The cold water of persecution is often thrown on the church’s face to fetch her to
herself when she is in a swoon of indolence or pride. FA163

A church is a soul-saving company or it is nothing. GF46

The elect church is saved that she may save, cleansed that she may cleanse, blessed
that she may bless. GF48

You shall not find on the roll of history that for a length of time any Christian
community has flourished after it has become negligent of the outside world. TN82

Whenever the church meets, either as a whole or representatively, there is a solemn
dignity cast about that assembly which is not to be found in a parliament of kings
and princes. TN277

The eyes of the world are intended to be checks upon the church. 359.95

We, as a Church, have had much reason to thank God, but how many more might
within these walls have been added to the number of this Church if it had not been
for the coldness of some, the indifference of others, the inconsistency of a few, and the
worldliness of many more! 657.605

Do-nothing churches are usually very jealous lest any should encroach on their
domains. 984.196

An unwatchful church will soon become an unholy church. 1022.653

It has been said that Dissenters in years gone by placed the clock outside the
meeting-house, so that they might never enter late, but the modern Dissenters place
the clock inside, that their preachers may not keep them too long. 1107.223

I wish late comers would remember David’s choice. You remember what part he
wished to take in the house of God: he was willing to be a doorkeeper, and that not
because the doorkeeper has the most comfortable berth, for that is the hardest post a
man can choose, but he knew that doorkeepers are the first in and the last out, and
so David wishes to be first at the service and the last at the going away. 1107.223

God will not cause his children to be born where there are none to nurse them; he will
be sure not to send converts to churches which do not want them. 1167.211

They (the early church) were so generous that they threw in their property into a
common stock lest any should be in need. They were not communists, they were
Christians; and the difference between a communist and a Christian is this—a
communist says, “All yours is mine;” while a Christian says, “all mine is yours;” and
that is a very different thing. The one is for getting, and the other for giving. 1167.213

Do not come in to weaken us, we are weak enough already. Do not come in to
adulterate our purity, we have enough impurity even now. Pray that God may make
you a real increase to our prayerfulness, to our holiness, to our earnestness, to our
higher life, and then come and welcome, and the Lord be with you! 1167.215

I have observed that churches which do not care for the outlying population speedily
suffer from disunion and strife. 1170.244

And then we must not talk about setting the church right, we must pray for grace
each one for himself, for the text does not say, “If the church will open the door,” but
“If any man hear my voice and open the door.” It must be done by individuals: the
church will only get right by each man getting right. 1185.432

The church is not perfect, but woe to the man who finds pleasure in pointing out her
imperfections. Christ loved his church, and let us do the same. I have no doubt that
the Lord can see more fault in his church than I can; and I have equal confidence that
he sees no fault at all. Because he covers her faults with his own love—that love
which covers a multitude of sins; and he removes all her defilement with that
precious blood which washes away all the transgressions of his people. 1770.152

If you come into the church of God, and expect to get among angels, you will be
mightily mistaken; and if the brethren should receive you, and hope that they are
receiving angels unawares, they will be mistaken, too. 1807.598

How very different the church looks to different eyes: one sees a thousand virtues to
admire, and another a world of evil to expose. 1841.284

A do-nothing professor is a merely nominal member, and a nominal member is a real
hindrance. He neither contributes, nor prays, nor works, nor agonizes for souls, nor
takes any part in Christian service, and yet he partakes in all the privileges of the
church. Is this fair? 1916.461

I notice in our churches that a few earnest men and women lead the way, and others
are sweetly drawn to follow them. 1916.462

Beloved, if it had been possible to destroy the church of God on earth, it would have
been destroyed long ago. 2186.56

The gallant vessel of the church ploughed the red waves of a crimson sea, her prow
scarlet with gore, but the ship itself was better for the washing, and sailed all the
more gallantly because of boisterous winds. 2186.56

Half the strength of the church goes in ambulance service towards the weak and
wounded. 2198.194

How many are quite unable to bear arms against the foe; for they need to be
themselves guarded from the enemy! 2198.194

The church of God owes very little to kings and princes and nobles. She owes far more
to fishermen and peasants. 2255.219

The world is all scaffolding; the Church of Christ is the true building. 2799.473

Stagnation in a church is the devil’s delight. 2802.514

I have known persons join the church, and after they have been a little while in it,
they have said, “There is no love there.” Now, when a brother says, “There is no love
there,” I know that he has been looking in the glass, and that his own reflection has
suggested the remark. 3065.549

The church nowadays is for the most part too strong, too wise, too self-dependent, to
do much. 3187.113

Alas! there are some who will always be contented enough if their own house
flourish, though God’s house should be utterly ruined. 3239.98

Never neglect the means of grace; God may bless us when we are not in His house,
but we have the greater reason to hope that He will when we are in communion with
His saints. ME691

It is an improvement certainly when we see others regular in coming twice, and some
who drop in on week nights to the lecture; but there are numbers who never attend
the prayer meeting, and so deny the Lord Jesus even the cheap love-token of their
prayers. Well, perhaps he is no great loser, for those who do not come to the prayer
meeting are not the best of church members, but a great deal the worst, as a rule. 808.248

There was a dear sister, now in heaven, who attended this Tabernacle for years,
though she was so deaf that she never heard a word that was spoken. The reasons
she gave for being here were that, at any rate, she could join in the hymns, and that,
had she stayed away, she would have felt as if she was disassociated from the people
of God; and other people, perhaps, might not have known the reason for her absence,
and it might, therefore, have been a bad example to them. 2891.326

It is the duty of every Christian—nay, it is the instinct of his spiritual life—to avow
the faith which he has received, and avowing it, he finds himself associated with
others who have made the same profession, and he assists them in holy labour. When
he is strong, he ministers of his strength to the weak; and when he is himself weak,
he borrows strength from those who just then may happen to be strong in the faith.
Where were our Christian institutions if church-fellowship were broken up? Plainly,
if it be right for one Christian to remain out of church-fellowship, it is right for all;
and then, if there were no churches, there would be no institutions, and where would
the gospel itself be? 3147.266

Persons go out on Monday to business who cannot go out on Sunday. It is raining on
Sunday, and it is very curious how rain on Sunday will keep some people in; their
health is so weak, though the same rain on Monday does not affect them at all in that
particular way. Have you never observed how some persons appear to be periodically
ill on Sundays? That seems to be a favourite day for being ill; and then they will say
that they cannot walk so far, and they would object to ride, the objection being,
probably, to going at all, at the bottom. 3166.499

Any hypocrite comes on a Sunday, but they do not, to my knowledge, all of them
come on Monday to the prayer-meeting, nor all to the week-night service on a
Thursday. I am pretty certain of this, though some of them may. Week-night
meetings and services are a powerful test. 3411.294

There are some who do not like close dealings, though that seems to me to be the
very ministry every Christian ought to prefer, a heart-searching, rein-trying
ministry. 825.451

When you get cold in heart, you find it inconvenient to come so far, and you go to a
fashionable place of worship, where your musical tastes can be gratified. Yes, when
grace declines, fancy rules the mind, and love of ease controls the body, and the soul
loses appetite, and grows greedy for empty phrases, and weary of the Word of God. 2241.59

The elect church is the favourite of heaven, the treasure of Christ, the crown of His
head, the bracelet of His arm, the breastplate of His heart, the very centre and core
of His love. ME161

On earth he exercises towards her all the affectionate offices of Husband. He makes
rich provision for her wants, pays all her debts, allows her to assume His name, and
to share in all His wealth. ME408

He calls the church, “My sister, My spouse.” As if He could not express His near and
dear relationship to her by any one term, He employs the two. “My sister”—that is,
one by birth, partaker of the same nature. “My spouse”—that is, one in love, joined
by sacred ties of affection that never can be snapped. “My sister” by birth, “My
spouse” by choice. “My sister” in communion, “My spouse” in absolute union with
myself. I want you who love the Saviour to get a full hold of this thought of near and
dear kinship under this head. Oh, how near akin Christ is to all His people! TN121

I see that foundation stone laid. Is there singing at the laying of it? No. There is
weeping there. The angels gathered round at the laying of this first stone; and look
ye men and wonder, the angels weep; the harps of heaven are clothed in sackcloth,
and no song is heard. They sang together and shouted for joy when the world was
made, why shout they not now? Look ye here and see the reason. That stone is
imbedded in blood, that corner stone must lie nowhere else but in its own gore. The
vermillion cement drawn from his own sacred veins must imbed it. And there he lies,
the first stone of the divine edifice. 267.339

There are denominations enough. If there were a new denomination formed the
thieves and robbers who have entered other “gardens walled round” would climb into
this also, and so nothing would be gained. DG36

There is nothing in Scripture which says, “Endeavouring to keep up your
ecclesiastical arrangements for centralization;” but the exhortation runs thus:
“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit.” 607.3

A plague upon denominationalism! There should be but one denomination: we
should be denominated by the name of Christ, as the wife is named by her husband’s
name. As long as the church of Christ has to say, “My right arm is Episcopalian, and
my left arm is Wesleyan, and my right foot is Baptist, and my left foot is
Presbyterian or Congregational,” she is not ready for the marriage. She will be ready
when she has washed out these stains, when all her members have “one Lord, one
faith, one baptism.” 2096.406

I believe that, after all, there is more truth in this world now with all the apparent
divisions of Christians by ten times than there would have been if we had been
united in a nominal union into some one great church, which might, perhaps, have
rotted as thoroughly as the old Church of Rome did before the days of Luther. 3395.104

The church would be one with itself if it were one with the truth. 1431.485

Some think it a great thing to be members of a popular sect, but when the great
curtain rolls up, and all things are seen as they are, and not as they seem, do you not
think that the church will be most commended which was truest to the teaching of
the Holy Ghost in everything? 1814.678

As a private member of a church, I have no right to be a member of a church whose
doctrines I do not accept; indeed, I ought not to regard it as a possibility that I could
remain to profess what I do not agree with. I am responsible, as a member of a
church, for all that is taught and all that is done by that church in its church
capacity; and if I am protesting in my heart, and yet in my proper person continue
part and parcel of that church, I am not acting truthfully to God. 2068.69

The sweepings of the lapidary’s shop, where diamonds are polished, are precious; how
much more should each member of the whole Church be jealous of every minute
particle of truth! 3440.9

The increase of the kingdom is more to be desired than the growth of a clan. SW12

The church needs young blood in its veins. Our strength for holding the faith may lie
in experienced saints but our zeal for propagating it must be found in the young. 1437.562

The only multiplication of the Church of God that is to be desired is that which God
sends: “Thou hast multiplied the nation.” If we add to our churches by becoming
worldly, by taking in persons who have never been born again; if we add to our
churches by accommodating the life of the Christian to the life of the worldling, our
increase is worth nothing at all; it is a loss rather than a gain. If we add to our
churches by excitement, by making appeals to the passions, rather than by
explaining truth to the understanding; if we add to our churches otherwise than by
the power of the Spirit of God making men new creatures in Christ Jesus, the
increase is of no worth whatever. 2265.339

By the way, looking round here, I think I know some of the persons present who
belong to neighbouring chapels. What business have you here? Why did you leave
your own minister? If I see one come into my place from the congregation of another
brother in the ministry, I would like to give him just a flea in his ear such as he may
never forget. What business have you to leave your minister? If everyone were to do
so, how discouraged the poor man would be. Just because somebody happens to come
into this neighbourhood, you will be leaving your seats. A compliment to me, you say.
I thank you for it; but now, in return, let me give you this advice: those who are going
from place to place are of no use to anybody. 537.610

To be driven from church to church, as some are, is a wretched business. To be like
others, changing their views as often as the moon; happy nowhere, miserable
everywhere, agreeing with nobody, not even with themselves, is a poor business. 2064.36

In the isolation of independency, tempered by the love of the Spirit which binds us to
all the faithful in Christ Jesus, we think the lovers of the gospel will for the present
find their immediate safety. DG36

Now-a-days people get a queer notion in their head, and they form what they call a
denomination. It is all wrong; there never ought to have been any denominations at
all, for according to Scripture, every church is independent of every other. There
ought to have been as many separate churches as there were separate opinions; but
denominations, which are the gathering up of those churches, I take it, ought not to
have existed at all. 149.335

An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an
abomination, hell’s laughter, heaven’s abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever
come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church. ME357

In proportion as a church is holy, in that proportion will its testimony for Christ be
powerful. WCo71

“Thou hast left thy first love.” “Is that serious?” saith one. It is the most serious ill of
all; for the church is the bride of Christ, and for a bride to fail in love is to fail in all
things. 1926.580

As a church we must love Jesus, or else we have lost our reason for existence. 1926.581

Will you follow the wicked policy of separating your own personal interests from
those of your Redeemer and his church? If so your ship is wrecked before it leaves the
harbour. You are no child of God if this principle holds the mastery over you. Your
salvation lies not in your separation from Christ and his church, but in your union
with them. Over the sea of life there is no passing in safety but in the vessel which
carries your Lord and his disciples. Are you going to sail in a separate boat, or will
you try to swim across the sea in your own strength? Then look to yourself, and
expect disaster. 1777.231

If it is right for one Christian not to confess Christ, and join a church, it must be
allowable for other Christians to do the same. Where would be churches, where
would be the continuance of gospel ordinances; and for the matter of that, who would
be bound to be a preacher if no one is even bound to make an open profession? 2019.221

If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never
have joined one at all; and the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have
spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of
it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us. 2234.633

I believe that every Christian ought to be joined to some visible church; that is his
plain duty, according to the Scriptures. God’s people are not dogs, else they might go
about one by one; but they are sheep, and therefore they should be in flocks. 2653.606

Some people say, “We belong to such-and-such a church, but we don’t approve of its
teaching or its practice.” What! you belong to it, and yet you do not approve of its
principles? Out of your own mouth you are condemned. If I unite with a church,
whose creed and catechism I do not believe, and whose ordinances I do not practise,
I am guilty of my own share in all the error that is there. It is no use for me to say, “I
am trying to undo the mischief;” I have no business to be there. 3055.427

Now, I know there are some who say, “Well, I hope I have given myself to the Lord,
but I do not intend to give myself to any church, because—” Now, why not? “Because
I can be a Christian without it.” Now, are you quite clear upon that? You can be as
good a Christian by disobedience to your Lord’s commands as by being obedient?
Well, suppose everybody else did the same, suppose all Christians in the world said,
“I shall not join the Church.” Why there would be no visible Church, there would
be no ordinances. That would be a very bad thing, and yet, one doing it—what is
right for one is right for all— why should not all of us do it? Then you believe that if
you were to do an act which has a tendency to destroy the visible Church of God, you
would be as good a Christian as if you did your best to build up that church? I do not
believe it, sir! nor do you either. 3411.295

But no man is put in any office in the church that he may be merely ornamental. We
are set in our places with an end and design, every man according to his charge—
every woman according to her charge. My dear brother, you do not occupy the post of
a minister or a pastor that you may be respected, but that you may “adorn the
doctrine of God your Saviour in all things.” You are not, my dear brother, ordained to
be an elder or a deacon in a church that our Lord may put honour upon you, though
he does put honour upon you in it, but that you may bring glory to God—that the
people may see the grace of God in you, and may magnify God in you. 1504.639

The vessel of the church can never be wrecked; she rocks and reels in the mad
tempest, but she is sound from stem to stern, and her Pilot steers her with a hand
omnipotently wise. Her bow is in the wave, but she divides the sea, and shakes off
the mountainous billows as a lion shakes the dew from off his mane! Fiercer storms
than those of the present have beat upon her, and yet she has kept her head to the
wind, and in the very teeth of hell’s tremendous tempests she has ploughed her
glorious way: and so she will till she reaches her appointed haven. BA283

God buries the workman, but the devil himself cannot bury the work. The work is
everlasting, though the workmen die. WE81

You can never kill the church till you can kill Christ; and you can never defeat her till
you defeat the Lord Jesus, who already wears the crown of triumph. 1928.611

Now, it is to the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ that his cause and his character
survive all the follies and all the sins of his professed people. There was an eminent
minister who once said that Christianity must be true because it survived pulpits;
and another one added that he felt more sure of its being true because it survived
ministers, for, taking them all round, they were more likely to destroy than build
up the cause of Christ. These things were said only in semi-earnest; but there is a
great deal of serious truth about them. The cause of Christ must be true because the
Master has survived his disciples; his wisdom has not been eclipsed by our folly, his
power has not been lessened by our weakness, the glory of his holiness has not been
beclouded by the unholiness of his people. 2420.314

Many a man collects people together, and yet he has not the fashioning of them. He
is the founder of a Christian congregation; but he does not live to see many
conversions. He gets together the raw material upon which another shall work. He
ploughs and he sows; but it wants another man to come and water the seed, and
perhaps another to gather in the harvest. Still, the sower did his work, and deserves
to be remembered for what he did. WE75

It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss our twelves, our twenties, our fifties to form
other Churches. We encourage our members to leave us to found other Churches;
nay, we seek to persuade them to do it. We ask them to scatter throughout the land,
to become the goodly seed which God shall bless. I believe that so long as we do this,
we shall prosper. I have marked other Churches that have adopted the other way,
and they have not succeeded. 626.238

To our minds, the Scripture seems very explicit as to how this Church should be
ordered. We believe that every Church member should have equal rights and
privileges; that there is no power in Church officers to execute anything unless they
have the full authorisation of the members of the Church. We believe, however,
that the Church should choose its pastor, and having chosen him, that they should
love him and respect him for his work’s sake; that with him should be associated the
deacons of the Church to take the oversight of pecuniary matters; and the elders of
the Church to assist in all the works of the pastorate in the fear of God, being
overseers of the flock. 393.362

Although myself much inclined to a Presbyterian union among our Churches, I
cannot but perceive in Holy Scripture that each church is separate and distinct from
every other Church; the whole being connected by those divers bonds and ligaments
which keep all the separate members together, but not so connected as to run into
one another to lose their separateness and individuality. 607.3

Christian labours, disconnected from the church, are like sowing and reaping without
having any barn in which to store the fruits of the harvest; they are useful but
incomplete. AM101

You know how heartily I rejoice in the preaching of Christ anywhere. But there is a
lack in all this labour; the corn is sown, but there is nobody to see to it afterwards;
nobody to gather it in. The way in which all this ought to be carried on is, not by
Associations, but by the Church. The Church of God is the true mother of converts; it
is from her womb that they must be born, and at her breast they must suck, and on
her knees must they be dandled. Those who go about and speak lightly of church
fellowship, and would have all Christians maintain themselves in separateness from
the Churches, do mischief, and are unwittingly the agents of evil; for the Church is,
under God, a great blessing to the world; and union with the church is intended to be
a method of confession which is not to be neglected. 520.402

Those who have worked in connection with a church of God have achieved permanent
usefulness; those who acted as separatist agencies, though they blazed for a while
before the public eye and filled the corners of the newspapers with spiritual puffery,
are now either altogether or almost extinct. 970.35

Oh, that all churches were abodes of love! What do we see in many places? No
contending earnestly for the faith, but much contending as to who shall be the
greatest. I heard, the other day, of a church which has come to nothing, and one told
me that the reason was that “everybody wanted to be boss.” PM75

Half the schisms in churches arise out of the real division which exists between idlers
and workers. 1916.465

Do what we may, Judas will come in; but let us not invite him: let us not make it easy
for a betrayer of Christ to be comfortable with us. AM311

To introduce unconverted persons to the church is to weaken and degrade it; and
therefore an apparent gain may be a real loss. SW13

Some of the most glaring sinners known to me were once members of a church; and
were, as I believe, led to make a profession by undue pressure, well-meant but
ill-judged. SW15

Great attempts have been made of late to make the church receive the world and
wherever it has succeeded it has come to this result—the world has swallowed up
the church. TN129

The church is not formed to be a social club, to produce society for itself; not to be a
political association, to be a power in politics; not even to be a religious confederacy,
promoting its own opinions: it is a body created of the Lord to answer His own ends
and purposes, and it exists for nothing else. TN133

A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy
error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor,
to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to
be. 897.597

A church may have a very short muster-roll, and yet it may be very dear to God, who
thinks more of quality than of quantity, more of obedience than of numbers. 1814.673

Where would have been our flourishing churches of today if our forefathers had
disdained to sustain them while they were yet in their infancy? 2601.603

The church has lost nothing—she has only seen one of her valiant captains pass
through the flood to join the triumphal band upon the other side; but as surely as the
church is one, she loses none of her members—as certainly as it is the same church
triumphant and militant, so certain is it that Christ loseth none of his people, and the
church really none of her strength by death. 783.663

The denominations of the Christian church are very like the divisions of a
ploughed field by means of furrows which mark the surface, but the land remains to
all intents and purposes one field. 1592.198

There is only one church. Here and there, earth and heaven make a little division to
our senses, but there is no division in the mind of God; he sees one general assembly
of all his people, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. 1689.628

Beloved, the true church is now in the forming, and is therefore not visible. There are
many churches; but as to the one church of Christ, we see it neither here nor there.
We speak of the visible church; but the term is not correct. The thing which we see is
a mixture of believers and mere pretenders to faith. The church which is affianced
unto the heavenly Bridegroom is not visible as yet; for she is in the process of
formation. 2096.402

By the term, the Church, I mean the whole body of believers throughout the world,
and in heaven, too, for they together form the one “general assembly and Church of
the firstborn, which are written in heaven.” 2783.284

It will be an ill day for the church and the world when the proposed amalgamation
shall be complete, and the Sons of God and the daughters of men shall be as one:
then shall another deluge of wrath be ushered in. ME467

Depend upon it, since Satan could not kill the church by roaring at her like a lion, he
is now trying to crush her by hugging her like a bear. 1311.484

There are some, in these apostate days, who think that the church cannot do better
than to come down to the world to learn her ways, follow her maxims, and acquire
her “culture.” In fact, the notion is that the world is to be conquered by our
conformity to it. This is as contrary to Scripture as the light is to the darkness. 1890.148

Someone was asking, the other day, how it was that the church, nowadays, was not
so separate from the world as it used to be; and one who heard the question
suggested that, possibly, the world had grown better; but another more truly said
that, probably, the church had grown worse. 2719.132

See him on his knees: he talks with God; he pours out his heart before the Lord; and
in return—whether the world chooses to believe it or not, it is a matter of fact with
us—in return the great Invisible Spirit pours into the praying heart a stream of
sacred comfort, stays it in its time of trouble, and gives it to rejoice in its moments of
sadness. 3428.497

While Committees waste their time over resolutions, do something. While Societies
and Unions are making constitutions, let us win souls. Too often we discuss, and
discuss, and discuss, while Satan only laughs in his sleeve. It is time we had done
planning, and sought something to plan. AM55

One marvels at the little things over which an assembly will waste hours of precious
time, contending as if the destiny of the whole world and the fate of the starry
heavens depended upon the debate. AM190

We accuse others to excuse ourselves. We are such fools as to dream that we are
better because others are worse, and we talk as if we could get up by pulling others
down. PP15

Dear friend, why compare yourself with the dwarfs around you? If you must
compare yourself with your fellow men, look at the giants of other days; but, better
still, relinquish the evil habit altogether; for Paul tells us it is not wise to compare
ourselves among ourselves. 998.368

Perhaps your power to find fault arises from your having so many faults yourself;
and if you were more sanctified, and more like Christ, you would fix your eye as well
upon the beauties of their character as upon their defects. 1522.105

Above all, do not begin to censure others; and when you see a poor brother down—ay,
when you see a child of God who has erred, and grossly sinned, do not begin
censuring him in bitterness, and giving him over to despair. If you had been in his
case, you might have done worse. Do I speak harshly? Any man who says, “If I had
been in that brother’s place I should have done better,” is a fool. He does not know
himself. The probabilities are that he would have done worse. Ah, Sir Pharisee!
you—yes, oh yes, you are a wonder! Marvellous is your purity! Splendidly you act!
What a paragon you are! If you were to see yourself in God’s light, you would see that
you are a mass of corruption, smelling of pride. That is what you are. The man who
begins to exult over his fallen brother is the likeliest man to fall himself. 1953.166

What if others are worse than you are, does that make you the better, or the less
guilty? What if others are not all they seem to be, perhaps neither are you; at any
rate, their hypocrisy shall not make your pretence to be true. 2445.617

It cannot but grieve gracious souls to see what pains men take to go to hell. They
know the evil of sin experimentally, and they are alarmed to see others flying like
moths into its blaze. ME615

The thought that we may ourselves be one day under the window should make us
careful when we are throwing out dirty water. With what measure we mete it shall
be measured to us again, and therefore let us look well to our dealings with the
unfortunate. Nothing makes me more sick of human nature than to see the way in
which men treat others when they fall down the ladder of fortune. PT98

There are none so tender as those who have been skinned themselves. 222.461

An escape from suffering would be an escape from the power to sympathise, and that
were to be deprecated beyond all things. 1090.22

Look at sinful men as mad, and you will pity them and bear with them. 1407.198

I do not know how else we could care for some poor creatures, if it were not that Jesus
teaches us to despise none and despair of none. 1411.249

A Jesus who never wept could never wipe away my tears. 2091.346

Many a man can be touched by the sorrow of another, but he is not touched with that
sorrow. He has feeling, but not fellow-feeling. 2148.318

When a king (David) has lost his throne, when a father has his own child in rebellion
against him, one says, “Whatever may have been his faults, this is not the time to
mention them.” When the poor heart is bleeding and the man is already suffering the
very extremity of misery, who would wish to add a single ounce to the crushing
weight that he has to carry? 3164.471

A heavy waggon was being dragged along a country lane by a team of oxen. The
axle-trees groaned and creaked terribly, when the oxen turning around thus
addressed the wheels:—“Halloa, there! why do you make so much noise? we bear all
the labour, and we, not you, ought to cry out!” Those complain first in our churches
who have least to do. The gift of grumbling is largely dispensed among those who
have no other talents, or who keep what they have wrapped up in a napkin. FA98

We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they
are indigenous to earth: and so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain
fast enough without any education. ME94

Every time the sheep bleats, it loses a mouthful, and every time we complain we lose
a blessing. PT43

How much of the staple of our conversation consists in complaint! 874.313

There are some who do little else but complain. They complain of the times, of the
weather, of the government, of their families, of their trade; if, for once, they would
complain of themselves, they might have a more deserving subject for fault-finding. 3021.19

As is usual with people on an incline, some who got on “the down grade” went further
than they intended, showing that it is easier to get on than to get off, and that where
there is no brake it is very difficult to stop. DG6

It is exceedingly difficult in these times to preserve one’s fidelity before God and one’s
fraternity among men. Should not the former be preferred to the latter if both cannot
be maintained? We think so. DG16

To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus. DG34

It is thought to be mere bigotry to protest against the mad spirit which is now loose
among us. Pan-indifferentism is rising like the tide; who can hinder it? We are all to
be as one, even though we agree in next to nothing. It is a breach of brotherly love to
denounce error. Hail, holy charity! Black is white; and white is black. The false is
true; the true is false; the true and the false are one. DG51

Complicity with error will take from the best of men the power to enter any
successful protest against it. DG66

It is well to understand that we are to be “first pure, then peaceable.” Our
peaceableness is never to be a compact with sin, or toleration of evil. ME155

Better die than sell your soul to the highest bidder. PP122

There is a time to do as others wish, and a time to refuse. PT32

But we are so gentle and quiet, we do not use strong language about other people’s
opinions; but let men go to hell out of charity to them. WCo33

Do you not know that a person who is silent when a wrong thing is said or done may
become a participator in the sin? WWi148

God has power to supply our needs, and therefore there can be no necessity for us to
do wrong in order that we may be fed; for he is not tied to any one means; he can
supply the wants of his children, not in one way, but in fifty ways; nay, not in fifty
ways, but in ways as countless as the sands upon the sea shore. 418.562

Do not say of such-and-such an error, “Oh, it is a mere matter of opinion.” If it be a
matter of opinion to-day, it will be a matter of practice to-morrow. No man has an
error of judgment, without sooner or later having an error in practice. 434.94

The gross example of the Vicar of Bray comes at once to one’s mind, who had been a
papist under Henry VIII, then a Protestant under a Protestant reign, then a papist
under Mary, then again a Protestant under Elizabeth; and he declared he had
always been consistent with his principle, for his principle was to continue the Vicar
of Bray. 651.532

If you yield to-day, you will have to yield more to-morrow. 1154.59

Be ye warned, then, against falling into the meanness of compromise, for compromise
is nothing better than varnished rebellion against God, a mockery of his claims, and
an insult to his judgment. 1188.461

We have in these days a race of time servers and word spinners to succeed the real
men. 1377.563

It is a wonderfully forgiving world if you will but quit your protest against it. 1794.437

Be more concerned to be right than to be happy. 2645.509

I fear that, sometimes, in our endeavours to be sweet in disposition, we have not been
strong in principle. “Charity” is a word that is greatly cried up nowadays; but, often,
it means that, in trying to be courteous, we have also been traitorous. 2826.170

If you love Christ but little, you will hate error but little. If you do not love the truth
at all, you will not hate error at all. 3516.284

These are mere chips in the porridge, neither souring nor sweetening: they give forth
no flavour, but they take the flavour of that which surrounds them; they are the
creatures of circumstances, not helms-men who avail themselves of stream and tide,
but mere drift-wood carried along by any and every current which may take hold on
them. 1418.326