What They Said

Stephen Charnock on Hypocrits

2012-02-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

"It is a sad thing to be a Christian at a supper, heathens in our shops, and devils in our closets."

Stephen Charnock

Henry Smith on Persecution

2012-02-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

"God examineth with trials, the devil examineth with temptation, the world examineth with persecution."

Henry Smith

Samuel Rodigast on God's sovereignty

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

Whate'er my God ordains is right:

Holy his will abideth;

I will be still whate'er he doth;

And follow where he guideth:

He is my God: though dark my road,

He holds me that I shall not fall:

Wherefore to him I leave it all.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:

He never will deceive me;

He leads me by the proper path;

I know he will not leave me:

I take, content, what he hath sent;

His hand can turn my griefs away,

And patiently I wait his day.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:

Though now this cup, in drinking,

May bitter seem to my faint heart,

I take it, all unshrinking:

My God is true; each morn anew

Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,

And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate'er my God ordains is right:

Here shall my stand be taken;

Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,

Yet am I not forsaken;

My Father's care is round me there;

He holds me that I shall not fall:

And so to him I leave it all.

Samuel Rodigast, 1649-1708

(Trinity Hymnal #94)

John Flavel on Forgiveness

2012-02-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

"By revenge thou canst but satisfy a lust, but by forgiveness thou shalt conquer a lust."

John Flavel

William Gurnall on Heaven

2012-02-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Nothing is more contrary to a heavenly hope than an earthly heart."

William Gurnall

Thomas Manton on the Law of God

2012-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Human laws are good to establish converse with man, but too short to establish communion with God; and therefore we must consult with the rule which is the law of the Lord, that we may not come short of true blessedness."

Thomas Manton

Stephen Charnock on Mercy

2012-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Without faith we are not fit to desire mercy, without humility we are not fit to receive it, without affection we are not fit to value it, without sincerity we are not fit to improve it."

Stephen Charnock

Samuel Rutherford on Humility

2012-02-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Humility is a strange flower; it grows best in winter weather, and under storms of affliction."

Samuel Rutherford

Samuel Rutherford on Tyranny

2012-01-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Tyranny being a work of Satan, is not from God, because sin, either habitual or actual, is not from God: the power that is, must be from God; the magistrate, as magistrate, is good in nature of office, and the intrinsic end of his office, (Rom. xiii. 4) for he is the minister of God for thy good; and, therefore, a power ethical, politic, or moral, to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power; and is no more from God, but from sinful nature and the old serpent, than a license to sin. God in Christ giveth pardons of sin, but the Pope, not God, giveth dispensations to sin."

Samuel Rutherford

Lex Rex, p.34

Patrick Henry on Liberty

2012-01-30T06:00:00.001-08:00

"Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us."

Patrick Henry

Charles Spurgeon on Teaching

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers; they reach the ear, but he instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter, but he imparts an inward taste for the truth, by which we perceive its savour and spirit."

~C.H. Spurgeon~

R. J. Rushdoony on Man

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Men apart from Christ tend to be as firm as sand, and as solid as water. They cannot be depended on. To trust man is to risk disaster."

~R. J. Rushdoony~

Charles Spurgeon on Farming

2012-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

“Moreover, the farmer is in a very special sense made to see his dependence upon God from season to season. He has never done; his labour is never ending, still beginning; and his hopes are never all fulfilled. From the time he sows the seed to the day when he sees the corn in the ear he is every hour dependent upon the Lord for sunshine and shower; and even when the grain is ready for the garner a stretch of rainy weather will take his harvest from him and leave him mourning at the last. He can never count his profits till he has them in his pocket, and hardly then. This manifest, absolute, and daily dependence should help the good farmer to learn the lesson of faith right thoroughly. He must look up, for where else can he look? He must leave his business in the Lord’s hands, for who else can be his helper? Faith which is daily tried, and tried all the day long, has a fair opportunity of becoming unusually strong, and hence our agricultural Christians ought to be the strongest believers in the land. They have not of late been indulged with much temporal prosperity, but our hope is that a succession of adversities may have driven them to set less store by the world, to look more eagerly for the better portion, and to leave all things more believingly in the Lord’s hands. This will be good out of evil beyond all question, and such good we ought to look for. Sharp discipline should by this time have made good soldiers of our yeomanry. If it be so, the failing purse is more than recompensed by the enlarged heart: if our farmers are wiser men through their bad seasons, that will be better than being richer men.”

C. H. Spurgeon

(from: Farm Sermons)

Robert E. Lee on the Will of God

2012-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

“God’s will ought to be our aim, and I am quite content that His designs should be accomplished and not mine.”

Robert E. Lee

Leonard Ravenhill on the Church

2012-01-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The church is supposed to do what? To stop corruption? Is the church doing that? No! The world is corrupting the church!"

Leonard Ravenhill

Octavius Winslow on Reliance on Christ

2012-01-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

‎"Oh, be honest and upright with Him! Go to Him first, consult Him first, acknowledge Him in all your ways — before you consult any human guide. May Christ, in all the minute details of your life, have the preeminence. Learn to lay your own desires and thoughts at His feet."

Octavius Winslow

John Flavel on Humility and Pride

2012-01-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

‎"They that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves, cannot be proud."

John Falvel

Jeremiah Burroughs on Children

2012-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

“There is little hope of children who are educated wickedly. If the dye have been in the wool, it is hard to get it out of the cloth.”

Jeremiah Burroughs

Cotton Mather on Family

2012-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Before all, and above all, is the knowledge of the Christian religion that parents are to teach their children. The knowledge of other things, be it ever so desirable for them, our children may arrive in eternal happiness without it. But the knowledge of the godly doctrine of Jesus Christ is a million times more necessary for them."

Cotton Mather

Leonard Ravenhill on the Changing TImes

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

"We're living in an unprecedented day (when) evil is no longer evil. We've changed the terminology-- iniquity is now infirmity; wickedness is now weakness; devilry is now deficiency."

Leonard Ravenhill

John Arrowsmith on the Trinity

2012-01-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The Trinity is a mystery which my faith embraces as revealed in the Word, but my reason cannot fathom."

John Arrowsmith

(1602-1659)

George Whitefield on Family Discipleship

2012-01-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Would then the present generation have their posterity be true lovers and honorers of God; masters and parents must take Solomon's good advice, and train up and catechize their respective households in the way wherein they should go. I am aware but of one objection, that can, with any show of reason, be urged against what has been advanced; which is, that such a procedure as this will take up too much time, and hinder families too long from their worldly business. But it is much to be questioned, whether persons that start such an objection, are not of the same hypocritical spirit as the traitor Judas, who had indignation against devout Mary, for being so profuse of her ointment, in anointing our blessed Lord, and asked why it might not be sold for two hundred pence, and given to the poor. For has God given us so much time to work for ourselves, and shall we not allow some small pittance of it, morning and evening, to be devoted to his more immediate worship and service? Have not people read, that it is God who gives men power to get wealth, and therefore that the best way to prosper in the world, is to secure his favor? And has not our blessed Lord himself promised, that if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all outward necessaries shall be added unto us?"

George Whitefield

George Swinnock on Parents

2012-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Some parents, like Eli, bring up their children to bring down their house."

George Swinnock

Ralph Venning on Mercy

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Take notice not only of the mercies of God, but of God in the mercies. Mercies are never so savoury as when they savour of a Saviour."

Ralph Venning

Samuel Langdon on the Relationship between God's Word and Freedom

2012-01-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

"I call upon you to preserve the knowledge of God in the land, and to attend to the revelation written to us from heaven. If you neglect or renounce that religion taught and commanded in the holy scriptures, think no more of freedom, peace, and happiness; the judgments of heaven will pursue you."

Samuel Langdon

(January 12, 1723 – November 29, 1797)

John Wycliffe on the Bible and Governance

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The Bible is for the government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

John Wycliffe

Thomas Cranmer on Fruit

2012-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

"For as the good fruit is not the cause that the tree is good, but the tree must first be good before it can bring fourth good fruit: so the good deeds of man are not the cause that makes men good, but he is first made good, by the spirit and grace of GOD that effectually works in him, and afterward he brings fourth good fruits."

Thomas Cranmer

Ulrich Zwingli on the Source of Authority

2012-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Whereas the jurisdiction and authority of the secular power is based on the teachings and actions of Christ."

Ulrich Zwingli

Samuel Langdon on Government

2012-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

"A government, thus settled on republican principles, required laws; without which it must have degenerated immediately into aristocracy, or absolute monarchy. But God did not leave a people, wholly unskilled in legislation, to make laws for themselves: he took this important matter wholly into his own hands, and beside the moral laws of the two tables, which directed their conduct as individuals, gave them by Moses a complete code of judicial laws. They were not numerous indeed, but concise and plain, and easily applicable to almost every controversy which might arise between man and man, and every criminal case which might require the judgment of the court."

Samuel Langdon

(January 12, 1723 – November 29, 1797)

Thomas Brooks on Belonging to God

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

"I am His by purchase and I am His by conquest; I am His by donation and I am His by election; I am His by covenant and I am His by marriage; I am wholly His; I am peculiarly His; I am universally His; I am eternally His."

Thomas Brooks

Charles Spurgeon on Death

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Death is no punishment to the believer: it is the gate of endless joy."

~C.H. Spurgeon~

Stephen Charnock on the Heart

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Without the heart it is no worship. It is a stage play. It is an acting of a part without being that person, really. It is playing the hypocrite."

~Stephen Charnock~

R. J. Rushdoony on The Oath

2011-12-28T05:39:00.000-08:00

"An oath of office places a man and the people he governs in covenant with God. It binds the man and the people. It is an act of the most serious nature and consequences. Before it is too late, we had better take it as seriously as God does!"

~R. J. Rushdoony~

Jonathan Edwards on Prayer

2011-12-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Many pray with their lips for that for which their hearts have no desire."

Jonathan Edwards

George Swinnock on Regeneration

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

“There may be several things which may help to make the life fair in the eyes of men; but nothing will make it amiable in the eyes of God, unless the heart be changed and renewed. All the medicines which can be applied, without the sanctifying work of the Spirit, though they may cover, they can never cure the corruption and diseases of the soul.”

George Swinnock

John Flavel on Riches

2011-12-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Where there is no want, there is usually much wantonness."

John Flavel

Stephen Charnock on Regeneration

2011-12-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons."

Stephen Charnock

Richard Sibbes on Providence

2011-12-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Providence is the perpetuity and continuance of creation."

Richard Sibbes

Richard Baxter on Perfection

2011-12-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

"This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it."

Richard Baxter

William Secker on Obedience

2011-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

"It is our bounden duty to live in obedience, but it would prove our utter ruin to live on obedience."

William Secker

Thomas Watson on Temptation

2011-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The devil tempts, that he may deceive; but God suffers us to be tempted, to try us. Temptation is a trial of our sincerity."

Thomas Watson

Abraham Wright on Temptation

2011-12-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The cause why our oppressors prevail oft against us is, because we trust too much in our own wits, and lean too much upon our own inventions; opposing subtility to subtility, one evil device to another, matching and maintaining policy by policv, and not committing our cause to God."

Abraham Wright

(1611-1690)

Samuel Rutherford on Temptation

2011-12-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

"To want temptations is the greatest temptation of all."

Samuel Rutherford

John Owen on Temptation

2011-12-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before."

John Owen

Vavasor Powell on Temptation

2011-12-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

"If thou hast fallen into sin through violent temptations, seek speedily for repentance for it, recovery out of it, and reformation from it."

Vavasor Powell

(1617-1670)

Thomas Adams on Temptation

2011-12-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Satan, like a fisher, baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish."

Thomas Adams

R. J. Rushdoony on Hypocrites

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

"We have as many hypocrites in government as we do because so many of us voters are hypocrites. We are all for reforming everyone except ourselves."

~R. J. Rushdoony~

R. J. Rushdoony on Economy

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

"To understand therefore what is happening in America's economy, the answer is not to complain about the rising price of farm products but to look at the changing yardstick, money."

~R. J. Rushdoony~

R. J. Rushdoony on Faith

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

"When the faith is more than a possession but a fire in our being that possesses us, we are governed by it. It commands and compels us as nothing else can, because we are in the hands and power of the living God."

~R. J. Rushdoony~

R. J. Rushdoony on Lack of Faith

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

"When a civilisation looses its faith, it begins to live, not in terms of responsibilities, and the future, but in terms of the present pleasure."

~R. J. Rushdoony~

R.J. Rushdoony on Politics and Character

2011-12-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Politics cannot produce character: Christianity must. The decline of faith is a decline of character and a decline of character is the forerunner of political decay and collapse. Christianity has an obligation to train a people in the fundamentals of God's grace and law, and to make them active and able champions of true political liberty and order."

R. J. Rushdoony

Charles Spurgeon on Repentance

2011-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Evangelical repentance is repentance of sin as sin: not of this sin nor of that, but of the whole mass. We repent of the sin of our nature as well as the sin of our practice. We bemoan sin within us and without us. We repent of sin itself as being an insult to God. Anything short of this is a mere surface repentance, and not a repentance which reaches to the bottom of the mischief. Repentance of the evil act, and not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak. Some would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin, but leave the disease in the flesh."

C. H. Spurgeon

Thomas Watson on Repentacne

2011-12-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

"God will not pardom for repentance, nor yet without it."

Thomas Watson

Henry Smith on Repentance

2011-11-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The wicked do but weep for their sins past, but the godly purpose to sin no more."

Henry Smith

Samuel Rutherford on Repentacne

2011-11-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

"A repenting man is more angry at his own heart that consenteth to sin than he is at the devil who did tempt him to sin."

Samuel Rutherford

Thomas Fuller on Repentance

2011-11-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

"You cannot repent too soon, because you do not know how soon it may be too late"

Thomas Fuller

John Trapp on God's Patience

2011-11-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

"God's forbearance is no acquittance."

John Trapp

Ralph Cudowrth on Love and Doctrine

2011-11-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Christ came not to possess our brains with some cold opinions, that send down a freezing and benumbing influence into our hearts. Christ was a master of the life, not of the school; and he is the best Christian whose heart beats with the purest pulse towards heaven, not he whose head spins the finest cobweb."

Ralph Cudworth

George Swinnock on Obedience

2011-11-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

"As the saint is described sometimes by a "clean heart," so also sometimes by "clean hands," because he has both; the holiness of his heart is seen at his fingers' ends."

George Swinnock

William Secker on Sorrow and Affliction

2011-11-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

"There are some things good but not pleasant, as sorrow and affliction. Sin is pleasant, but unprofitable; and sorrow is profitable, but unpleasant. As waters are purest when they are in motion, so saints are generally holiest when in affliction."

William Secker

Thomas Watson on Sin

2011-11-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Sin hath the devil for its father, shame for it companion, death for its wages."

Thomas Watson

Alexis de Tocqueville on Religion and Liberty

2011-11-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Religion is no less the companion of liberty in all its battles and its triumphs ; the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims. The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom."

Alexis de Tocqueville

Benjamin Franklin on Farming

2011-11-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Finally, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth. The first is by war as the Romans did in plundering their conquered neighbours. This is robbery. The second by commerce which is generally cheating. The third by agriculture the only honest way; wherein man receives a real Increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle wrought by the hand of God in his favour, as a reward for his innocent life, and virtuous industry."

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Hooker on a Husband's View of His Wife

2011-11-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The man whose heart is endeared to the woman he loves, he dreams of her in the night, hath her in his eye and apprehension when he awakes, museth on her as he sits at the table, walks with her when he travels and parlies with her in each place he comes…. she lies in his bosom, and his heart trusts in her, which forceth all to confess that the stream of his affection, like a mighty current, runs with full tide and strength."

Thomas Hooker

William Gouge on Training Children for a Calling

2011-11-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The second branch of good nurture is a training up of children unto a good calling. This charge [train up a child in the way that he should go (Prov 22:6)] directly tendeth to this purpose. This duty hath from the beginning of the world been performed by parents, and their performance thereof commended by the Holy Ghost."

William Gouge

John Bunyan on Grace and the Fear of God

2011-11-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Though there is not always grace where there is the fear of hell, yet, to be sure, there is no grace where there is no fear of God."

John Bunyan

Nehemiah Rogers on God's Glory

2011-11-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

"His glory is as Himself, eternal, infinite, and so abides in itself, not capable of our addition to it or detraction from it. As the sun, which would shine in its own brightness and glory though all the world were blind, or did wilfully shut their eyes against it, so God will ever be most glorious, let men be ever so obstinate or rebellious. Yea, God will have glory by reprobates, though it be nothing to their ease; and though He be not glorified of them, yet He will glorify Himself in them."

Nehemiah Rogers

Octavius Winslow on Christ's Love for His Church

2011-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

"Jesus sustains no association to His Church more expressive than that of the marriage relationship. From all eternity He forever betrothed her to Himself. He asked her at the hands of her Father—and the Father gave her to Him. He entered into a covenant that she would be His. The conditions of that covenant were great, but not too great for His love to undertake. They were, that He should assume her nature, discharge her legal obligations, endure her punishment, repair her ruin, and bring her to glory! He undertook all, and He accomplished all, because He loved her! The love of Jesus to His Church is the love of the most tender husband. It is single, constant, affectionate, matchless, wonderful. Jesus sympathizes with her, nourishes her, provides for her, clothes her, watches over, and indulges her with the most intimate and endearing tenderness."

Octavius Winslow

William Gouge on Love for Children

2011-11-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

"The Fountain of parents' duties is Love (Titus 2:4). This is expressly enjoined to them. Many approved examples are recorded hereof: as Abraham (Gen 22:2), Isaac (Gen 25:28), Rebekah (Gen 25:28), and others.

Great reason there is why this affection should be fast fixed in the hearts of parents towards their children. For great is that pain, pains, cost, and care, which parents must undergo for their children. But if love be in them, no pain, pains, cost or care, will seem too much."

William Gouge

J.C. Ryle on the Bible

2011-11-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

“Be very sure of this,-people never reject the Bible because they cannot understand it. They understand it only too well; they understand that it condemns their own behavior; they understand that it witnesses against their own sins, and summons them to judgment.”

J.C. Ryle

John Calvin on the Work of the Spirit

2011-11-07T05:00:00.001-08:00

"The work of the Spirit, then, is joined to the word of God. But a distinction is made, that we may know that the external word is of no avail by itself. unless animated by the power of the Spirit ...All power of action, then, resides in the Spirit himself."

~John Calvin~

(see full quote HERE)

Charles H. Spurgeon on The Spirit and Preaching

2011-11-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

"The power that is in the Gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher, otherwise men would be the converters of souls, nor does it lie in the preacher's learning, otherwise it would consist in the wisdom of men. We might preach until our tongues rotted, till we would exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless the Holy Spirit be with the Word of God to give it the power to convert the soul."

Charles H. Spurgeon

Thomas Manton and the Quenching of The Spirit

2011-11-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

“Fire is quenched by pouring on water or by withdrawing fuel; so the Spirit is quenched by living in sin, which is like pouring water on a fire; or by not improving our gifts and graces, which is like withdrawing fuel from the hearth.”

Thomas Manton

William Gurnall on The Spirit and The Word

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

"God is able to interpret His own Word unto thee. Indeed none can enter into the knowledge thereof but he must be beholden unto His Spirit to unlock the door."

William Gurnall

Thomas Watson on The Spirit and Knowledge

2011-11-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

"The natural man may have excellent notions in divinity but God must teach us to know the mysteries of the gospel after a spiritual manner. A man may see the figures upon a dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes unless the sun shines; so we may read many truths in the Bible, but we cannot know them savingly, till God by his Spirit shines upon our soul. God teaches not only our ear, but our heart; he not only informs our mind, but inclines our will."

Thomas Watson

Richard Baxter on The Spirit and Study

2011-10-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

"It is not the work of the Spirit to tell you the meaning of Scripture, and give you the knowledge of divinity, without your own study and labour, but to bless that study, and give you knowledge thereby." ………"To reject study on pretence of the sufficiency of the Spirit, is to reject the Scripture itself; for as a man rejecteth his land that refuseth to till it, or rejecteth his meat if he refuse to eat it, though he praise it never so much; so doth he reject the Scripture that refuseth to study it, or to study that which must first be known, or is necessary thereto. Meditation diyesteth the word, which else is cast up again."

Richard Baxter

Samuel Rutherford on Election

2011-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

"If so be that free-will were our tutor, and we had our heaven in our own keeping, then we would lose all. But because we have Christ for our tutor, and He has our heaven in His hand, therefore the covenant it must be perpetual."

~Samuel Rutherford~

David Clarkson on Election

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

"When you are dangerously sick, and the physician tells you unless you take such a course of physic, your case is desperate, do you use to reason thus: If I knew that God had decreed my recovery, I would take that course that is so like to restore me; but till I know that God has decreed my recovery I'll take nothing? Surely we should think such a reasoner not only sick, but distracted."

~ David Clarkson~

Richard Baxter on Election

2011-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

"I tell you again, God hath not ordinarily decreed the end without the means; and if you will neglect the means of salvation, it is a certain mark that God hath not decreed you to salvation. But you shall find that He hath left you no excuse, because He hath not thus predestinated you."

~Richard Baxter~

Richard Sibbes on Election

2011-10-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

"Some are much troubled because they proceed by a false method and order in judging of their estates. They will begin with election, which is the highest step of the ladder; whereas they should begin from a work of grace wrought within their hearts, from God's calling by His Spirit, and their answer to His call, and so raise themselves upwards to know their election by their answer to God's calling. "Give all diligence," says Peter, "to make your calling and election sure," your election by your calling. God descends unto us from election to calling, and so to sanctification; we must ascend to Him beginning where He ends."

~Richard Sibbes~

Joseph Alleine on Election

2011-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

"You begin at the wrong end if you first dispute about your election. Prove your conversion, and then never doubt your election. If you cannot yet prove it, set upon a present and thorough turning. Whatever God's purpose be, which are secret, I am sure His promises are plain. How desperately do rebels argue! "If I am elected I shall be saved, do what I will. If not, I shall be damned, do what I can." Perverse sinner, will you begin where you should end?"

~Joseph Alleine~

Walter Cradock on Suffering

2011-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

"Take a saint, and put him into any condition, and he knows how to rejoice in the Lord."

~Walter Cradock~

John Knox on God's Will

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

God willingly for causes known to His wisdom alone, permitteth and suffereth things to be done, which afterwards He will most justly punish.

John Knox

James Madison on Government and Virtue

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

"To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea."

James Madison

John Witherspoon on Democracy

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state - it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage."

John Witherspoon

Charles Spurgeon on the Will

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

"God does not violate the human will when he saves men. They are not converted against their will, but their will itself is converted. The Lord has a way of entering the heart, not with a crowbar, like a burglar. But with a master-key, which He gently inserts in the lock, and the bolt flies back, the door opens, and He enters."

C.H. Spurgeon

John Trapp on Joy in Christ

2011-10-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

"In our sufferings for Christ there is joy, not so when we suffer for our sins."

~John Trapp~

William Jenkyn on Law

2011-10-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

"He that does not preserve the law does not observe it."

~William Jenkyn~

A.W. Pink on Faith

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

"So long as we are occupied with any other object than God Himself, there will be neither rest for the heart nor peace for the mind. But when we receive all that enters our lives as from His hand, then, no matter what may be our circumstances or surroundings--whether in a hovel or prison-dungeon, or at a martyr's stake--we shall be enabled to say, " The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places" (Ps. 16:6). But that is the language of faith, not of sight nor of sense."

A.W. Pink

Leonard Ravenhill on God's Word

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

‎"Folk may chastise you for taking God’s Word so seriously. God will chastise you if you don’t."

Leonard Ravenhill

Cornelius Van Til on Authority

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

"There are those, of course, who deny that they need any form of authority. They are the popular atheists and agnostics. Such men say that they must be shown by 'reason' whatever they are to accept as true. But the great thinkers among non-Christian men have taken no such position. They know that they cannot cover the whole area of reality with their knowledge."

Cornelius Van Til

John Foxe on Persecution and the Church

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Princes, kings, and other rulers of the world have used all their strength and cunning against the Church, yet it continues to endure and hold its own."

John Foxe

George Whitefield on Preaching

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

"The reason why congregations have been so dead is because they have dead men preaching to them. How can dead men beget living children?"

George Whitefield

Samuel Adams on Rights

2011-10-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

"The rights of the colonists as Christians.....may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institution of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament."

Samuel Adams

Thomas Manton on Repentance

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Whoever delays his repentance does in effect pawn his soul with the devil."

Thomas Manton

J.C. Ryle on Happiness

2011-10-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

‎"Happiness does not depend on outward circumstances, but on the state of the heart."

J.C. Ryle

John Bunyan on Sin

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience, the slight of His power, and the contempt of His love."

John Bunyan

Thomas Watson on Our Resurrection

2011-09-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

"We are more sure to arise out of our graves than out of our beds."

Thomas Watson

Thomas Adams on Regeneration

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Repentance is a change of the mind, and regeneration is a change of the man."

Thomas Adams

Isaac Bargrave on Repentance

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Let the quantity of thy sins be the measure of they repentance."

Isaac Bargrave

(1586-1643)