Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson put it, ‘There is nothing but God’s grace. We walk upon it; we breathe it; we live and die by it; it makes the nails and axles of the universe.’

Thomas Watson’s phrase, ‘Every time you draw in your breath you suck in mercy.’

When a godly preacher lay dying and a friend tried to comfort him with the assurance that he would soon receive the reward which his faithful labours deserved, he replied, ‘I deserve to go to hell, but God interfered.’

Albert Barnes writes, ‘Nowhere do we imitate God more than in showing mercy.’

In his book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, American author Ronald Sider writes, ‘If at this moment in history a few million Christians in affluent nations dare to join hands with the poor around the world, we will decisively influence the course of history.

British preacher David Watson is just as trenchant: ‘We have accepted a largely middle-class culture, with its worldly values and selfish ambitions, and have conveniently ignored the utterly radical teaching of Jesus concerning money, possessions and social standing within the kingdom of God. Most serious of all, perhaps, our lifestyle, both individual and corporate, is astonishingly different from the lifestyle of our Master whom we profess to follow and serve. We know (and preach) all about the grace of our Lord Jesus who, though he was rich, for our sakes became poor, really and extremely poor; but we do not demonstrate the same grace in our own lives. We have not become poor so that others might become rich. We have not even chosen to live simply that others may simply live.’

One of the articles in the Lausanne Covenant, issued following an international conference of church leaders held in Switzerland in 1974, reads as follows: ‘Those of us who live in affluent circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple lifestyle in order to contribute more to both relief and evangelism.’

C H Spurgeon used to say, ‘Forgive and forget. When you bury a mad dog, don’t leave his tail above the ground.’

C H Spurgeon used to say, ‘My blind eye is the best eye I have, and my deaf ear is the best ear I have.’

The nineteenth-century preacher Rowland Hill once said, ‘I would not give anything for that man’s religion whose very dog and cat are not the better for it.’

A W Pink points out, the Beatitude would then read ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain justice.’

J C Ryle is perfectly right in saying that ‘to talk of merit or claim to God’s favour is absurd and preposterous’

One prosperous businessman, asked how he could afford to give so much to Christian service, replied: ‘I shovel it out, and God shovels it back—and God uses a bigger shovel!’

the nineteenth-century writer and philanthropist Hannah More testified, ‘A Christian will find it cheaper to pardon than to resent. Forgiveness saves us the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, and the waste of spirits.’