Quotes by Clergymen - Page 14

Good is not good, where better is expected.
Thomas Fuller
Many a month of gloomy unconsciousness rolled over me, without date or notice. One thousand waves may welter over a sunk wreck, and be felt as one.
Charles Robert Maturin
Even innocent Adam is liker to forget God in a paradise, than Joseph in a prison, or Job upon a dunghill(376)[.]
Richard Baxter
Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.
Thomas Fuller
There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone...Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.
Oswald Chambers
We are not built for mountains and dawns and artistic affinities; they are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff of life, and this is where we have to prove our mettle. A false Christianity takes us up on the mount and we want to stay there. But what about the devil-possessed world? Oh, let it go to hell! We are having a great time up here.
Oswald Chambers
What if you had once seen hell open, and all the damned there in their easeless torments, and had heard them crying out of their slothfulness in the day of their visitation, and wishing that they had but another life to live, and that God would but try them once again; one crying out of this neglect of duty, and another of his loitering and trifling, when he should have been labouring for his life; what manner of person would you have been after such a sight as this ? (284)
Richard Baxter
Do I not well deserve to be turned into hell, if the scorns and threats of blinded men, if the fear of silly, rotten earth, can drive me thither (588)?
Richard Baxter
At heart men are antagonistic to the lordship of Jesus Christ. It is not antagonism to creeds or points of view, but antagonism encountered for My sake. Many of us awaken antagonism by our way of stating things; we have to distinguish between being persecuted for some notion of our own and being persecuted “for My sake.
Oswald Chambers
If you will study the history of Christ's ministry from Baptism to Ascension, you will discover that it is mostly made up of little words, little deeds, little prayers, little sympathies, adding themselves together in unwearied succession. The Gospel is full of divine attempts to help and heal, in the body, mind and heart, individual men. The completed beauty of Christ's life is only the added beauty of little inconspicuous acts of beauty -- talking with the woman at the well; going far up into the North country to talk with the Syrophenician woman; showing the young ruler the stealthy ambition laid away in his heart, that kept him out of the kingdom of Heaven; shedding a tear at the grave of Lazarus; teaching a little knot of followers how to pray; preaching the Gospel one Sunday afternoon to two disciples going out to Emmaus; kindling a fire and broiling fish, that His disciples might have a breakfast waiting for them when they came ashore after a night of fishing, cold, tired, discouraged. All of these things, you see, let us in so easily into the real quality and tone of God's interests, so specific, so narrowed down, so enlisted in what is small, so engrossed in what is minute.
Charles Henry Parkhurst
You can never be fully human unless you've discovered the humanity in other human beings. Don't close your eyes to the injustices of your own country by trying to solve the injustices of another country. That's an evasion of Christian responsibility.
Beyers Naudé
Believe it, brethren, God looks for more from England, than from most nations in the world; and for more from you that enjoy these helps, than from the dark, untaught congregations of the land (271).
Richard Baxter
Death is the dropping of the flower, that the fruit may, swell.
Henry Ward Beecher
What the meaning of this period of unemployment is, now.One way to get at that definition is to ask ourselves, “What is this time for?
Richard N. Bolles
If someone out of work knows only three words about their impending job-hunt, I’m willing to bet thosethree words will be: resumes/CV, interviews, and networking.
Richard N. Bolles
For many of us, the job-hunt offers a chance to make some fundamental changes in our whole life. It marksa turning point in how we live our life.It gives us a chance to ponder and reflect, to extend our mental horizons, to go deeper into the subsoilof our soul.It gives us a chance to wrestle with the question, “Why am I here on Earth?” We don’t want to feel thatwe are just another grain of sand lying on the beach called humanity, unnumbered and lost in the billionsof other human beings.We want to do more than plod through life, going to work, coming home from work. We want to findthat special joy, “that no one can take from us,” which comes from having a sense of Mission in our life.We want to feel we were put here on Earth for some special purpose, to do some unique work that onlywe can accomplish.We want to know what our Mission is.
Richard N. Bolles
The success of your job-hunt dependson you—with a little help from your friends. You must be in charge of it. You must plan it. You mustdirect it. You must know what works and what doesn’t work. Your job-hunt is by its very nature a“self-directed search.
Richard N. Bolles
Most job-hunters (and even a few resume writers)assume a resume’s purpose is to “sell you,” or secure you a job. No, no, no. Its only purpose is to get youan interview. Selling is what you do after you’re in the interview room. It’s your task, when you’re face to face, notthat piece of paper’s.
Richard N. Bolles
Just because you can’t find them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. You’ve got to change the way you’relooking for them. Because there are always job vacancies out there.
Richard N. Bolles
Self-introspection is the way to improve any company, any marriage, any nation. And any job-hunt.
Richard N. Bolles
High tech needs to be complemented by high touch.
Richard N. Bolles
While doubt cannot be expelled, it can be subdued.
Richard Baxter
There is only one thing to be done," went on the old lady, "be simple and quiet. Whenever your soul begins to be disturbed and anxious, put yourself in His Hands, and refuse to decide for yourself. It is easy, so easy.
Robert Hugh Benson
Service is the overflow which pours from a life filled with love and devotion.
Oswald Chambers
It is one thing to follow God's way of service if you are regarded as a hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God requires becoming a 'doormat' under other people's feet.
Oswald Chambers
Are you ready to be less than a mere drop in the bucket--to be so totally insignificant that no one remembers you even if they think of those you served? Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and exhausted--not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister?
Oswald Chambers
Some saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.
Oswald Chambers
No enthusiasm will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His worker, only one thing will, and that is a personal relationship to Himself which has gone through the mill of His spring-cleaning until there is only one purpose left--I am here for God to send me where He will.
Oswald Chambers
the difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will and the other from a strong won't
Henry Ward Beecher
The girl arrived; I thought her handsome; and as I doubted not that you would be mortified by my absence, I did most sincerely hope that she would be able to dissipate something of your ennui: for it is the fidelity of the heart alone that I value.
Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles
The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting.
Thomas Traherne
All people that on earth do dwellsing to the Lord with cheerful voiceHim serve with fear, his praise forth tellcome ye before him and rejoice
William Kethe
Most talk of a catholic spirit but it is only till they have been brought into the pale of their own church. This is downright sectarianism, not Catholicism. How can I act consistently, unless I receive and love all the children of God, whom I esteem to be such, of whatever denomination they may be?
George Whitefield
You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual. God wants you to be entirely his, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to “clear the numberless ascensions”* in about two minutes.
Oswald Chambers
..it is helpful to think of yourlife not in terms of work but in terms of music—particularly a symphony. A symphony, traditionally, hasfour parts to it—four movements, as they’re called. So does Life. There is the first movement, infancy;then the second movement, the time of learning; the long third movement follows, the time of working; andfinally, this fourth movement, traditionally called “retirement,” though now that is an increasinglycomplex concept. It is much better to think of it as the Fourth Movement, a triumphant, powerful ending tothe symphony of our life here on earth.
Richard N. Bolles
Every woman whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm. Every woman, by her virtue or her vice, by her folly or her wisdom, by her levity or her dignity, is adding something to our national elevation or degradation. A community is not likely to be overthrown where woman fulfills her mission, for by the power of her noble heart over the hearts of others, she will raise that community from its ruins and restore it again to prosperity and joy.
John Angell James
Liberty will not descend to a people. A people must raisethemselves to liberty. It is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
Charles Caleb Colton
Throughout the shadowy world of ghosts and demons there is no figure so terrible, no figure so dreaded and abhorred, yet dight with such fearful fascination, as the vampire, who is himself neither ghost nor demon, but yet who partakes the dark natures and and possesses the mysterious and terrible qualities of both.
Montague Summers
We are in the Dark to one another's Purposes and Intendments, and there are a thousand Intrigues in our little Matters, which will not presently confess their Design, even to sagacious Inquisitors...
Joseph Glanville
Pride slays thanksgiving ... A prideful man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.
Henry Ward Beecher
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.
John Henry Jowett
The door of the visible church is incomparably wider than the door of heaven (522)[.]
Richard Baxter
Though every man naturally abhorreth sorrow, and loves the most merry and joyful life; yet few do love the way to joy, or will endure the pains by which it is obtained; they will take the next that comes to hand, and content themselves with earthly pleasures, rather than they will ascend to heaven to seek it ;l and yet when all is done, they must have it there, or be without it (491).
Richard Baxter
What if you had seen haven open as Stephen did, and all the saints there triumphing in glory, and enjoying the end of their labours and sufferings, what a life would you lead after such a sight as this! Why, you will see this with your eyes before it be long.Thou hast the more cause to doubt a great deal, because thou never didst doubtl and yet more because thou hast been so careless in thy confidence. What do these expressions discover, but a wilful neglect of thy own salvation? As a shipmaster that should let his vessel alone, and mind other matters, and say, I will venture it among the rocks, and sands, and gulfs, and waves, and winds; I will never touble myself to know wheter it shall come safe to the harbour; I will trust God with it; it will speed as well as other men's vessels do. Indeed, as well as other men's that are as careless and idle, but not so well as other mens's that are diligent and watchful. What horrible abuse of God is this, for men to pretend that they trust God with their souls only to cloak their own wilful negligence! (290-291)
Richard Baxter
I am persuaded our discontents, and murmurings with out unpleasing condition, and our covetous desires after more, are not so provoking to God, nor so destructive to the sinner, as our too sweet enjoying, and rest of spirit in a pleasing state. . . . Our rest is our heaven, and where we take our rest, there we make our heaven(457).
Richard Baxter
Many lose heaven because they are ashamed to go in a fool's coat thither.
William Gurnall
If we listen and observe carefully the dying can teach us important things that we need to learn in preparing for the end of our own life's journey.
Robert L. Wise
Emotion is not simply an overplus of feeling; it is life lived at white-heat, a state of wonder. To lose wonder is to lose the true element of religion.
Oswald Chambers
Gratitude is born in hearts that take time to count up past mercies.
Charles E. Jefferson
The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.
Henry Ward Beecher
To follow Jesus today is to follow a madman according to the ideals of present day civilization. We have the idea that our civilization is God-ordained, whereas it has been built up by ourselves. We have made a thousand and one necessities until our system of civilized life is as cast iron, and then we apologize to the Lord for not following Him.
Oswald Chambers
..in any situation we may ever find ourselves, nomatter how much we feel we are at the mercy of vast immutable forces that are totally beyond our control,we can always find something that is within our control, however small, and work on that. Sometimesthat may only change a little, sometimes it may change a lot. You just never know. But what we do knowis that by working on even that 2 percent, it saves us from a feeling of complete powerlessness.
Richard N. Bolles
The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God's call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude.
Oswald Chambers
We must continually maintain an adventurous attitude toward Him, despite any potential personal risk.
Oswald Chambers
The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatest greatness is.
Phillip Brooks
You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.
Oswald Chambers
If one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action, deserves eternal damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve, whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God!
George Whitefield
Above all sins, guard against bold or arrogant ones. You are not beyond the danger of such. If caught in the web of presumptuous sin, call quickly to God for help. If you hesitate, you only give Satan time to entangle you more tightly. But if you cry out to God in true repentance, He will come at once to rescue you. The sooner you yield to the Spirit, the less damage is done to your soul.
William Gurnall
May your criminal enjoyments vanish as a shadow! may your ill-gotten wealth leave you without a resource; and may you yourself remain alone and deserted, to learn the vanity of these things, which now divert you from better pursuits!
Antoine François Prévost d'Exiles
Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses the conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God.
Oswald Chambers