What They Said

“But not only is the Word of God precious as a revelation of His being and perfections, but to the child of God it is peculiarly so as revealing the mind and will of God.”

“Christ is not only supremely, but He is increasingly precious to the believer. It must be so, since a closer intimacy with a perfect being increases our knowledge of His perfection, and, in the same ratio, our admiration and love.”

“A good Christian is like the sun, which not only sends forth heat, but goes its circuit round the world. Thus, he who glorifies God, has not only his affections heated with love to God, but he goes his circuit too; he moves vigorously in the sphere of obedience.”

“Though nothing can add to God’s essential glory, yet praise exalts him in the eyes of others. When we praise God, we spread his fame and renown, we display the trophies of his excellency. In this manner the angels glorify him; they are the choristers of heaven, and do trumpet forth his praise. Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion.”

“We glorify God, by standing up for his truths. Much of God’s glory lies in his truth. God has intrusted us with his truth, as a master intrusts his servant with his purse to keep. We have not a richer jewel to trust God with than our souls, nor has God a richer jewel to trust us with than his truth. Truth is a beam that shines from God. Much of his glory lies in his truth. When we are advocates for truth we glorify God.”

“We glorify God by walking cheerfully. It brings glory to God, when the world sees a Christian has that within him that can make him cheerful in the worst times; that can enable him, with the nightingale, to sing with a thorn at his breast. The people of God have ground for cheerfulness. They are justified and adopted, and this creates inward peace; it makes music within, whatever storms are without.”

“We glorify God, by being contented in that state in which Providence has placed us. We give God the glory of his wisdom, when we rest satisfied with what he carves out to us.”

“By our exact Bible-conversation we glorify God. Though the main work of religion lies in the heart, yet our light must so shine that others may behold it. The safety of a building is the foundation, but the glory of it is in the frontispiece; so the beauty of faith is in the conversation. When the saints, who are called jewels, cast a sparkling lustre of holiness in the eyes of the world, then they ‘walk as Christ walked.’”

“Just as all Christian affections flow from true divine love, so in the same way, other false affections flow naturally from a counterfeit love. In both cases, love is the fountain, and the other affections are the streams. The various faculties, principles, and affections of human nature are, as it were, many channels from one fountain. If there is sweet water in the fountain, then sweet water will flow from there out into those various channels; but if the water in the fountain is poisonous, then poisonous streams will also flow out into all those channels.”

“The duty of singing praises to God seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned for why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music – except that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections.”

“God sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to be the light of the world, the head of the whole church, and the perfect example of true religion and virtue for imitation by all. He is the Shepherd whom the whole flock should follow wherever he goes. And he was a person of a remarkably tender and affectionate heart. His virtue was expressed very much in the exercise of holy affections.”

“For love is not only one of the affections, but it is the first and chief of the affections; and it is the fountain of all the affections. From love arises hatred of those things which are contrary to what we love, or which oppose and thwart us in those things that we delight in.”

“The Author of the human nature has not only given affections to men, but He has made them very much the spring of men’s actions. Just as the affections not only necessarily belong to the human nature, but are a very great part of it – so holy affections not only necessarily belong to true religion, but are a very great part of it (inasmuch as, by regeneration, persons are renewed in the whole man, and sanctified throughout). Just as true religion has a practical nature, and God has so constituted the human nature that the affections are very much the spring of men’s actions, this also shows that true religion must consist very much in the affections.”

“A man may obey the law, and yet have no love to the lawgiver: a carnal heart may do the command of God, but he cannot love God, and therefore cannot do it aright; for love to God is the foundation and spring of all true obedience. Every command of God is to be done in love: this is the "fulfiling of the law."”

“A man may be converted from a course of profaneness to a form of godliness; from a filthy conversation to a fair profession; and yet the heart the same in one and the other. A rotten post may be gilt without and yet unsound within.”

“True mourning for sin, is more for the evil that is in sin, than the evil that comes by sin; more because it dishonors God, and wounds Christ, and grieves the Spirit, and makes the soul unlike God, than because it damns the soul.”

“The efficacy of the word doth not depend upon the authority of him that speaks it, but upon the authority of the God that blesses it.”

“To make a man altogether a Christian, there must be light in the head, and heat in the heart; knowledge in the understanding, and zeal in the affections.”

"Cultivate a habit of communion with God.  This will prepare you for whatever may take place.  This will so sweeten your temper and calm your mind as to secure you against surprisals.  This will produce that inward peace which will make you superior to your trials."

"Remember that by revenge you can only gratify a sinful passion, which by forgiveness you might conquer.  Suppose that by revenge you might destroy one enemy; yet by exercising the Christian's temper you might conquer three - your own lust, Satan's temptation, and your enemy's heart."

"Quiet your trembling heart by recording and consulting your past experiences of the care and faithfulness of God in former distresses.  These experiences are food for your faith in a wilderness."

"The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God."

"The heart of man is his worst part before it is regenerated, and the best afterward; it is the seat of principles, and the foundation of actions.  The eye of God is, and the eye of the Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it."