Learning God's Attributes

As I have mentioned before, over the past several weeks, I have been reading through "The Attributes of God" by Arthur Pink. It is a wonderful, enlightening, and inspiring book which I would recommend to anyone without reservation. There are so many sections worth sharing that if I posted all of them, the result would be an almost complete copy of the book. So I will reign myself in and only post sections I have already typed out for other purposes and excerpts that are especially meaningful. I will, no doubt, post more quotes a little later. Some of these excerpts will be quotes by other men found in the book, and others will be direct quotes of Arthur Pink from the book.

“[Grace] is the eternal and absolute free favour of God, manifested in the vouchsafement of spiritual and eternal blessings to the guilty and the unworthy.”

- Abraham Booth, The Reign of Grace

“Grace is the provision for men who are so fallen that they cannot lift the axe of justice, so corrupt that they cannot change their own natures, so averse to God that they cannot turn to Him, so blind that they cannot see Him, so deaf that they cannot hear Him, and so dead that He Himself must open their graves and lift them into resurrection.” – G.S. Bishop

“When all Thy mercies, O my God,

My rising soul surveys,

Transported with the view I’m lost,

In wonder, love, and praise.”

- pg. 76

“It is not simply that God ‘loves’ but that He is Love itself. Love is not merely one of His attributes, but His very nature.” – pg. 77

“What was there in me that could merit esteem,

Or give the Creator delight?

‘Twas even so, Father, I ever must sing,

Because it seemed good in Thy sight.”

- pg. 78

“The wrath of God is a perfection of the Divine character upon which we need to frequently meditate. First, that our hearts may be duly impressed by God’s detestation of sin. We are ever prone to regard sin lightly, to gloss over its hideousness, to make excuses for it. But the more we study and ponder God’s abhorrence of sin and His frightful vengeance upon it, the more likely we are to realize its heinousness. Secondly, to beget a true fear in our souls for God: ‘Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire.’ Thirdly, to draw out from ours souls in fervent praise for our having been delivered from ‘the wrath to come.’ (1 Thess. 1:10)” – pg. 85

“Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued, investigation of the great subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.” – C.H. Spurgeon

“A creature, considered as such, has no rights. He can demand nothing from his Maker; and in whatever manner he may be treated, has no title to complain. Yet, when thinking of the absolute dominion of God over all, we ought never to lose sight of His moral perfections. God is just and good, and ever does that which is right. Nevertheless, He exercises His sovereignty according to His imperial and righteous pleasure. He assigns each creature his place as seemeth good in His own sight. He orders the varied circumstances of each according to His own counsels. He molds each vessel according to His own uninfluenced determination. He has mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardens. Wherever we are, His eye is upon us. Whoever we are, our life and everything is held at His disposal. To the Christian, He is a tender Father; to the rebellious sinner He will yet be a consuming fire.” – pg. 92