What They Said

"But the gospel, rightly understood and cordially embraced, will inspire the slothful with energy, and the fearful with courage. It will make the miser generous, melt the churl into kindness, tame the raging tiger in the breast, and in a word, expand the narrow selfish heart, and fill it with a spirit of love to God, cheerful unreserved obedience to his will and benevolence to mankind. “

"No system but the gospel can communicate motives, encouragements, and prospects, sufficient to withstand and counteract all the snares and temptations with which the spirit of this world, by its frowns or its smiles, will endeavour, either to intimidate or to bribe us from the path of duty.“

"....No force, but that of the gospel, is sufficient to remove the mountainous load of guilt from an awakened conscience, to calm the violence of tumultuous passions, to raise an earthly soul from grovelling in the mire of sensuality or avarice, to a spiritual and divine life, a life of communion with God. “

"The gospel removes difficulties insuperable to human power. It causes the blind to see, the deaf to hear (Isa. xxxv. 8; Matth. xi. 5); it softens the heart of stone, and raises the dead in trespasses and sin to a life of righteousness,.....  “

"The gospel of Christ, the glorious gospel of the blessed God (1 Tim. i. 11), is the only effectual mean for reforming mankind. “

"To behold the glory and the love of Jesus is the only effectual way to participate of His image.”

"An humble frame of mind is the strength and ornament of every other grace, and the proper soil wherein they grow.”

"Prosperity may cause us to rise in the world, but affliction is needful to raise us above the world."

"Our Lord's kingdom is not of this world; and most of His people may do their country much more essential service by pleading for it in prayer, than by finding fault with things which they have no power to alter."

“There is one political maxim which comforts me: ‘The Lord reigns.’”

"I cannot pretend to determine what ministers, or what body of people come nearest the character of the primitive times, but in my judgment they are the happiest who have the lowest thoughts of themselves, and in whose eyes Jesus is most glorious and precious.

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Thus, when a man has a proper call, and a competent fund of general knowledge, he learns to preach, by learning to acquire a confidence, not in himself, but in his cause, and in him in whose name he speaks."

“In the first place, be cautious that you do not degenerate into the spirit of a mere hearer, so as to place the chief stress of your profession upon running hither and thither after preachers.”

“God formed us originally for himself, and has therefore given the human mind such a vastness of desire, such a thirst for happiness as he alone can answer;  and therefore, till we seek our rest in Him, in vain we seek it elsewhere.”