Quote collection
410 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Our physical illnesses serve us for medicines to purge us from worldly affections and retrench what is superfluous in us, and since they are to us the messengers of death, we ought to learn to have one foot raised to take our departure when it shall please God."
"The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ efficaciously unites us to himself."
"The Scriptures obtain full authority among believers only when men regard them as having sprung from heaven, as if there the living words of God were heard."
"We cannot rely on God's promises without obeying his commandments."
"When our faith is tested by suffering "as gold is tried in a furnace" and we depend with confidence on God and rely entirely on his help, we will be granted the most excellent gift of patience and through faith we may victoriously persevere to the end."
"Holiness is not a merit by which we can attain communion with God, but a gift of Christ, which enables us to cling to him, and to follow him."
"The Lord has given us a table at which to feast, not an altar on which a victim is to be offered; He has not consecrated priests to make sacrifice, but servants to distribute the sacred feast."
"The glory of God shines, indeed, in all creatures on high and below, but never more brightly than in the cross."
"Whenever our sins press hard against us, whenever Satan would drive us to despair, we must hold up this shield, that God does not want us to be overwhelmed in everlasting destruction, for He has ordained His Son to be the salvation of the world."
"That man is truly humble who neither claims any personal merit in the sight of God, nor proudly despises brethren, or aims at being thought superior to them, but reckons it enough that he is one of the members of Christ, and desires nothing more than that the Head alone should be exalted."
"There is no place for faith if we expect God to fulfill immediately what he promises."
"There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God."
"God is not limited to any person, but calls freely whomsoever He pleases, and bestows on those who are called whatever rewards He thinks fit."
"There is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy."
"men are undoubtedly more in danger from prosperity than from adversity. for when matters go smoothly, they flatter themselves, and are intoxicated by their success"
"The Gospel acts without threats... it teaches us about the supreme goodwill of God towards us."
"Then let every one of us, being warned by this sentence of the angel, acknowledge that he as yet cleaves to first principles, or, at least, does not comprehend all those things which are necessary to be known; and that therefore progress is to be made to the very end of life: for this is our wisdom, to be learners to the end."
"The majesty of God in itself goes beyond the capacity of human understanding and cannot be comprehended by it.. We must adore its loftiness rather than investigate it, so that we do not remain overwhelmed by so great a splendor."
"The one condition for spiritual progress is that we remain sincere and humble."
"On the contrary, therefore, Christ declares that the doctrine of the Gospel, though it is preached to all without exception, cannot be embraced by all, but that a new understanding and a new perception are requisite; and, therefore, that faith does not depend on the will of men, but that it is God who gives it."