
More from Charles Spurgeon
All quotes →When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honor to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle.
It is far easier to fight with sin in public than to pray against it in private.
You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.
After faith comes repentance, or, rather, repentance is faith's twin brother and is born at the same time.
["All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant."] The original Hebrew word that has been translated "paths" means "well-worn roads' or "wheel tracks," such ruts as wagons make when they go down our green roads in wet weather and sink in up to the axles. God's ways are at times like heavy wagon tracks that cut deep into our souls, yet all of them are merciful.
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Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.
It is one of the consolations of philosophy that the benefit of showing how to dispense with a concept does not hinge on dispensing with it.