God has always sought a humble people. He can use no other . . . There is always much need of heart preperation, in humility and separation, before God can consistently come. The depth of any revival will be determined exactly by the spirit of repentance that is obtained. In fact, this is key to every true revival born of God.
– Frank Bartleman –
(Azusa Street)
Two things will get you to leap out of yourselves into the promises of God today. One is purity, and the other is FAITH, which is kindled more and more BY PURITY.
– Smith Wigglesworth –
The more holy a man becomes, the more conscious he is of unholiness.
– Charles Spurgeon –
Unholiness in a preacher’s life will either stop his mouth from reproving, or the people’s ears from receiving.
– William Gurnall –
God’s holiness and His nature are not two things, they are but one. God’s holiness is His nature, and God’s nature is His holiness.
– Thomas Brooks –
Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it while you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.
– John Owen –
Have you by faith grasped Jesus? Are you by faith cleaving unto Him? Faith is the eye which sees the Ladder—the hand which touches it—the strength which holds it—the feet which mount it. Has the Holy Spirit opened to you this figure, which was new life to Jacob? There is a ready test. Is the world beneath your tread? Do you trample on its love, its fashions, its maxims, its principles?
– Henry Law –
In the early church, Christians never had any doubt that they must be different from the world; they, in fact, knew that they must be so different that the probability was that the world would kill them and certainly was that the world would hate them. But the tendency in the modern Church has been to play down the difference between the Church and the world. We have, in effect, often said to people: ‘As long as you live a decent, respectable life, it is quite all right to become a church member and to call yourself a Christian. You don’t need to be so very different from other people.’ [When] in fact, Christians should be easily identifiable in the world. Christ does not take us out of the world; He makes us different within the world.
– William Barclay –
from his commentary on Ephesians 1.3-4
Never be satisfied with the world’s standard of Christianity!
– JC Ryle –
from Holiness, Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots (1879)