Centrality of Christ

The Effect of Scripture – William Perkins

The effect of scripture: it converts people, and even although it is completely contrary to their thinking and desires, it wins them to itself.

– William Perkins –
from The Art of Prophesying, 1592

Christ Counted the Sin and Sinner – John Bunyan

He did not only die, but died such a death, as indeed cannot be expressed. He was content to be counted the sinner: yea, to be counted the sin of the sinner, nor could this but be odious to so holy a Lamb as he was, yet willing to be this and thus for that love that he bare to men.

– John Bunyan –
from All Loves Excelling, 1692

Masculine Holiness – CT Studd

Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin! The time of waiting is past! The hour of God has struck! War is declared! In God’s Holy Name let us arise and build! ‘The God of Heaven, He will fight for us’, as we for Him. We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us. Should such men as we fear? Before the world, yes, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world, we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts. We will a thousand times sooner die trusting only our God, than live trusting in man. And when we come to this position the battle is already won, and the end of the glorious campaign in sight. We will have the real Holiness of God, not the sickly stuff of talk and dainty words and pretty thoughts; we will have a Masculine Holiness, one of daring faith and works for Jesus Christ.

– CT Studd –

Christ Demands All

A young university girl said to a Christian worker in England, “I would give the world if I had the Christian testimony you have.” The dear sweet old lady said, “My dear, that’s exactly what it cost me, the world.” Christ demands all.

The Difference Between the Weakest and Strongest Christian – Thomas Brooks

The weakest Christian is as much justified, as much pardoned, as much adopted, and as much united to Christ as the strongest, and hath as much interest and propriety in Christ as the highest and noblest Christian that breathes.

– Thomas Brooks –
from Heaven on Earth: A Treatise on Christian Assurance, 1654

The Memory of Christ’s Suffering – Thomas Watson

If the manna was to be kept in the ark, that the memory of it should be preserved, how should the death and suffering of Christ be kept in our minds as a memorial?

– Thomas Watson –
from The Lords Supper, 1665

Why the Church Stays Indoors – Samuel Chadwick

Why does the Church stay indoors? They have a theology that has dwindled into a philosophy, in which there is no thrill of faith, no terror of doom, and no concern for souls. Unbelief has put out the fires of passion, and worldliness garlands the altar of sacrifice with the tawdry glitter of unreality.

– Samuel Chadwick –