Words said without heart are as utterly useless to our souls as the drumbeating of the poor heathen before their idols. Where there is no heart, there may be lip-work and tongue-work, but there is nothing that God listens to; there is no prayer. Saul, I have no doubt, said many a long prayer before the Lord met him on the way to Damascus. But it was not till his heart was broken that the Lord said, "He prayeth."
Taken from the book A Call to Prayer by JC Ryle 1816-1900
Page 8
Taken from the book The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes 1630
Page 24
Faith is taking God at His word. Those who want some sign are always getting into trouble. We want to come to this: God says it – let us believe it.
Taken from the book The Way to God by DL Moody 1837-1899
Page 59
| Taken from the book A Lifting Up For The Downcast by William Bridge 1649 |
Taken from the book The Soul Winner By Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892
Page 195
Taken from the book The Holy Spirit by John Owen 1674 Abridged by R.J.K. Law
Page 110
The world appears very little to a soul that contemplates the greatness of God.
Brother Lawrence 1614-1691
Taken from the book 1001Unforgetable Quotes about God, Faith and the Bible
| Taken from the book The Quotable Oswald Chambers Oswald Chambers 1874-1917 |
Taken from the book Extracts from the Writings of Thomas Watson
Thomas Watson 1620-1686
Page 81
Samuel, in the days of his childhood, appears to have ministered unto the Lord some time before he really knew Him. "Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him" (1 Sam. 3:7). The Apostles themselves do not seem to have understood all that our Lord said at the time that it was spoken: "These things understood not His disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him" (John 12:16).
Parents, comfort your minds with these examples. Be not cast down because your children see not the full value of the means of grace now. Only train them up to a habit of regular attendance. Set it before their minds as a high, holy, and solemn duty, and believe me, the day will very likely come when they will bless you for your deed.
Taken from the book The Duties of Parents by JC Ryle 1816-1900
Let us often withdraw our thoughts from this earth, this scene of misery, and folly, and sin, and raise them toward that more vast and glorious world, whose innocent and blessed inhabitants solace themselves eternally in the divine presence, and know no other passion but an unmixed joy, and an unbound love.
Taken from the book The Life of God in the Soul of Man
by Henry Scougal 1650-1678
Page 120
Taken from the book Teach Me to Pray by Andrew Murray 1828-1917
Page 49
Sickness helps to make us think seriously of God, and our souls, and the world to come. Most people in their days of health can find no time for such thoughts. They dislike them. They put them away. They count them troublesome and disagreeable.
Now a severe disease has a wonderful power of mustering and rallying these thoughts, and bringing them up before the eyes of a man's soul. Even a wicked king like Benhadad, when sick, could think of Elisha (2 Kings 8:8.) Even unbelieving sailors, when death was in sight, were afraid, and "cried every man to his god." (Jonah 1:5.) Surely anything that helps to make people think is good.
Taken from the book Sickness by JC Ryle 1816-1900
Page 10
Taken from the book A Pastor's Counsel: Wise Words for Weary, Wounded, and Wandering Sheep
Taken from the book The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson 1668
Page 63
Taken from the book The Pleasantness of a Religious Life by Matthew Henry 1714
Page 50
Taken from the book Letters of Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892
Page 136
Although you see the stars sometimes by their reflections in a puddle, or in the bottom of a well, yes, in a stinking ditch; yet the stars have their situation in heaven. So, though you see a godly man in a poor, miserable, low, despised condition for the things of this world, yet he is fixed in heaven, in the region of heaven: "Who has raised us up," says the apostle, "and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Eph 2:6).
Taken from the book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices
by Thomas Brooks 1652
Page 130
That we may be in a prepared state of mind when the waves of persecution roll over us, we ought in due time to habituate ourselves to such an event by meditating continually on the cross.
Taken from the book Calvin's Commentaries by John Calvin 1509-1564
Volum XXII Page 134
Taken from the book Select Sermons of George Whitefield
by George Whitefield 1714-1770
Page 95
Christ is put forward as the example of how we should love, and that is the most effective argument. How great was Christ's love? What kind of love was his? Christ voluntarily gave himself up to death because of his great love for us – the greatest love anyone could have, in fact. The apostle asks us to imitate him.
Martin Bucer 1491-1551
Taken from the book Reformation Commentary on the Bible New Testament
Vol X Galatians, Ephesians
Page 385
O Lord, breathe on me till I am one with Thee in the temper of my mind and heart and disposition, unto Thee do I turn. How completely again I realize my lost-ness without Thee.
Taken from the book If You Will Ask by Oswald Chambers 1874-1917
Page 47
Wherein does the beauty of the diamond lie, but in this, that it is a true diamond? If it is a counterfeit, it is worth nothing. So wherein does the beauty of a Christian lie, but in this, that he has the truth in the inward parts (Psalms 51:6)?
Taken from the book The Godly Man's Picture by Thomas Watson 1666
Page 101
'Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established' (Proverbs 16:3). By works he means not only every enterprise and business we undertake, but every puzzling, intricate and doubtful event we fear. These being once committed by an act of faith, and our wills resigned to His, besides the comfort we shall have in the issue, we shall have the present advantage of a well-composed and peaceful spirit.
Taken from the book The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel 1678
Page 215
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15 ESV)
The decision of heaven is nothing less than this, if any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him. So far is the love of the world from being the less dangerous on account of its falling so little under human censure, that it is the more so.
Taken from the book The Backslider: His Nature, Symptoms, and Recovery by Andrew Fuller 1754-1815
Page 28
It has long appeared to me that this species of covetousness will, in all probability, prove the eternal overthrow of more characters among professing people, than almost any other sin; and this because it is almost the only sin which may be indulged, and a profession of religion at the same time supported.
If a man be a drunkard, a fornicator, and adulterer, or a liar; if he rob his neighbor, oppress the poor, or deal unjustly, he must give up his pretenses to religion; or if not, his religious connections, if they are worthy of being so denominated, will give him up: but he may love the world, and the things of the world, and at the same time retain his character.
Taken from the book The Backslider: His Nature, Symptoms, and Recovery by Andrew Fuller 1754-1815
Page 28
| Taken from the book The Prayer of a Broken Heart: Expository Discourses on Psalm 51 by Robert Candlish 1873 |
God will do everything I cannot do, but He will do nothing He has constructed me to do.
Taken from the book The Quotable Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers 1874-1917
Page 231
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is the foundation of all clear views of religion. He that is well-grounded in it will not generally be found a waverer, and carried about by every wind of new doctrine. Any system of training which does not make a knowledge of Scripture the first thing is unsafe and unsound.
Taken from the book The Duties of Parents by JC Ryle 1816-1900
Page 9
Taken from the book Day by Day with DL Moody DL Moody 1837-1899
Page 89
I very much disagree with those who decry ministers of slender gifts, sneering at them, as though they ought not to occupy the pulpit at all. Are we, after all, as servants of God, to be measured by mere oratorical ability? Is this after the fashion of Paul, when he renounced the wisdom of words lest the faith of the disciples should stand in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God? If you could blot out from the Christian church all the minor stars, and leave nothing but those of the first magnitude, the darkness of this poor world would be increased seven fold.
Taken from the book Council for Christian Workers
by Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892
Page 59
An apostate may be an enlightened man (Heb vi 4), and a Felix tremble under conviction (Acts xxiv 25), and a Herod do many things (Mk of 20). It is one thing to have sin alarmed only by convictions, and another to have it crucified by converting grace.
Taken from the book A Sure Guide to Heaven by Joseph Alleine 1671
Page 22
A great faith is like the anchor or cable of a ship that holds it steady in the midst of storms. A Christian who is steeled with this heroic faith is settled in the mysteries of religion. The Spirit of God has so firmly printed heavenly truths upon his heart that you may we well remove the sun out of the firmament as remove him from those holy principles he has absorbed. Behold here, a pillar in the temple of God (Rev. 3:12).
Taken from the book The Lords Supper by Thomas Watson 1665
Page 70
Taken from the book The True Bounds of Christian Freedom
by Samuel Bolton 1645
Page 46
If I be convinced that there is any equity and beauty in that command which charges others to love me, forgive me, forbear with me, and restore me in meekness, why, then, should it be a grievous command that I should pay that debt of love and tenderness to others?
Taken from the book Christian Love by Hugh Binning 1627-1653
Page 38
Taken from the book Glorious Freedom by Richard Sibbes 1639
Page 106
Taken from the book The Secret Key To Heaven by Thomas Brooks 1665
Page 183
Taken from the book God Loves You by Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892
Page 26
Some sins of omission are like great men, that never go without followers.
George Swinnock 1627 -1673
Taken from the book A Puritan Golden Treasury
Page 265
True humiliation is no enemy but a real friend unto spiritual joy, to our rejoicing in God. The more a man is humbled for sin committed, the more he will rejoice in God, and rejoice that he can grieve for sin. He grieves, and rejoices that he can grieve for sin.
Taken from the book A Lifting Up For The Downcast by William Bridge 1649
Page 82
The Lord Jesus when He quickens them, gives them a voice and a tongue, and says to them, "Be dumb no more." God has no dumb children. It is as much a part of their new nature to pray, as it is of a child to cry. They see their need of mercy and grace. They feel their emptiness and weakness. They cannot do otherwise than they do. They must pray.
Taken from the book A Call to Prayer by JC Ryle 1816-1900
Page 5
O then, for what should my soul more pray, than for a clearer and stronger faith? 'I believe; Lord, help my unbelief!' I have many thousand times groaned to thee under this burden of remaining darkness and unbelief; I have many thousand times thought of the evidences of Christianity, and of the necessity of a lively, powerful, active faith. I have cried to thee night and day, 'Lord, increase my faith!'
Taken from the book Dying Thoughts by Richard Baxter 1683
Page 34
If we are struggling in prayer it is because the wiles of the enemy are getting the upper hand, and we must look for the cause in our lack of discipline. There are some things we have not been strenuously practicing. We used to pray in the morning, do we now? We used to commune with God over the Bible, do we now? We used to be in contact with God wherever we went, are we now? Put on the whole armor of God and continuously practice, then the wiles of the devil cannot get you unaware.
Taken from the book If You Will Ask by Oswald Chambers 1874-1917
Page 30
If this God be our God; or if our God be such a God, and could we but attain to that knowledge of the breath, and length, and depth, and height that is in him, as the apostle here prays, and desires we may, we should never be afraid of anything we shall meet with, or that shall assault us in this world.
Taken from the book All Loves Excelling by John Bunyan 1692
Page 39
To sing with the soul is to offer the only acceptable praise. We do not come together to amuse ourselves, to display our powers of melody, or our aptness in creating harmony. We come to pay our adoration at the footstool of the Great King, to whom alone be glory forever and ever. True praise is for God and for God alone.
Taken from the book Spurgeon on Praise Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892
Page 121
No saint shall die till he has attained the utmost of what he was designed to. As none of God's elect die before they are converted, so no converted ones die till they come to their maturity and ripen, like a shock of corn, for the harvest of God. God gathers only ripe fruits, though some are ripe sooner than others. And I may say, some are summer and other winter fruit.
Taken from the book Learning in Christ's School by Ralph Venning 1675
Page 36
Christians often have little faith in prayer as a power in real life. They do not embrace cordially, in feeling as well as in theory, the truth which underlies the entire scriptural conception and illustration of prayer, that it is literally, actually, positively, effectually, a means of power.
Taken from the book The Still Hour: Communion with God in Prayer by Austen Phelps 1859
... and most important of all, we must earnestly ask God in prayer to open our blind eyes to the meaning of the Scriptures; 'Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law' (Psalm 119:18); 'I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire... and anoint your eyes with eye-salve, that you may see' (Rev. 3:18).
Taken from the book The Art of Prophesying by William Bridge 1592
The law is meant to lead the sinner to faith in Christ, by showing the impossibility of any other way. It is the black dog to fetch the sheep to the shepherd, the burning heat which drives the traveler to the shadow of the great rock in a weary land.
Taken from the book Christ's Glorious Achievements
by Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892
God sometimes permits bodily diseases to cure the distempers of the soul. Have courage, then; make a virtue of necessity. Ask of God, not deliverance from your pains, but strength to bear resolutely, for the love of Him, all that He should please, and as long as He shall please.
Taken from the book The Practice of the Presence of God
by Brother Lawrence 1614-1691
I want to devote my life to the prayer that can bring down God's blessing.
Taken from the book
199 Treasures of Wisdom on Talking with God: Compiled from the Writings of Andrew Murray
Andrew Murray 1828-1917
Number 102
For God's sake, let us know how men are to be saved, and get to the work: to be forever deliberating as to the proper mode of making bread while a nation dies of famine is detestable trifling.
Taken from the book Lectures To My Students by Charles Spurgeon 1834-1892
Beware of a vague and indefinite Christianity. Vague, and indefinite, and indistinct religion may do very well in time of health. It will never do in the day of sickness. A mere formal, casual church membership may carry a person through the sunshine of youth and prosperity. It will break down entirely when death is in sight.
Nothing will do then but real heart-union with Christ. Christ interceding for us at God's right hand; Christ known and believed as our Priest, our Physician, our Friend. Christ alone can rob death of its sting and enable us to face sickness without fear. He alone can deliver those who through fear of death are in bondage. I say to everyone who wants advice; be acquainted with Christ. If ever you would have hope and comfort on the bed of sickness, be acquainted with Christ. Seek Christ. Apply to Christ.
Taken from the book Sickness by JC Ryle 1816-1900
The Spirit comforts by giving us some ravishing apprehensions of God's love: 'the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost' (Rom. 5:5). God's love is a box of precious ointment, and it is only the Spirit who can break this box open, and fill us with its sweet perfume.
Taken from the book The Godly Man's Picture by Thomas Watson 1666
It is said: "And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian" (Luke 4:27). So there were many poor, unconverted souls beside you under the Word that day, and it may be, to none of them was salvation sent that day but to you. O blessed Providence that set you in the way of mercy at that time!
It is clear, therefore, that the law still retains this use; it discovers sin in us. 'I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet' (Rom. 7:7); and similarly with all sins. This it does, after grace has come, as well as before grace; that which was sin before is sin now; grace does not alter the nature of sin, though it does set the believer free from the fruits and condemnation of it.
Taken from the book The True Bounds of Christian Freedom by Samuel Bolton 1645
When a Christian can walk in the midst of fiery trials, without his garments being singed, and has comfort and joy in the midst of everything (when like Paul in the stocks he can sing, which wrought upon the jailor) it will convince men, when they see the power of grace in the midst of afflictions. When they can behave themselves in a gracious and holy manner in such afflictions as would make others roar: Oh, this is the glory of a Christian.
Taken from the book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
By Jeremiah Burroughs 1648
Sufferers are our tutors; they educate us for the skies.
Taken from the sermon The Trial of Your Faith By CH Spurgeon Dec. 2,1888
When my sin finds me out; when the cock crows; when I hear the voice "Thou art the man;" the shock of the sudden discovery to me of my guilt, under the eye of Jesus, "turning and looking on me;" moves me to tears and prayer. It is prayer; perhaps for the first time truly prayer. It is the abrupt cry, - "Lord save me; I perish." Blessed be God even that is enough.
Taken from the book The Prayer of a Broken Heart: Expository Discourses on Psalm 51
by Robert Candlish 1873
It is the work of the shepherd to look after them and take care of those who trust Him. He has promised to do it. I once heard that when a sea captain was dying he said, "Glory to God! The anchor holds." He trusted in Christ. His anchor had taken hold of the solid Rock.
Taken from the book The Way to God by DL Moody 1837-1899
Taken from the book The Quotable Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers 1874-1917
Taken from the book Extracts from the Writings of Thomas Watson Thomas Watson 1620-1686
True religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us'.
Taken from the book The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal 1650-1678
Taken from the book The Mortification of Sin by John Owen 1656
let it alone, and it is sure to bear weeds.
Taken from the book The Duties of Parents by JC Ryle 1816-1900
Taken from the book
A Pastor's Counsel: Wise Words for Weary, Wounded, and Wandering Sheep
Phillip Doddridge 1702-1751
