What They Said

“Expound the Law truly, and open the veil of Moses, to condemn all flesh, and prove all men sinners, and all deeds under the Law, before mercy has taken away the condemnation thereof, to be sin, and damnable; and then as a faithful minister, set abroach the mercy of our Lord Jesus, and let the wounded consciences drink of the water of Him. And then shall your preaching be with power, and not as the hypocrites. And the Spirit of God shall work with you; and all consciences shall bear record unto you, and feel that it is so. And all doctrine that casts a mist on these two to shadow and hide them, I mean the Law of God and mercy of Christ, that resist you with all your power."

William Tyndale

‎"Today the impotence and confusion of humanism is marked. It is wallowing in failure all over the world, in failure, but not in defeat, because there is no consistent Christian force to challenge and overthrow it."

R. J. Rushdoony

"…, 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)

“Don’t tell me of your happiness if it daily depends on the uncertainties of the earth. Your home may be rich in comforts; your family may be all you could desire; your income may be amply sufficient to meet all your wants. But oh, remember, if you have nothing more than this to look to, that you are standing on the edge of a cliff! Your joy may be deep and earnest, but it is fearfully short-lived. It has no root. It is not true happiness.”

J.C. Ryle

"But it would be an instance in myself of that very false shame which I have condemned in others, if I were not boldly to avow my firm persuasion, that to the decline of religion and morality our national difficulties must both directly and indirectly be chiefly ascribed; and that my only solid hopes for the well-being of my country depend not so much on her fleets and armies, not so much on the wisdom of her rulers, or the spirit of her people, as on the persuasion that she still contains many who, in a degenerate age, love and obey the gospel of Christ; on the humble trust that the intercession of these may still be prevalent, that for the sake of these, heaven may still look upon us with an eye of favour."

William Wilberforce

"Luke tells us of another kind of weed, namely, "the pleasures of this life."I am sure that these thorns play a dreadful part nowadays. I have nothing to say against recreation in its proper place. Certain forms of recreation are needful and useful; but it is a wretched thing when amusement becomes a vocation. Amusement should be used to do us good "like a medicine"; it must never be used as the food of the individual. From early morning until late at night some spend their time in a round of frivolities, or else their very work is simply carried on to furnish them funds for their pleasures. This is vicious. Many have had all holy thoughts and gracious resolutions stamped out by perpetual trifling. Pleasure, so called, is the murderer of thought. This is the age of excessive amusement. Everybody craves for it, like a babe for its rattle. In the more sober years of our fathers, men and women had something better to live for than silly sports. The thorns are choking the age."

Chalres Spurgeon

(Sermon #2040 - Sown Among Thorns)

"And therefore you who think so basely of the Gospel and the professors of it, because at present their peace and comfort are not come, should know that it is on the way to them, and comes to stay everlastingly with them; whereas your peace is going from you every moment, and is sure to leave you without any hope of returning to you again.  Look not how the Christian begins, but ends."

William Gurnall

"The only ground of God's love is His love. The ground of God's love is only and wholly in Himself.  There is neither portion nor proportion in us to draw His love. There is no love nor loveliness in us that should cause a beam of His love to shine upon us."

Thomas Brooks

"The civil magistrate cannot function without some ethical guidance, without some standard of good and evil. If that standard is not to be the revealed law of God (which, we must note, was addressed specifically to perennial problems in political morality), then what will it be? In some form or expression it will have to be the law of man (or men)-the standard of self-law or autonomy. And when autonomous laws come to govern a commonwealth, the sword is certainly wielded in vain, for it represents simply the brute force of some men's will against the will of other men. "Justice" then indeed becomes a verbal cloak for whatever serves the interests of the strongmen in society (whether their strength be that of physical might or of media manipulation)."

Greg Bahnsen

"This doctrine affords comfort: thy unworthiness may dismay thee, but remember that thy election depends not upon thy worthiness but upon the will of God."

Elnathan Parr 

(1597-1632)

"The moral law requires obedience, but gives no strength (as Pharaoh required brick, but gave no straw), but the Gospel gives strength;  The Gospel bestows faith upon the elect; the Gospel sweetens the law; it makes us serve God with delight."

Thomas Watson

"The moral law is perfect. ‘The law of the Lord is perfect.’ Psa 19: 7. It is an exact model and platform of religion; it is the standard of truth, the judge of controversies, the pole-star to direct us to heaven. ‘The commandment is a lamp.’ Prov 6: 23. Though the moral law be not a Christ to justify us, it is a rule to instruct us."

Thomas Watson