What They Said

“It is true of multitudes who are engaged in the Christian warfare, that they are distrustful of their own weapons.  For a soldier, there could hardly be a more unfortunate prepossession.  His blows must be half-delivered, and his disposition to parley or to flee, exceedingly subversive of bold fighting.  The grand weapon of the Christian soldier is thus expressed, in the most general terms, and in a metaphor - 'the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.”  This is the great instrument of assault against the world and against himself;  for it is a peculiarity of our warfare, that some of our most obstinate battles take place within the walls.  The truth of God, however largely understood, is the name of our whole offensive armor.  This truth in general, and certain prominent truths in particular, are precisely what the Captain of Salvation has put into our hands, to be used against the adversary.  It is a firm confidence in the temper, strength, and edge of these weapons, which makes the brave combatant."

James W. Alexander

“He who trusts in God's Word as an infallible directory, will never find a day in which he can live without its guidance. He cannot rise from his sleep, without query how the day's plan may be laid so as to find him, like Enoch, walking with God; or take his early meal, without a purpose that it be sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. He cannot receive his dues, without considering how much he oweth unto his Lord, and how much he is in danger from the mammon of unrighteousness.  He cannot meet a friend, without casting about for a Scripture maxim which may sanctify their union; or an enemy, without guarding his temper by the precept of forgiveness.  Nor can he close his doors, and "go up to the habitation of his bed," until he has looked back over the journey of the day, and applied to it the lesson of God's statutes.  And the fact that all this is unknown in the days of any professing Christians, is too conclusive an argument of their habitual distrust of heavenly truth as the instrument of their sanctification."

James W. Alexander

“Men have thought themselves more prudent than the All-wise. The Law has been lowered lest sinners should call it hard; the way has been hedged up, lest the blind, and the halt, and the lame, should find it too easy; the Church has been barricaded with walls of ceremony, and garrisoned with ranks of officials, lest some of its riches should be pilfered by dissent; and the blessed Gospel, free as the air of Paradise, has been laden with conditions and restrictions, lest faith should be too simple. In every one of these, and in a thousand like ways, men show their distrust of divine revelation.”

James W. Alexander

(1804-1859)