"We admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago...but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow minded bigot or give him a worse name, if you can think of one.
"Yet imagine that in those ages past Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and their compeers had said, 'The world is out of order, but if we try to get it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.'
"Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have
gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the love of Jesus too well to see them trampled on.
"It is today as it was in the Reformer's days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day? We who have had the gospel passed to us by martyr hands dare not trifle with it, nor sit by and hear it denied by traitors, who pretend to love it but inwardly abhor every line of it...look you, sirs, there are ages yet to come.
"If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all those generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to his truth today. We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right, mayhap our children and our children's children will go that way. But if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to his Word."
"God the Holy Ghost must illumine us or all the stars in the Milky Way never will."
"It seams as if every hair on my head must stand on end to think of any hearer of mine being damned."
"I may be called to stand where thunderclouds brew."
"I can only say concerning [John Wesley] that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet for the man himself, I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan."
"Where ever the gospel is preached the most wicked of men and women are made to sit at the Savior's feet, clothed and in their right mind."
"Before leaving this place breathe an earnest prayer to God saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner. Lord, I have need to be saved. Save me. I call upon Thy name.'"
"I do think...that many an old Puritan would jump out of his grave if he knew what was doing now."
"I would sooner know that you believed a half a dozen truths intensely, than a hundred only feebly. If your hand is not large enough to hold a great deal, hold firmly what you can."
"Our desire is the immediate conversion of all now present."
"Sin is washed out, not by tears of penitence, but by the blood of Christ."
"You are going through a dark world to a darker eternity."
"A Hindu woman said to a missionary, 'Surely your Bible was written by a woman...because it says so many kind things of woman."
"Our sons and daughters are not likely to be saved in an unbelieving church."
"Missionaries sink far below their level when they are content to civilize; their first object is to save."
"Christian men and women, nothing but the gospel can sweep away social evil. Vices are like vipers, and only the voice of Jesus can drive them out of the land. The gospel is the great broom with which to cleanse the filthiness of the city; nothing else will do."
"I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and he hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord's workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most."
"If there is no prayer you may be sure that the soul is quite dead."
"It is related of John Wesley that, preaching to an audience of courtiers and noblemen, he used the 'generation of vipers' text, and flung denunciations right and left. 'The sermon should have been preached at Newgate (prison),' said a displeased courtier to Wesley on passing out. 'No,' said the fearless apostle, 'my text there would have been, 'behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.'"
"To disobey the gospel is far worse than to break the law. For disobedience to the law there is a remedy in the gospel, but for disobedience to the gospel no remedy can be found. 'There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.'"
"When George Peabody was staying at Sir Charles Reed's house, he saw the youngest child bring to his father a large Bible for family prayers. Mr. Peabody said, 'Ah! my boy, you carry the Bible now, but the time is coming when you will find that the Bible must carry you.'"
"When Thomas Hooker was dying, one said to him, 'Brother, you are going to receive the reward of you labor.' He humbly replied, 'Brother, I am going to receive mercy,'"
"A Brahmin wrote to a missionary, 'We are finding you out. You are not as good as your book. If your people were only as good as your book, you would conquer India for Christ in five years.'"
"Satan feels within himself a seething sea of misery. There is an unfathomable gulf of anguish within his soul, and when he looks at believers, he sees them quiet in their souls, full of peace and happiness, and often without any outward means by which they should be comforted, yet rejoicing and full of glory."
"Satan must have thought much of Martin Luther. 'I could ride the world over,' says he, 'if it were not for that monk. He stands in my way. That strong headed man hates and mauls my first born son the pope. If I could get rid of him I would not mind though fifty thousand smaller saints stood in my way.'"
"Darkness would cover the earth if [Satan] could blow out the light."
"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach today, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth. I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."
"It is said that during the persecution of the Papists by Queen Elisabeth certain of the wealthy Catholics desired to save thier lives by an open compliance with her intolerable laws, though they remained Romanists at heart. To their inquiry for direction, it is reported that the pope of that day replied, 'Only let them give me their heart, and they may for this time do what they are compelled to do.' If the evil one can but keep the heart he cares little what outward religion is practiced."
"No one will be condemned who does not deserve it. There will be a trial with witnesses and pleadings, and an infallible judge. The righteous are saved by sovereignty; but the wicked are condemned by righteousness alone."
"Christ never seams so empty to any but those who are full of themselves."
"This is a great soul saving text (Isaiah 45:22)...all who have obeyed it are saved: Why should you not at once be saved." This is the one command: 'Look! Look!'"
"There is a period when crying should give place to action: when prayer is heard and the red sea is dividing, it would be shameful disobedience to remain trembling and praying."
"Every praying Christian will find there is no Gethsemane without is angel."
"There was no Bible in the house, and he had often ridiculed the preacher; but before his senses left him he begged his servant to send for me. What could I do? He was unconscious; and there I stood, musing sadly upon the wretched condition of a man who had wickedly refused Christ, and yet superstitiously fled to his minister."
"Warning to those who never speak with Jesus. Will he not say at the last, "I never knew you?" "This one fact, 'I have sinned,' is enough to brand the soul with the mark of cain, and burn it with the flames of hell."
"It is literally true that the needy are remembered by God, and though they may be over looked by man's laws, the Lord will rectify that error at the last."
"The divine nature, the filiation of the Son of God, the complex person of Jesus, the procession of the Holy Ghost, the eternal decrees, and so forth, are not so much to be understood as to be believed."
"Mrs. Elizabeth Fry's labors amongst the female prisoners at Newgate owed much of their success to her tenderness in dealing with them. "I never ask their crimes, for we all come short,' was her quiet rebuke to someone curious about a prisoner's offense."
"There is no pardon so complete as that of God. He forgets as well as forgives."
"A man may have many acquaintances, but he will have few friends...Real friends are to be retained with great care, and if need be, with great sacrifice. The wisdom of the world teaches this and inspiration confirms it."
"On Isaiah 1:18: "It is most gracious on the Lord's part to suggest a conference. Kings do not often invite criminals to reason with them."
"Oh what a sea of blood, a sea of wrath, of sin, of sorrow and misery, did the Lord Jesus wade through for your internal and eternal good!"
"The sin which is not too great to be forsaken is not too great to be forgiven."
"Even so it would appear that if true prayer is not answered the nature of God must have changed."
"If we make a profit in business, one of our first thoughts should be, 'Now I can do something more for the work of the Lord."
"No person appears less likely to be saved than your religious unbelievers. They wear an armour of proof. You cannot tell them anything new and striking, their heads are helmeted with religious knowledge; you cannot touch their hearts, for they wear the breast-plate of gospel-hardening."
"Conscience, from inaction, is like a withered arm in the souls of many; but the Lord of conscience will one day say to it, 'Be thou stretched forth, and do thine appointed work.'"
"Life is a seed time. Of all men it may be said, 'What will the harvest be?'"
"When a man is afraid of self-examination, his fear is suspicious. he who does not dare to apply the plumbline to his wall may rest assured that it is out of perpendicular. A sincere man will pray, 'Lord, let me know the worst of my case.' It is far better to suffer needless distress than to be at ease in Zion, and then perish of the dry-rot of self-deceit."
"...disappointments in time are often the means of preventing disappointments in eternity.'" (quoting William Jay)"
"God loves your fault mixed with penitence more than your virtue mixed with pride."
"We have need to stand in doubt of that repentance which hath no tear in its eye, no mourning in its heart."
"I would rather obey God that rule and empire."
"It seams as if every hair on my head must stand on end to think of any hearer of mine being damned."
"The modern man would be rich if they possessed even the crumbs that fell from the tables of the Puritans."
"Ye who hear me but this once I would like you to go away with this ringing in your ears, 'Be ye reconciled to God!'"
"God the Holy Ghost must illumine us or all the suns in the Milky Way never will."
