Memoir and Remains (Andrew A. Bonar, ed., 1844)

It is the mark of a hypocrite to be a Christian every where except at home.

If only we had Arabic, we might sow beside all waters!

I will remember the faces of those men at the judgment-seat.

I fear I will need to be a swift witness against many of my people in the day of the Lord, that they looked to me, and not to Christ, when I preached to them.

I am not at all unwilling to spend and be spent in God's service, though I have often found that the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.

Perhaps there are many souls that would never have been saved under my ministry, who may be touched under yours; and God has taken this method of bringing you into my place. His name is Wonderful.

A minister will make a poor saviour in the day of wrath.

The only cure for a cold heart is to look at the heart of Jesus.

Without personal holiness, I never can be there.

Make me Christ-like in all things, should be my constant prayer.

I am persuaded that nothing is thriving in my soul unless it is growing.

The only way to be kept from falling is to grow. If you stand still you will fall.

I declare to you that I had rather be one hour with God, than a thousand with the sweetest society on earth or in heaven. All other joys are but streams; God is the fountain.

About fifty die every minute; nearly one every second entering into an unchangeable world!

Oh! shall we be less earnest to save their never-dying souls, than we would be to save their bodies?

If we would win souls, we must point clearly the way to heaven, while we cry, Flee from the wrath to come.

Oh, brother, cry for the breath of heaven. Remember a moral sinner will lie down in the same hell with the vilest.

Take heed to thyself and to thy doctrine.

Give yourself to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

Get your texts from God, your thoughts, your words, from God.

Hell is as deep and as burning as ever. Unconverted souls are as surely rushing to it. Christ is as free—pardon as sweet as ever! Ah! how we shall be amazed at our coldness when we do get to heaven!

Woe be unto us if we preach not the Gospel.

You are given in answer to prayer; and these gifts are, I believe, always without exception blessed. I hope you may be a thousand times more blessed among them than ever I was.

Changes are coming; every eye before me shall soon be dim in death. Another pastor shall feed this flock; another singer lead the psalm; another flock shall fill this fold.

Have been laying much to heart the absolute necessity laid upon the Church of sending the gospel to our dead parishes, during the life of the present incumbents.

Saturday is an awkward day for ministers; for though I love to seek help from on high, I love also diligently to set my thoughts in order for the Sabbath. I sometimes fear that you fail in this latter duty.

They are proofs of how little we are filled with the presence of God, how little we are branch-like in our faith.

Perhaps it may be found, that the reason why many, who preach the gospel fully and in all earnestness, are not owned of God in the conversion of souls, is to be found in their defective exhibition of grace in these easy…

I find many souls saved under my own ministry, whom I never knew of before. They are not afraid to come out now, it has become so common a thing to be concerned about the soul.

One thing, I am deeply convinced of, that God can make the simplest statement of the gospel effectual to save souls. If only it be the true gospel, the good tidings, the message that God loved the world, and provided a r…

Now, God wants you to think, that the only end of a gospel ministry is, that you may be holy. Believe me, God himself could not make you happy, except you be holy.

Leave your home, your comforts, your bed, your ease, your all, to feed lost souls. The Lord of Glory left heaven for this; it is enough for the disciple to be as his Master.

But, oh! study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons on Sabbath last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week.

The oil of the lamp in the temple burnt away in giving light; so should we.

Ministers are but the pole; it is to the brazen serpent you are to look.

I often pray, Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made.