Alexander MacLaren Quotes
Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past; it is possible to be sure of the future; it is possible to be diligent in the present.
We believe that the history of the world is but the history of His influence and that the center of the whole universe is the cross of Calvary.
The world takes its notions of God from the people who say that they belong to God's family. They read us a great deal more than they read the Bible. They see us; they only hear about Jesus Christ.
He who has the Holy Spirit in His heart and the Scripture in his hands has all he needs.
The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, will always end in thankfulness, triumph, and praise.
The gospel is not speculation but fact. It is truth, because it is the record of a person who is the Truth.
Only he who can say, 'The Lord is the strength of my life' can go on to say, 'Of whom shall I be afraid?'
Here is the manliness of manhood, that a man has a good reason for what he does, and has a will in doing it.
True peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God and will be deep and passing all understanding in the exact measure in which we live in and partake of the love of God.
You must cast yourself on God's gospel with all your weight, without any hanging back, without any doubt, without even the shadow of a suspicion that it will give.
Every life has dark tracts and long stretches of somber tint, and no representation is true to fact which dips its pencil only in light, and flings no shadows on the canvas.
He that has his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the weakening or the paralyzing of that trust.
Why should we live halfway up the hill and swathed in the mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and a radiant sun over our heads if we would climb higher and walk in the light of His face?
The tears of Christ are the pity of God. The gentleness of Jesus is the long-suffering of God. The tenderness of Jesus is the love of God. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
If our faith in God is not the veriest sham, it demands, and will produce, the abandonment sometimes, the subordination always, of external helps and material good.
Love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the iron obstinacy of a creatures's will.
Christ wrought out His perfect obedience as a man, through temptation, and by suffering.
Trust Christ! and a great benediction of tranquil repose comes down upon the calm mind and the tranquil heart.
We must have the glory sink into us before it can be reflected from us. In deep inward beholding we must have Christ in our hearts, that He may shine forth from our lives.
God is His own motive. His love is not drawn out by our loveableness, but wells up, like an artesian spring, from the depths of His nature.
Be sure that your soul is never so intensely alive as when in the deepest abnegation it waits hushed before God .
Let me always remember that it is not the amount of religious knowledge which I have, but the amount which I use, that determines my religious position and character.
God keeps giving Himself as long as we bring that into which He can pour Himself. And when we stop bringing, He stops giving.
Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.
Every sin is a mistake, as well as a wrong; and the epitaph for the sinner is, "Thou fool!"
If you would know Christ at all, you must go to Him as a sinful man, or you are shut out from Him altogether.
To pursue joy is to lose it. The only way to get it is to follow steadily the path of duty.
You cannot put patience and experience into a parenthesis, and, omitting them, bring hope out of tribulation.
Heaven is endless longing, accompanied with an endless fruition-a longing which is blessedness, a longing which is life.
All that this world knows of living lies in giving - and more giving; He that keeps, be sure he loses -Friendship grows by what it uses.
The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of praying too little for so much work.
Life should be a constant vision of God's presence. Here is our defense against being led away by the gauds and shows of earth's vulgar attractions.
Duty is duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, and wrong is wrong, whatever sized type they may be printed in. " Large" or "small" are not words for the vocabulary of conscience.
Death is but a passage. It is not a house, it is only a vestibule. The grave has a door on its inner side.
