What They Said

“This also sounds hard. I do not wonder. Our sins are often as dear to us as our children are—we love them, hug them, cleave to them, and delight in them. To part with them is as hard as cutting off a right hand or plucking out a right eye. But it must be done. The parting must come. “Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth” (Job 20:12-13). He and sin must quarrel if he and God are to be friends. Christ is willing to receive any sinners. But He will not receive them if they will stick to their sins. Let us set down that item second in our account. To be a Christian, it will cost a man his sins.”

“Self-denial does not consist in a few deeds, but is rather a propensity and disposition of the heart.”

“Someone was asking, the other day, how it was that the church, nowadays, was not so separate from the world as it used to be, and one who heard the question suggested that, possibly, the world had grown better. But someone more truly said that, probably, the church had grown worse. “

"The least sin is unpardonable without this obedience and righteousness of Christ; and the greatest is pardonable by it."

“The Bible is the Word of God in such a way that when the Bible speaks, God speaks.”

“Holiness is glory in the seed, and glory is holiness in the flower.”

“The message of Christianity is the great announcement that the warfare is ended, that our iniquity is pardoned and, above all, that there are great blessings for us, double blessings, infinitely more than all the guilt of our sin and all the punishment that we so richly deserve.”

“No doctrine in the whole Word of God has more excited the hatred of mankind, than the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God.”

“Character is personal.  It is not a possession we can share with another.  We can give a hungry person part of our loaf of bread.  We can divide our money with one who needs.  But character is something we cannot give away or communicate.  The brave soldier cannot share his courage with the pale, trembling recruit who fights by his side in the battle.  The pure, gentle woman cannot give part of her purity and gentleness to the defiled and hardened sister-woman whom she meets.  Character is our own, a part of our very being.  It grows in us along the years.  Acts repeated become habits, and character is made up in the end of habits which have been repeated so often as to become a permanent part of the life.”

“The sea is not so full of water as the soul of a glorified saint is full of joy. There can be no sorrow in Heaven as there can be no joy in Hell.”

“Before the Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock.”

“One of the ways the Bible helps us, is by making Christ known to us. The noblest Christian is he before whose eyes, the character of Jesus shines in brightest splendor. Indeed, it is only when we have clear visions of Christ, that we really grow like Him.”

"Only once did God choose a completely sinless preacher."

“If any one should ask me, What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? I answer in one word, "The Bible—the Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied." We must go back to the old prescription of our Master: "Diligently study the Scriptures" (John 5:39). If we want a weapon to wield against the plans of Satan, there is nothing like "the sword of the Spirit—the Word of God." But to wield it successfully, we must read it habitually, diligently, intelligently, and prayerfully. This is a point on which, I fear, many fail. In an age of hurry and activity, few read their Bibles as much as they should. More books perhaps are read than ever—but less of the one Book which makes man wise to salvation!”

“It seems to me that there is no hope for revival until you and I, and all of us, have reached the stage in which we begin to forget ourselves a little, and to be concerned for the Church, for God’s body, his people here on earth. So many of our prayers are subjective and self-centred. We have our problems and difficulties, and by the time that we have finished with them, we are tired and exhausted and we do not pray for the Church. My blessing, my need, my this, my that. Now, I am not being hard and unkind, God has promised to deal with our problems. But where does the Church come into our prayers and intercessions? Do we go beyond ourselves and our families? We stand before the world and we say the only hope for the world is Christianity. We say the Church, and the Church alone, has the message that is needed. We see the problems of society, they are shouting at us and they are increasing week by week. And we know that this is the only answer. Very well, then, if we know that and if we believe that, let me ask you in the name of God, how often do you pray that the Church may have power to preach this, in such a manner that all these citadels that are raising themselves against God shall be razed to the ground and shall be flattened in his holy presence?”

“An idol is an idol, whether worshiped inwardly in heart, or adorned outwardly by the knee.”

“But deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. If religion does not salt your tongue and keep it sweet, it has done nothing for you. If the doctor wants to know the state of your health, he says, “Let me see your tongue.” And there is no better test of the health of the mind than to see what is on the tongue! When it gets furred up with unkind words. When it turns black with blasphemy. When it is spotted with lasciviousness, there is something very bad inside the heart, you may be quite sure of that!”

“Any teaching that leads men and women to think of the marriage bond as the sign of bondage and the sacrifice of all independence, to construe wifehood and motherhood as drudgery and interference with woman’s higher destiny, any public sentiment to cultivate celibacy as more desirable and honorable or to substitute anything else for marriage and home, not only invades God’s ordinance, but opens the door to nameless crimes and threatens the very foundations of society.”

“Oh, the unfathomable depth of God’s love! You who are the branches of this Vine, let me beseech you: love the Vine that bears you. Kiss and embrace Christ.  Let your souls sound forth hallelujahs to the whole Trinity. Admire God the Father in sending a Vine from heaven. Admire God the Son Who was a bleeding Vine for you. Admire God the Holy Ghost Who hath by His mighty power implanted you into this Vine. Turn all your sullen discontents into triumphant songs! You are now made living branches, who were once dead; holy branches, who were once unclean. You now bear grapes, who did once bring forth thistles. Oh, make melody in your hearts to the Lord! Admire and celebrate free grace. It is well that there is an eternity coming, and that will be little enough to praise God.”

“Had not God’s love resolved to save man, all His other perfections must have been employed and displayed in destroying man.  Love set its heart upon man, yearned to save man, and resolved to embark in the expedient of his salvation. It did this by conceiving a plan that would harmonize all the other attributes of His nature and engage them in the divine and wondrous work of redeeming mercy.  It is not, therefore, without reason and design that we make the love of God the concentric truth from which we start.”

“The Christian life is a life of continual repentance, humiliation for, and mortification of sin; continual faith in, thankfulness for, and love to the Redeemer, and hopeful joyful expectation of a day of glorious redemption, in which the believer shall be fully and finally acquitted, and sin be abolished forever.  The denial of our sin not only deceives ourselves, but dishonours God.”