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Book Review: The Precious Things of God

precious things of godYou can tell a lot about a person by what they hold to be precious. We give our hearts, time, and resources to these things. They hold value to us. As Christians our objective is to agree with God about what he finds precious and to pursue these same things ourselves. One of the most helpful resources that I have found in this pursuit is entitled The Precious Things of God. It remains a tremendous resource to drive my heart after what is valued by God.

The Precious Things of God was written by Octavius Winslow. He was a 19th Century English pastor and author. Winslow was a dear friend and contemporary of Charles Spurgeon. When you read Winslow it is not difficult to see why. He writes with the same lucid, descriptive, and gospel-dripping pen that Spurgeon deployed in his reservoir of writings for the church.

The book has 12 chapters, each of them quoting a verse to show that something or someone is particularly precious to God. The titles include:

  1. The Preciousness of Christ
  2. The Preciousness of Faith
  3. The Preciousness of Trial
  4. The Preciousness of God’s Thoughts
  5. The Preciousness of the Divine Promises
  6. The Preciousness of Christ’s Blood
  7. The Precious Anointing
  8. The Preciousness of God’s Children
  9. The Preciousness of God’s Word
  10. The Preciousness of Prayer
  11. The Preciousness of Christ’s Sympathy with our Infirmities
  12. The Death of the Saints Precious

As I flip through my old copy of this book the pages are covered with notes and underlining. This book has been like a jar of honey to a sore throat. I have often turned to it with high expectations and they’ve been met every time. I’ve given away copies and recommended it to dozens of people. Everyone loves it.

Here are some of my favorite quotes, but there are so many:

As you feel your sinfulness, you will estimate the fitness and suitableness of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour. There will be a perfect agreement between your consciousness of guilt and your believing apprehension of the excellence of the Atonement to meet your case. Your sinnership and Christ’s Saviorship will harmonise and dovetail in exact and beautiful fitness and proportion. Oh, what a divine and blessed arrangement is this!

Oh how precious then is Christ as the Conqueror and Spoiler of Satan; as He who enables the trembling believer to quench the fiery dart in His own blood, and to take refuge beneath His outspread, all-sheltering wing!

The blood (of Christ) not only cleanses, but it searches; it not only purifies but it probes.

Keep thy heart, O believer, much beneath the ross, thy conscience in frequent and close contact with the blood, and the slightest touch of sin will make thee restless and unhappy until thou hast confessed and God has forgiven.

Beloved, the surprise (in eternity) then will be that here below we should have prized it (Christ’s blood) so little, traveled to it so infrequently, and glorified it so imperfectly, and have regarded it with an affection so fickle and so cold!

There can be no painful sense of loneliness when the believer is in converse with God.

Behold how Christ longs to have His saints in heaven with Him! So near and precious are they to His heart, He will not rest until all the travail of His soul, all the sheep of His fold, all the precious gems of His cabinet, encircle His throne, cluster around His person, fill and sparkle in His jeweled diadem. Not one shall be lost. Not a babe of the family, not a lamb of the flock, not a crown jewel shall be missing in that day. “They shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hands.” Deity has redeemed them, Deity has preserved them, and, enshrined in the glories of Deity, they spend their happy eternity. Blessed truth! glorious hope! Weak saints shall be there, doubting believers shall be there, restored backsliders shall be there—the hand that but touched the hem shall wave the palm—the eye that but dimly beheld the cross shall drink in all that splendor—the tongue that but lisped, “My Father,” shall join the song and swell the chorus. Child of God! trembling believer! doubting, fearful one, to whose heart the Savior is more precious than life itself! you shall be there. There is a place in that crown, a mansion in that home, a bower in that paradise for you. And when death releases you from the bondage of corruption, and your happy spirit wings its way to heaven, the angels will clap their wings, and all the family above will strike their golden harps and cry, Welcome, welcome home! So precious are you to Jesus—the fruit of His dying agonies, the “pearl of great price,” bought with His most precious blood, and kept by His Divine power—He must have you to behold His glory, to see His face, to repose upon His breast, to bask in His smiles, to chant His praises, to serve Him day and night in His temple, to be like Him and with Him forever. We wonder not, then, that “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”

I am glad to see this book back in print and available on Amazon. (kindle for $0.99!)

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