It is a sure mark of grace to desire more.
– Robert Murray M’Cheyne –
Holiness
To Understand God You Must Resemble Him – DL Moody
Those who resemble God are the most likely to understand God. If a man is not willing to turn from sin, he will not know God’s will. God will not reveal His secrets to him. But, if a man is willing to turn from sin, he will be surprised to see how the light will come in!
– DL Moody –
from The Way to God
God Uses All Seasons of Life – Thomas Watson
As the Lord makes use of all the seasons of the year, frost and heat, to produce the harvest, so all prosperous and adverse providences are for the promoting of the work of holiness in the soul.
– Thomas Watson –
from The Godly Man’s Picture
The Holier a Man Becomes – Charles Spurgeon
I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him.
– Charles Spurgeon –
Sin is the Hardest of All Masters – JC Ryle
Sin is, in truth, the hardest of all masters. In its service there is plenty of fair promises, but an utter dearth of performance. Its pleasures are but for a season. Its wages are sorrow, remorse, self-accusation, and too often death. They that sow to the flesh, do indeed reap corruption.
– JC Ryle –
from Expository Thoughts on the Gospels [Matt 27:1-10], 1856
The Last Thing Jesus Said to the Church – Vance Havner
The last word of our Lord to the church was not the Great Commission. The last thing He said to the church was “Repent.” He said that to five out of seven.
– Vance Havner –
(see Revelation 2-3)
No Hunger for God – Florence Allshorn
We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time till the juice we have put into them runs out; but, we may have brought them no hunger for God—because that hunger is no ache in our own heart—nor brought them anywhere near to the end of self.
– Florence Allshorn –
The Invasion of the World Into the Church – John R. Mott
The invasion of the Church by the world is a menace to the extension of Christ’s Kingdom. In all ages conformity to the world by Christians has resulted in lack of spiritual life and a consequent lack of spiritual vision and enterprise. A secularized or self-centered Church can never evangelize the world.
– John R. Mott –
Bring Lust to the Gospel – John Owen
Bring thy lust to the gospel, not for relief, but for further conviction of its guilt: look on him whom thou hast pierced, and be in bitterness. Say to thy soul, What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace, have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Ghost for his grace? Do I thus requite the Lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, which the blesses Spirit hath chosen to dwell in? And can I keep myself out of the dust? What can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How shall I hold up my head with any boldness before him? Do I account communion with him of so little value that for this vile lust’s sake I have scarce left him any room in my heart? How shall I escape, if I neglect so great salvation? In the mean time, what shall I say to the Lord? Love, mercy, grace, goodness, peace, joy, consolation; I have despised them all, and esteemed them as a thing of naught, that I might harbour a lust in my heart.
– John Owen –
from The Mortification of Sin