Quotes from Alexander MacLaren

Worthiness or unworthiness is to be swept clean out of the field, and I am to be content to be a pauper, to owe everything to what I have done nothing to procure, and to cast myself on the sole, all-sufficient mercy of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Lord, I cannot walk in the narrow path. Do Thou Thyself come to me and fill my heart and keep my feet.

If a man realises God's hold on him, he feels all others relaxed.

the devil has no more cunning way of securing a long lease of life for any evil than getting Christian people and Christian Churches to give it their sanction.

the New Testament writers never hesitate to speak even of such very imperfect Christians as were found in abundance in churches like Corinth and Galatia as being all 'saints,' every man of them. That is not because the writers were minimising their defects, or idealising their persons, but because, if they are Christians at all, they are saints; seeing that no man is a Christian who has not been drawn by Christ's great sacrifice for him to yield himself a sacrifice for Christ. Of

If our thoughts are stretching across the sea to the landing at home, and the welcome there, we shall not fight with our fellow-passengers about our cabins or places at the table.

When the bonds which knit society to God are relaxed, selfishness soon becomes furious, and forcibly seizes what it lusts after, regardless of others' rights. Sin saps the very foundations of social life, and makes men into tigers, more destructive to each other than wild beasts. All our grand modern schemes for the reformation of society will fail unless they begin with the reformation of the individual. To walk with God is the true way to make men gentle and pitying.

The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, will always end in thankfulness, triumph, and praise.

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.

Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life.

Only he who can say, 'The Lord is the strength of my life' can go on to say, 'Of whom shall I be afraid?'

Heaven is endless longing, accompanied with an endless fruition-a longing which is blessedness, a longing which is life.

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.

Let the current of your being set towards God, then your life will be filled and calmed by one master-passion which unites and stills the soul.

My child, wilt thou not at this time cry unto me, 'Abba, Father?'

Love is the only fire that is hot enough to melt the iron obstinacy of a creatures's will.

Love is the foundation of all obedience.

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.

He that has his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the weakening or the paralyzing of that trust.

Trust Christ! and a great benediction of tranquil repose comes down upon the calm mind and the tranquil heart.

Unless we are wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power, Christ is nothing to us.

The gospel is not speculation but fact. It is truth, because it is the record of a person who is the Truth.

Love Christ, and then the eternity in the heart will not be a great aching void, but will be filled with the everlasting life which Christ gives and is.

No man loveth God except the man who has first learned that God loves him.