A man, and a Christian man too, may keep up all the outward appearances of religion; but if he has guilt on his conscience, or allows sin in his soul, he may frequent the Lord’s house but it will be without profit; he may worship but it will be without peace.
– James Thomas Holloway –
from The Analogy of Faith
Perfect love of God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength will not happen until we are no longer compelled to think about ourselves.
– Bernard of Clairvaux –
from On the Love of God
A man must first love God or have his heart united to him, before he will esteem God’s good his own, and before he will desire the glorifying, and enjoying of God as his happiness.
– Jonathan Edwards –
from A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections
Do you continually remind those under your care, that the one rational end of all our studies, is to know, love, and serve the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent?
– John Wesley –
from Scriptural Christianity
What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned soul! What riches of grace does free forgiveness exhibit! To forgive all, to forgive fully, to forgive freely, to forgive ever! Here is a constellation of wonders; and when I think of how great my sins were, how dear were the precious drops which cleansed me from them, I am in a maze of wondering worshiping affection!
– Charles Spurgeon –
The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted.
– Jonathan Edwards –
He who lives without prayer – he who lives with little prayer – he who seldom reads the Word – he who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high – he will be the man whose heart will become dry and barren; but he who calls in secret on his God – who spends much time in holy retirement – who delights to meditate on the words of the Most High – whose soul is given up to Christ – such a man must have an overflowing heart; and as his heart is, such will his life be.
– Charles Spurgeon –
Oh what a Jesus!
– NRJohnson –
If a man had to wade breast deep through a thousand hells to obtain Christ–it would be well worth the venture, if at the last he might but say, “My Beloved is mine–and I am His!”
– Charles Spurgeon –