Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

William Secker

English Dissenting Clergy, possibly Rector of Leigh, Essex

"He that desires honour is not worthy of honour."

"Usually the greatest boasters are the smallest workers. The deep rivers pay a larger tribute to the sea than the shallow brooks, and yet empty themselves with less noise."

"A soul without watchfulness is, like a city without walls, exposed to the inroads of all its enemies."

"He enjoys much who is thankful for little; a grateful mind is both a great and happy mind."

"A believer puts on the sackcloth of contrition, for having put off the garment of perfection. As the sugar loaf is dissolved, and weeps itself way, when dipped in wine; so do our hearts melt under a sense of divine love."

"A believer does not perform good works to live - but he lives to perform good works.|"

"Ah, how would natural men soar to heaven - upon the pinions of their own merit! The sunbeams of Divine justice - will soon melt such weak and wax wings!"

"I would neither have you be idle in duties - nor make an idol of duties."

"Grace is not such a beggarly visitant, as will not pay its own way. When the best of beings is adored, the best of blessings are enjoyed."

"If you dwell in the open tent of licentiousness, the wicked will not walk backward, like modest Shem and Japheth, to cover your shame: but they will walk forward, like cursed Ham, to publish it. Thus they make use of your weakness as a plea for their wickedness. Men are merciless in their censures of Christians; they have no sympathy for their infirmity: while God weighs them in more equal scales, and says, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." While a saint is a dove in the eyes of God, he is only a raven in the estimation of sinners."

"By fasting, the body learns to obey the soul; by praying the soul learns to command the body."

"Neither the persecuting hand of men, nor the chastising hand of God, relaxed ancient singular saints. Believers resemble the moon, which emerges from her eclipse by keeping her motion, and ceases not to shine because the dogs bark at her. Shall we cease to be professors because others will not cease to be persecutors?"

"There are some things good but not pleasant, as sorrow and affliction. Sin is pleasant, but unprofitable; and sorrow is profitable, but unpleasant. As waters are purest when they are in motion, so saints are generally holiest when in affliction."

"Many blush to confess their faults, who never blush to commit them."

"It is better to be a wooden vessel filled with wine, that a golden one filled with water."

"It was the saying of a heathen though no heathenish saying, "That he who would be good, must either have a faithful friend to instruct him, or a watchful enemy to correct him."

"Mere head knowledge will be as unhelpful to the soul on judgment day, as a painted fire is unhelpful to the frozen body on a cold day. Theoretical knowledge may make the head giddy, but it will never make the heart holy. He who lives in sin, without repentance, shall die in sin, without forgiveness."

"Many have passed the rocks of gross sins - who have suffered shipwreck upon the sands of self-righteousness."

"Until we taste the bitterness of our own misery we will never relish the sweetness of God's mercy. Until we see how foul our sins have made us we will never pay our tribute of praise to Christ for washing us... If you would know the heart of your sin then you must know the sins of your heart!"

"Wherefore doth the Lord make your cup run over, but that other men's lips might taste the liquor? The showers that fall upon the highest mountains, should glide into the lowest valleys. "Give, and it shall be given you", is a maxim little believed."

"A believer does not perform good works to live ? but he lives to perform good works."

"Ah, how would natural men soar to heaven ? upon the pinions of their own merit! The sunbeams of Divine justice ? will soon melt such weak and wax wings!"

"He that would be angry and not sin, must be angry at nothing but sin."

"I would neither have you be idle in duties ? nor make an idol of duties."

"It was the saying of a heathen though no heathenish saying, ?That he who would be good, must either have a faithful friend to instruct him, or a watchful enemy to correct him.?"

"Many have passed the rocks of gross sins ? who have suffered shipwreck upon the sands of self-righteousness."

"Pride is a sinner?s torment, but humility a saint?s ornament."

"Sin?s first-born is death ? and its last-born is hell."

"Sin is pleasant, but unprofitable."

"To be too intimate with sinners is to intimate that you are sinners."

"Until we taste the bitterness of our own misery we will never relish the sweetness of God?s mercy. Until we see how foul our sins have made us we will never pay our tribute of praise to Christ for washing us... If you would know the heart of your sin then you must know the sins of your heart!"