Holiness

Godliness is a Joy and Pleasure – Richard Baxter

Will you say that godliness is unpleasant, because it makes a man sorry for his ungodliness?… Would you wish a man that hath lived so long in sin and misery, to have no sorrow for it in his return—especially when it is but a healing sorrow, preparing for remission, and not a sorrow joined with despair, as theirs will be that die impenitently?

– Richard Baxter –
1615-1691

A flame of Fire – Jim Elliot

Psalms 104:4; “He makes his ministers a flame of fire.” Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of “other things.” Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame.

– Jim Elliot –
from his journal, July 7, 1948

No Flowers Without Roots – JC Ryle

We cannot have flowers without roots, or fruit without trees. We cannot have the fruit of the Spirit, without vital union with Christ, and a new creation within.

– JC Ryle –
from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Volume 2: Luke 6:27-38), 1856

True Repentance – George Whitefield

True repentance will entirely change you; the bias of your souls will be changed, then you will delight in God, in Christ, in His law, and in His people.

– George Whitefield –

May Jesus Always Be in the Thoughts – Henry Scougal

Oh! that the holy life of the blessed Jesus may be always in my thoughts, and before mine eyes, till I receive a deep sense and impression of those excellent graces that shined so eminently in him; and let me never cease my endeavours, till that new and divine nature prevail in my soul, and Christ be formed within me.

– Henry Scougal –
from The Life of God in the Soul of Man