Category Archives: Quotable Quotes

November 3, 2023 · 2:00 pm

“The church under the cross” by Herman Bavinck

“The whole New Testament, which was written from the viewpoint of the “church under the cross,” speaks the same language. Believers, not many of whom are wise, powerful, or of noble birth (1 Cor. 1:26), should not expect anything on earth other than suffering and oppression (Rom. 8:36; Phil. 1:29).

They are sojourners and foreigners (Heb. 11:13); their citizenship is in the heavens (Phil. 3:20); they do not look at the things that can be seen (2 Cor. 4:18), but mind the things that are above (Col. 3:2).

Here they have no lasting city but are looking for the city that is to come (Heb. 13:14).

They are saved in hope (Rom. 8:24) and know that if they suffer with Christ they will also be glorified with Him (Rom. 6:8; 8:17; Col. 3:4).

Therefore, along with the entire groaning creation, they wait with eager longing for the future of Christ and for the revelation of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:19, 21; 1 Cor. 15:48ff.), a glory with which the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing (Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17).

Nowhere in the New Testament is there a ray of hope that the church of Christ will again come to power and dominion on earth.

The most it may look for is that, under kings and all who are in high positions, it may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity (Rom. 13:1; 1 Tim. 2:2).

Therefore, the New Testament does not first of all recommend the virtues that enable believers to conquer the world but, while it bids them avoid all false asceticism (Rom. 14:14; 1 Tim. 4:4–5; Titus 1:15), lists as fruits of the Spirit the virtues of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23; Eph. 4:32; 1 Thess. 5:14ff.; 1 Pet. 3:8ff.; 2 Pet. 1:5–7; 1 John 2:15; etc.).

It is a constant New Testament expectation that to the extent to which the gospel of the cross is spread abroad, to that extent the hostility of the world will be manifested as well. Christ is destined to be a rising for many but also to be a falling for many, and to bring out into the open the hostile thoughts of many.

He has come into the world for judgment (κρισις, krisis) so that those who do not see may see and that those who see may become blind (Matt. 21:44; Luke 2:34; John 3:19–21; 8:39; Rom. 9:32–33; 1 Cor. 1:23; 2 Cor. 2:16; Heb. 4:12; 1 Pet. 2:7–8).

In the last days, the days that precede the return of Christ, the wickedness of human beings will rise to a fearful level.

The days of Noah will return. Lust, sensual pleasures, lawlessness, greed, unbelief, pride, mockery, and slander will erupt in fearful ways (Matt. 24:37ff.; Luke 17:26ff.; 2 Tim. 3:1ff.; 2 Pet. 3:3; Jude 18).

Among believers as well there will be extensive apostasy. Temptations will be so powerful that, if it were possible, even the elect would be caused to fall.

The love of many will grow cold, and vigilance will diminish to the extent that the wise will fall asleep along with the foolish virgins.

Apostasy will be so general that Jesus can ask whether at his coming the Son of Man will still find faith on earth (Matt. 24:24, 44ff.; 25:1ff.; Luke 18:8; 1 Tim. 4:1).”

–Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, vol. 4, Ed. John Bolt, and Trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 4: 674.

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October 6, 2023 · 10:00 am

“Joyful tidings that maketh a man sing, dance, and leap for joy” by William Tyndale

“Evangelion (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word and signifieth good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that maketh a man’s heart glad, and maketh him sing, dance, and leap for joy.

Just as when David had killed Goliath the giant glad tidings came unto the Jews, that their fearful and cruel enemy was slain and that they were delivered out of all danger.

In like manner is the Evangelion of God (which we call gospel; and the New Testament) joyful tidings. The gospel is published by the apostles throughout all the world, of Christ, the right David, who hath fought with sin, with death, and the devil, and overcome them.

Whereby all men that were in bondage to sin, wounded with death, overcome of the devil, are, without their own merits or deservings, loosed, justified, restored to life and saved, brought to liberty and reconciled unto the favor of God, and set at one with Him again, which tidings as many as believe laud, praise, and thank God and are glad, sing and dance for joy.”

–William Tyndale, “A Pathway Into the Holy Scripture,” in Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to Different Portions of the Holy Scriptures, ed. Henry Walter, vol. 1, The Works of William Tyndale (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1848), 1: 8–9. Tyndale was executed on this day in 1536.

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September 23, 2023 · 4:00 pm

“O unfading Beauty of the most high God” by Anselm of Canterbury

“O how good and sweet Thou art, Lord Jesus, to the soul that seeks Thee, Jesus, Redeemer of the captives; Saviour of the lost; Hope of the exiles; Strength of those that labour; Repose of the anxious spirit; dear Solace and sweet Refreshment of the tearful soul that runs toiling after Thee; Crown of them that conquer; sole Reward and only Joy of the citizens above; full Fountain overflowing with all graces; glorious Offspring of great God; Thyself great God.

Great God, let all things that are in heaven above and in earth beneath bless Thee, for Thou art great and great is Thy Name.

O unfading Beauty of the most high God, and purest Brightness of Eternal Light; O Life enlivening all life, O Light enlightening all light, and sustaining in eternal splendour the thousand thousand thousands of lights that blaze before the Throne of Thy Divine Majesty, on from the distant dawn of their first early shining.

O Thou welling Fountain, hidden from mortal sight in the eternal and exhaustless outgushing of Thy fresh limpid floods, Whose springs have no beginning, Whose deeps are deep and infinitely deep, Whose height attains no limit, Whose breadth broadens onwards marginless for ever, Whose purity is unruffled through eternity!

The Bosom of unfathomable God pours thee forth from the unsearchable abyss of His own profound, Life begetting Life, Light begetting Light, God begetting God, eternal God begetting eternal God, infinite God, God infinite and in all things coequal with Himself. And, Of Thy fulness we have all received (John 1:16).

Thee too, all-plentiful Spring of every good, priceless Light of sevenfold grace, Thee, O most merciful Spirit, I implore to vouchsafe to illuminate me by Thy visitation, whereinsoever, by reason of my frailty, I have too feebly grasped the truth of Thy majesty and grandeur, and whatsoever of all that I have understood of Thy Divine precepts I have by carnal wantonness disesteemed; so may I correct what is amiss, and, helped by Thee, whom, voyaging over this life’s sea of perils, I have invoked to my assistance, may I be guided without shipwreck to the harbour of eternal peace.

Thee, too, I entreat, all-pitiful Father, that, as Thou didst first make me and then remake by the Passion of Thy only-begotten Son, so Thou wouldst give me to think and love whatsoever tends to Thy glory. I am frail and unequal to my undertaking, but do Thou grant me by diligent confession to attain the grace of redemption and salvation.

And whatever work I undertake henceforth, make it tend altogether, by Thy grace, through Thy grace, and in Thy grace, to Thine only praise.

Keep me henceforth from sin, teach me to be more constant and courageous in good works; and so long as I live in this body, let me show myself some way Thy servant. And so grant me, after my soul’s exit from the flesh, to obtain pardon of all my sins and reap life everlasting.

Through Him who with Thee liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.”

–Anselm of Canterbury, Saint Anselm’s Book of Meditations and Prayers (London: Burns and Oates, 1872), 130–132.

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September 18, 2023 · 12:00 pm

“I want to live with Him day by day” by John Newton

“I hope your soul prospers.

I do not ask you if you are always filled with sensible comfort: but do you find your spirit more bowed down to the feet and will of Jesus, so as to be willing to serve Him for the sake of serving Him, and to follow Him, as we say, through thick and thin; to be willing to be anything or nothing, so that He may be glorified?

I could give you plenty of good advice upon this head; but I am ashamed to do it, because I so poorly follow it myself.

I want to live with Him day by day, to do all for Him, to receive all from Him, to possess all in Him, to live all to Him, to make Him my hiding-place and my resting-place.

I want to deliver up that rebel Self to him in chains; but the rogue, like Proteus, puts on so many forms, that he slips through my fingers.

But I think I know what I would do if I could fairly catch him.

My soul is like a besieged city: a legion of enemies without the gates, and a nest of restless traitors within, that hold a correspondence with them without; so that I am deceived and counteracted continually.

It is a mercy that I have not been surprised and overwhelmed long ago: without help from on high it would soon be over with me.

How often have I been forced to cry out, O God, the heathen are got into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled, and defaced all thy work!

Indeed it is a miracle that I still hold out.

I trust, however, I shall be supported to the end, and that my Lord will at length raise the siege, and cause me to shout deliverance and victory.

Pray for me, that my walls may be strengthened and wounds healed.”

–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 2: 122-123.

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September 16, 2023 · 12:00 pm

“When I hear a knock at my study door, I hear a message from God” by John Newton

“I remember to have heard Newton say, when speaking of his continual interruptions,

‘I see in this world two heaps, of human happiness and misery.

Now, if I can take but the smallest bit from from one heap and add to the other, I carry a point.

If, as I go home, a child has dropped a halfpenny, and if, by giving it another, I can wipe away its tears, I feel I have done something.

I should be glad, indeed, to do greater things, but I will not neglect this.

When I hear a knock at my study door, I hear a message from God.

It may be a lesson of instruction or perhaps a lesson of patience.

But, since it is His message, it must be interesting.'”

–Richard Cecil, “Memoirs of the Author, with general Remarks on his Life, Connections, and Character, by the Rev. Richard Cecil,” The Works of John Newton, Volume 1 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 1: 76.

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September 15, 2023 · 12:00 pm

“He is the glad Creator” by C.S. Lewis

“We desire, like St Paul, not to be unclothed but to be re-clothed: to find not the formless Everywhere-and-Nowhere but the promised land, that Nature which will be always and perfectly—as present Nature is partially and intermittently—the instrument for that music which will then arise between Christ and us.

And what, you ask, does it matter? Do not such ideas only excite us and distract us from the more immediate and more certain things, the love of God and our neighbours, the bearing of the daily cross? If you find that they so distract you, think of them no more.

I most fully allow that it is of more importance for you or me today to refrain from one sneer or to extend one charitable thought to an enemy than to know all that angels and archangels know about the mysteries of the New Creation.

I write of these things not because they are the most important but because this book is about miracles. From the title you cannot have expected a book of devotion or of ascetic theology. Yet I will not admit that the things we have been discussing for the last few pages are of no importance for the practice of the Christian life.

For I suspect that our conception of Heaven as merely a state of mind is not unconnected with the fact that the specifically Christian virtue of Hope has in our time grown so languid. Where our fathers, peering into the future, saw gleams of gold, we see only the mist, white, featureless, cold and never moving.

The thought at the back of all this negative spirituality is really one forbidden to Christians. They, of all men, must not conceive spiritual joy and worth as things that need to be rescued or tenderly protected from time and place and matter and the senses. Their God is the God of corn and oil and wine.

He is the glad Creator. He has become Himself incarnate. The sacraments have been instituted. Certain spiritual gifts are offered us only on condition that we perform certain bodily acts.

After that we cannot really be in doubt of His intention. To shrink back from all that can be called Nature into negative spirituality is as if we ran away from horses instead of learning to ride.

There is in our present pilgrim condition plenty of room (more room than most of us like) for abstinence and renunciation and mortifying our natural desires. But behind all asceticism the thought should be, ‘Who will trust us with the true wealth if we cannot be trusted even with the wealth that perishes?’ Who will trust me with a spiritual body if I cannot control even an earthly body?

These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bare-back, confident and rejoicing, those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the King’s stables.

Not that the gallop would be of any value unless it were a gallop with the King; but how else—since He has retained His own charger—should we accompany Him?”

–C.S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study (New York: HarperOne, 2001), 264–266.

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September 14, 2023 · 12:00 pm

“You are only quite a little fellow in a wide world” by J.R.R. Tolkien

“‘Then the prophecies of the old songs have turned out to be true, after a fashion!’ said Bilbo.

‘Of course!’ said Gandalf. ‘And why should not they prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!’

‘Thank goodness!’ said Bilbo laughing, and handed him the tobacco-jar.”

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1937), 305.

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September 13, 2023 · 12:00 pm

“May the great Teacher make every Scriptural truth food to our souls” by John Newton

“Let us give ourselves to the study of the Word, and to prayer. And may the great Teacher make every Scriptural truth food to our souls.

I desire to grow in knowledge, but I want nothing which bears that name that has not a direct tendency to make sin more hateful, Jesus more precious to my soul, and at the same time, to animate me to a diligent use of every appointed means, and an unreserved regard to every branch of duty.

I think the Lord has shown me in a measure there is a consistent sense running through the whole Scripture, and I desire to be governed and influenced by it all.

Doctrines, precepts, promises, warnings, all have their proper place and use: and I think many of the inconveniences which obtain in the present day, spring from separating those things which God hath joined together, and insisting on some parts of the Word of God almost to the exclusion of the rest.”

–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 2: 113-114.

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September 12, 2023 · 12:00 pm

“I derive from the Gospel a peace worth more than a thousand worlds” by John Newton

April 16, 1772

“My dear Friend,

I hope the Lord has contracted my desires and aims almost to the one point of study, the knowledge of His truth. All other acquisitions are transient, and comparatively vain.

And yet, alas! I am a slow scholar; nor can I see in what respect I get forward, unless that every day I am more confirmed in the conviction of my own emptiness and inability to all spiritual good.

And as, notwithstanding this, I am still enabled to stand my ground, I would hope, since no effect can be without an adequate cause, that I have made some advance, though in a manner imperceptible to myself, towards a more simple dependence upon Jesus as my all in all.

It is given me to thirst and to taste, if it is not given me to drink abundantly; and I would be thankful for the desire.

I see and approve the wisdom, grace, suitableness, and sufficiency of the Gospel salvation; and since it is for sinners, and I am a sinner, and the promises are open, I do not hesitate to call it mine.

I am a weary, laden soul; Jesus has invited me to come, and has enabled me to put my trust in Him. I seldom have an uneasy doubt, at least not of any continuance, respecting my pardon, acceptance, and interest in all the blessings of the New Testament.

And, amidst a thousand infirmities and evils under which I groan, I have the testimony of my conscience, when under the trial of His Word, that my desire is sincerely towards Him, that I choose no other portion, that I allowedly serve no other master.

When I told our friend lately to this purpose, he wondered, and asked, “How is it possible, that, if you can say these things, you should not be always rejoicing?”

Undoubtedly I derive from the Gospel a peace at bottom, which is worth more than a thousand worlds; but so it is—I can only speak for myself—though I rest and live upon the truths of the Gospel, they seldom impress me with a warm and lively joy.

In public, indeed, I sometimes seem in earnest and much affected; but even then it appears to me rather as a part of the gift entrusted to me for the edification of others, than as a sensation which is properly my own.

For when I am in private, I am usually dull and stupid to a strange degree, or the prey to a wild and ungoverned imagination; so that I may truly say, when I would do good, evil, horrid evil, is present with me.

Ah, how different is this from sensible comfort! And if I was to compare myself to others, to make their experience my standard, and was not helped to retreat to the sure word of God as my refuge, how hard should I find it to maintain a hope that I had either part or lot in the matter!

What I call my good times, are when I can find my attention in some little measure fixed to what I am about; which indeed is not always, nor frequently, my case in prayer, and still seldomer in reading the Scripture.

My judgment embraces these means as blessed privileges, and Satan has not prevailed to drive me from them; but in the performance I too often find them tasks. I feel a reluctance when the seasons return, and I am glad when they are finished.

O what a mystery is the heart of man! What a warfare is the life of faith! (at least in the path the Lord is pleased to lead me.)

What reason have I to lie in the dust as the chief of sinners, and what cause for thankfulness that salvation is wholly of grace!

Notwithstanding all my complaints, it is still true that Jesus died and rose again; that He ever liveth to make intercession, and He is able to save to the uttermost.

But, on the other hand, to think of that joy of heart in which some of His people live, and to compare it with that apparent deadness and want of spirituality which I feel, this makes me mourn.

However, I think there is a Scriptural distinction between faith and feeling, grace and comfort: they are not inseparable, and perhaps, when together, the degree of the one is not often the just measure of the other.

But though I pray that I may be ever longing and panting for the light of His countenance, yet I would be so far satisfied, as to believe the Lord has wise and merciful reasons for keeping me so short of the comforts which He has taught me to desire and value more than the light of the sun.”

–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 2: 109-111.

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September 11, 2023 · 12:00 pm

“There is an all-sufficiency in Jesus” by John Newton

“We are called to an honourable service; but it is arduous. What wisdom does it require to keep the middle path in doctrines, avoiding the equally dangerous errors on the right hand and the left!

What steadiness, to speak the truth boldly and faithfully in the midst of a gainsaying world! What humility, to stand against the tide of popularity!

What meekness, to endure all things for the elect’s sake, that they may be saved!

“Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Corinthians 2:16) We are not in ourselves, but there is an all-sufficiency in Jesus.

Our enemy watches us close; he challenges and desires to have us, that he may sift us as wheat: he knows he can easily shake us if we are left to ourselves.

But we have a Shepherd, a Keeper, who never slumbers nor sleeps. If He permits us to be exercised, it is for our good.

He is at hand to direct, moderate, and sanctify every dispensation. He has prayed for us that our faith may not fail. And He has promised to maintain His fear in our hearts, that we may not depart from Him.

When we are prone to wander, He calls us back.

When we say, ‘my feet slip,’ His mercy holds us up.

When we are wounded, He heals.

When we are ready to faint, He revives.

The people of God are sure to meet with enemies, but especially the ministers. Satan bears them a double grudge.

The world watches for their halting, and the Lord will suffer them to be afflicted, that they may be kept humble, that they may acquire a sympathy with the sufferings of others, that they may be experimentally qualified to advise and help them, and to comfort them with the comforts with which they themselves have been comforted of God.

But the Captain of our salvation is with us. His eye is upon us. His everlasting arm is beneath us.

In His name therefore may we go on, lift up our banners, and say, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that has loved us.’ (Romans 8:31, 36)

The time is short: yet a little while, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes, and put a crown of life upon our heads with His own gracious hand.”

–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Volume 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1988), 2: 95-96.

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