What They Said

“In other words, there is no hope of dealing with the moral problems of society except in terms of the Gospel of Christ. Right will never be established apart from godliness; but when people become godly they proceed to apply their principles all along the line, and righteousness is seen in the nation at large. But, unfortunately, we have to face the fact that for some reason this aspect of the matter has been sadly neglected in this present century…For one reason or another, the family does not count as it used to do. It is not the center and the unit that it was formerly. The whole idea of family life has somehow been declining; and this, alas, is partly true in Christian circles also. The family’s central importance that is found in the Bible and in all the great periods to which we have referred seems to have disappeared. It is no longer being given the attention and the prominence that it once received. That makes it all the more important for us to discover the principles that should govern us in this respect.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Consider now, O Christian! what an immense, what an infinite good thou hast in Christ thy Redeemer, and to what spiritual benefits thou art entitled by him. If people were but better acquainted with the sources of this heavenly comfort, then no cross, no affliction, would seem any longer insupportable to them; because Christ would be all in all, and by his presence alleviate the miseries of this life. Christ himself is ours not only as a crucified Christ, but also as he is glorified, together with all the majesty that resides in him. “All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1Co 3:21- 23).”

Johann Arndt

(1555-1621)

“The altogether Christian makes God the chief end of all his performances. Now the almost Christian fails in this. For he that was never truly cast out of himself, can have no higher end than himself. It is dangerous to be almost a Christian, in that it stills and serves to quiet conscience. Now it is very dangerous to quiet conscience with anything but the blood of Christ.”

Matthew Mead

“The maintenance of brotherly love tends in various ways to the spiritual blessing of the Church, the honor of the Gospel, and the comfort of believers. The exercise thereof is the best testimony to the world of the genuineness of our profession. The cultivation and manifestation of Christian affection between the people of God are far more weighty arguments with unbelievers than any apologetics.10 Believers should conduct themselves toward each other in such a way that no button or pin is needed to label them as brethren in Christ. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (Joh 13:35). It should be made quite evident that their hearts are knit together by a bond more intimate, spiritual, and enduring than any which mere nature can produce. Their deportment11 unto each other should be such as not only to mark them as fellow disciples, but as Christ says, “My disciples”—reflecting His love!”

A.W. Pink

“Not only must the tongue hold its peace: the soul must be silent.  Many may sit silently, refraining from discontented expressions, yet inwardly they are bursting with discontent.  This shows a complicated disorder and great perversity in their hearts.  Notwithstanding their outward silence, God hears the peevish,18 fretful language of their souls.  A shoe may be smooth and neat outside, while inside it pinches the flesh. Outwardly, there may be great calmness and stillness, yet within, amazing confusion, bitterness, disturbance, and vexation.”

Jeremiah Burroughs

“Regeneration is absolutely necessary to qualify you to do any thing really good and acceptable to God. While you are not born again, your best works are but glittering sins; for though the matter of them is good, they are quite marred in the performance.”

Thomas Boston

“The eyes of the penitent man are opened. He sees with dismay and confusion the length and breadth of God’s holy Law, and the extent, the enormous extent, of his own transgressions. He discovers, to his surprise, that in thinking himself a “good sort of man,” and a man with a “good heart,” he has been under a huge delusion. He finds out that, in reality, he is wicked, guilty, corrupt, and bad in God’s sight. His pride breaks down. His high thoughts melt away. He sees that he is neither more nor less than a great sinner. This is the first step in true repentance.”

J.C. Ryle

“Again, nothing is a good work unless it is done with a good motive; and there is no motive that can be said to be good but the glory of God.”

Charles Spurgeon

“Besides, does not the experience of all good men prove that sin is most easily crushed in the bud, in its beginnings?  Is it not safer to flee from temptation than to fight it?  Fight like a man when you cannot avoid the battle; but rather flee than fight.  Be afraid of temptation, avoid it, abhor it; and if caught by the enchantress, tear yourself from her encircling arms; throw her from you; seek safety in flight, your answer that of Joseph's chastity, Shall I do this great evil and sin against God?”

Thomas Guthrie

“Right views concerning Christ are indispensable to a right faith, and a right faith is indispensable to salvation. To stumble at the foundation, is, concerning faith, to make shipwreck altogether; for as Immanuel, God with us, is the grand object of faith, to err in views of His eternal deity, or to err in views of His sacred humanity, is alike destructive. There are points of truth which are not fundamental, though erroneous views on any one point must lead to God dishonoring consequences in strict proportion to its importance and magnitude; but there are certain foundation truths to err concerning which is to insure for the erroneous and the unbelieving, the blackness of darkness forever” 

J.C. Philpot

“If we grow wiser and more learned in our intercourse with wise and learned persons, how much more will we gain in our inner life by communing with God in prayer.”

Ulrich Zwingli

“For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the giver himself?”

John Calvin

“All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestations of His grace, power and love.”

J. Hudson Taylor

“Our Lord while on earth cleansed the Temple, and periodic cleansings have been necessary in the Church of God throughout the centuries. Every generation is sure to have its ambitious amateur to come up with some shiny gadget which he proceeds to urge upon the priests before the altar. That the Scriptures do not justify its existence does not seem to bother him at all. It is brought in anyway and presented in the very name of Orthodoxy. Soon it is identified in the minds of the Christian public with all that is good and holy. Then, of course, to attack the gadget is to attack the Truth itself. This is an old familiar technique so often and so long practiced by the devotees of error that I marvel how the children of God can be taken in by it.”

A.W. Tozer

“The religion of the Lord Jesus is valuable only as its power is experienced in the heart. In this respect, and in this only, it may be compared to the physical sciences, which, however ingenious in structure, or beautiful in theory; yet if not reduced or reducible to purposes of practical use, are of little worth. It is so with the truth of Jesus. The man of mere taste may applaud its external beauty—the philosopher may admire its ethics, the oratorits eloquence, and the poet its sublimity, but if the Spirit of God take not his own truth and impress it upon the heart, as to the great design of its revelation, it avails nothing. What numbers there are who rest in the mere theory of Christianity. As a practical principle they know nothing of it. Asa thing experienced in the heart, it is a hidden mystery to them.”

Octavius Winslow

“God delights to increase the faith of His children. Our faith, which is feeble at first, is developed and strengthened more and more by us. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God’s hand as a means. I say—and say it deliberately—trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats, are the very food of faith.”

George Muller

“My dear friends, I have already said that no man will believe in Jesus, unless he feels his need of Him. I have often said, and I repeat it again, that I do not come to Christ pleading that I feel my need of Him. My reason for believing in Christ is not that I feel my need of Him, but that I have a need of Him. The ground on which a man comes to Jesus is not as a sensible sinner, but as a sinner, and nothing but a sinner. He will not come unless he is awakened; but when he comes, he does not say, “Lord, I come to thee because I am an awakened sinner. Save me.” But he says, “Lord, I am a sinner; save me.” Not his awakening, but his sinnership is the method and plan upon which he dares to come.”

Charles Spurgeon

“Even so it is in that change which grace works in sinners. The nature of the redeemed is so accommodated to the state of redemption, their wishes are so fitted to their wants, their hopes to their prospects, their aspirations to their honors, and their will to their work, that they would be less content to return to polluted pleasures than this beautiful creature to be stripped of its silken wings, and condemned to pass its days amid the old, foul garbage, its former food.”

Thomas Guthrie

“Perhaps the most serious charge that can be brought against modern Christians, is that we are not sufficiently in love with Christ. The Christ of fundamentalism is strong but hardly beautiful. It is rarely that we find anyone aglow with love for Christ. I trust it is not uncharitable to say that in my opinion a great deal of praise in conservative circles is perfunctory and forced where it is not downright insincere.”

A.W. Tozer

“Statesmen my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand. . . . The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a greater Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty.—They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies.”

John Adams

“We, for whose comfort Job's experience was written, know how it was that the patriarch was afflicted, and have seen the end of the Lord.  There was a purpose to be fulfilled,—an end to be brought about.  We learn that howsoever mysterious our sufferings may be, they are not sent without a wise and loving purpose.  Mysterious, but not purposeless: our own is the fault if they are profitless; for the issue of the believer's affliction,—the end of the Lord,— is the humility and confidence of patience. Yes! rich in truest blessings is submission to God's will. We count them happy which endure.

Oh, that I may feel the happiness of endurance,—the peace of waiting patiently under the rod of correction!  Oh, for faith to realize that sickness comes to me in mercy!  I desire to feel that I am being chastened,—and chastened in tender love.  So may my own soul prove, realize in experience, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.”

Walter Purton

“The word of God teacheth lowliness of mind; it teacheth us to know ourselves. If we learn not humility, we learn nothing. Although we seem to know somewhat, yet know we not in such sort as we ought to know.”

John Jewel