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Christian Life: Quotations from Burning Words

The Christian life is not knowing or hearing, but doing.— F. W. ROBERTSON

The only satisfactory manifestations of religious character and life are associated with the reciprocal influences of spiritual experience and aggressive activity.— J. McC. HOLMES

No true work since the world began was ever wasted; no true life since the world began has ever failed. Oh, understand those two perverted words "failure" and "success," and measure them by the eternal, not by the earthly standard. When after thirty obscure, toilsome, unrecorded years in the shop of the village carpenter, one came forth to be preëminently the man of sorrows, to wander from city to city in homeless labors, and to expire in lonely agony upon the shameful cross - was that a failure? Nay, my brethren, it was the death of Him who lived that we might follow His footsteps, it was the life, it was the death of the Son of God.— F. W. FARRAR

Each sinner transformed into a saint is a new token of a redeeming power among men. That token declares to observers, not that there is a King in heaven, not that there is a "Father of Lights," but that there is a Saviour. And this is the testimony that the world especially needs.— WILLIAM ARTHUR

It takes practice to use one's eyes, even when God has opened them. And there are some believers who never get beyond confounding a doctrinal statement of a truth with a living exemplification of that truth.— H. CLAY TRUMBULL

There is just now a great clamor and demand for "culture;" but it is not so much culture that is needed as discipline.— PROF. SHEDD

The strength that we want is not a brute, unregulated strength; the beauty that we want is no mere surface beauty; but we want a beauty on the surface of life that is from the central force of principle within, as the beauty on the cheek of health is from the central force at the heart.— MARK HOPKINS

The way to be strong is to act on the credit of strength being given. Strength is received in the act of obeying. When the path of duty is clear, it is want of faith to continue asking for strength, and not to act upon it.— G. W. MYLNE

Great talents are not, before God, a substitute for love for Himself; the possession of a profound intellect does not free any man from the obligations resting on the heart for purity and holiness; a reputation for attainments in science does not settle the question whether he is righteous before his Maker; refined manners are not, in the sight of God, a substitute for the graces of the Spirit; God does not justify man on the ground of human learning; attainments in chemistry, anatomy, geology, botany, astronomy, or skill in sculpture and painting, these do not prepare a man to die. --— ALBERT BARNES

Emotion, feeling - these are well enough if they feed the springs of power. Prayer, praise, preaching - these are all good and never to be dispensed with; but if the life to which they minister have no manifestation out of them, it is a failure.— J. G. HOLLAND

Though to us - the toilers - it is night still, to Him - the Master who watcheth our labor, and to them-our fellows whose labor is done - "there is light with a clear sky." Though to us, down below, there is but the deafening roar, the shriek of discord, the wail of pain, blent in one jargon of strange sounds which have no chime; to them, above in the high, calm silence, there are heard only the striking of the hour which tells of the sure speed of time, and the voice of the joybells already ringing for the world's great bridal.— Wm. M. PUNSHON

So I take my life as I find it, as a life full of grand advantages that are linked indissolubly to my noblest happiness and my everlasting safety. I believe that Infinite Love ordained it, and that, if I bow willingly, tractably, and gladly to its discipline, my Father will take care of it.— J. G. HOLLAND

The religious life is a struggle, and not a hymn.— MADAME DESTAËL

God grant that as our horizon of duty is widened, our minds may widen with it; that as our burden is increased, our shoulders may be strengthened to bear it. God grant to us that spirit of wisdom and understanding, uprightness, and godly fear, without which, even in greatest things there is nothing; with which, even in the smallest things there is every thing.— DEAN STANLEY

In his soul, as in a mirror, were concentrated all the lights radiating from every point of observation - whether human or Divine - and from his soul as from a mirror, these lights were reflected back in every possible combination of beauty and sublimity.— SIR J. STEPHENS

The demand of the day is for a higher standard and style of Christian life. Every follower of Christ must represent His religion purely, loftily, impressively, before that multitude of "Bible-readers" whose only Bible is the Christian,— T. L. CUYLER

If a man is as passionate, malicious, resentful, sullen, moody, or morose, after his conversion as before it, what is he converted from or to ?— JOHN ANGEL JAMES

Show me the professing Christian whose social character is as unlovely after profession as it was before, and though there may be an increase of knowledge and of some other things connected with religion, there is no progress.— JOHN ANGEL JAMES

Here is where a great many professed disciples of Jesus fail of being real disciples. They have regularly enlisted, have put on their uniform, and there they stand before the recruiting office, with knapsacks and blankets on their backs, with muskets at "carry," marking time to the martial music - although some of them don't do even that; and there they have stood since their enlistment, never marching a rod.— H. CLAY TRUMBULL

Some time ago when in a mine, looking through its dark corridors, I every now and then saw the glimmer of a moving lamp, and I could track it all through the mine. The reason was that the miner carried it on his hat, it was a part of himself, and it showed where he went. I said, "Would that in this dark world every miner of the Master carried his lamp to show where he walks,"— T. L. CUYLER

You may be quite sure that if little light comes from a Christian character, little light comes into it. We must have the glory sink into us before it can be reflected from us. But let the love of Jesus become the master-principle of our hearts, and there will be no halting or irresolution; no parleying with temptation; no seeking to explain away our duty under color of deliberating to discover what it is; no looking one way and walking another; but with undivided souls, and with enthusiastic devotion, we shall do only and always the will of Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us.— Wm. M. TAYLOR

In self-examination, take no account of yourself by your thoughts and resolutions in the days of religion and solemnity; examine how it is with you in the days of ordinary conversation and in the circumstances of secular employment.— JEREMY TAYLOR

Count not that thou hast lived that day, in which thou hast not lived with God.— RICHARD FULLER

Life, like war, is a series of mistakes; and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest false steps. Poor mediocrity may secure that; but he is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organize victory out of mistakes.— F. W. ROBERTSON

Looking back the way we've come, What a sight, O Lord, we see ! All the failures in ourselves, All the love and strength in Thee. Yet it seemed so dark before Would that we had trusted more! Is thine a life of devotion, of meekness and humility, of supreme attachment to heavenly and divine things; of selfdenial and of universal benevolence? If after candid examination you find reason to hope that you are one of God's dear children washed with His blood, sanctified by the Spirit, clothed with the righteousness of the Well Beloved - cherish that hope as the gift of heaven. Dismiss your fears; bind yourself to be the Lord's in an everlasting covenant; think less of yourself and more and more of the name, the cross, the glory of your Redeemer. Henceforth "let your light shine."— GARDINER SPRING

O Lord and Sovereign of my Life, take from me the spirit of idleness, despair, love of power, and unprofitable speaking.— OLD RUSSIAN LITURGY

It is they who glorify, who shall enjoy Him; they who deny themselves, who shall not be denied; they who labor on earth, who shall rest in heaven; they who bear the cross, who shall wear the crown; they who seek to bless others, who shall be blessed.— THOMAS GUTHRIE

The truest worship is a life; All dreaming we resign; We lay our offerings at Thy feet,- Our lives, O God, are Thine!— JOHN WEISS

Live for the other life. Endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Work by faith; work by hope; work by love; work by courage; work by trust; work by the sweet side of your mind; and so be like Christ, until you dwell with Him.— H. W. BEECHER

Bearing bravely the evils that beset us, doing cheerfully the duties that are near, trusting in God, guided by Christ, fear shall not confound us in the way, and death shall find us ready.— HENRY GILES

The Christian's life on this side and beyond the grave is essentially the same, differing only as a song which, at a certain point, changes from the minor to the major key, and thenceforth wells along with still more glorious harmonies.— J. McC. HOLMES

All the graces of Christianity always go together. They so go together that where there is one, there are all, and where one is wanting, all are wanting. Where there is faith, there are love, and hope, and humility; and where there is love, there is also trust; and where there is a holy trust in God, there is love to God; and where there is a gracious hope, there also is a holy fear of God.— JONATHAN EDWARDS

He who lives to God rests in his Redeemer's love, and is trying to get rid of his old nature - to him every sorrow, every bereavement, every pain, will come charged with blessings, and death itself will be no longer the "king of terrors," but the messenger of grace.— F. W. ROBERTSON

The death-bed testimony impresses us only as it is the outgrowth of a life. The life is the test. Triumphant living is better than triumphant dying.— E. P. TENNEY

O happy life! life hid with Christ in God! So making me At home and by the wayside and abroad, Alone with Thee.— ELIZABETH PAYSON PRENTISS