What They Said

"Nature is but a name for an effect whose cause is God."

William Cowper

"The Christian family was the bulwark of godliness in the days of the Puritans; but in these evil times hundreds of families of so-called Christians have no family worship, no restraint upon growing sons, and no wholesome instruction or discipline.  See how the families of many professors are as dressy, as gay, as godless as the children of the non-religious!  How can we hope to see the Kingdom of our Lord advance when His own disciples do not teach His gospel to their own sons and daughters?"

Charles Spurgeon

"But again, as all persons are subject unto his authority, so all THINGS are equally subject to his almighty power. There may be circumstances in your earthly lot which at this moment are peculiarly trying. You look round and wonder how this or that circumstance will terminate. At present it looks very dark; clouds and mists hang over it, and you fear lest these clouds may break, not in showers upon your head, as Cowper speaks in his hymn, but burst forth in the lightning flash and the thunder stroke. But all things, and if all things then this circumstance also that fills your mind with apprehension, are put in subjection under Christ's feet. The thing cannot take place except by his sovereign will, nor can it move any further except by his supreme disposal. Then make yourself quiet; he will not allow you to be harmed. It shall only execute his sovereign purposes, and it shall be among those all things which, according to his promise, shall work together for your good."

J.C. Philpot

"How shall we labour with any effect to build up the Church, if we have no thorough knowledge of her history, or fail to apprehend it from the proper point of observation?  History is, and must ever continue to be, next to God’s Word, the richest foundation of wisdom, and surest guide to all successful practical activity."

 Philip Schaff

"False prophets are to be found in the circles of the most orthodox, and they pretend to have a fervent love for souls, yet they fatally delude multitudes concerning the way of salvation. The pulpit, platform, and pamphlet hucksters have wantonly lowered the standard of divine holiness and so adulterated the Gospel in order to make it palatable to the carnal mind."

A.W. Pink

"An unthankful and complaining spirit is an abiding sin against God, and a cause of almost continual unhappiness; and yet how common such a spirit is.  How prone we seem to be to forget the good that life knows, and remember and brood over its evil – to forget its joys, and think only of its sorrows – to forget thankfulness, and remember only to complain."

 John A. Broadus

"Let this be thy whole endeavor, this thy prayer, this thy desire – that thou may be stripped of all selfishness, and with entire simplicity follow Jesus only."

Thomas A'Kempis

"Strange, that following the Lamb of God should endanger our very life ; yet in how many ages of the Church it has been so !"  The time will come when whosoever killeth you. shall think that he doeth God service." What a cloud of witnesses has Scotland seen, all saying, like Thomas, ' Let us go and die with him!" Ah, we do not know the value of Christ, if we will not cleave to him unto death!"

Robert Murray M'Cheyne

"The true shepherd spirit is an amalgam of many precious graces.  He is hot with zeal, but he is not fiery with passion.  He is gentle, and yet he rules his class.  He is loving, but he does not wink at sin. He has power over the lambs, but he is not domineering or sharp.  He has cheerfulness, but not levity; freedom, but not license; solemnity, but not gloom."

Charles Spurgeon

"Parents, determine to make your children obey you, though it may cost you a lot of trouble, and cost them many tears. Let there be no questioning, and reasoning, and disputing, and delaying. When you give them a command, let them clearly see that you expect them to do it."

 J.C. Ryle

"By clear and necessary implication, Christ here also forbade the using of any other of our senses and members to stir up lust. If ensnaring looks be reprehensible, then so much more unclean conversation and wanton dalliances, which are the fuel of this hellish fire. Again, if lustful looking be so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with desires to be looked at and lusted after-as Jezebel, who painted her face, tired her head, and looked out of the window (2 Kings 9:30)-are not less, but even more guilty. In this matter it is only too often the case that men sin, but women tempt them so to do. How great, then, must be the guilt of the great majority of the modern misses who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions of our young men. And how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing them to become lascivious temptresses."

A.W. Pink

(Sermon on the Mount; The Law and Adultery: Matthew 5:27-32)

"And as men’s diversions increase from the world, so do their entanglements from Satan.  When they have more to do in the world than they can well manage, they shall have more to do from Satan than they can well withstand."

 John Owen

"The fear of death is ingrafted in the common nature of all men, but faith works it out of Christians."

Vavasor Powell

(1617-1670)

"The Lord saves no one for their own sake, but only for His own sake and purpose. We are saved to serve Him, and we must do so with patience. Some seeds we may now sow, and other generations shall reap. The world was not empty when we were born into it, and it should be richer when we leave because we have sowed good seed. Let us therefore work, while it is still day."

R.J. Rushdoony

"Whatsoever we have over-loved, idolized, and leaned upon, God hath from time to time broken it, and made us to see the vanity of it; so that we find, the readiest course to be rid of our comforts, is to set our hearts inordinately or immoderately upon them;  For our God is a jealous God , and will not part with his glory to another."

John Flavel

"Why may we not believe that the God who brings his purposes to fruition in his providential government of the world, without violence to second causes or to the intelligent free agency of his creatures, so superintends the mental processes of his chosen instruments for making known his will, as to secure that they shall speak his words in speaking their own?"

B.B. Warfield

"No marvel, if the worldling escape earthly afflictions.  God corrects him not, because he loves him not.  He is base born and begot. God will not do him the favour to whip him.  The world afflicts him not, because it loves him: for each man is indulgent to his own. God uses not the rod, where He means to use the sword. The pillory or scourge is for those malefactors that shall escape execution."

Joseph Hall

"One of the gravest perils which besets the ministry is a restless scattering of energies over an amazing multiplicity of interests which leaves no margin of time and of strength for receptive and absorbing communion with God."

Andrew Bonar

"Whenever the Lord sets His servants to do extraordinary work He always gives them extraordinary strength; or if He puts them to unusual suffering He gives them unusual patience.  When we enter upon war with some petty New Zealand chief, our troops expect to have their charges defrayed, and accordingly we pay them gold by thousands, as their expenses may require; but when an army marches against a grim monarch, in an unknown country, who has insulted the British flag, we pay, as we know to our cost, not by thousands but by millions. And thus, if God calls us to common and ordinary trials, He will defray the charges of our warfare by thousands, but if He commands us to an unusual struggle with some tremendous foe, He will discharge the liabilities of our war by millions, according to the riches of His grace which He has abounded to us through Christ Jesus."

Charles Spurgeon

"Men are too apt to flatter themselves that God will not be so severe as He has threatened.  This hardens men in sin, and makes them boldly venture upon damnation. This is to represent God as a God not terrible in judgment.  Let a just fear of God's vengeance have its proper effect, etc.  The Spirit of God makes use of flames, of fire and brimestone, to awaken us, to represent it to us."

Thomas Wilson

"Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.  To know is not to be wise.  Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it.  There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool.  But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom."

Charles Spurgeon

 "The church is always to be under the Word; she must be; we must keep her there.   You must not assume that because the church started correctly, she will continue so.  She did not do so in the New Testament times; she has not done so since.  Without being constantly reformed by the Word the church becomes something very different.  We must always keep the church under the Word."

Martyn Lloyd-Jones