What They Said

“To God nothing is mysterious. In purpose, nothing is unfixed; in forethought, nothing is unknown; in providence, nothing is contingent. His glance pierces the future as vividly as it beholds the past. "He knows the end, from the beginning." All his doings are parts of a divine, eternal, and harmonious plan.”

“It is as easy for our Good Shepherd to know each of His millions personally, as for any human mother to know the name of each one of her little family of children. There is great comfort in this teaching. We are not lost in the crowd. Love always individualizes its object. We cannot love a crowd--we may pity a city in distress, as after the horrors of an earthquake, and yet not know one person in it. But if we have a brother, a child, or a friend among the sufferers--we know the one. Our Good Shepherd loves each one of His own.”

“Look within, each one of you. Examine your own hearts. Do you see there any habit which you know is wrong in the sight of God? If you do, resolve at once to cast it off.”

“Believe it, brethren, it is easier to declaim, like an orator, against a thousand sins of others, than to mortify one sin, like Christians, in ourselves; to be more industrious in our pulpits, than in our closets; to preach twenty sermons o our people, than one to our own hearts.”

“Let this precious truth, "My times are in your hand," divest your mind of all needless, anxious care for the present or the future. Exercising simple faith in God, "don't be anxious about anything." "Be content with such things as you have, for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." Learn to be content with your present lot, with God's dealings with, and his disposal of you. You are just where his providence has, in its inscrutable but all-wise and righteous decision, placed you.”

“Fear not, He tells me once more, for I will help thee. The future has its distresses. Peering ahead, what do I see? Many perplexities, many solitudes, much weariness, much struggle. But my Lord will go before me.”

“The well taught Christian carries everything to God; and in doing so, obtains relief, enjoys peace, and grows in grace. For all we need we should call upon God; and from all we fear we should flee unto God.”

“The minimum Christian goes to worship in the morning; and in the evening also, unless it rains, or is too warm, or cold, or he is sleepy, or has the headache from eating too much at dinner. He listens most respectfully to the preacher, and joins in prayer and praise. He applies the truth very judiciously, sometimes to himself, oftener to his neighbours.”

“By this, however, we are not to understand that the Lord will give us every earthly blessing which we desire. We are so short-sighted as often to wish for things which would prove positively injurious to us. But we are to understand that He will give us all that He sees best for us. And surely we ought to be satisfied with this; for He who sees the end from the beginning, must know much better than we what is for our good.”

“Such are the blessed effects of the Gospel, when it comes with power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. It invariably produces works of faith, labours of love, and patience of hope. It brings glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good will towards men. It turns the lion into the lamb; the desert into the garden of the Lord. It converts the impure and savage heart into a habitation, meet for the mild and holy Dove. Old things pass away—and behold, all things become new.”

“Unless our ‘Bible study’ is conforming us, both inwardly and outwardly, to the image of Christ it profits us not”

“Seek every day to have closer communion with Him who is your Friend, and to know more of His grace and power. True Christianity is not merely the believing a certain set of dry abstract propositions: it is to live in daily personal communication with an actual living person—Jesus the Son of God.”

“My friends, nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator as when we learn the emptiness of all besides.”

“The meditation of heaven is a pillar of support under all our sufferings; heaven.  One hour in Heaven will make us forget all our sorrows. As the sun dries up the water, so one beam of God's glorious face will dry up all our tears.”

“All creatures are as nothing compared with God, and absolutely nothing without God.”

“Let us bear these rules in mind every Sunday morning before we go to hear the Word of God preached. Let as not rush into God's presence carelessly, recklessly, and unprepared, as if it did not matter how we approach Him. Let us carry with us faith, reverence, and prayer. If these three are our companions, we will benefit as we listen and will give back praise.”

“For in the true nature of things, if we will rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold or silver.”

“Let us lead Scripture lives. Oh that the Bible might be seen printed in our lives! Do what the Word commands. Obedience is an excellent way of commenting upon the Bible. Psa 86:2: ‘I will walk in the truth.’  Let the Word be the sun-dial by which you set your life.”

“To talk to people about Christ is far easier than the task He has assigned-to deny self, take up our cross, and follow Him. Actions speak louder than words: it is by our conduct we are to make manifest Whose we are. Christians are to "show forth" by their lives (rather than tell forth with their lips) "the praises of Him who has called them" (1 Peter 2:9). And they are "first to show piety at home," then in the Church, and then in the world, for if there be no piety in our home life, then all our seeming piety in the Church and before the world is but humbuggery and hypocrisy.”

“We must first surrender our way and will before He will teach us His. The " meek" He will guide: the childlike, trustful, unquestioning disciple, that humbly locks his hand in Christ's and says, " Lord, lead me and guide me, not in my own way, but in Thine."  Oh, take a firm grasp of this Triple Staff, and you shall travel safely, surely, through all your unknown future. Be honest and sincere only to know and to walk in the Lord's way, the way in which”

“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.”