Quotes From Influences
Antinomianism
“In all Antinomianism, whether practical or theological, there is some mistake both as to law and gospel.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 102
“It is only the Antinomian who thinks that the Christian has no need to go on repenting. The truly biblical attitude is that which Tertullian long ago expressed in the words: ‘I was born for nothing but repentance.’ The pity is that we today are almost all antinomians.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 103
“The Antinomian response to sin is to say that there is always grace in God. This is the same as saying that when we sin we need have no fear because there is always mercy. Christ is not given to us to enable us to sin without fear or shame. That would be to make Christ the minister of sin.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 104
Beauty
“‘You say the materialist universe is ‘ugly’. I wonder how you discovered that! If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it you don’t feel at home there? Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic animals?’” C.S. Lewis, quoted in A Severe Mercy (Sheldon Vanauken), p 93
“These references indicate a significant relationship between the holy and the beautiful. We are accustomed to thinking in terms of an inherent relationship between goodness and holiness and between truth and holiness. But truth and goodness are merely two legs of a three-legged stool. The third leg is the element of beauty. In Biblical categories, there is a triad of virtues, all of which point beyond themselves to the holiness of God. This triad is composed of the good, the true, and the beautiful.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, pp 238-239
“The beauty of God is a sane and rational beauty in that His being is one of perfect sanity and order. Insofar as the beautiful bears witness to these qualities, they bear witness to Him. . . . When we are ‘moved’ by great works of art, we are gripped by an affective sense that stirs the soul as well as the mind. To cultivate an appreciation for beauty is to set out course to follow after the sublime Author of all beauty.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, p 241
“What is beauty but something that is responded to with emotion? Courage, at least partly, is emotional. All the splendour of life. But if the best of life is, in fact, emotional, then one wanted the highest, purest emotions: and that meant joy. Joy was the highest.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 18
Christ
“Go on, my dear brother, and be bold in the great mystery of God become man.” Andrew Bonar, The Person of Christ, p 62
“Looking much to Jesus in His person, we instinctively (so to speak) copy what we see. Indeed, real holiness is simply the ‘Imitation of Christ,’ after He has washed us, and in the depth of His atoning grace left us without guilt.” Andrew Bonar, The Person of Christ, p 68
“If at any time we lose the sense of his presence, the way to get back is not by sitting down to ‘count our evidences.’ It is by coming back to Him.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 16
“If Christ is not the Substitute, He is nothing to the sinner. If He did not die as the Sin-bearer, He has died in vain.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 53
“The more that we know of His person and His work, the more shall we be satisfied, in heart and conscience, with provision that God has made for our great need.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 57
“In all these things, thus written concerning Jesus, there is good news for the sinner such as should draw him, in simple confidence, to God; making him feel that his case has really been taken up in earnest by God; and that God’s thoughts toward him are thoughts, not of anger, but of peace and grace. Heaven has come down to earth! There is goodwill toward man. He is not to be handed over to his great enemy. God has taken his side, and stepped in between him and Satan. This world is not to be destroyed, nor all its dwellers made eternal exiles from God! The darkness is passing away, and the true light is shining!” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, pp 58-59
“The perfect obedience of Christ is as necessary to entitle believers to eternal life as His suffering of death is to secure them from eternal death. His satisfaction for sin, applied by death, renders them innocent or guiltless of death; and His obedience makes them righteous or worthy of life.” John Colquhoun, The Law and the Gospel, p 166
“No, God anchors us to Himself in Christ. He has demonstrated His love for us specifically in the cross – ‘God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ From the crucified Christ, now risen, ascended, and reigning, we must never allow our eyes to be diverted, nor view providence except through cross-shaped lenses.” Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ, p 216
“The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 178
“You cannot receive Christ in bits and pieces.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, quoted in Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (Iain Murray), p 218
“‘Christ died’ — that was history; ‘Christ died for our sins’ — that is doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble union, there is no Christianity.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 27
“It is not enough to know that Jesus is a Person worthy of trust; it is also necessary to know that He is willing to have us trust Him. It is not enough that He saved others; we need to know also that He has saved us.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 43
“The truth is that if Jesus be merely an example, He is not a worthy example; For He claimed to be far more.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 89
“The imitation of the real Jesus will never lead a man astray.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 98
“It is not once in a hundred sermons that we speak rightly of Christ. Books also are infinitely imperfect. The best of books are but sparks from the Bible, mingled with human darkness.” R.M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 15
“O, it is sweet, to have nothing our own, but to give up all to Christ – to be entirely His for ever and ever. Once you gave all to Satan. Now give all to Christ.” R.M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 49
“So you, if you have got a glimpse, you will not commune with flesh and blood. You will bid farewell to all. Farewell, gains of sin – pleasures of sin: in Christ I see a sweeter pleasure — a richer pearl.” R.M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 57
“If we have been saved by Christ, we should pour out our best affections on him. It is well to love his disciples, well to love his ministers, well to love his poor, but it is best to love himself.” R. M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 24
“The believer is unspeakably precious in the eyes of Christ, and Christ is unspeakably precious in the eyes of the believer.” R.M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 50
“The dependence of the beams on the sun is not more necessary, than the dependence of a Christian on Christ.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 154
“Would Ministers win souls? Let them have more of Jesus Christ in their dealing with men, and less of other things that never profit them that are exercised therein.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 224
“Let us make Christ crucified our great study, as Christians; and the preaching of him our main work as ministers.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. I, p 258
“None know the true God, none can come by eternal life, but they that know Christ. No faith, love, worship, or obedience can be performed and acted by him that knows not God.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 393
“Ministers must neither leave Christ in his grave, nor preach a glorified Jesus, without remembering his death.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 1, p 475
“Wisdom out of Christ is damning folly; righteousness out of Christ is guilt and condemnation; sanctification out of Christ, is filth and sin; redemption out of Christ, is bondage and slavery.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 484
“Christ crucified and Christ glorified is all that we are to study; the one we are to study as long as we are on earth, and the other we shall be admitted to study when we get well to heaven.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 2, p 169
“Christ continues to minister his truth to his people through his word and the Holy Spirit. In this ministry he never falls short. He never misses the mark. He does all things perfectly." A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 52
“He is a savior whose very essence and identity flow from our salvation. Nothing should stop us from running into the arms of such a Savior as this!” Samuel Waldron, A Man as Priest in His Home, p 23
“All men everywhere should believe in Christ and go to him as their priest. Only the man who realizes his own desperate need of a priest – and trusts Christ to fulfill the need – can truly serve as a priest in his home.” Samuel Waldron, A Man as Priest in His Home, p 32
Church
“The more fully that the gospel is preached, in the grand old apostolic way, the more likely is it to accomplish the results which it did in the apostolic days.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 61
“The whole world is a theatre for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power, but the Church is the orchestra, as it were -- the most conspicuous part of it; and the nearer the approaches are that God makes to us, the more intimate and condescending the communication of His benefits, the more attentively are we called to consider them.” John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol 5
“One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p 5
“The church of our text is made up ofall true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, of all who are really holy and converted people. It comprehends all who have repented of sin, and fled to Christ by faith, and been made new creatures in Him. It comprises all God’s elect, all who have received God’s grace, all who have been washed in Christ’s blood, all who have been clothed in Christ’s righteousness, all who have been born again and sanctified by Christ’s Spirit. All such, of every name and rank and nation and people and tongue, compose the church of our text. This is the body of Christ.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 211
“Churches are societies appointed by Jesus Christ, wherein his name is to be held forth in the world; and there is high reason, that all who desire to join with them in partaking of gospel-privileges, should make to them a profession of their faith.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 2, p 16
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become ‘unity’ conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p 90
“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians – when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 85
“No longer did the Church appear only a disreputable congeries of quarrelling sects: now we saw the Church, splendid and terrible, sweeping down the centuries with anthems and shining crosses and steady-eyed saints.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 94
Contentment
“His love is unfailing, His Word unchangeable, His power ever the same; therefore the heart that trusts Him is kept in ‘perfect peace.’... I know He tries me only to increase my faith, and that it is all in love. Well, if He is glorified, I am content.” Hudson Taylor, Spiritual Secret, p 45
“Nothing recommends godliness more than cheerfulness. All men desire happiness; And if while every other candidate for the prize fails, you succeed, your success may determine others to follow your envied course.” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, pp 174-175
“Nothing less is required of you, as Christians, than a willing, cheerful resignation. But this can only flow from a knowledge of him that smiteth you.” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, p 234
Conversion
“You may continue to neglect and despise the Friend of sinners now, but you will have other thoughts soon. Death will discover and display the errors of life. How will you then wonder that the trifles and vanities which now engross you should ever have acquired such an ascendancy! Then you will learn, but in vain, that an interest in Christ is the one thing needful. Cannot you look forward? Cannot you foresee this, before the knowledge can result only in despair?” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, p 20
“At the beginning of every Christian life there stands, not a process, but a definite act of God.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 144
“The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition.” A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p 14
“Shall we warn people that they believe in Christ too soon? It is impossible that they should do it too soon.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 241
“No man can be a believer on Jesus Christ, but he that despairs of righteousness by his own doings.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 2, p 44
“The encounter with Light. . . . It began when we came to Oxford. Or it began with the shadows of masts and trees. Or it began with our abandoning our childhood religion: To believe with certainty, somebody said, one has to begin by doubting. Wherever it began, what it was was a coming-together of disparate things – our love for each other and for beauty, our longing for unpressured time and the night of the cold sea-fire on Grey Goose, the quality of our Christian friends and the Oxford built by hands and the Oxford that I saw in the Warden of All Souls. They came together into one, into focus, and the Light fell upon them.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 84
Death
“That means that I am a responsible participant in my own death. Death is not simply something that happens to me. It happens to me because I am a sinner. In that sense I have caused death; I am death’s subject, not just its object. In my transgression I have attracted the just wrath of God. And that wrath is not mere outworking of impersonal principles, still less the arbitrary demarcation between time and eternity, but God’s personal and judicial reaction to the transgression in which I have responsibly indulged as a person.” D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 112
“When you think of the grave, remember that Jesus himself has been there. How far did he, who is all your salvation and all your desire, carry his humiliation!” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, p 386
“You have a rich past that cannot be taken from you, and a richer future lies before you. For I can see, though through your tears you cannot, that the Son of God walks with you in this furnace of affliction, and that He is so sanctifying it to your soul, that ages hence you will look on this day as better, sweeter than the day of your espousals. It is hard now to suffer, but after all, the light affliction is nothing, and the weight of glory is everything.” Elizabeth Prentiss, quoted in Elizabeth Prentiss (Sharon James), pp 143-144
“The death of any familiar person – the death, even, of a dog or cat – whether loved or not leaves an emptiness. The great tree goes down and leaves an empty place against the sky. If the person is deeply loved and deeply familiar the void seems greater than all the world remaining. Under the surface of the visible world, there is an echoing hollowness, an aching void – and it cuts one off from the beloved. She is as remote as the stars. But grief is a form of love – the longing for the dear face, the warm hand.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 182
Demons
“For almost all the spiritualism of our time, insofar as it is new, it is solemn and sad. Some Pagan gods were lawless, and some Christian saints were a little too serious; but the spirits of modern spiritualism are both lawless and serious -- a disgusting combination. The specially contemporary spirits are not only devils, they are blue devils. This is, first and last, the real value of Christmas; in so far as the mythology remains at all it is a kind of happy mythology. . . . We can deal strongly with gloomy mystery, but not with happy mystery; we are not rationalists, but diabolists.” G.K. Chesterton, The Red Angel
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p ix
Depravity
“The dimensions of evil are thus established by the dimensions of God; the ugliness of evil is established by the beauty of God; the filth of evil is established by the purity of God; the selfishness of evil is established by the love of God.” D. A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 44
“If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.” C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 128
“Ah, it is easy to leap down into guilt and woe – anyone can do that; but who can leap up again to life, righteousness, and peace. Only the Spirit of the Lord can enable us to do this, and we must seek His help. ‘Human corruption,’ says one, ‘proves always too hard for human eloquence; it is ever found to have a strong enough footing in the heart to stand out against all the golden sayings of the tongue.” Robert MacDonald, From Day to Day, p 234
Devil
“Sirs, if Christians were wise, they would learn, if I may so speak, of the devil; the more the Lord loves us, the more the devil hates us; and the more the devil hates us, the more we should love the Lord.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 2, p 121
“The devil’s great work in this world is to increase bad works, and to hinder good works; to keep them that are bad, bad still, and make them worse; and to hinder them that are bad from being good, and the good from growing better, and the best from being perfect.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 2, p 141
Eternity
“You feed Israel in eternity with the food of truth, where life is the Wisdom through which all these things are made, all things that have been and shall be. But Wisdom is not made: Wisdom is as it has been and ever shall be. For there is no was or will be in Wisdom, only being, as Wisdom is eternal. For was and will be are not eternal. While we were discussing and longing for Wisdom, we touched it lightly with the most ardent effort of our hearts, and we sighed and left behind us the first-fruits of the Spirit, returning to the mere sounds of our mouths, where words have a beginning and an end, and how can these words be compared to Your Word, our Lord, Who remains in Himself without age and renews all things?” St. Augustine, Confessions, Book IX, 10.24
“Eternal life, according to the covenant, will still follow upon perfect, personal, and continual obedience.” John Colquhoun, The Law and the Gospel, p 22
“The humans live in time, but our Enemy destinies them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p 61
“In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like Eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time – for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p 62
“When the wheel turns, those who are lowest rise, and the highest sink. Patience, then, believer — eternity will right the wrongs of time.” Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, p 280
“What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in is this God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is eternal. He antedates time and is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it He suffers no change.” A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p 37
“We were together, we were close, we were overwhelmed by a great beauty. . . . We remained so in timeless loveliness – was it hours? We never knew. All about us was the extraordinary beauty of the sea-fire and the glittering stars overhead. . . . The moment was utterly timeless: We didn’t know what time existed; and it contained, therefore, some foretaste, it may be, of eternity.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 73
“We talked about unpressured time – time to sit on stone walls, time to see beauty, time to stare as long as sheep and cows. . . . we had spoken of ‘moments made eternity,’ meaning what are called timeless moments – moments that might be called, indeed, timeful moments. Or time-free moments. And we had clearly understood that the pressure of time was our nearly inescapable awareness of an approaching terminus – the bell about to ring, the holiday about to end, the going down from Oxford foreseen. . . . Life itself was pressured by death, the final terminus. . . . When we speak of Now, we seem to mean the timeless; there is no duration. Awareness of duration, of terminus, spoils Now.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 199
Family
“Ultimately, a cohesive and supportive family requires that a father be a strong, spiritual leader.” Samuel Waldron, A Man as Priest in His Home, p 43
“We must be concerned that each member of our family not only comes to know the Lord, but also consistently engage in the worship of the living God... We must not leave this duty to the pastor or our wife alone.” Samuel Waldron, A Man as Priest in His Home, p 61
“We are to be our wife’s nourisher, preserver, and cherisher.” Samuel Waldron, A Man as Priest in His Home, p 73
Faith
“The Christian accepts the truth of the existence of God by faith. But this faith is not a blind faith, but a faith that is based on evidence, and the evidence is found primarily in Scripture as the inspired Word of God, and secondarily in God’s revelation in nature.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p 5
“If any of you ask, what is great faith? The answer is, having a great opinion of Christ.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 19
“Great faith is simple faith. If you are seeking great faith, remember, the simpler is it, the greater it will be.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 19
“In all unbelief there are two things: a good opinion of one’s self and a bad opinion of God.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 38
“Yes, faith takes this righteous grace of God, and with it a righteous pardon, a righteous salvation, and a righteous heirship of the everlasting glory.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 48
“We are not only to believe the truth, but we are to believe it because God has spoken it. Faith must have a divine foundation.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 66
“Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ will do everything for us; believing in our own faith, or trusting in our own trust, will do nothing.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 83
“Oh, the unutterable guilt involved even in one moment’s unbelief, one single act of an unbelieving soul!” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 94
“... True faith can have no other end (or goal) than being with [Christ] as the object of our faith. Our faith is not ignorant of itself. We look to Christ, not to our faith. In looking to him, we live in contemplation of him as we long to be with him. The prospect of seeing Christ, in his peculiar glory as the God-man, should ravish our hearts with an anticipation that fills us with daily delights.” Mark Jones, Faith. Hope. Love., p 58
“As soon as we come to savingly know God, we are filled with hope. For a Christian, to lack hope is to lack grace – an utter impossibility. Faith gives birth to hope. To take away hope is to eradicate faith.” Mark Jones, Faith. Hope. Love., p 109
“Faith is being exalted so high today that men are being satisfied with any kind of faith just so it is faith. It makes no difference what is believed, we are told, just so the blessed attitude of faith is there. The undogmatic faith, it is said, is better than the dogmatic, because it is pure faith - faith less weakened by the alloy of knowledge.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 146
“It often happens in religious matters that where reason begins, faith ends.” J. C. Ryle, Luke, p 130
“Faith in Jesus crucified is the way of peace to the sinner; so faith in Jesus risen is the way of daily salvation to the saint.” Hudson Taylor, Spiritual Secret, p 155
“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.” Hudson Taylor, Spiritual Secret, p 163
“None are saved but the sanctified; and none are sanctified but by faith on Jesus Christ.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 205
“So that all who would be enriched with true wisdom, and the saving knowledge of God, must by faith dig in Christ, and find them.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 405
“But it is as truly, as commonly, said, That such as think believing easy, know not what believing is.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 456
“Compare his faithfulness with their faith, and you would think they do not relate to one another at all. Strong ground, strong foundation, but sorry building upon it!” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 2, p 73
“Can there be any thing more reasonable than this, but to trust one that cannot lie?” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 2, p 77
Fear
“Your patient will, of course, have picked up the notion that he must submit with patience to the Enemy’s will. What the Enemy means by this is primarily that he should accept with patience the tribulation which has actually been dealt out to him – the present anxiety and suspense. It is about this that he is to say ‘Thy will be done,’ and for the daily task of bearing this that the daily bread will be provided.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p 25
“Like a flash of lightening, the souls of good men turn upwards to God when trials and fears confront them.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 3
“Panic is the sinful failure to apply our knowledge of God to particular problems.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 6-7
“Panic is possible only when God is obscured from our thoughts by visible circumstances.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 7
“It is to be feared that a future generation, when it looks back on our age of Christianity, will have to make the dreadful assessment of us that we were in an age of shallowness and the things of God.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 10-11
Forward
“If, believer, you love much that Person of whom we have all along in these pages been speaking, then press on to the day of His coming, for then it is you are to get Him in His fullest glory.” Andrew Bonar, The Person of Christ, p 84
“He forgets the things that are behind and reaches forth unto those things which are before, making ‘Higher!’ ‘Upward!’ ‘Forward!’ Onward!’ his continual motto.” J. C. Ryle, Holiness, p. 121
Glory
“If you ask me, what is glory? Well, I can’t tell you, but I know that it is a hundred times better than grace.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 23
“God can do more on earth than in heaven for the glory of His name.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 22
“Believers should live in daily consideration of the greatness and glory of Christ.” R.M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 21
“Live within sight of calvary, and you will live within sight of glory.” R.M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 34
“There is no great theme on earth, nor in heaven, than the glory of Christ. There is no higher enjoyment here, nor above, than the beholding of his glory.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 1, p 387
God
“Do children dread to enter a room, where a loved and honored father is to be found? Would not this be a sufficient attraction to enter it? ‘When shall I come,’ says David, ‘and appear before God?’” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, p 58
“Religion cannot be made joyful simply by looking on the bright side of God. For a one-sided God is not a real God, and it is the real God alone who can satisfy the longing of our soul. God is love, but is he only love? God is love, but is love God? Seek joy alone, then, seek joy at any cost, and you will not find it.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 138
“Once He was to you the God of vengeance, but now He is the very God of peace.” R.M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 59
“Since, however, God exists in reality and is not a spiritual medicine invented by our fears, it must follow that life's secret very largely consists in holding him in our thoughts as much as possible and especially in times of fear and need.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 8
“Unless you know God as a promising God, you cannot know God in Christ; and you do not know the true God, unless you do know God in Christ; unless your determinate knowledge of God, be of that God that shines in his glory to us in the face of Jesus Christ.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 2, p 44
“The aggravation of unbelief is, because we change in our faith, when God is unchangeable in his faithfulness.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 2, p 68
“God is our father, Christ is our redeemer, the Holy Ghost is our sanctifier, heaven is our inheritance, promises are our charter: Such a man as this, that is an heir of promise, surely he should expect the fulfilling of the promises, the estate his father has given him, and may expect to be dealt with accordingly.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 2, p 115
“Let the word of God dwell richly in you, and often look into that glass which will both give you a sight of your own heart and ways, that you may loathe yourself: in them you see a sweet sight of Christ’s kind heart towards humbled and mournful sinners, that you may love him, and seek to taste and see that he is good: and blessed are they that trust in him.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 2, p 474
Gospel
“Remember that the gospel is not a list of duties to be performed, or feelings to be produced, or a frame of mind that we are to pray ourselves into, in order to make God think well of us and to fit us for receiving pardon. The gospel is the good news of the great work done upon the cross. The knowledge of that finished work is immediate peace.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 75
“To focus on the cross of Christ not only grounds our faith on the God who is loving and faithful, but also gives us an example in His sacrificial and redemptive love that we can never outstrip.” D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 194
“The precept of the law as a covenant is ‘Do and live,’ but the command of the law as a rule is ‘Live and do’; the law of works says, ‘Do or you shall be condemned to die,’ but the law in the hand of Christ says, ‘You are delivered from condemnation; therefore do.’ The command of the former is ‘Do perfectly that you may have a right to eternal life,’ but that of the latter is, ‘You have already begun possession of eternal life, as well as the promise of the complete possession of it, therefore do in such a manner as to advance daily toward perfection.’ By the former, a man is commanded to do in his own strength, but by the latter he is required to do in the strength that is in Christ Jesus.” John Colquhoun, The Law and the Gospel, p 34
“But what are the implications of union with Christ? In essence this: through our union with Him in His death we are set free from the penalty of our guilt, which he has paid for us; in union with Him in His resurrection a complete, final, and irreversible righteousness is ours; in union with Him in His death and resurrection we have been set free from the reign of sin.” Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ, p 218
Heart
“The heart that reasons is a heart that listens to reason.” A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 32
“A deviant heart is a devious heart.” A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 93
“If reading God's Word, praying, singing praise, doing good deeds, or loving our spouse is performed out of mere obligation, then our heart is not where it ought to be.” A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 100
“The rebellious will defies and refuses to submit. It does not listen to God. It cannot. It will not. It is on hostile terms with God. Such a rebellious heart can lead only to an increasingly hardened heart – one that becomes more and more calloused to God’s truth and less and less responsive to God’s voice. . . . Only the invincible will of the Son of God is able to intercede for such strong-willed sinners and reconcile them to Himself.” A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 129
“The heart is like a musical instrument that quickly falls out of tune.” A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 156
Heaven
“I often exult in the thought that every moment in the ages to come I shall be better and better able to love Him who loved me from all eternity – who chose me – who lived for me that life of obedience, and died that death in order that I, a soul that sinner, might live with Him for ever.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 23
“Oh what it will be to hear Christ singing then, leading the song of praise, and inviting all the randomed to join him! Our voices are only now being tuned for that day when we shall join him in ‘the song of the Lamb’ - a song which shall be for ever, and ever, and ever.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 25
“We who are in Christ are returning to this recreated earth for the simple reason that it belongs to Christ, who subdued it. But what we see now is only a small taste of what is to come. At that time, joy unspeakable will fill our hearts with the reality that we have finally found our eternal home on earth. Hence, Christian hope looks forward to the new earth where Christ will be our King and where we will, with Him, be more than conquerors.” Mark Jones, Faith. Hope. Love., p 129
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in the world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 137
“[In Scripture] gold is mentioned to suggest the timelessness of Heaven (gold does not rust) and the preciousness of it.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p 137
“To reach the holiday of glory, we must pass through the training school of grace. We must be heavenly-minded, and have heavenly tastes, in the life that now is, or else we shall never find ourselves in heaven, in the life to come.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 43
“There is a kind of sequence within the prayer. God’s kingdom will never come where His name is not considered holy. His will is not done on earth as it is in heaven if His name is desecrated here. In heaven the name of God is holy. It is breathed by angels in a sacred hush. Heaven is a place where reverence for God is total. It is foolish to look for the kingdom anywhere God is not revered.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, p 16
Holy Spirit
“The kind, patient, longsuffering love of the Spirit is infinitely wonderful.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 48
“The Spirit never lies dormant and idle within the soul: he always makes his presence known by the fruit he causes to be borne in heart, character and life.” J. C. Ryle, Holiness, p 25
“The Holy Spirit never creates hungerings and thirstings after righteousness, but in order that Christ may fill the longing soul.” Hudson Taylor, Spiritual Secret, p 155
Hope
“Hope looks to God.” Mark Jones, Faith. Hope. Love., p 100
Imagination
“Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.” G.K. Chesterton, The Red Angel
“Exactly what the fairy-tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.” G.K. Chesterton, The Red Angel
“Such, then, was the state of my imaginative life; over against it stood the life of my intellect. The two hemispheres of my mind were in the sharpest contrast. On the one side a many-islanded sea of poetry and myth; on the other a glib and shallow ‘rationalism.’ Nearly all that I loved I believed to be imaginary; nearly all that I believed to be real I thought grim and meaningless.” C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, p 170
“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.” C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children, p 1
“Since it is so likely that [children] will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children, p 5
“For in the fairy tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice if no little boy in bed, hearing, or thinking he hears, a sound, were ever at all frightened. But if he is going to be frightened, I think it better that he should think of giants and dragons than merely of burglars. And I think St George, or any bright champion in armor, is a better comfort than the idea of the police.” C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children, p 5
“We should look at green again, and be startled anew (but not blinded) by blue and yellow and red. We should meet the centaur and the dragon, and then perhaps suddenly behold, like the ancient shepherds, sheep, and dogs, and horses—and wolves. This recovery fairy-stories help us to make. In that sense only a taste for them may make us, or keep us, childish.” J.R.R. Tolkein, On Fairy-Stories
“I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairystory,or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: ‘mythical’ in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath.” J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories
“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognise it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.” A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p 50
Joy
“The Christian is sorrowful, but not morose; serious, but not solemn; sober-minded, but not sullen; grave, but never cold or prohibitive; his joy is a holy joy; his happiness a serious happiness.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, quoted in Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (Iain Murray), p 212
“The purest joy in the world is joy in Christ Jesus.” R.M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 76
“Believe none, and you will have no joy. Believe little, and you will have little joy. Believe much, and you will have much joy. Believe all, and you will have all joy, and your joy will be full. . . . No joy is like the Divine joy. It is infinite, full, eternal, pure, unmingled joy.” Robert Murray McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 25
Knowledge
“However, true knowledge of God can be acquired only from the divine self-revelation, and only by the man who accepts this with childlike faith.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p 15
“We cannot comprehend God, cannot have an absolute or exhaustive knowledge of Him, but we can undoubtedly have a relative or partial knowledge of the Divine Being.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p 30
“It is one thing to know truth from the Bible, and another thing to bring it from God Himself through the Bible.” Andrew Bonar, quoted in Lloyd-Jones, Messenger of Grace (Iain Murray), p 33
“We can never know too much. Knowledge is essential, doctrine is vital.” D. M. Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans, p 27
“If you just go in for that sort of theoretical intellectual knowledge, the devil will let you talk of doctrine enough; you will turn from Arminianism to Calvinism, you shall be orthodox enough — if you are content to live without Christ’s living in you.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans, p 36
“But when you realise that all this knowledge, everything in the Bible, is meant to bring us to know God, the Everlasting and the Eternal in the Glory and the Majesty and the Holiness of His Being, — how can a man be proud of his knowledge when he realises that that is the knowledge about which we are speaking?” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans, pp 36-37
“The spiritual butterflies are the people who do not know doctrine. It is not entertainment we need. It is truth. It is knowledge.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Romans, p 228
“Ah, brethren, I tremble for you. Unsanctified knowledge will be like a millstone to sink your soul.” R.M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 34
“To have God in his mind and thought is the believer’s constant source of strength.” Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, p 4
“The key method Paul underscores as the means to the transformed life is by the ‘renewal of the mind.’ This means nothing more and nothing less than education. Serious education. In-depth education. Disciplined education in the things of God. It calls for a mastery of the Word of God. We need to be people whose lives have changed because our minds have changed.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, p 199
Legalism
“There are two errors respecting the deliverance of believers from the law that are equally contrary to the Oracles of Truth. The one is that of the legalist who maintains that believers are still under the moral law as a covenant of works; the other is that of the antinomian who affirms that believers are not under it even as a rule of life.” John Colquhoun, The Law and the Gospel, p 180
“Within this matrix legalism at root is the manifestation of a restricted heart disposition toward God, viewing Him through a lens of negative law that obscures the broader context of the Father’s character of holy love. This is a fatal sickness.” Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ, p 85
“In the best of the children of God here, there are such remains of the legal disposition and inclination of heart to the way of the covenant of works, that as they are never quite free of it in their best duties, so at sometimes their services smell so rank of it, as if they were alive to the law, and still dead to Christ. And sometimes the Lord for their correction, trial, and exercise of faith, suffers the ghost of the dead husband, the law, as a covenant of works, to come in upon their souls and make demands of them, command, threaten, and affright them, as if they were alive to it, and it to them. And it is one of the hardest pieces of practical religion, to be dead to the law in such cases.” Edward Fisher, Marrow of Modern Divinity, p 176
“Legalism is a peculiar kind of submission to God’s law, something that no longer feels the personal divine touch in the rule it submits to.” Geerhardus Vos, The Self Disclosure of Jesus, pp 60-61
Living
“God fills our hands with work, but He does not overburden us. When we are overburdened it is time for us to stop.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 17
“The way to rise high in Christ’s kingdom is to serve much.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 18
“Self-forgetting work is heavenly work.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 18
“The best part of Christian work is that part which only God sees.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 18
“No one will ever be holy who is not much alone with God.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 26
“We have but one thing to do, we have but one Person to please. Has your life been thus simplified?” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 28
“Rise early. Take proper exercise. Beware of sloth. Observe and avoid whatever disagrees with your system. Never overburden nature. Be moderate in your table indulgences. Let not appetite the mire and clog the mind.” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, p 279
“The rescue of drowning men is . . . a duty worth dying for, but not worth living for. It seems to me that all political duties (among which I include military duties) are of this kind. A man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself.” C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, p 53
“The man whom we call an architect is not merely he who can readily discourse about buildings, but the man who has the skill to plan and erect them. So the man whom we call a Christian is not merely he who knows the duties of believers, and can fluently talk about them, but the man who, on the good foundation, builds up the structure of a Christian life. On this account we are constantly urged in Scripture to be practical as well as devout in our religion, and to maintain a sweet consistency between profession and practice; cultivating all that is true, pure, honest, lovely, and of good report; or, as the apostle expresses it, ‘walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.’” Robert MacDonald, From Day to Day, p 248
“You must be content then to lean all your weight upon Christ. The leaning soul cries for continued grace.” R.M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 21
“Do not take up your time so much with studying your own heart as with studying Christ’s heart. For one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ!” R. M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 29
“The Shorter Catechism was gone through regularly, each answering the question asked, till the whole had been explained, and its foundation in Scripture shown by the proof-texts adduced. It has been an amazing thing to me, occasionally to meet with men who blamed this ‘catechising’ for giving them a distaste to religion; every one in our circle thinks and feels exactly the opposite. It laid the solid rock-foundation of our religious life.” John G. Paton, John G. Paton: Missionary to the Hebrides, An Autobiography, p 16
“I believe that far more is done for Christ’s kingdom by the holy living of believers than we are at all aware of. There is a reality about such living which makes men feel and obliges them to think. It carries a weight and an influence with it which nothing else can give. It makes religion beautiful and draws men to consider it, like a lighthouse seen afar off.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 41
“A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 70
“Let us strive to use the old prayers, and sing the old hymns, and kneel at the old communion rail, and hear the old truths preached, with as much freshness and appetite as in the year we first believed.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 89
“Lest we should be too timid to include everything, Paul mentions specifically eating and drinking. This humble privilege we share with the beasts that perish. If these lowly animal acts can be so performed as to honour God, then it becomes difficult to conceive of one that cannot.” A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p 114
“Like driving, the Christian life demands both restraint and direction.” A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 147
“It is important to weigh our words and see if they line up accurately and consistently with our life, whether it be with our inward thoughts or our outward actions. There is nothing wrong with our learning to adopt a sound, biblical vocabulary. We want the best words to be on our lips, but we also want them to arise genuinely with the best motives.” Craig A. Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 185
“A true Christian’s character can and should be without moral deficiency before the eyes of his family and his fellow man.” Samuel Waldron, A Man as Priest in His Home, p 103
Love
“You are like two strings on a well-tuned guitar: when one is plucked, the other string vibrates in harmony. In choosing a marriage partner, we should seek such harmony. We want commitment, companionship, and closeness. We want to be best friends.” Joel R. Beeke, Friends and Lovers, p 12
“Those who have real love to Christ always wish they had more.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 33
“God wants us to love Him eternally with our whole hearts — not in such a way as to injure or weaken our earthly love, but to provide a kind of cantus firmus (fixed song) to which the other melodies of life provide the counterpoint.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, p 394
“The limits of love extend into eternity. Faith receives the whole Christ, so that we are, at the moment of believing, in possession of all that we will ever inherit. Hope expects the promises to be fulfilled and waits in eager expectation. But faith and hope will have an end when we no longer walk by faith but arrive to our destiny of sight. Then all we will need is love.” Mark Jones, Faith. Hope. Love., p 248
“To love Christ more – this is the deepest need, the constant cry of my soul. Down in the bowling alley, and out in the woods, and on my bed, and out driving, when I am happy and busy, and when I am sad and idle, the whisper keeps going up for more love, more love, more love!” Elizabeth Prentiss, Life & Letters, pp 411-412
“One who has never been in love may mistake either infatuation or a mixture of affection and sexual attraction for being in love. But when the ‘real thing’ happens, there is no doubt. A man in the jungle at night, as someone said, may suppose a hyena’s growl to be a lion’s, but when he hears the lion’s growl he knows damn’ well it’s a lion. So with the genuine inloveness.” Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy, p 29
These are quotes. You can use Ctrl F to search for key words.
Peace
“The way of peace and the way of holiness lie side by side, or rather, they are one. That which bestows the one imparts the other; and he who takes the one takes the other also. The Spirit of peace is the Spirit of holiness. The God of peace is the God of holiness.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 15
“To know His character, as thus interpreted to us by Jesus and His cross, is to have peace.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 37
“If my peace is a delusion, it cannot be a bad one, for it makes me leave off sin, and makes me pray and read my Bible.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 56
“If we try to get up some warm feelings and good dispositions, in order to remove some fancied remainder of distance, we shall fail; not simply because these actings of ours cannot do what we are trying to do but because there is no need of such effort. The thing is done already. God has brought His righteousness near to the sinner.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 64
“Had we a right to peace? Do we deserve peace? Were we justified in asking God to preserve peace and grant peace? What if war has come because we were not fit for peace; because we by our disobedience and godlessness and sinfulness had so utterly abused the blessings of peace?” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Why Does God Allow War?, p 92
“When our holy war with God ceases; when we, like Luther, walk through the doors of paradise, when we are justified by faith, the war ends forever. With the cleansing from sin and the declaration of divine forgiveness we enter into an eternal peace treaty with God. The firstfruit of our justification is peace with God. This peace is a holy peace, a peace unblemished and transcendent. It is a peace that cannot be destroyed.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, p 183
Prayer
“I would not be hired out of my closet for 1000 worlds. I never enjoy such hours of pleasure, and such free and entire communion with God, as I have here: and I wonder that any can live prayerless, and deprive themselves of the greatest privileges allowed to them.” Mrs. Berry, quoted in The Christian Contemplated (William Jay), p 51
“Prayer, prayer, prayer must be more a business than it has been.” Andrew Bonar, Diary and Life, p 115
“I am convinced that living in the spirit of prayer from hour to hour is what brings down the blessing.” Andrew Bonar, Diary and Life, p 161
“Meditation is letting God speak to us till our heart is throbbing.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 36
“Let us seek to be delivered from trifling prayers, and contentment with trifling answers.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 40
“Prayer will be very lame and dry if it does not come from reading the Scriptures.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 41
“O brother, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper - and sleep too - than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 41
“When we pray in the morning to be filled with the Spirit, may we expect to be filled all day with thoughts of Christ.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 43
“Thus both God’s sovereignty and God’s personhood, rightly applied, become an incentive to pray.” D. A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 235
“Christians, however, should get as much leisure for the closet, as they are able. And in order to this, they should guard against the waste of time; they should economize time; they should redeem time for indecision, and trifling, and especially from the vile and wretched consumptions of unnecessary sleep.” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, p 43
“If you have never had difficulty in prayer, it is absolutely certain that you have never prayed. . . . Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, quoted in Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (Iain Murray), p 221
“If anything really serious required to be punished, he retired first to his ‘closet’ for prayer, and we boys got to understand that he was laying the whole matter before God; and that was the severest part of the penalty to bear! I could have defied any amount of mere penalty, but this spoke to my conscience as a message from God.” John G. Paton, John G. Paton: Missionary to the Hebrides, An Autobiography, p 17
“The Lord said first to Elijah, ‘Go, hide thyself;’ then, ‘Go, show thyself.’ He who does not first hide himself in the secret place to be alone with God, is unfit to show himself in the public place to move among men.” Arthur Pierson, George Muller of Bristol, p 130
“Accustom yourself to turn all your wants, cares and trials into prayer. If anything troubled or annoyed my mother she went straight to the ‘spare room,’ no matter how cold the weather, and we children knew it was to pray. I shall never forget its influence over me.” Elizabeth Prentiss, quoted in Elizabeth Prentiss (Sharon James), p 11
“I see now that it is not always best for us to have the light of God’s countenance. Do not spend your time and strength in asking for me that blessing but this – that I may be transformed into the image of Christ in His own time, in His own way.” Elizabeth Prentiss, quoted in Elizabeth Prentiss (Sharon James), p 34
“Believers, you, sometimes when your hearts are full, want to be far from all company, that you may pour out your complaint to the Lord.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 1, p 282
“He that prays much, believes well; and no man that neglects prayer can act faith.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 2, p 143
“Prayer and watchfulness have a reciprocal influence upon one another. Neglect of prayer will make you yield to temptation, and the indulgence of sin will make you afraid to pray. But habitual watchfulness will carry you with comfort to God at the hour of prayer, both in thankfulness for the past mercies, and reliance on him for future strength.” John Witherspoon, The Works of John Witherspoon Vol. 2, p 190
Preaching
“Preach Christ, for you cannot preach Christ without preaching sin.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 37
Providence
“When God has wiped away every tear from our eyes we shall see His providences very clearly.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 51
“The writer of Ecclestiastes knows of the water cycle, but biblical authors prefer to speak of God sending the rain than to say, ‘It is raining.’ God is the One who opens and shuts, who kills and brings to life, who raises up and puts down kings. He calls the stars by name, and keeps track of the number of hairs on each head (a rapidly decreasing count in some cases).” D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 202
“Perhaps the way you or I hold up under suffering may be instrumental in the conversion of someone who in turn brings up his family in the fear of the Lord, so that his daughter’s son becomes the next Whitefield or Spurgeon or Carey or Wilberforce. There comes a time when by rereading the Scriptures it dawns on us that God frequently utilises and blesses small acts of faithfulness in the context of deep misery to bring forth blessing we could not possibly have asked for, but would have been happy to suffer for.” D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 241
“Not only are Christless persons condemned already, but the instruments of their destruction are prepared and quite ready.” R.M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 22
“That I am drawing breath this morning is an act of divine mercy. God owes me nothing. I owe Him everything. If He allows a tower to fall on my head this afternoon, I cannot claim injustice.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, p 153
“Many a rock might be escaped if we would let our Father take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we might well avoid if we would leave it to His sovereign will to choose and to command. The Puritan said, ‘As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself, he’ll cut his own fingers.’ This is a great truth. Another old divine said, ‘He that goes before the cloud of God’s providence goes on a fool’s errand,’ and so he does. We must mark God’s providence leading us, and if providence delays, wait until providence comes. He who goes before providence will be very glad to retreat.” Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, p 49
Regeneration
“It is to a new life that God is calling us; not to some new steps in life, some new habits or ways or motives or prospects, but to a new life.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 17
Repentance
“Self-consciousness of sin never ends. True spirituality lives and has its being in repentance.” Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, p 118
Salvation
“Chosen, called, quickened, washed, sanctified, and justified by God Himself, we are in no sense our own deliverers.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 21
“O what a change for an heir of hell to become an heir of God, and joint heir with Christ, to inherit God, to have a son’s interest in God! Eternity alone will teach you what is in that word, ‘heir of God.’” Robert Murray McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 20
“Because, justified in the eyes of Christ, washed in his blood, a believer is pure and white as a lily. Christ can see no spot in his own righteousness, and therefore he sees no spot on the believer.” R. M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 23
“If you have not got an assured hope of your own acceptance in Christ, resolve this day to seek it. Labour for it. Strive after it. Pray for it. Give the Lord no rest till you ‘know whom you have believed.’” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 118
“You cannot be your own Savior, either in whole or in part.” Hudson Taylor, Spiritual Secret, p 155
“O such love! Such blood! Such washing! Here is salvation, and here only. It is a damning dream to expect it anywhere else.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 1, p 287
“Christ draws them to himself whom he minds to save. By nature they are far off from Christ, and from salvation. By his grace they are brought near, Eph. 2:13. Christ and salvation are inseparable.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 1, p 344
Sanctification
“Lord, give me light, love, life, likeness to Thee.” Andrew Bonar, quoted in Diary and Life (Marjorie Bonar), p 209
“It is a test of our progress in sanctification if we are willing to have our faults pointed out to us, without getting angry. Why should we take offence at being told we are not perfect?” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 32
“He who would know holiness must understand sin; and he who would see sin as God sees it, and think of it as God does, must look at the cross and grave of the Son of God, and must know the meaning of Gethsemane and Golgotha.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 30
“Our responsibility to be holy is great, but not greater than the means provided for its full attainment.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 46
“The divine order then is first pardon, then holiness; first peace with God, and then conformity to the image of that God with whom we have been brought to be at peace.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 54
“Standing by the cross, we become imitators of the crucified One.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 79
“In living for Christ, we must follow Him fully, not copying a copy, but copying Himself; otherwise ours will be an imperfect testimony, a reflected and feeble religion, devoid of ease, and simplicity, and grace, bearing the marks of imitation and art, if not of forgery.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 137
“The New Testament method and way of sanctification is to get us to realise our position and standing, and to act accordingly. In other words, ‘Be what you are.’ Because you have been ‘made free from sin’ and become ‘servants of righteousness’ [Rom 6:18], therefore, be what you are.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, quoted in Lloyd-Jones, Messenger of Grace (Iain Murray), p 222
“My friends, the very use of being joined to Christ is to be made holy.” R. M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 60
“Christ’s work is not done with a soul when He has brought it to pardon – when He has washed it in His own blood. Oh, no! The better half of salvation remains – His great work of sanctification remains.” R. M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 84
“There is no argument like a holy life.” R. M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 27
“If the Bible be true, it is certain that unless we are ‘sanctified’, we shall not be saved.” J. C. Ryle, Holiness, p 21
“Saving faith and real converting grace will always produce some conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.” J. C. Ryle, Holiness, p 38
“More pardoned and more justified than [the believer] is when he first believes he cannot be, though he may feel it more. More sanctified he certainly may be, because every grace in his new character may be strengthened, enlarged, and deepened.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, pp 19-20
“We have to live with Christ. We’ve got to wake up with him. We’ve got to walk with him. We’ve got to end the day with him. We have to be with him always. We have to read his Word and speak to him. As we do, the glory of what Christ is as a priest will begin to enlighten us as well.” Samuel Waldron, A Man as Priest in His Home, p 115
Scripture
“The fact that substantially the whole church came to recognise the same twenty-seven books as canonical is remarkable when it is remembered that the result was not contrived. All that the several churches throughout the Empire could do was to witness to their own experience with the documents and share whatever knowledge they might have about their origin and character. When consideration is given to the diversity in cultural backgrounds and in orientation to the essentials of the Christian faith within the churches, their common agreement about which books belonged to the New Testament serves to suggest that this final decision did not originate solely at the human level.” Glenn W. Barker et al, The New Testament Speaks, p 27
“Every line in this inspired Bible is wet with the dew of the Spirit’s love.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 48
“While you are firmly persuaded that it is only His teaching that can be of any real use to you, do not grieve Him by separating His love in writing the Bible for you, from His willingness to make you understand it. He who gave you His Word will interpret it for you.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 70
“The Bible is a living Book, not a dead one; a divine one, not a human one; a perfect one, not an imperfect one. Search it, study it, dig into it.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Peace, p 75
“Scripture is wonderfully balanced in all its parts; let our study of it be the same, that we may be well-balanced men.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 125
“The Word must be studied in all its fulness. Over its whole length and breadth we must spread ourselves. Above all theologies, creeds, catechisms, books and hymns, the Word must be meditated on, that we may grow in the knowledge of all its parts, and assimilation to its models.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 126
“The Bible must be understood to be not only a faithful witness to God’s gracious self-disclosure in words and deeds, but also the very embodiment of God’s verbal revelation to humankind.” D. A. Carson, Collected Writings on Scripture, p 27
“A mere hurried and cursory reading of Scripture profits but little and never leads to true joy.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, quoted in Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (Iain Murray), p 211
“The Lord counts no man His friend who deals lightly with His Word. He who, under the guise of being fair and candid, while admitting its unrivalled excellence, denies its inspiration, is betraying it with a kiss. A Bible uninspired, or only half inspired, the value and degree of its statements made matter of each man’s discretion, – whatever else it may be, is not the God-given Sword of the Spirit, which is quick, powerful, sharp, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Robert Macdonald, From Day to Day, p 226
“Christianity is founded upon the Bible. It bases upon the Bible both its thinking and its life. Liberalism on the other hand is founded upon the shifting emotions of sinful men.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 81
“Oh, believers, prize the Word!” Robert Murray McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 85
“It seemed obvious that God having condescended to become an Author, inspiring holy men to write the Scriptures, He would in them impart the most vital truths; His message would cover all matters which concern man’s welfare, and therefore, under the double impulse of duty and delight, we should instinctively and habitually turn to the Bible.” Arthur Pierson, George Muller of Bristol, p 49
“Poor and rich, high and low, ignorant and learned, young and old, all alike are welcomed to the audience-chamber of the King of kings. The most intimate knowledge of God is possible on one condition – that we search His Holy Scriptures, prayerfully and habitually, and translate what we find there, into obedience.” Arthur Pierson, George Muller of Bristol, p 50
“We may use the past tense properly to indicate that at a certain time a certain word of God was spoken, but a word of God once spoken continues to be spoken, as a child once born continues to be alive, or a world once created continues to exist. And those are but imperfect illustrations, for children die and worlds burn out, but the Word of our God endureth forever.” A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, p 78
“You have all great need to study your Bibles well. According to their diligence in using of the word of God, is the thriving of men’s souls.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 2, p 95
Sin
“Right views of sin have a tendency to lead us to right views of the Person of the Savior.” Andrew Bonar, The Person of Christ, p 32
“Even one sin makes peace flee from the soul, as we see in the case of Adam and Eve. Even one sin fills the soul with suspicions of God and suggestions of fear.” Andrew Bonar, The Person of Christ, p 46
“Christ utilizes even the backslidings of his people for their further good.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 17
“Never trifle with one sin. It is like a little cloud which, as a poet has said, may hold a hurricane in its grasp. The next sin you commit may have a mighty effect in the blighting of your life. You do not know the streams that may glow from that fountain; for sin is a fountain - not a mere act, but a fountain of evil.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 49
“Error injures, truth heals; error is the root of sin, truth is that of purity and perfection.” Horatius Bonar, God’s Way of Holiness, p 20
“But alas! this time is never the time for self-denial; it is always the next time. Abstinence is so much more pleasant to contemplate on the other side of indulgence!” George MacDonald, Sir Gibbie, p 19
“Sin is an infinite evil. It leaves a mark on the soul that nothing human can wipe away. Oh! Pray for a discovery of the loathsomeness of sin.” R.M. McCheyne, A Believer’s Joy, p 43
“I must never think a sin too small to need immediate application to the blood of Christ.” R.M. McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 42
“Our conceptions of things depend mainly upon two conditions: first, the clearness of our vision of truth and duty, and secondly, the standard of measurement and comparison. The more we live in God and unto God, the more do our eyes become enlightened to see the enormity and deformity of sin, so that we recognise the hatefulness of evil more distinctly: and the more clearly do we recognise the perfection of God’s holiness and make it the pattern and model of our own holy living.” Arthur Pierson, George Muller of Bristol, p 56
“We need not be afraid to look at sin, and study its nature, origin, power, extent, and vileness, if we only look at the same time at the Almighty medicine provided for us in the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.” J. C. Ryle, Holiness, p 12
“Once let us see that that sin is far viler and far nearer to us, and sticks more closely to us than we supposed, and we shall be led, I trust and believe, to get nearer to Christ. Once drawn nearer to Christ, we will drink more fully out of His fulness, and learn more thoroughly to ‘live the life of faith’ in Him, as St Paul did. Once taught to live the life of faith in Jesus, and abiding in Him, we shall bear more fruit, shall find ourselves more strong for duty, more patient in trial, more watchful over our poor weak hearts, and more like our Master in all our little daily ways.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 13
“Was it evil for God to impose the death penalty for all sin? If you say yes, be careful. If you say yes, you are saying it as an expression of the very fallen, sinful nature that exposes you to the death penalty in the first place. If you say yes, you slander the character of God. If you say yes, you do violence to His holiness. If you say yes, you assail the righteous Judge of all the earth. If you say yes, you have never come to grips with what sin is. We must not say yes. We must say no and say it with conviction.” R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God, p 139
“How easily are people misled into disobedience by their present interest, or carnal inclinations! How ready are these to mix themselves in all our actions, and to turn what is intended as an instance of obedience, and into an act of impiety and transgression!” John Witherspoon, The Works of John Witherspoon Vol 2, p 197
Suffering
“Burdens are part of a believer’s education.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 50
“This fallen world is the region of soul-making.” D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 36
“This is why the best Christian leadership cannot simply be appointed. It is forged by God Himself in the fires of suffering, taught in the school of tears. There are no shortcuts.” D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 90
“When we suffer, there will sometimes be mystery. Will there also be faith? Yes, if our attention is focused more on the cross, and on the God of the cross, than on the suffering itself.” D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, pp 194-195
“Christians will take refuge from their questions about suffering not in bitterness, self-pity, resentment against God, or trite cliches and religious cant, but in endurance, perseverance, and faith in the God who has suffered, who has fought with evil and triumphed, and whose power and goodness endure that faith resting in Him is never finally disappointed.” D. A. Carson, How Long, O Lord?, p 246
“Suffering is regarded as the means God employs to bring His people closer to Himself: suffering breaks the idolatrous love of the creature.” Sharon James, Elizabeth Prentiss, p 80
“A religion that costs nothing, is worth nothing.” J. C. Ryle, On Mark 8:34-38, p 134
“Precious children of God, even though you are shaken, be comforted by the blessed fact that the Lord directs the whole process for His own glory and for your eternal profit.” Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, p 184
“Your head may be crowned with thorny troubles now, but it shall wear a starry crown before long; your hand may be filled with cares — it shall sweep the strings of the harp of heaven soon. Your garments may be soiled with dust now; they shall be white before long. Wait a little longer. Ah! How despicable our troubles and trials will seem when we look back upon them!” Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, p 268
“In these days of easy-going Christianity, is it not well to remind ourselves that it really does cost to be a man or woman whom God can use? One cannot obtain a Christlike character for nothing; one cannot do a Christlike work save at great price.” Hudson Taylor, Spiritual Secret, p 27
Theology
“God certainly sees the truth as a whole, and it is the duty of the theologian to think the truths of God after Him.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p 3
“While the intellect gives guidance and direction to this [dogmatic] reflection, it is not purely an intellectual activity, but one that is moral and emotional as well. . . . It calls for deep spirituality, for religious fervour, for willing subjection to the truth as it is revealed in the Word of God, for a consuming passion to gain an ever-increasing insight into the truth in all its bearings, for diligent exegetical study, and for constructive ability.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, pp 11-12
“History clearly teaches that, before a Church can really pass judgement on heresies, she must have some official standard or test. And it goes without saying that she can never bear a united and powerful testimony to the truth, unless she herself presents a united front.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p 19
“A Church without dogmas would be a silent church, and this is a contradiction in terms. A silent witness would be no witness at all, and would never convince anyone.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p 20
“Theology has its own distinctive method, but there is after all a great deal which it has in common with the other sciences. If the matter with which theology deals is given by revelation, so is, strictly speaking, also the matter which the other sciences build into a system. Reason cannot be regarded as the source of this matter, but only as the instrument by which it is grasped, analysed, classified, and systematised. And if the sciences in general employ human reason in the construction of their system of knowledge, so does theology depend on sanctified human reason in its investigation and constructive work. It is true that the element of faith is fundamental in the work of the theologian, but there is not a single scientist who can exclude this from his work altogether. And if theology must leave a great many ultimate questions unanswered, this is true to a large degree also of every other science.” Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, p 39
“Doctrine is practical, for it is that that stirs up the heart.” Marjorie Bonar, Life of Andrew Bonar, p. xii
“Biblical theology forms an organic whole. This means not only that one can approach any part of the subject by beginning at any other point of the subject (though some vantage points are certainly more helpful than others), but that to treat some element of biblical theology as if it existed in splendid isolation seriously distorts the whole picture.” D. A. Carson, Collected Writings on Scripture, p 19
“There is a kind of orthodoxy in which the several loci of systematic theology, or stages of redemptive history, are all in place, but that lacks the life of the whole, just as arms, legs, torso, head, feet, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth may all be present – while the body as a whole lacks energy and perhaps life itself. The form of godliness is not the same as its power.” Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ, p 72
“Christian doctrine lies at the very roots of faith.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 44
“Here is found the most fundamental difference between liberalism and Christianity - liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood, while Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative; Liberals appeal to man's will, while Christianity announces, first, a gracious act of God.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 47
“At the very root of the modern liberal movement is the loss of the consciousness of sin. The consciousness of sin was formerly the starting-point of all preaching; but today it is gone.” J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, p 65
“Truth is to be defended by truth; but error is often, and unhappily opposed by error under truth’s name.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol 1, p 239
Virtue
“Why, you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire.” Mark Twain, The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, p 52-53
Warfare
“The safe side is Christ’s side. He gets no wound in all his battles. He is conqueror in all he undertakes.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 30
“A believer is to be known, not only by his peace and joy, but by his warfare and distress.” Robert Murray McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 27
“If afflictions bring us nearer to Christ, the Bible, and prayer, they are positive blessings.” J. C. Ryle, Luke Vol. 1, p 71
“Those of you who are afflicted believers, you know what it is to have a friend that was tried in all points as you are.” Robert Murray McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 87
“Believe me, a true Christian may be known by his warfare, as well as by his peace.” J. C. Ryle, Holiness, p 29
“The cause of sin is never so much helped as when Christians waste their strength in quarrelling with one another and spend their time in petty squabbles. No, indeed! The principle fight of the Christian is with the world, the flesh and the devil. These are his never-dying foes. These are the three chief enemies against whom he must wage war. Unless he gets the victory over these three, all other victories are useless and vain.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 51
“[The believer] sees by faith in an unseen Saviour, who loved him, gave Himself for him, paid his debts for him, bore his sins, carried his transgressions, rose again for him, and appears in heaven for him as his Advocate at the right hand of God. He sees Jesus and clings to Him. Seeing this Saviour and trusting in Him, he feels peace and hope and willingly does battle against the foes of his soul.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, pp 56-57
“Let us settle it in our minds that the Christian fight is a good fight – really good, truly good, emphatically good. We see only part of it yet. We see the struggle, but not the end; we see the campaign, but not the reward; we see the cross, but not the crown. We see a few humble, broken-spirited, penitent, praying people, enduring hardships and despised by the world; but we see not the hand of God over them, the face of God smiling on them, the kingdom of glory prepared for them. These things are yet to be revealed. Let us not judge by appearances. There are more good things about the Christian warfare than we see.” J.C. Ryle, Holiness, p 62
“If believers would part with their profession, the world would part with quarrels.” Robert Traill, Works of Robert Traill Vol. 2, p 21
“The nature of our spiritual struggle is that the more we resist sin, the better we get to know it.” A. Craig Troxel, With All Your Heart, p 40
Worship
“We should be always wearing the garment of praise, not just waving a palm now and then!” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 40
“How much more ought we to be joyous in our heavenly Father’s presence! We need not be always singing. The heart has a silent language. There is too little of adoration – simple worship – at the present time.” Andrew Bonar, The Smile of Thy Love, p 52
“The public worship of God ought always to be considered as an unspeakable benefit to mankind.” William Jay, The Christian Contemplated, p. 120
“God appointed faithful preaching as a means of sanctifying His people. And this is why, in worship, we should read, preach, sing, and pray the Word.” Mark Jones, Faith. Hope. Love., p 70
“Truth came first, you remember, then godliness, and then worship.” D.M. Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans, p 27
“Rose early to seek God, and found him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?” Robert Murray McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 39
“Spend the Lord’s Day in the Lord’s presence. Spend it as a day in heaven. Spend much of it in praise and in works of mercy, as Jesus did.” Robert Murray McCheyne, The Sweet Bond of Christian Love, p 47