What They Said

“Nothing can give me greater hope and assurance than my knowledge of the character of God. ‘I dare not trust the sweetest frame’, as the hymn reminds us, because frames are so changeable, but I can rely upon Him always. God is eternal, God is immutable, God is everlasting; God never changes His purpose. There is no greater comfort or consolation than this. God never starts a work without finishing it.” 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Yet the cost is always high to carve the beauty God shows us—as an ideal for our lives.  It costs self-discipline, oftentimes anguish, as we must deny ourselves, and cut off the things we love. Self must be crucified if the noble manhood in us is ever to be set free to shine in its beauty—if the angel within the marble block is to be unimprisoned.”

J.R. Miller

“Christ's character is the model, the ideal, for every Christian life.  In the end, we are to be altogether like Him; therefore all life's aiming and striving should be towards Christ's blessed beauty.  His image we find in the Gospels.  We can look at it every day.  We can study it in its details, as we follow our Lord in His life among men, in all the variations of experience through which He passed.”

J.R. Miller

“The history of the word 'character' is interesting.  Anciently, character was the stamp or make by which a brick-maker, an engraver, or other worker marked the thing he made.  Applied to life, character is that which one's experiences impress or print on his soul.  A baby has no character.  Its life is but a piece of white paper on which something is to be written, some song or story, perhaps a tragedy of sorrow.  Character grows as the baby passes into manhood.  Every day something is written here, some mark made.  The mother writes something; the teacher writes something; every day's experiences write some words; every touch or influence of other lives—leaves some mark; temptation and struggle do their part in filling the page; books, education, sorrow, joy, companions, friends—all of life touches and paints some line of beauty—or scratches some mark of damage.  Final character is the result of all these influences that work and interact upon the life. Character is the page fully written, the picture finished.”

J.R. Miller

“Our work for Christ is more far-reaching than we dream.  In the Master's work, character is of utmost important.  We must be good—before we can do good.  There is a tremendous power in a godly character.  Those who would do the Master's work acceptably, worthily, should give, therefore, the most careful heed to their personality.  The wise man says, "As dead flies give perfume a bad smell—so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.””

J.R. Miller

"No man can quench his thirst with sand, or with water from the Dead Sea; so no man can find rest from his own character, however good, or from his own acts, however religious.  Even were he perfect, what enjoyment could there be in thinking about his own perfection? What profit, then, can there be in thinking about his own imperfection?"

Horatius Bonar