“On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.” – John Owen, The Glory of Christ, 7.
Category Archives: Quotes
A Blessed Beating
“[The gospel] is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. 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, St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, 206.
Convince Them with Holiness
“Without a sacred weight of character, the most splendid [preaching] will win only a short-lived applause; with it, the plainest scriptural instructions are eloquent to win souls. Eloquence may dazzle and please; holiness of life convinces.” – Dabney, Evangelical Eloquence, 263.
No Complaint Here
“Pastors should not complain about their congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God. Congregations have not been entrusted to them in order that they should become accusers of their congregations before God and their fellow human beings.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 37.
Imprinting Work
“The preacher’s business is to take what is given him in the Scriptures, as it is given to him, and to endeavor to imprint it on the souls of men. All else is God’s work.” – R.L. Dabney, Evangelical Eloquence, 37.
A Ministry of Growing Power
“A ministry of growing power must be one of growing experience.
“The soul must be in touch with God and enjoy golden hours of fresh revelation. The truth must come to the minister as the satisfaction of his own needs and the answer to his own perplexities; and he must be able to use the language of religion, not as the nearest equivalent he can find for that which he believes others to be passing through, but as the exact equivalent of that which he has passed through himself. There are many rules for praying in public, and a competent minister will not neglect them; but there is one rule worth all the rest put together, and it is this: Be a man of prayer yourself; and then the congregation will feel, as you are entering an accustomed presence and speaking to a well-known Friend.
“There are arts of study by which the contents of the Bible can be made available for the edification of others; but this is the best rule: Study God’s Word diligently for your own edification; and then, when it has become more to you than your necessary food and sweeter than honey or the honey-comb, it will be impossible for you to speak of it to others without a glow passing into your words which will betray the delight with which it has inspired yourself.”
– James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models: The Yale Lectures on Preaching, 53-54. HT: Murray Capill.
Study for Sweetness
“Study God’s Word diligently for your own edification and then, when it has become more to you than your necessary food and sweeter than honey or the honeycomb, it will be impossible for you to speak of it to others without a glow passing into your words which will betray the delight with which it has inspired yourself.” – James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models: The Yale Lectures on Preaching, 1891