What They Said

“When one is spiritually reborn, he sees at one and the same moment God and self—justice and guilt—power and helplessness—a holy law and a broken commandment—eternity and time—the purity of the Creator, and the filthiness of the creature. And these things he sees—not merely as declared in the Bible—but as revealed in himself as personal realities, involving all his happiness or all his misery in time and in eternity. ”

J.C. Philpot

“Nothing is too small or too insignificant which, at times, may not be an idol. What is an idol? Something my carnal mind loves. How may I know whether my carnal mind loves it? When we think of it, and are very much pleased with it. We pet it, love and fondle it, dallying and playing with it, like a mother with her babe. See how she takes the little thing and gazes at it. Her eyes are fixed on it— she dotes upon it because she loves it. Thus we may know an idol if we examine our own hearts—by what our imagination, desires and secret thoughts are going out after. Instead of being spiritually-minded, having his heart and affections in heaven, he has something in his mind which it is going out after—something or other laying hold of the affections.”

J.C. Philpot

“Truly wise men are never above asking questions, because they are wise men.”

Charles Spurgeon

“It little matters how you make money nowadays: only get it, and you will have plenty of admirers, and the deceitfulness of riches will enable you to admire yourself.”

Charles Spurgeon

“You are to do good works as zealously as if you were to be saved by your good works, and you are to trust in the merits of Christ as though you had done nothing at all.”

Charles Spurgeon

“It is idolatry to worship the true God by a wrong method.”

Charles Spurgeon

“Of all self-torture, that of importing future trouble into present account is, perhaps,  the most insane.”

Charles Spurgeon

“The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself.”

John Calvin

“Scripture is not designed so that we should parrot it but that as free children of God we should think his thoughts after him.  But then all so-called presuppositionalessness and objectivity are impossible.  So much study and reflection on the subject is bound up with it that no person can possibly do it alone.  That takes centuries.  To that end the church has been appointed and given the promise of the Spirit’s guidance not all truth.  Whoever isolates himself from the church, i.e., from Christianity as a whole, from the history of dogma in its entirety, loses the truth of the Christian faith. That person becomes a branch that is torn from the tree and shrivels, an organ that is separated from the body and therefore doomed to die. Only within the communion of the saints can the length and the breadth, the depth and the height, of the love of Christ be comprehended (Eph 3:18).”

Herman Bavinck

“What is called matriarchy is simply moral anarchy, in which the mother alone remains fixed because all the fathers are fugitive and irresponsible.” 

G.K. Chesterton

"We tend to make prayer the preparation for our service, yet it is never that in the Bible. Prayer is the practice of drawing on the grace of God. Don’t say, “I will endure this until I can get away and pray.” Pray now— draw on the grace of God in your moment of need. Prayer is the most normal and useful thing; it is not simply a reflex action of your devotion to God. We are very slow to learn to draw on God’s grace through prayer."

Oswald Chambers

“God has promised to sanctify us, to work this holiness in us; he does not leave us to do it by our own ability and power (Jer. 31:33; 32:39, 40; Ezek. 36:26, 27).  God commands us to be holy and he promises to make us holy.”

John Owen

"And indeed this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world, namely, that a righteousness that resides with a person in heaven should justify me, a sinner, on earth."

John Bunyan

“If God directs all our ways, and has promised to give us just what He sees we need, we surely ought to rest satisfied with what we have; for we know it is just what the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, and unbounded goodness, sees fit to give us.”

Harvey Newcomb

"I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God."

Oswald Chambers

“There is nothing so fatuous as the view that Christian doctrine is removed from life. There is nothing which is more practical.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Let no man imagine that God needs any of us. He was perfect--perfectly happy and perfectly glorious--long before wing of angel moved in space, or time even existed! God ever was and still is self-contained and all-sufficient. If He chooses to make any creatures, or to preserve or use any of the creatures He has formed--it is not because He needs them, or is in the least degree dependent upon them.”

Charles Spurgeon

“If there were no God, there would be no atheists.”

G.K Chesterton

“But how far has this grace come? It has come the whole length of a sinner’s distance from God. It did not wait till the sinner sought it, ere it came forth. It came unbidden and undesired. Nor did it wait till some of the distance had been removed, or some of the hindrances surmounted by the sinner himself. It traversed the whole distance itself, and over-leaped, or rather leveled every barrier. It burst forth spontaneous from the bosom of eternal love, and rested not till it had removed every impediment, and found its way up to the sinner’s side, swelling round him in full flow. It does away the distance between the sinner and God, which sin had created. It meets the sinner on the spot where he stands, and it approaches him just as he is. It does not wait till there is something to attract it, nor till there is some good reason in the sinner for its flowing to him. No; unattracted, and without any reason in the sinner, it pours itself forth in all its fullness towards objects whose only title is their utter worthlessness, and their possessing nothing for the holy eye of God to delight in.”

Horatius Bonar

“It is important for the apologist who desires to be obedient to the Word of God in defending the faith to pay special attention to the fact that throughout Scripture, God's veracity is not defended, but accepted from the outset on His authority.  Unless we have more wisdom than that contained in the revelation of God, we should take the same attitude.” 

Greg Bahnsen

“Our work for Christ is more far-reaching than we dream.  In the Master's work, character is of utmost important.  We must be good—before we can do good.  There is a tremendous power in a godly character.  Those who would do the Master's work acceptably, worthily, should give, therefore, the most careful heed to their personality.  The wise man says, "As dead flies give perfume a bad smell—so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.””

J.R. Miller

“The Lord's wisdom is seen in arranging the smallest events so as to produce great results. We frequently hear people say of a pleasant or a great event, "What a providence! This is the finger of God!"  while they are silent as to anything which appears less important, or has an unpleasant savor.  But, my brethren, the place of the gorse upon the heath is as fixed as the station of a king, and the dust which is raised by a chariot-wheel is as surely steered by providence as the planet in its orbit. There is as much providence in the creeping of an aphis upon a rose leaf as in the marching »f an army to ravage a continent. Everything, the most minute as well as the most magnificent, is ordered by the Lord who has prepared his throne in the heavens, whose kingdom ruleth over all. The history before us furnishes proof of this.”

Charles Spurgeon