What They Said

"You are commanded to rejoice, Brothers and Sisters, because this is for your profit. Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life's machinery. Holy joy will strengthen you for your daily labor. Holy joy will beautify you and, as I have already said, give you an influence over the lives of others."

"It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules; it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibilities.”

“God is the Creator and the Sustainer of everything that is.”

“A true Christian must be no slave to fashion, if he would train his child for heaven.  He must not be content to do things merely because they are the custom of the world; to teach them and instruct them in certain ways, merely because it is usual; to allow them to read books of a questionable sort, merely because everybody else reads them; to let them form habits of a doubtful tendency, merely because they are the habits of the day.”

"THE natural man is a god to himself. Yes, he has his gods many. Whether it be self-righteousness, self-gratification, the world, wealth, family, in whatever form it appears, "other lords have dominion over him," to the exclusion of the one true and living God. The nature of the human mind is such, that it must love and worship some object supremely."

"There are many more flies caught with honey than with vinegar and there are many more sinners brought to Christ by joyful Christians than by doleful Christians!"

"When learned men begin to use their reason, then I generally discover that they haven’t got any.”

“Hold on to the faithfulness of God. Believe when you do not understand, that he knows all about you, that he is committed to taking care of you. He has promised it.”

“Love should be the silver thread that runs through all your conduct.”

"The Christian's faith includes not merely what we are to believe, but also what we are to practice."

"The preaching of holy lives is living preaching. The most effective ministry from a pulpit is that which is supported by godliness from the pew."

"We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong."

“The gospel is the announcement, the proclamation, of the greatest and the most astonishing good news that has ever come into this world of time.”

“True Christians are to be in the world like SALT. Now salt has a peculiar taste of its own, utterly unlike anything else. When mingled with other substances, it preserves them from corruption. It imparts a portion of its taste to everything it is mixed with. It is useful so long as it preserves its savor, but no longer.”

"The spiritual life which God has breathed into our souls will never rest until it reaches its full and perfect development."

"It is well to preach as I do, with my lips; but you can all preach with your feet, and by your lives, and that is the most effective preaching."

"Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice."

“It is of no use pretending before God.”

“The sympathy of Jesus is a truth which ought to be peculiarly dear to all believers. They will find in it a mine of strong consolation.”

"When the Spirit of God moved upon the face of unformed nature, and a new world sprang into life, light, and beauty, He pronounced it very good. But what must be His estimate of that new creation which His Spirit has wrought in the soul, whose moral chaos He has reduced to life, light, and order!"

"THERE is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful, but this, which is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste and comforting to the heart."

"Doctrine is only the drawing of the bow; application is hitting the mark."

"No short cut exists for a deeper spiritual life. The man who would know God must give time to Him."

“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.”

“O, it is good sailing with an infallible Pilot at the helm, who has the wind and weather at his command!”

“It is utterly impossible we should walk before God, unto his glory, or with any real peace, comfort, or satisfaction in our own souls, unless our minds are continually exercised with thoughts of his almighty power.”

"Divisions in the church always breed atheism in the world."

"God is always the same. No outside pressure of any kind changes Him. Hallelujah! When I find God, I find God."

"Faith is the art of holding on to things in spite of  your changing moods and circumstances."

“O the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. It will be growing upon us through time, yea, I believe through eternity.”

“Where there is continuance in prayer, there will be spiritual growth in some proportion.”

"Comfort may be increased by the sight of good works, but it is not built upon them; they are seeds of hope, not props of confidence."

"People today are in too much of a hurry to get nowhere."

"For God is not merely mending, not simply restoring a status quo. Redeemed humanity is to be something more glorious than unfallen humanity."

“None are so bad but the gospel affords them a ground of hope: none are so good as to have any just ground of hope without it.”

“This holy complacency, this rest and sweet repose of mind, is the foundation of the delight of believers in this duty. They do not pray only because it is their duty so to do, nor yet because they stand in need of it, so as that they cannot live without it, but they have delight in it; and to keep them from it is all one as to keep them from their daily food and refreshment.”

"The end of study is information, and the end of meditation is practice, or a work upon the affections."

"We must of necessity be servant to someone, either to God or to sin."

“He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.”

“Permit me to advise you to study the redemption of time; it is an important talent, and we have all misspent too much of it.”

“The mind of man is covered with thoughts, as a tree with blossoms. Most of them fall off, vanish, and come to nothing, end in vanity; and sometimes where the mind doth most abound with them there is the least fruit; the sap of the mind is wasted and consumed in them. Howbeit there is no fruit which actually we bring forth, be it good or bad, but it proceeds from some of these thoughts.”

"To hear and not to meditate is unfruitful. We may hear and hear, but it is like putting a thing into a bag with holes."

"Oh God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more."

“Surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is.”

“What a shame, then, is it that my Lord and your's should ever be a single minute out of my mind, since there is not a single minute but brings me some new proof of his goodness.”

“When men feed on the word, it is turned into a principle of life, spiritual strength, and growth within; which a taste of it only will not give. As food, when it is digested, turns into flesh and blood and spirits, so doth the word, and Christ therein, unto the souls of men spiritually.”

"What we take in the word we digest by meditation and let out by prayer."

"The church must worship, and worship and entertainment are at opposite ends of the table."

“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.”

“How grand and magnificent is the arch over our heads in a starry night! But if it were always day, the stars could not be seen. The firmament of scripture, if I may so speak, is spangled with exceeding great and precious promises, as the sky is with stars, but the value and beauty of many of them are only perceptible to us in the night of affliction.”