What They Said

“The pulpit, as well as the playhouse, has its accomplished actors! ”

J.C. Philpot

“Read not to contradict or confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.  Some books are to be tested, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”

Francis Bacon

“May we never forget that the suffering Son of God gave himself to purify unto himself a peculiar people—a people whose thoughts are peculiar, for their thoughts are the thoughts of God, as having the mind of Christ; a people whose affections are peculiar, for they are fixed on things above; whose prayers are peculiar, for they are wrought in their heart by the Spirit of grace and supplication; whose sorrows are peculiar, because they spring from a spiritual source; whose joys are peculiar, for they are joys which the stranger does not understand; whose hopes are peculiar, as anchoring within the veil; and whose expectations are peculiar, as not expecting to reap a crop of happiness in this sin-marred world, but looking for happiness in the kingdom of rest and peace in the bosom of God.”

J.C. Philpot

“Men invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm, because they are afraid to look back.”

G.K. Chesterton

“Christ and His cross are not separable in this life, howbeit Christ and His cross part at heaven's door, for there is no house-room for crosses in heaven. One tear, one sigh, one sad heart, one fear, one loss, one thought of trouble cannot find lodging there.”

Samuel Rutherford

“We still have the presence of sin, nay, the stirrings and workings of corruptions. These make us to have many a sad heart and wet eye. Yet Christ has thus far freed us from sin; it shall not have dominion. There may be the turbulence, but not the prevalence of sin. There may be the stirrings of corruption. It was said of Carthage that Rome was more troubled with it when half destroyed than when whole. So a godly man may be more troubled with sin when it is conquered than when it reigned. Sin will still work, but it is checked in its workings. They are rather workings for life than from life. They are not such uncontrolled workings as formerly. Sin is under command. Indeed, it may get advantage, and may have a tyranny in the soul, but it will never more be sovereign. I say, it may get into the throne of the heart and play the tyrant in this or that particular act of sin, but shall never more be as a king there. Its reign is over; you will never yield a voluntary obedience to sin. Sin is conquered, though it still has a being within you.”

Samuel Bolton

"The decree of God is His firm decision by which He performs all things through His almighty power according to his counsel.  Ephesians 1:11,  “He does all things out of the counsel of His own will.”

William Ames

“What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism.”

G.K. Chesterton

“A saint is to put forth his faith in prayer, and afterwards follow his prayer with faith.”

Vavasor Powell

(1617-1670)

“Who delivered up Jesus to die?  Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy- but the Father, for love!”

Octavius Winslow

“How can we understand righteousness as the positive opposite of sin unless we construe it as the opposite of what sin is? And if sin is the transgression of the law, righteousness must be conformity to the law. The law of God which Paul characterizes in this Epistle as Spiritual, that is to say, divine in its origin and nature, and holy and just and good after the pattern of him who is its author (Romans 7:12, 14), must be regarded as the criterion of righteousness no less than it is the criterion of sin.”

John Murray

“The soul's deepest thirst is for God Himself, who has made us so that we can never be satisfied without Him.”

F.F. Bruce

“The church is not a democracy in which we have chosen God, but a theocracy in which He has chosen us. The church is the only society in the world that never loses any of its members, even by death. The church upon its knees would bring heaven upon the earth.”

E.M. Bounds

“What do you think especially gives me comfort at this time? The creation! I ask myself, “Did Jehovah create the world or did I?” He did! Now if He made the world and all the rolling spheres of the universe, He certainly can take care of me. Into Jesus’ hands I can safely commit my spirit!”

Charles Simeon

“Numerical bigness has become an infectious epidemic.”

Carl F. H. Henry

“Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because He shows us both God and our own wretchedness.”

Blaise Pascal

“My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday.”

G.K. Chesterton

“The Trinity is revealed to us only in the Bible. God has revealed some things to us through nature and through conscience. But the Trinity is not among them. This He has revealed to us by supernatural revelation and by supernatural revelation alone.”

J Gresham Machen

“In God there are no three persons alongside of, and separate from, one another, but only personal self-distinctions within the Divine essence, which is not only generically, but also numerically, one.”

Louis Berkhof

"There is nothing more foolish or self-defeating than for a Christian to say that he is not interested in doctrines."

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“God finds nothing in man to turn His heart, but enough to turn his stomach.”

Joseph Alleine

“Liberty has produced scepticism, and scepticism has destroyed liberty. The lovers of liberty thought they were leaving it unlimited, when they were only leaving it undefined. They thought they were only leaving it undefined, when they were really leaving it undefended.”