What They Said

“To render anything pleasing to Almighty God, it is necessary that it proceed from him; since he approves of nothing but what he himself works in us. Now, God is love; it therefore follows, that all that we do ought to proceed from a divine faith, in order that it may be pleasing to God; and from pure love, that it may prove profitable to men. This love must be pure, without any regard to self-honor, self-interest, and those mean designs which sometimes intrude into a Christian's actions.”

Johann Arndt

"We are left here to be representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world. This great honour He has bestowed upon us here."

George Muller

“Again, do we love the holiness of the Word (Psa. 119:140)? The Word is preached to beat down sin and advance holiness. Do we love it for its spirituality and purity? Many love the Word preached only for its eloquence and notion. They come to a sermon as to a performance (Ezek. 33:31,32) or as to a garden to pick flowers, but not to have their lusts subdued or their hearts bettered. These are like a foolish woman who paints her face but neglects her health.”

Thomas Watson

“God’s immutability presupposes His faithfulness.  If He is unchanging, it follows that He could not be unfaithful.  Upon God’s faithfulness rests our whole hope of future blessedness.  Only as He is faithful will His covenants stand and His promises be honored.”

A. W. Tozer

“God is unchangeable, and, being unchangeable, He will certainly support and deliver His Church, and that in the best way and fittest season.”

Edward Pearse

“In public worship all should join. The little strings go to make up a concert, as well as the great.”

Thomas Goodwin

“The teaching is clear and positive.  Painful in the human experience, as it must always be in its outcome, chastening works good.  We do not know what we owe to suffering.  Many of the richest blessings which have come down to us from the past are the fruits of sorrow or pain.  Others sowed in tears, and we gather the harvest. We should never forget that redemption, the world's greatest blessing, is the fruit of world's greatest sorrow.  In our own personal life it is true that in all chastening our Father's design is our pro fit, and that suffering rightly endured yields the fruits of righteousness.”

J.R. Miller

“It is the masterpiece of Satan to make us put theory and practice into separate watertight compartments, to make men so interested in the Book that they forget to apply its teaching. What you have seen, says Paul, practice!” 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“When a preacher of a church tries to effect that which only God can effect, it has shifted from God-centered evangelism to man-centered evangelism. Therefore, the end we must have in view in God-centered evangelism must be first and foremost, the glory of God. If our end is only man, then our evangelism will soon become man-centered, which represents most modern evangelism.”

Ernest Reisinger

“It is a great thing to be a Christian. The very name is a noble one, beyond all the noble names of earth. The thing itself is inconceivably blessed and glorious. Much, then, is expected of you. Do not disgrace the old family name. Do nothing unworthy of Him who represents you in heaven, and whom you represent on earth. He is faithful to you; be you so to Him. Let men know what a Lord and Master you serve. Be His witnesses; be His mirrors; be His living epistles. Let Him speak through you to the world. Let your life tell your fellow-men what He is, and what He is to you. Speak well of Him to men, as He speaks well of you to God. He has honoured you by giving you His name; He has blessed you by conferring on you sonship, and royalty, and an eternal heritage: see that you do justice to His love, and magnify His greatness.”

Horatius Bonar

“What a pity that there is not a tax upon words: what an income would come from it; but, alas, talking pays no toll! And if lies paid double, the government might pay off the national debt; but who could collect the money? Common fame is a common liar. Hearsay is half lies. A tale never loses in the telling. As a snowball grows by rolling, so does a story. They who talk much lie much. If men only said what was true, what a peaceable world we should see! Silence seldom makes mischief; but talking is a plague to the parish. Silence is wisdom. By this rule, wise men and wise women are scarce. Still waters are the deepest; but the shallowest brooks brawl the most; this shows how plentiful fools must be. An open mouth shows an empty head. If the chest had gold or silver in it, it would not always stand open. Talking comes by nature, but it needs a good deal of training to learn to be quiet; yet regard for truth should put a bit into every honest man’s mouth, and a bridle upon every good woman’s tongue.”

Charles Spurgeon

“See what a blow we have sustained by the fall; it has put out of frame the whole course of nature. Original sin has diffused itself as a poison into all the members of the body; it has made the eye unchaste, the hands full of bribes. Amongst the rest it has defiled the tongue; “it is a world of iniquity.” That which was made to be the organ of God’s praise, is become a weapon of unrighteousness.”

Thomas Watson

“The first distinguishing mark is that they are men-pleasers. 3 They preach more to please the ear than to profit the heart.”

Thomas Brooks

“Grace, as the seed in the parable, grows, we know not how.  Yet at length, when God sees fittest, we shall see that all our endeavor has not been in vain.  The tree falls upon the last stroke, yet all the strokes help the work forward.”

Richard Sibbes

“The elevation of the proud is often the step to their downfall. But God’s honour, put upon his own people, upholds them, as Joseph and Daniel, in their high eminence, as witnesses for his name. Meetness for heaven is that adorning clothing of humility, which leads us to ascribe all our grace to God, and all our sin to ourselves. This is the prostrate adoration of heaven (Rev 5:9-12). The Lord imbue us richly with this spirit.”

Charles Bridges

"I must offer a word of warning to believers. Often the work of the Lord itself may tempt us away from communion with Him. A full schedule of preaching, counseling, and travel can erode the strength of the mightiest servant of the Lord. Public prayer will never make up for closet communion."

George Muller

"Good friends are among our greatest blessings – they may keep us back from much evil, quicken us in our course, speak a word in season, draw us upward, and draw us on.  But a bad friend is a positive misfortune, a weight continually dragging us down, and chaining us to earth.  Keep company with an irreligious man, and it is more than probable you will in the end become like him.  That is the general consequence of all such friendships.  The good go down to the bad, and the bad do not come up to the good."

J.C. Ryle

“Remember, it is not hasty reading but seriously meditating upon holy and heavenly truths, that makes them prove sweet and profitable to the soul.  It is not the bee's touching of the flower that gathers honey, but her abiding for a time upon them, and drawing out the sweet. It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian."

Thomas Brooks

““We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image” (2Co 3:8). As a painter looking upon a face, draws a face like it in the picture; so looking upon Christ in the glass of the Gospel, we are changed into His similitude.14 We may look upon other objects that are glorious yet not be made glorious by them: a deformed face may look upon beauty and yet not be made beautiful. A wounded man may look upon a surgeon and yet not be healed. But this is the excellency of divine knowledge: it gives us such a sight of Christ as makes us partake of His nature. As Moses, when he had seen God’s back parts: his face shined, [for] some of the rays and beams of God’s glory fell upon him.”

Thomas Watson

“As there are thousands of beams and rays, yet they all meet and center in the sun. So an upright man, though he has a thousand thoughts, yet they all (by his good will) meet in God. He has many subordinate ends—to procure a livelihood, to preserve his credit, to provide for his children—but he has no supreme end but God alone. Hence, he has that steadiness in his resolutions, that undistractedness in his holy duties, that consistency in his actions, and that evenness in the frame of his heart, which miserable hypocrites cannot attain.”

Richard Steele

“Where am I to worship God? man asks; but he answers it in his own way; as all false religions, and indeed some true ones, have done. On certain sacred spots, he says, where some man of God has lived, where some martyr’s blood has been shed, where the footsteps of good men are recorded to have been, which have been consecrated by certain priestly rites,—there and there only must men worship God. God’s answer to the question, Where am I to worship God? is, EVERYWHERE: on sea and land, vale or hill, desert or garden, city or village or moor, — anywhere and everywhere.”

Horatius Bonar

“Pride, to begin with, I am afraid, may be set down as the sin of human nature. If there is a sin that is universal, it is this. Where is it not to be found? Hunt among the highest and loftiest in the world, and you shall find it there; and then go and search amongst the poorest and the most miserable, and you shall find it there. There may be as much pride inside a beggar’s rags as in a prince’s robe; and a harlot may be as proud as a model of chastity. Pride is a strange creature; it never objects to its lodgings. It will live comfortably enough in a palace, and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel.”

Charles Spurgeon

“The proud man conceives himself wise enough. He asks no counsel, and thus proves his want of wisdom.  But with the modest, well-advised, there is the wisdom that is from above, “which is first pure, then peaceable” (Jam 3:17, with 3:14- 16).”

Charles Bridges