What They Said

“How astounding is it sometimes to ourselves, that, the base cares and the petty enjoyments of the present world should have so much power over us, as to retard us in our heavenward course, and make us negligent and indolent, heedless and forgetful.”

John Angell James

“Our idea of the nature of earnest individual piety, must be taken, not from the conventional standard of the age, but from the Word of God. It is of immense importance to bear this in recollection, and to admit its truth. It must be so, whether we admit it or no. Once give up the Bible as the only true standard of personal religion, and there is no rule left but custom, which is ever varying with the opinions and corruptions of the times. On this principle, all but the very lowest stages of general apostasy might be justified, for even they were the conventional notions of their day. No, the Bible, the Bible alone, is the religion of Christians. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not, and act not, according to them, it is because there is no light in them." Yet how prevalent is the disposition to conform ourselves to the prevailing religion of the day and of the church to which we belong, and to satisfy ourselves with the average measure of piety around us. "I am as good as my neighbours," is the shield with which many a man repels the charge of deficiency. "I am as good as my fellow-members," is the self-same shield with which many a professor of religion wards off the allegation of his being below his duty. The very same conventionalism which ruins the world, corrupts the church. That which keeps down the standard of morality in the one, depresses the standard of piety in the other. This has been the fatal practical error of the church through every age of its existence, and by which its beauty has been disfigured, its power weakened, and its usefulness impeded: its members, instead of looking into the perfect law of Scripture, and seeing themselves reflected from that faithful mirror, and adjusting their character and conduct by its infallible revelations, have placed before themselves the glass of the Christian profession as it was found in the church of the day, and have regulated their behaviour by what they saw in the prevailing character of their fellow-Christians.”

John Angell James

"Afflictions tend to wean us from the world--and to fix our affections on things above."

John Angell James

"One of the ends which every believer must propose to himself, on entering the state of marriage, is to secure a faithful friend who will be a helpmate to him in reference to the world to come, assist him in the great business of his soul’s salvation, and pray for him and with him. One that will affectionately tell him of his sins and defects, viewed in the light of a Christian. One that will stimulate and draw him by the power of a holy example and the sweet force of persuasive words. One that will warn him in temptation, comfort him in dejection, and in every way assist him in his pilgrimage to heaven."

John Angell James

"…, why is it that so many professing Christians do not make progress, and indeed make no efforts to obtain it? Why, because they care nothing about it.  To take up a profession is all they desire; but to proceed from one degree of piety to another; to grow in grace, to go on unto perfection, is no part of their ambition.  How many are there to whom if we were to say, "Well now you call yourself a Christian, and wish others to consider you as such, and you are of course eager desirous of making continual advances in knowledge, faith, and holiness;  and we shall see you evidently becoming more and more like Christ" - who, I say, if we should thus address them, would look wonderingly in our face, as if they did not comprehend our meaning;  or reproachfully, as if we questioned their sincerity;  or contemptuously, as if we were indulging in enthusiasm or mysticism, and wished them to be as visionary as ourselves.  Of course such a frame of mind, and such views as these are adverse to all progress.  There must then be concern about the matter.  And shall there be none?  What, no solicitude to have more of the knowledge of truth, of faith in Christ, of likeness to God, of meetness for heaven?  No desire to advance in such things?  Is it possible to be a Christian and yet destitute of this? No, it is not.  I tell you, it is not.  If you have no concern to grow, there is no grace in you.   You are a piece of dead wood,  and not a living branch - a spiritual corpse, and not a living man.  In this state there can be no growth, for dead things never grow; while on the other hand, the very desire will insure the possession of its object."

John Angell James

(from: Christian Progress)