The act of faith, which separates us from all men, unites us for the first time in real brotherhood; and they who, one by one, come to Jesus and meet Him alone, next find that they are come to the city of God “and to an innumerable company.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
As we look upon that agony and those tearful prayers, let us not only look with thankfulness; but let that kneeling Saviour teach us that in prayer alone can we be forearmed against our lesser sorrows; that strength to bear flows into the heart that is opened in supplication; and that a sorrow which we are made able to endure is more truly conquered than a sorrow which we avoid.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
Conflict, not progress, is the word that defines man’s path from darkness into light. No holiness is won by any other means than this, that wickedness should be slain day by day, and hour by hour.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
He that has his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the weakening or the paralyzing of that trust.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
If you want to live in this world, doing the duty of life, knowing the blessings of it, doing your work heartily, and yet not absorbed by it, remember that the one power whereby you can so act is, that all shall be consecrated to Christ, and done for His sake.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 -1910)
True faith, by a mighty effort of the will, fixes its gaze on our Divine Helper, and there finds it possible and wise to lose its fears. It is madness to say, “I will not be afraid; “it is wisdom and peace to say, “I will trust and not be afraid.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
The gospel is not speculation but fact. It is truth, because it is the record of a person who is the Truth.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
No man loveth God except the man who has first learned that God loves him.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
It is not my strength that grows, so much as God’s strength in me, which is given more abundantly as the days roll. It is so given on one condition. If my faith has laid hold of the infinite, the exhaustless, the immortal energy of God, unless there is something fearfully wrong about me, I shall be getting purer, nobler, wiser, more observant of His will; gentler, like Christ; every way fitter for His service, and for larger service, as the days increase.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)
The Gospel is not a mere message of deliverance, but a canon of conduct; it is not a theology to be accepted, but it is ethics to be lived. It is not to be believed only, but it is to be taken into life as a guide.
Alexander MacLaren (Pastor, 1826 – 1910)