23 May 2008

Mystery Quotation: murmuring

by Dan Phillips

Since my betters here at the blog are busy...how about another round of Mystery Quotation?

Remember, no tricks
  1. Use your memory (or guessing) alone
  2. No electronic tools
  3. No Googling
  4. No murmuring about the "no tricks" rule
Better fasten your seatbelts for this one.

Here is your Mystery Quotation:
Murmuring is no better than mutiny in the heart; it is a rising up against God. When the sea is rough and unquiet, it casts forth nothing but foam: when the heart is discontented, it casts forth the foam of anger, impatience, and sometimes little better than blasphemy. Murmuring is nothing else but the scum which boils off from a discontented heart.
Ah, discontentment. Yow. If that quotation didn't singe you — re-read.

Since we have some of the most intelligent, well-read readers in the world, should be a piece of cake.

So start slicing!

Dan Phillips's signature


28 comments:

steve said...

Knowing that Jonathan Edwards doesn't grab you, I think we can safely rule him out.

How 'bout Jeremiah Burroughs? He's written a book on said topic...

LeeC said...

Hmm, good word pictures.
Thomas Watson?

David A. Carlson said...

Tozwe

David A. Carlson said...

err, Tozer

LeeC said...

After going over it a few more times I'd like to more forcefully stand on Watson.

My recall stinks, but I'm prety sure on this one.

(Honestly, I have a hard time telling people tha name of the author of a book I'm reading at the moment!)

Mark Sohmer said...

I am neither as smart nor as well read as you guys, so I had to cheat. I looked it up on google. So I know the answer - neener neene neener. :)

But I won't say the answer because I'm not such a wretch as to ruin it for the smart well-read folks.

Go at it!

Staci Eastin said...

I would guess Jeremiah Burroughs as well.

Solameanie said...

Martyn Lloyd-Jones?

Unknown said...

I'm gonna guess Sproul?

Patrick Eaks said...

A W Pink....

Jerry said...

Sounds quite a bit like Jeremiah Burroughs, since there were whole sections (very convicting) just like this during my April reading (thanks to Timmy Brister) of "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment".

James Scott Bell said...

A. W. Tozer.

DJP said...

What was I saying about our readership? The best!

Second answer nails it: Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

C. J. Mahaney quoted part of this in his excellent talk at T4G this year. I've been hunting down his quotations.

LeeC said...

Meh, I certainly am not "The best" but thanks! :-)

Watson is both my pastors and one of my favorite authors. Pastor Jack has even written a book "Expository Preaching With Word Pictures:
With Illustrations from the sermons of Thomas Watson
Dr. Jack Hughes"

His style is very distinct to me, and Phillipians is a dear book to me. I couldn't place for certain which book it was from at first, but was pretty sure I recognized his "voice". :)

Thanks for the brain teaser Dan, it whetted my appetite to get back into reading some of his stuff.

Lisa said...

Great quote.

“Better a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind” (Eccl. 4:6).

Kay said...

Thomas Watson Rocketh.

Anonymous said...

But I thought Tom Watson was a golfer? Wow.

Actually I googled the quotation and found the whole essay. Sweet stuff. In a stabbing, painful to apply to myself sort of way. My favorite phrase:

"Murmuring is nothing else but the scum which boils off from a discontented heart."

steve said...

Now that I know my Jeremiah Burroughs guess was wrong, I am so totally discontented.

murmur, mumble, murmur...

Keep the mystery quotations coming.

donsands said...

Love the Puritans. Rich words, and also convicting in the good way.

I was gonna say John Newton.

Andrew Jones said...

i was thinking Tozer

John said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Seems to be a Thomas Watson quote

Rachel Pierson said...

Spurgeon

Chris said...

"When the sea is rough and unquiet, it casts forth nothing but foam" that really sonds like the language of Jonathan Edwards

S.J. Walker said...

Why are people still guessing? Or am I simply seeign some residual murmuring?

DJP said...

Maybe they think I'm wrong in who I said wrote my quotation.

< shrug >

LeeC said...

I think a lot of people like to take a shot at it, post it, then read.

The Interface said...

Watson uber alles!

One of my favorite Spurgeon quotes deals with the Puritans:
“We assert this day that, when we take down a volume of Puritanical theology we find in a solitary page more thinking and more learning, more Scripture, more real teaching, than in whole folios of the effusions of modern thought. The modern men would be rich if they possessed even the crumbs that fall from the table of the Puritans.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, 1872, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 18, 322