"John H. Jowett made a lifelong study of words and he found his highest joy in using them to body forth [sic] (represent) the glories which shine in the face of the Redeemer. His experience shows that whenever a man's heart is strongly moved, his words tend to flow in pleasing rhythm. To love holy words and use them well is to be at least a little like the Creator. He is the supreme Lover of Beauty." - Andrew Blackwood, Preaching From the Bible, p.192
"The Bible, that little volume to which our debt is infinite." - George Morrison, The Wind on the Heath, p.31 [Psalm 1:2]
"To 'exhort one another daily' is a duty to which all Christians are called; alas, how rarely is it performed these evil days. Yet, from the human side, such failure is hardly to be wondered at. The vast majority of professing Christians wish to be petted and flattered, rather than exhorted and cautioned. Most of them are so hyper-sensitive that the slightest criticism offends them. One who seeks grace to be faithful and to act in true 'love' to those whom he supposes are his brethren and sisters in Christ has a thankless task before him, so far as man is concerned; he will lose nearly all his 'friends' and sever the 'fellowship' which exists between him and them. But this will only give a little taste of the 'fellowship of His sufferings'. Hebrews 3:13 is still God's command!" - A.W. Pink, An Exposition On Hebrews, p. 608 [Hebrews 3:13, 10:24-25]
"Want of depth, want of sincerity, want of reality in religion - this is the want of our times. Want of an eye to God in religion, lack of sincere dealing with one's own soul, neglect of using the lancet with our hearts, neglect of the search warrant which God gives out against sin, carelessness concerning living upon Christ; much reading about Him, much talking about Him, but too little feeding upon His flesh, and drinking His blood - these are the causes of tottering professions and baseless hopes.... I have not designed to discourage any sincere soul. My aim is to 'Make your calling and election sure.' Build on Christ's love, sincerity, desire, the work of the Holy Spirit - and be not deceived." - Charles H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 16, pg. 28 [Matthew 7:24-27]
"My brothers, if our faith is worth calling faith at all, it rests so absolutely and confidingly upon God, that His bare Word becomes to us the infallible source of certitude with regard to all the shifting hours of time, and to the steadfast day of an eternity, whose change is blessed growth to an unreached and undeclining noon." - Alexander MacLaren, Expositions in Holy Scripture, Vol. 16, p.115
"Fellowship with God, then, is the source from which fellowship among Christians springs, and fellowship with God is the end to which Christian fellowship is a means. We should not, therefore, think of our fellowship with other Christians as a spiritual luxury, and optional addition to the exercises of private devotion. We should recognize that such fellowship is a spiritual necessity; for God has made us in such a way that our fellowship with Himself is fed by our fellowship with fellow-Christians, and requires to be so fed constantly for its own deepening and enrichment." - J.I. Packer, God's Words, p. 193 [re: 1John 1:3-4]
"Christ's great passion is to love and lift our fragmentary lives until they are brought into the image of His own." - George Morrison, Footsteps of the Flock, p. 96 [re: Matthew 14:13-21]
"Human teachers are given to verbiage; we multiply words to express our meaning, but the Lord is wondrously laconic [uses very few words]; He writes as it were in shorthand, and gives us much in little. One single grain of the precious gold of Scripture may be beaten out into acres of human gold leaf, and spread far and wide. A few books are precious as silver, fewer still are golden; but God's Book has a bank note in every syllable, and the worth of its sentences it were not possible for mortal intellect to calculate." - Charles H. Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Expository Encyclopedia, vol. 2, pg. 21
"We should vivify all our thoughts of God by turning them into material for devout reverence; awe-struck, considering meditation. There is nothing told us in the Bible about God simply in order that we may know it. It is all meant to be fuel to the fire of our divine affection; to kindle in us the sentiments of faith and love and rapturous adoration." - Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 5, Pt.2, p. 316 [re: Jeremiah 17:12]
"The Bible is higher than our highest thought, and it is deeper than our deepest need. In it we find the language of our prayers; in it the passionate cry of our confession; in it the joys that bind us to the angels." - George Morrison, The Wind On The Heath, p. 31 [re: Psalm 119:96-97]
"You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed . . . . Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan." - John Bunyan, from Prayer, Banner of Truth Trust, p.23]
"Lord, High and Holy, meek and lowly, let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up, that to be low is to be high, that the broken heart is the healed heart, that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit, that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, that to have nothing is to possess everything, that to bear the cross is to wear the crown, that to give is to receive. Let me find Thy light in my darkness, Thy joy in my sorrow, Thy grace in my sin, Thy richness in my poverty, Thy glory in my valley, Thy life in my death." - Valley of Vision, compiled by Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth, c. 1975
" 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled'. I do not know of a better test that anyone can apply to himself or herself in this whole matter of Christian profession than a verse like this. If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture, you can be quite certain you are a Christian; if it is not, then you had better examine the foundations again." - D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Studies In The Sermon On The Mount, Vol. 1, p.74 (Matthew 5:6, Psalm 39:3)
"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. The faith I hold bears upon it marks of the blood of my ancestors. . . . Shall we cast away the treasure which was handed to us through the bars of prisons, or came to us charred with the flames of Smithfield?" - Charles H. Spurgeon, Sermons, ppgs. 83-84, 1988
(Regarding the Bible): "There is no Book in the whole world that takes such a dark view of what you and I are; there is none animated with so bright and confident a hope of what you and I may become." - Alexander MacLaren, MacLaren's 1024 Best Illustrations, p. 105
"I would not for a moment say anything to retard Christian unity, but there is something before unity, and that is, 'truth in the inward parts' and honesty before God. I dare not be a member of a church whose teaching I know to be false in vital points. I would sooner go to heaven alone than compromise my conscience for the sake of company." - Charles H. Spurgeon, Treasury of Scripture, Vol. 2, pg. 244
"I hold no theory of inspiration; I accept the inspiration of the Scriptures as fact." - Charles H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 34, pg. 152
"We should 'meditate day and night' in the sacred Word, that we should feast upon it every hour of the day and night. When the business of life compels our attention we may yet, by a kind of blessed mental reflex, keep the Word of Truth ever before our minds." - A.W. Tozer, The Divine Conquest, p. 127
"God uses holiness to assist the preaching of the Gospel and to build up the credit of the Christian faith, which is dishonored by the carelessness of Christians and hypocrites who often serve as Satan's best allies. Our lives are always doing good or harm; they are an open epistle for all to read (2Cor 3:2). Holy living preaches reality. It influences and impresses like nothing else can; no argument can match it. It displays the beauty of religion; it gives credibility to witness and to evangelism (Phil. 2:15). Holiness is the most effective way of influencing unconverted people and creating within them a willingness to listen to the preaching of the gospel." - J.C. Ryle, Holiness, pg. 27
Make it your prayer today: "Lord, grant that I might cultivate holiness today - not out of merit, but out of gratitude, by Thy grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Sanctify me by the blood of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, and the Word of God." Pray with Robert Murray M'Cheyne, "Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be." - John Blanchard, Gathered Gold, pg. 146
"Crossbearing is continuous. It is the heroism of the dull common hour. Thank God, there is something else which is continuous, and that is the sufficient grace of Him, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, and who will never leave us or forsake us." - George Morrison, Highways of the Heart, pg.126
"Every situation in life is the unfolding of some manifestation of God's love and goodness. Therefore my business is to look for this peculiar manifestation of God's goodness and kindness and to be prepared for surprises and blessings." - D.M. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression, p.284
"There are bits of human PRAISE which God loves to hear and see, and for that reason they are altogether lovely. It is PRAISE that shares something of the strength and beauty which pervade the adoration of the saints around the throne of God. It is the sincere expression of holy contemplation and desire. It is filled with the exhilarating gratitude which springs from the sacred joy." - John H. Jowett, Springs in the Desert
"Praise consists in high thinking and deep feeling.... It is the rhapsody of love in the presence of the Beloved." - John H. Jowett, Springs in the Desert
"Prayer is not an overcoming of God's reluctance; it is rather a laying hold of His highest willingness." - Richard Trench, Parables
"Amen has four meanings in Scripture: 'Lord, let it be so' - it is the heart's desire.... It means the affirmation of our faith.... It often expresses the joy of the heart.... It means, 'I, in the name of God, solemnly pledge myself that in His strength I will seek to make it so; to Him be glory both now and forever'." - Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of the Bible, Vol.8
"Youthful piety is a very touching thing to me; I see the grace of God in men and women with much thankfulness, but I cannot perceive it in children without shedding tears of delight. There is an exceeding beauty about these rosebuds of the Lord's garden; they have a fragrance which we find not in the fairest of earth's lilies. Love is won for the Lord Jesus in many a heart by these tiny arrows of the Lord, whose very smallness is a part of the power to penetrate the heart." - Charles Spurgeon, Come Ye Children, pp. 137-138
"It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face, and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinize himself." - Institutes of Christian Religion (quoting John Calvin)
" 'Whosoever drinketh. . . shall never thirst'. That does not mean that in the Christian life desire is ended. The ill of all ills is the death of desire. In the redeemed life desire is intense and wakeful. There is desiring, but no despairing. There is longing, but no languishing. There is fervor, but no fever." - J.H. Jowett, Thirsting for the Springs