Think it not hard if you get not your will, nor your delights in this life; God will have you to rejoice in nothing but himself.
--Samuel Rutherford
And because you complain so much of sin, I ask you why doth not your conscience more accuse you of the sin of unthankful denying or extenuating the mercies of God, and no more magnifying them? And for overlooking so much the meritorious righteousness of Christ, while you complain for want of more of your own? I would not deceive you by telling you that you need none in yourself and that all your righteousness is out of you in Christ: I know that your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, and the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, and he that doth righteousness is righteous. But at what bar or tribunal? Only at that of grace, which supposeth the reconciling, pardoning righteousness of Christ. It is not at the bar of rigorous justice according to the law, which requireth innocence to justification; there Christ only is your righteousness, and you have none and must dream of none but that which floweth from his and stands in subordination to it and is you title to it and improvement of it, even your thankful accepting a free-given Savior, Head and Lord, and pardon and the Spirit to sanctify you more and fit you for communion with God and for glory. Esteem most, choose first, and seek most the love of God the Father, the grace of Christ, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, and this subordinate righteousness will certainly prove the meritorious perfect righteousness of Christ to be for you, instead of a perfect righteousness of your own.
-Margaret Baxter
"Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.”--Martin Luther, from his commentary on the book of Galatians.
As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note. Nor do we know how much of the pleasures even of life we owe to the intermingled sorrows. Joy cannot unfold the deepest truths, although deepest truth must be deepest joy. Cometh white-robed Sorrow, stooping and wan, and flingeth wide the doors she may not enter. Almost we linger with Sorrow for every love. -George MacDonald
Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
-Martin Luther
I think I see more of Christ than I ever saw; and yet I see but little of what may be seen.
-Samuel Rutherford
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."--Jim Elliott
We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. --Dietrich Bonhoeffer
It is a mercy that I am in any measure more aware of my danger and have any desire to be holy.
-Margaret Baxter
When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
...God by Jesus, takes away . . .all my sins, His own wrath, and my deserved condemnation! All good things . . .are treasured up in Christ, were procured for me by Christ, flow to me through Christ, and are conferred on me for the sake of Christ!
--James Smith
Every one of us is, even from his mother's womb, a master craftsman of idols.
-John Calvin
"The more purely God's word is preached, the more deeply it pierces and the more kindly it works." -- WILLIAM GOUGE
It was good for them to suffer here, for they shall reign hereafter--to bear the cross below, for they shall wear the crown above; and that not their will but His was done on them.
--Elizabeth Prentiss
The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying. -John Flavel
If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. -Saint Augustine
True liberty consists only in the power of doing what we ought to will, and in not being constrained to do what we ought not to will. -Jonathan Edwards
Let me speak to your conscience. Where is your zeal? Where is your zeal for the glory of God, and for extending the Gospel throughout the world? You know well, that it is very low. You know well, that your zeal is a little feeble glimmering spark, that just lives, and no more—it is like a thing ready to die. Surely there is a fault somewhere, if this is the case. This state of things ought not to be. You, the child of God—you, redeemed at so glorious a price—you, ransomed with such precious blood—you, who are an heir of glory such as no tongue ever yet told, or eye saw; surely you ought to be a man of another kind. Surely your zeal ought not to be so small.
~ J.C. Ryle
I want to see little children adorning every home as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside. I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish and more and more loving because they have come. I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused.
-Elizabeth Prentiss
