What They Said

“Christians should be walking Bibles. Xenophon said, "Many read Lycurgus's laws, but few observe them." The word written is not only a rule of knowledge, but a rule of obedience: it is not only to mend our sight, but to mend our pace. David calls God's word "a lamp unto his feet" (Ps. 119:105). It was not only a light to his eyes to see by, but to his feet to walk by. By practice we trade the talent of knowledge, and turn it to profit. This is a blessed reading of scripture, when we fly from the sins which the word forbids, and espouse the duties which the word commands. Reading without practice will be but a torch to light men to hell.”

“There are two kinds of beauty; there is a beauty which God gives at birth, and which withers as a flower. And there is a beauty which God grants when by His grace men are born again. That kind of beauty never vanishes but blooms eternally.”

“How often is it now lost sight of that the Lord cares for the bodies of His saints as well as for their souls. This is more or less recognized and owned by believers in the matter of food and clothing, health and strength, but it is widely ignored by many concerning the point we are here treating of.”

“Jesus loves always. His love is like his life, endless. Whom once he loveth, he loveth unto the end; for he is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever." He may change his works; he may change his dispensations; but he will never break his word, or change in his love. That love is from everlasting to everlasting. It was sovereignly fixed upon us, and can never be diverted from us. So that amidst all the changes that take place within me, and without me, I may rejoice in this, that Jesus still loves me. Aye, and that he loves me as much in adversity as in prosperity; as much in darkness as when his candle shines upon my head; as much when I feel as if I am sinking in the horrible pit, as when I feel that I am standing on the rock. As soon may he cease to be God, as cease to love his people. While he lives he must love, and love the same objects too.”

“In God are treasures which can never be emptied--and pleasures which can never be ended!”

“Nothing short of a divine love could or would have borne our sins, and the punishment of our sins. The weight of the one, and the terribleness of the other would have crushed and annihilated a mere created affection. There existed no love but the love of Deity equal to the work of salvation.  Who was willing, who was able, to bear that heavy load, to endure that overwhelming curse, but the eternal Son of the Father?”

“The whole earth is still a great orchestra for God's praise, and his creatures still take up various parts in the eternal song, which, ever swelling and ever increasing, shall by and by mount to its climax in the consummation of all things.”

“The spiritual mind, fond of soaring through nature in quest of new proofs of God's existence and fresh emblems of His wisdom, power and goodness, exults in the thought that it is his Father's domain which he treads! He feels that God, his God, is there.”

“All true solid comfort is fetched out of the Word. The Word (as Chrysostom saith) is a spiritual garden; and the promises are the fragrant flowers or spices in this garden.”

“Wisdom buys what gold cannot procure.”

“This is the way of contentment. There are these circumstances that I am in, with many wants: I want this and the other comfort - well, how shall I come to be satisfied and content? A carnal heart thinks, I must have my wants made up or else it is impossible that I should be content. But a gracious heart says, ‘What is the duty of the circumstances God has put me into?”

"He (God) is unchangeable in the midst of the changeable effects of providence."

“The demand of the day is for a higher standard and style of Christian life. Every follower of Christ must represent His religion purely, loftily, impressively, before that multitude of "Bible-readers" whose only Bible is the Christian.”

“Let us beware of an unsanctified knowledge of Christianity. It is a dangerous possession, but a fearfully common one in these latter days. We may know the Bible intellectually, and have no doubt about the truth of its contents. We may have our memories well stored with its leading texts, and be able to talk glibly about its leading doctrines. And all this time the Bible may have no influence over our hearts, and wills, and consciences.”

“A Christian is the greatest freeman in the world; he is free from the wrath of God, free from hell and damnation, from the curse of the law; but then, though he be free in these respects, yet, in regard of love, he is the greatest servant.  Love abaseth him to do all the good he can; and the more the Spirit of Christ is in us, the more it will abase us to anything wherein we can be serviceable.”

“If I were to go to heaven, and find that Christ was not there, I would leave immediately; for heaven without Christ would be hell to me.”

“The soul that has once known something of the Lord is never satisfies but by obtaining clearer, deeper, more spiritual and abiding views of is beauty and blessedness.”

“We tolerate a worldly-minded, and diluted, and weakened piety in others, because we expect a similar toleration for ourselves. We make excuses for them, because we expect the like excuses for our own conduct in return.”

“One day of good preaching is no match for six days of inconsistent practice.  God will never honor His church with complete success until it completely honors Him.”

“The Word written is a sovereign elixir, or comfort in an hour of distress.”

“The world gains the victory over the unregenerate by captivating their affections and capturing their wills; but the saint overcomes the world, because his affections are set upon Christ and his will yielded to Him.”

“We do not sail to glory in the salt sea of our own tears, but in the red sea of a Redeemer's blood. Crux Christi est clavis paradisi. “The cross of Christ is the key of paradise.” We owe the life of our souls to the death of our Saviour. It was His going into the furnace which keeps us from the flames.”