What They Said

“Men are always quarreling with God because he will not submit his will to their dictation.”

Charles Spurgeon

“Only those who have learned well to be earnestly dissatisfied with themselves, and to be confounded with shame at their wretchedness truly understand the Christian gospel.”

John Calvin

“Far more precious to us than even the development of human life, is the crown which ennobles it, and this noble crown of life for you and for me rests in the Christian name. That crown is our common heritage. It was not from Greece or Rome that the regeneration of human life came forth;—that mighty metamorphosis dates from Bethlehem and Golgotha; and if the Reformation, in a still more special sense, claims the love of our hearts, it is because it has dispelled the clouds of sacerdotalism, and has unveiled again to fullest view the glories of the Cross. But, in deadly opposition to this Christian element, against the very Christian name, and against its salutiferous influence in every sphere of life, the storm of Modernism has now arisen with violent intensity.”

Abraham Kuyper

“Christ crucified is the sum of the Gospel, and contains all the riches of it. Paul was so much taken with Christ, that nothing sweeter than Jesus could drop from his pen and lips. It is observed that he hath the word ‘Jesus’ five hundred times in his Epistles.”

Stephen Charnock

“A wretched plight for a nation to be in when its justices know no justice, and its judges are devoid of judgment.”

Charles Spurgeon

“If there is no absolute moral standard, then one cannot say in a final sense that anything is right or wrong. By absolute we mean that which always applies, that which provides a final or ultimate standard. There must be an absolute if there are to be morals, and there must be an absolute if there are to be real values. If there is no absolute beyond man’s ideas, then there is no final appeal to judge between individuals and groups whose moral judgments conflict. We are merely left with conflicting opinions.”

Francis Schaeffer

“I hear one say, “Well, sir, you seem to be a fatalist!” No, far from it. There is just this difference between fate and providence. Fate is blind; providence has eyes. Fate is blind, a thing that must be; it is just an arrow shot from a bow, that must fly onward, but hath no target. Not so,providence; providence is full of eyes. There is a design in everything, and an end to be answered; all things are working together, and working together for good.”

Charles Spurgeon

“Reader, Jesus Christ crucified was the joy and delight, the comfort and the peace, the hope and the confidence, the foundation and the resting place, the ark and the refuge, the food and the medicine of Paul’s soul. He did not think of what he had done himself, and suffered himself.

He did not meditate on his own goodness, and his own righteousness. He loved to think of what Christ had done, and Christ had suffered,—of the death ofChrist, the righteousness of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the blood of Christ, the finished work of Christ. In this he did glory. This was the sun of his soul.

This is the subject he loved to preach about. He was a man who went to and fro on the earth, proclaiming to sinners that the Son of God had shed His own heart’s blood to save their souls. He walked up and down the world telling people that Jesus Christ had loved them, and died for their sins upon the cross."

J.C. Ryle

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.”

G.K Chesterton

"As the wicked are hurt by the best things--so the godly are bettered by the worst things!"

William Jenkyn

“We should judge of things as to whether they help or hinder our main purpose; whether they further or hinder our judgment; whether they make us more or less spiritual, and so bring us nearer to the fountain of goodness, God himself; whether they will bring us peace or sorrow at the last; whether they commend us more or less to God, and whether they are the thing in which we shall approve ourselves to him most. We should also judge of things now as we shall do hereafter when the soul shall be best able to judge, as when we are under any public calamity, or at the hour of death, when the soul gathers itself from all other things to itself. We should look back to former experience and see what is most agreeable to it, and what was best in our worst times. If grace is or was best then, it is best now. We should also labour to judge of things as he does who must judge us, and as holy men judge, who are led by the Spirit. More particularly, we should judge according to what those judge that have no interest in any benefit that may come by the thing which is in question; for outward things blind the eyes even of the wise. We see that papists are most corrupt in those things where their honor, ease, or profit is engaged; but in the doctrine of the Trinity, which does not touch on these things, they are sound. But it is not sufficient that judgment is right. It must also be ready and strong.”

Richard Sibbes

“The grand peculiarity of the Bible, as a book of consolation, is that it seeks not to cast our sufferings into the shade, but rather sets them before us in all their variety and magnitude. It teaches us to find consolation in the midst of acknowledged sorrow and causes light to arise out of the deepest darkness—“That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we were appointed thereunto” (1Th 3:3). In many respects, it gives a more gloomy view of human life than we are oftimes willing to entertain. It represents affliction as “ordained” for us and “appointed” so that it cannot be escaped. It tells us that our future life will be checkered with trials, even as the past has been. It gives no assurance of respite4 from suffering, so long as we are in this world: “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake” (Phi 1:29). And when it traces these afflictive events to their causes; when it represents suffering as the fruit and the wages of sin; when it charges us with guilt and affirms that we have provoked the Lord to anger; when it leads us to regard our sorrows as connected with our characters and inflicted by a righteous Governor and Judge; and when, carrying our eye beyond this world altogether, it points to an eternal state of retribution, where sorrows infinitely more severe and judgments infinitely more confounding await impenitent and unforgiven guilt—it does present such a view of our present condition and future prospects as may well fill us with awe and alarm. Yet still it is the “book of consolation”; still it contains the elements of peace, the seed of hope, the wellspring of eternal joy. “

James Buchanan

(1804-1870)

“This soul of ours hath love, and cannot but love some fair one;  and 0, what a fair 0ne, what an only 0ne, what an excellent, lovely, ravishing 0ne is Jesus! put the beauty of ten thousand thousand worlds, of paradises like the garden of Eden in one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness in one;  0, what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet it would be less to that fair and dearest Well-Beloved Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths.”

Samuel Rutherford

“The general end of affliction, as it is explained in God's Word, is the moral and spiritual improvement of believers; in other words, their progressive sanctification, and their preparation for glory. Oh! how important must the right use of affliction be, if it is intended to terminate in such a blessed result. It stands connected with our everlasting welfare,— with all that we can enjoy on earth, and all that we hope for in heaven.”

James Buchanan

“What pride flushes the patriot’s cheek when he remembers that his nation can  murder faster than any other people.  Ah, foolish generation, ye are groping in the  flames of hell to find your heaven, raking amid blood and bones for the foul thing which ye call glory.  Killing is not the path to prosperity; huge armaments are a curse to the nation itself as well as to its neighbours”

Charles Spurgeon

"Not to be occupied with your sin, but to be occupied with God brings deliverance from self."

Andrew Murray

“The teaching of Colossians 2:3-8 is unambiguous. ALL knowledge (note: not simply knowledge of "religious" matters is to be found in Christ.” 

Greg Bahnsen

“We should ever approach that sacred book with reverence. Though written by men, remember that those men "spake, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."  The medium through which it was communicated, detracts not from the divinity of the matter. When we open the sacred volume, we listen to the voice of God. It is the same voice, though unaccompanied by those terrific circumstances, which issued from that awful cloud which curtained the summit of Sinai. It is the same voice that was heard in such piteous lamentations from Calvary, when our Immanuel trode for us the wine press of the wrath of God. Should we not, therefore, give a reverential attention, when Jehovah speaks? Should not our posture be that of the deepest humility and awe?”

Jared Bell Waterbury

“The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen.  Daily we notice little change.  But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place.  So it is with grace.  Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Proverbs. 4:18).  It is an amazing work of God's grace and it is a work to be prayed for (Romans. 8:27).”

John Owen

“Let us watch jealously over our hearts, and beware of giving way to the beginnings of sin.  Happy is he who feareth always, and walks humbly with his God.  The strongest Christian is the one who feels his weakness most, and cries most frequently, "Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe." (Psalm 119:117; Pro v. 28: 14.)”

J.C. Ryle

"Always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are battling with a text. I would make an absolute law of this – always obey such an impulse. Where does it come from? It is the work of the Holy Spirit (Phil 2:12-13). This often leads to some of the most remarkable experiences in the life of the minister. So never resist, never postpone it, never push it aside because you are busy. Give yourself to it, yield to it; and you will find not only that you have not been wasting time with respect to the matter with which you are dealing but that actually it has helped you greatly in that respect. You will experience an ease and a facility in understanding what you were reading, in thinking, in ordering matter for a sermon, in writing, in everything which is quite astonishing. Such a call to prayer must never be regarded as a distraction; always respond to it immediately, and thank God if it happens to you frequently."

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“The gospel of Christ admits of no compromise. It demands our all. If it required less, it would be unworthy of its great author and finisher. I rejoice that it requires all.  This is its glory.  When we are brought to yield to its claims, and give up all, then, and not till then, will it throw around us its arms of mercy.  And what is our all?  What do we give when we give our all?  A polluted soul,that might justly be cast into hell; a body, the miserable companion of that soul, and groaning under the dire effects of disobedience and guilt.  Our all consists, at last, in nothing more than a polluted and guilty nature. 

What a wonder is it that God will accept such an offering.  What a miracle of mercy,that raises us up from our pollution, bathes us in the laver of regeneration, and clothes us in the white linen of the saints.  And do we talk about self-denial?  Do we say, how hard to give up all? I am ashamed to use such language; ashamed to hear it used.  What did Christ give up for us?  Let that question blot out "self-denial" from the Christian's vocabulary.  When you think the Gospel makes severe requisitions by requiring all, go up to Mount Calvary and weep over such suggestions.  See the blood of your Immanuel so freely gushing from a heart that never exercised towards you any emotion but love; love unspeakable—love unsought—and love for the guilty.  Go hide your head in shame and penitence at such a thought.  It is a glorious privilege, my young friend, to give up all to Christ.  The soul that feels the constraining influence of his love, asks not how little may be given consistently with obtaining the heavenly reward—asks not for the lowest standard of discipleship; it burns with an ardent desire to devote all, and to aim at perfect "conformity to his death." 

It is melancholy to behold so many satisfied with a name in the church,and a seat at the sacramental board.  This appears to make up the sum of their religion.  Others go one step farther, and observe some decent regard to what may be termed the experimental part of religion, but aim not at that elevated standard which it is their privilege to attain.  They live in doubt, and they often die in darkness.  They enjoy neither religious consolations nor the peace which the world giveth. All this is in consequence of that miserable, half-way, compromising spirit, which seeks to perform the service, and enjoy the approbation of two masters.”

Jared Bell Waterbury

“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

“It is easier to put on canvas the artist's dreams—than to put upon our human lives the beautiful visions of Christlikeness which we find on the Gospel pages.  Yet that is the real problem of Christian living.  And though hard, it is not impossible.  If we but struggled and tried and worked, in our efforts to get our visions of character translated into reality, as artists do to paint their visions on canvas, or carve them in stone—we would all be very noble.  Never yet has an ideal been too high to be realized at last, through the help of Christ.  The heavenly visions God gives us—are prophecies of what we may become, what we are born to become.”

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

“We ought to seek to gather in this world—treasure that we can carry with us through death's gates, and into the eternal world. We should strive to build into our lives—qualities that shall endure.  Men slave and work to get a little money, or to obtain honor, or power, or to win an earthly crown—but when they pass into the great vast forever, they take nothing of all this with them!”

J.R. Miller

"This Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid than they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them."

James Madison