What They Said

“The advantage and blessings of family worship are incalculable. First, family worship will prevent much sin. It awes the soul, conveys a sense of God’s majesty and authority sets solemn truths before the mind and brings down benefits from God on the home.”

As the apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to everyone, ‘Give yourself to reading.’ He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains (inspired by the Holy Spirit) proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers and expositions of the Bible. The best way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying. 

“The daily regular and solemn reading of God's holy word, by a parent before his children, is one of the most powerful agencies of a Christian life. We are prone to undervalue this cause. It is a constant dropping, but it wears its mark into the rock. A family thus trained cannot be ignorant of the Word. The whole Scriptures come repeatedly before the mind. The most heedless child must observe and retain some portion of the sacred oracles; the most forgetful must treasure up some passages for life. No one part of juvenile education is more important. Between families thus instructed, and those where the Bible is not read, the contrast is striking. To deny such a source of influence to the youthful mind is an injustice, at the thought of which a professor of Christianity may well tremble.”

It is certain that if we come to church we shall not hear only a mortal man speaking but we shall feel (even by His secret power) that God is speaking to our souls, that He is the teacher. He so touches us that the human voice enters into us and so profits us that we are refreshed and nourished by it. God calls us to Him as if He had His mouth open and we saw Him there in person. 

“Preserve your government with the utmost attention and solicitude, for it is the remarkable gift of heaven. From year to year be careful in the choice of your representatives, and all the higher powers of government. Fix your eyes upon men of good understanding, and known honesty; men of knowledge, improved by experience; men who fear God, and hate covetousness; who love truth and righteousness, and sincerely wish the public welfare.”

"There are no men more careful of the use of means than those that are surest of a good issue and conclusion, for the one stirs up diligence in the other. Assurance of the end stirs up diligence in the means. For the soul of a believing Christian knows that God has decreed both."

"Sin brought in sweat (Genesis 3:19), but now, not to sweat increases sin."

"Prayer is not appointed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of the need. In this, as in everything, God's thoughts are not as ours. God requires that His gifts should be sought for. He designs to be honoured by our asking, just as He is to be thanked by us after He has bestowed His blessing."

“God made man in his own image and man returned the compliment.”

"How are we to use recreation?......Four special rules:

Rule 1: We are to make choice of recreations that are of least offense and best report.

Rule 2: Our recreations must be profitable to ourselves and others, and they must tend to the glory of God.

Rule 3: The end of our recreation must be to refresh our bodies and minds.

Rule 4: Recreation must be moderate and sparing, even as the use of meat and drink and rest."

“The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.”

"By delay of repentance, sin strengthens, and the heart hardens.  The longer ice freezeth , the harder it is to be broken."

"Out of the point of justification works cannot be sufficiently commended;  into the cause of justification they must not be admitted."

"In the great spiritual warfare the forces of darkness are organized against the Lord and his anointed. Any organization that claims to be neutral, as do the public schools and some labor organizations, is by that token denying Christ's claims of absolute lordship over all things. As such they are serving the cause of the antichrist. To deny this is either willful blindness or woeful ignorance of the devil's devices and the claims of Christ.”

"The more purely God's word is preached, the more deeply it pierces and the more kindly it works."

"A boat rows against the stream; the current punishes it.  So is a nation violating a law of God; it is subject to a judgement.  The boat turns and goes with the stream; the current assists it.  So is a nation which has repented and put itself into harmony with God's law; it is subject to a blessing.  But the current is the same; it has not changed, only the boat has changed its relationship to the current.  Neither does God change - we change; and the same law which executed itself in punishment now expresses itself in reward."