What My Eyes Have Seen

1. Those people who have gone beyond their limits of grace ending up correspondingly behind.

2. Those who delighted in judging others were found to be under a corresponding judgment themselves.

3. Those who, on a human level, have been weaklings becoming like heroes in God’s kingdom.

4. Strong-willed people—in spite of all their energy and strength remaining weak in God.

5. Those who have kept their earthly goods for themselves suffering earthly afflictions.

6. Those who have dispersed their earthly goods enjoying their food and clothing with gladness and simplicity of heart.

7. Those who were little in their own eyes with little hope of becoming anything at all that is true and praiseworthy exceeding in wisdom and honor even far beyond death and the grave.

8. Those who wanted to have something to say in the church falling silent.

9. Those who have been praised for being among the most excellent ones being among the most pitiable.

10. Those who wanted others to be excommunicated ending up on the outside themselves.

11. Those who were despised by many because of their youth and were reckoned as immature nevertheless proving to be older than the others on the day of trial.

12. A soul who was despised by his peers as a weak reed and as a shaking aspen leaf proving to be sufficiently strong to bear indescribably much more than the others.

13. Those who in their imaginary strength and wisdom thought to correct everything and everyone being unable to do the least of it; they even had their hands full bearing to be corrected themselves.

14. Large assemblies having leaders who were not even fit to sit in the last row.

15. A mother who has grieved over her child’s actions having all she can do to thank and praise God for the same child for the rest of her life.

16. A mother in her ignorance considering her son to be eccentric without knowing that he is highly exalted above rich men and great men, kings, emperors, and popes, for time and eternity, and that it was in his power and according to his standard—with just a little bit of his glory—to make her abundantly rich and happy according to her standard, if only she would receive it.

17. That the first will be last and the last will be first.

18. That a person—as truly as God lives—by making himself out to be too prominent will become less prominent.

19. That God is a master in humbling and exalting.

20. That Solomon, in spite of much that sparkles of spiritual treasures was still correct in maintaining that the conclusion of the whole matter is: “Fear God and keep His commandments.”

21. That I have had good reason to look up humbly to him who has looked up humbly to me.

22. That just as little as the sun loses its force behind the clouds, so little has Christ’s love for us diminished when we, for a time, cannot see it because of “clouds.”

23. That souls who say they cannot manage any more can do a little bit more.

24. That souls who cry out, “I am dying!” still continue to live

25. That people in their impatience say that it is impossible, and soon after discover that it is possible.

26. That the more we serve the Lord, the more we want to serve Him.

27. That someone who thinks that all kinds of people he speaks to are upright is not upright himself.

28. That a man who for years runs around endeavoring to add souls to the church without adding a single one draws back himself.

29. That the person who is quickest to flatter is also quickest to fall away.

30. That a man who thought he was making a good haul suffered an irreplaceable loss.

31. That man is never right; that to agree with him is to fail in our ministry for God.

32. That one faithful soul actually counts for more than otherwise thousands.

33. That the one who gives receives; and that the one who keeps back, from him it will be taken away.

34. That the deepest fallen are saved whereas many solid and sympathetic people are unsaved.

35. That devoted souls—those who have proved their godly fear in deed—tell a lie as if they have never had anything to do with God.

36. There are extremely few souls whose way has been blameless.

37. Even common criminals cause a person to be converted to God.

38. That the end is near.

39. That it does not help to promise to lead a better life on the day you die.

40. That the person who appeared to be the weakest and most incompetent in life’s tests proved to be far stronger and more competent than the one who sounded as if he had great strength.

41. That the most exalted of all the arts is to acknowledge one’s own lowliness.

42. That man is as quick as lighting to exalt himself given the opportunity, but his speed is less than that of a snail when it concerns abasing himself, even though the opportunity to do so is the choicest you could imagine on earth.

43. That humility to a natural man is like doing fractions and that his ability to do fractions is exceedingly limited.

44. That one would rather bow a hundred thousand times before God than take back the least little bit of what was said or done to another person.

45. That a prudent man, though he search with light and lamp in a hundred churches, is incapable of finding a suitable wife, but that she—as it is written—comes from the Lord.

46. That a poor person radiates with joy because he owns one dollar more than nothing and that the rich man looks sorrowful because he owns twenty thousand instead of thirty thousand dollars.

47. That all the riches, honor, pomp, and comfort of the world blanch and become less than nothing in the light of God’s countenance.

48. A self-conscious person pouring cream into a cup of coffee of an ordinary person without suspecting that it may be that person who will “pour cream into her cup” in eternity.

49. Strong men being too weak to ask for forgiveness.

50. That by judging others you can condemn yourself.

51. Souls who are dissatisfied with the bonds God has given them for their benefit wearing themselves out by attempting to free themselves from them in order to develop better, but they do it to their own detriment.

52. That the person who is the strictest in a godly manner is also the most gentle.

53. That nothing is greater or better than obedience.

54. That people are always stubborn, and that their main competence consists of making objections.

55. That woman is truly the weaker vessel, and she should be treated as such.

56. That the woman has the same opportunity as the man in Christ Jesus, and that many of them will be many a man’s “man” in eternity.

57. That there is more strength in just hearing a faithful man than there is in hearing many others’ well-intentioned speeches.

58. That—as it is written—the evil bow before the good.

59. An entire gathering of stout men—those who worship God—are spreading like chaff before the wind when God’s light shines in their midst, and that a little flock of weak women remains standing until this very day in the very same light.

60. Men who loved to hear and speak the truth leaving their place in the church in order to have domestic peace with their wives.

61. That Samson and Solomon were not the last heroes who gave in to women.

62. The descendants of the righteous are mighty on earth, but the descendants of the unrighteous are spread like chaff before the wind.

63. That women and money are the occasion for most falls, but that the secret cause of all falls is pride, in harmony with 1 Peter 5:5.

64. That you can avoid sickness, falling, and apostasy through humility and by admitting your folly.

65. That every woman gains by abstaining from ruling over others.

66. That both men and women are not careful enough when it comes to chastity.

67. That the more a young woman shows that she desires to get married, the later (and for the worse. her desire is fulfilled. The effect is the opposite of her intention. Either she does not get a husband, or she gets one who is worse than nothing.