It is a rule to which I know of no exception that, to prosper in any work, you must
have an enthusiasm for it. AM194

It is to be feared that many give their force to their worldly pursuits, and their
feebleness to their religion. GS281

Believe me, brothers and sisters, if you never have sleepless hours, if you never have
weeping eyes, if your hearts never swell as if they would burst, you need not
anticipate that you will be called zealous; you do not know the beginning of true zeal,
for the foundation of Christian zeal lies in the heart. The heart must be heavy with
grief and yet must beat high with holy ardour; the heart must be vehement in desire,
panting continually for God’s glory, or else we shall never attain to anything like the
zeal which God would have us know. 639.393

Lady Powerscourt says somewhere, “If we want to be thoroughly hot with zeal, we
must go near to the furnace of the Saviour’s love.” 639.395

How is it we can walk so leisurely when humanity demands that we run? 876.341

Faith is force. Why, even when men have been mistaken, if they have believed the
mistake they have displayed more power than men who have known the truth, but
have not heartily believed it; for the force that a man hath in dealing with his fellow
men lies very much in the force of conviction which his beliefs have over his own soul.
1294.278

When the world calls us fanatics we are nearing that point of ardour which is our
Lord’s due. If we were indeed fanatical it would be an error; but when we are called
so, since the world’s judgment is erroneous, we may conclude that we are only so
earnest that the cold world is inconvenienced by our warmth. 2085.268

Much zeal is very natural, but very worthless, because its source is not divine. 2184.30

“Surely,” saith one, we ought to modify our beliefs by public opinion, and the current
of thought.” I say “no” a thousand times. The incorruptible word of God liveth and
abideth for ever, and is incapable of modification. 1473.269

If truth bears a stern aspect we will not veil it. If there be an offence in the cross we
will not conceal it. This shall be my answer to those who would have us attune
ourselves to the spirit of the age,—I know no Spirit but one, and he is unchanging in
every age. 1789.381

Do not, therefore, at any time sit down in despair because of evil times; for the times
are always evil in one respect or another. 1998.688

This boastful nineteenth century demands a new God, a new Christ, a new heaven, a
new hell, a new gospel, and everything else new except a new heart. 2037.442

Each age has its own special fret. It is not a care for God—that is not the care of any
age; but the care of the age is some vanity or another, and as a standing thing it is
the ambition to keep up with your fellows, to be respectable, and to keep up
appearances. 2040.475

I warn you against the spirit of this age—the spirit of the world. Do not lay yourselves
under the influence of the spirit of the world; for even if you are truly saved, its
pestilential influence will injure you. 2087.297

It is a reading age, a preaching age, a working age, but it is not a praying age. 3137.152

Man seems to think of everything but of his God; to read everything but his Bible; to
feel the influence of everything but the love of Christ, and to see reason and
argument in everything except in the inviolable truth of divine revelation. 3550.65