Christian Writers and Preachers

I have sadly neglected the cultivation of my natural talents. Let me now attend to it, imploring the divine blessing. I will form a plan of study and exercise, having a special reference to the faults of my intellect, whether natural or superinduced.

—William Wilberforce

The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. And the Spirit can do nothing of himself; but what he hears from the Father and Son; and it is impossible it should be otherwise, considering not only the unity of their nature, but also of their will and design.

—John Flavel

As a boy, I was not a Christian. I did not have the privilege of growing up in a home where Christ was known & loved. God spoke to me through a street preacher who quoted the words of Jesus, “Come unto me, all ye that labour & are heavy laden & I will give you rest.

— A. W. Tozer

The application of Christ, by the work of regeneration, is that which yield unto men all the sensible sweetness and refreshing comforts that they have in Christ, and in all that he has done, suffered, or purchased for sinners.

—John Flavel

Through the infinite goodness of God, I felt what I spoke; he enabled me to treat on divine truth with uncommon clearness: and yet I was so sensible of my defects in preaching, that I could not be proud of my performance, as at some times; and blessed be the Lord for this mercy.

—David Brainerd

If you want to pray strategically, in a way which would please God, pray that God might raise up men who see the beauty of the Lord our God & would begin to preach it & hold it out to people, instead of offering peace of mind, deliverance from cigarettes, a better job & cottage.

Oh, methinks, if he would punish me for my sins, it would not wound my heart so deep to offend him: but though I sin continually, yet he continually repeats his kindness to me! Oh, methinks I could bear any sufferings; but how can I bear to grieve and dishonour this blessed God!

—David Brainerd

The teaching of the New Testament is that God and spiritual things can be known finally only by a direct work of God within the soul. The true understanding of God must be by personal spiritual awareness. The Holy Spirit is indispensable.

—AW Tozer

Men say they don’t want to give up their freedom. There is no freedom until a man knows the Lord Jesus Christ. A man is slave to sin, to his passions and lusts until Christ snaps the fetters and sets him free.

—D. L. Moody

O what reason of thankfulness have I on account of this retirement! I find that I do not, and it seems I cannot, lead a Christian life when I am abroad, and cannot spend time in devotion, Christian conversation, and serious meditation, as I should do.

—David Brainerd

It is a petty view of our Father’s love and wisdom which demands or expects an answer according to our desires, apart from His wisdom. We see hardly one inch of the narrow lane of time. To our God eternity lies open as a meadow.

—Amy Carmichael

We must believe that God is love & that, being love, He cannot harm us but must ever do us good. Then we must throw ourselves before Him & pray with boldness for whatever we know our good & His glory require, and the cost is no object!

—AW Tozer

Oh speak and spare not, whatever thou believest may conduce, either to the amending my faults, the strengthening my weakness, the building me up in love, or the making me more fit, in any kind, for the Master’s use!

—John Wesley

The resurrection is the day of Christ’s crowning. He was Son and Messiah already before His incarnation. He was that also in His humiliation. But then His inner being was hidden under the form of a servant.

—Herman Bavinck

Have we a bitter zeal, inciting us to strive sharply and passionately with them that are out of the way? Or is our zeal the flame of love, so as to direct all our words with sweetness, lowliness, and meekness of wisdom?

—John Wesley

Men don’t like to have Christ preached faithfully; but it is just what they don’t like to have that we must give them. I learned that long ago. The very truths that men object to, and that make them angry, are the truths that bring them to the cross of Christ.

—D. L. Moody

Oh, how heavy is my work, when faith cannot take hold of an almighty arm, for the performance of it! Many times have I been ready to sink in this case. Blessed be God, that I may repair to a full fountain.

—David Brainerd

It was not to the unsaved that the words “Do not fret” were spoken, but to God-fearing persons capable of understanding spiritual things. We Christians need to watch & pray lest we fall into this temptation by an irritable spirit under the stress & strain of life.

—AW Tozer

All supposed leadings of God should be tested by the Word of God. The Bible is God’s revealed will. Any leading that contradicts the plain teaching of the Bible is certainly not the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not contradict Himself.

—R. A. Torrey

God of patience and endurance,

Steadfast as the steadfast stars

Stands Thy promise, Thine assurance

Unto Thine ambassadors:

I, thy God, will strengthen thee . . .

Where I am, there thou shalt be.

—Amy Carmichael

Cross and crown, death and resurrection, humiliation and exaltation lie on the same line. As Jesus Himself put it after His resurrection: It was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and so enter His glory (Luke 24:26).

—Herman Bavinck

We might well pray for God to invade & conquer us, for until He does we remain in peril. The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come only by the defeat of our old life. Safety & peace come only after we have been forced to our knees.

The victory of Calvary was won that night in the garden of Gethsemane. The calm majesty of His bearing in meeting the awful onslaughts of Pilate’s judgment hall and of Calvary was the outcome of the struggle, agony, and victory of Gethsemane.

—R. A. Torrey

It is quite the fashion to contemptuously contrast the pray-ers with the do-ers – forgetting that in the history of the church the real do-ers have been the pray-ers, that those who have done the most in the church’s history have been, without exception, men and women of prayer.

—R. A. Torrey

The Bible has a way of putting more in a single sentence than other writers can put in a whole book. Yet there are some who would tell us that the Bible is no more God’s book than other books. Either they have not read the Bible, or they have read it with their eyes closed.

—R. A. Torrey

Let us ask that the stillness in which only His lights can shine may be ever around us, the stillness of the calm of His presence. And oh, let us ask that in this dark world we may so shine that others may see to read His love in the face of our loving Jesus.

—Amy Carmichael

Let us bear a faithful testimony, in our several stations, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, and with all our might recommend that inward and outward holiness without which no man shall see the Lord!

—John Wesley

The great aim and scope at all Christ’s ordinances and officers, are to bring men into union with Christ, and so build them up to perfection in him; or to unite them to, and confirm them in Christ.

—John Flavel

Allowing then that a life of religion were a life of misery; that a life of wickedness were a life of happiness; and, that a man were assured of enjoying that happiness for the term of threescore years…

—John Wesley

Since the fall of man the earth has been a disaster area & everyone lives with a critical emergency. Nothing is normal. Everything is wrong & everyone is wrong until made right by the redeeming work of Christ & the effective operation of the Holy Spirit.

—AW Tozer