Christian

“ It is for us, in whom the Christian Church is at this moment partially embodied, to declare that Christianity, that the Christian faith, the Christian manhood, can do that for the world which the world needs. ”

“ If thou hast not, thou art not yet a Christian: for a Christian is a man, that is anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power. Thou art not yet made a partaker of pure religion and undefiled. Dost thou know, what religion is? That it is, a participation of the divine nature, the life of God in the soul of man: Christ formed in the heart, Christ, in thee, the hope of glory: happiness and holiness: heaven begun upon earth: a kingdom of God within thee: not meat and drink, no outward thing: but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost? ”

“ Infuse the gospel spirit into everything. Strictly enforce the rules which Christian prudence lays down for the use of means and attractions not distinctively religious. Let the word Christian be in the largest letters on your sign. Remember your great object, the duty thrown upon you by the nature of the case, thrown upon you by similarity of age, by congeniality of taste and pursuits, thrown upon you by the church, thrown upon you by Christ; the church's head, is the salvation, not the entertainment of the young men. ”

“ Do you know what a Christian is? If you are a Christian, you have the mind that was in Christ; and you so walk as he also walked. You are holy as he is holy, both in heart, and in all manner of conversation. ”

“ To such heavenly-mindedness, my dear brethren, we all are called; and without something of this spirit, whatever our professions and formalities, we do but belie the name of Christian. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth, on the right hand of God; set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory." ”

“ Let us seriously consider whether we are such Christians, really and truly trying to serve and please God. If we are not, the name of Christian will be of no use to us. Jesus Himself says, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Let each one of us pray earnestly to God, that for the sake of His blessed Son, Jesus Christ, He will give us the help of the Holy Spirit, so that we may become true Christians in the sight of Him, by Whom all our thoughts, words, and actions are known. ”

“ In Jesus Christ and His life upon earth we see the goodness of God in its largeness. "In His gospel holiness is the ideal, the substance of Christian character and the end in view in Christian experience." ”

“ Ye are Christians indeed, and, just as well as those a hundred miles away, ye have all of you one Christ, one baptism, one faith, one spirit, one word, one God; so that no work that man can do helps to make a Christian. ”

“ The Christian religion is the religion of sinners, of such as have sinned, and in whom sin in some measure still dwells. The Christian life is a life of continued repentance, humiliation for and mortification of sin, of continual faith in, thankfulness for, and love to the Redeemer, and hopeful joyful expectation of a day of glorious redemption, in which the believer shall be fully and finally acquitted, and sin abolished for ever. ”

“ Hence it is indispensably necessary for the Christian, in every period of his life, but especially when entering on his religious course, to implore the gracious influence of the Divine Spirit, to guard him against every species of error—to lead him into all truth—and to invest the truth with that holy unction, which will render it no less a source of the highest intellectual improvement, than of the most exquisite mental enjoyment. ”

“ CHRISTIAN LIFE.—Passing within the sphere of Christian life, there can be no doubt that Christianity exerted a power, of which there had been no experience before, in reforming the character and conduct of those even who had been addicted to crime and vice. The fraternal feeling of Christians for one another impressed the heathen about them as something new and singularly attractive. ”

“ The Christian, whose inward eyes and ears are touched by God, discerns the coming of Christ, hears the sound of His chariot-wheels and the voice of His trumpet, when no other perceives them. He discerns the Saviour's advent in the dawning of higher truth on the world, in new aspirations of the Church after perfection, in the prostration of prejudice and error, in brighter expressions of Christian love, in more enlightened and intense consecration of the Christian to the cause of humanity, freedom, and religion. ”

“ So when the Christian quietly goes on his circle of duties, ever seeking, by the help of God's grace, to do the will of his Lord,—he shows to the world a living example of the power and truth of religion; he does good not for the look of the thing, but because the love of Christ constraineth him to act as conscience directs. ”

“ II The Christian Motive.—Rightly regarded Christ is not only the model of the new life, but its motive as well. All the great appeals of the Gospel—every persuasion and plea by which God seeks to awaken a responsive love in the hearts of men—are centred in, and find expression through, the Person and Passion of Christ. ”

“ My friends, if you receive the notions about Christianity which chance to be current in your sect or church, solely because they are current, and thus accept the commandment of men instead of God’s truth, there will always be enough to commend you for soundness of judgment, prudence, and good sense, enough to call you Christian for that reason. ”

“ In his treatment of this part of the subject, the work of Christ as the true Creator, through the Christian Church, of living morality, what is peculiar and impressive is the way in which sympathy with Christianity in its antique and original form, in its most austere, unearthly, exacting aspects, is combined with sympathy with the practical realities of modern life, with its boldness, its freedom, its love of improvement, its love of truth. It is no common grasp which can embrace both so easily and so firmly. ”

“ More and more, as I read of the Christian religion, as Christ preached it, I stand amazed at the forms men have given to it, and the fictitious barriers they have built up between themselves and their brethren. ”

“ Secondly, we desire that your Excellencies and Honors would weigh, with the infallible word of God, with the living example of Christ, and with the pious, unblamable life of the saints, how a true Christian should be disposed according to the Scriptures. If reading, singing, water, bread, wine, name, and boasting, would constitute true Christianity, then there would be a great number of Christians. ”

“ The Christian life, in its highest form, from this amalgamation of human traits, has constructed an ideal for the soul founded on something tangible and substantial in human consciousness. When the Christian said, "O God, make me pure and noble," it has been no longer necessary to rhapsodize on a heaven concerning which he knew nothing, and to disclaim all interest in this earth. ”

“ And shall we find it under God’s own hand, that he intends the kingdom for us, that he will be a father to us, that he gives and grants all his infinite perfections to us, and yet not be moved? *Christians live like yourselves, let the world see that the promises of God and privileges of the gospel are not empty sounds. Let the heavenly chearfulness and the restless diligence, and the holy raisedness of your conversation prove the reality, excellency, and beauty of your religion. See that you receive not the grace of God in vain. ”

“ Finally, we say, that we agree amongst ourselves touching the whole judgment and chief substance of Christian religion, and with one mouth, and with one spirit, do worship God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ What is called Christian, but should rather be termed theological, morality, was not the work of Christ or the Apostles, but is of much later origin, having been gradually built up by the Catholic church of the first five centuries, and though not implicitly adopted by moderns and Protestants, has been much less modified by them than might have been expected. ”

“ No—only the Christian can say in view of earthly loss and disappointments: "It is well—let Him do what seemeth to Him good." Only the Christian—nor need he be—nor is he—of necessity a "church member,"—can say—"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." ”

“ This expresses the joy of the angels of heaven at the overthrow of this monstrous belief and the firm and everlasting setting up of the true Christian religion, which is the acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God and Saviour, and the life according to the commandment of love to God and the neighbor embraced in the Ten Commandments and in the Two Great Commandments. ”

“ One thing and one only is necessary for Christian life, righteousness and liberty. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the Gospel of Christ, as he says, John xi, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, shall not die forever" [John 11:25] ; ”

“ Stock. It is easy enough to be what the world calls a Christian, but not to be what the Bible calls so.
Will. Why, master, we working men are not expected to be saints, and martyrs, and apostles, and ministers.
Stock. We are not. And yet, Will, there are not two sorts of Christianity; we are called to practice the same religion which they practiced, and something of the same spirit is expected in us which we reverence in them. It was not saints and martyrs only to whom our Saviour said that they must crucify the world, with its affections and lusts. ”

“ Corresponding, therefore, to the three great conceptions of Life in the New Testament, and especially in the teaching of Jesus—'Eternal Life,' 'the kingdom of God,' and the perfection of the divine Fatherhood, 'Perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect'—there are three aspects, individual, social, and divine, in which we may view the Christian ideal. ”

“ It is time, then, for us to say that the pious Christian alone is rich and wise, and of noble birth, and thus call and believe him to be God's image, and also His likeness, [151] having become righteous and holy and wise by Jesus Christ, and so far already like God. Accordingly this grace is indicated by the prophet, when he says, "I said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest." ”

“ Thus in this land they stand, Foes to Christendom, Friends to heathendom, Persecutors of Priests, Persecutors of People, all too many; spurners of godly law and Christian bond, who Loudly Laugh at the Teaching of God's Teachers and the Preaching of God's Preachers, and whatso rightly to God's rites belongs. ”

“ Are ye Christians,’ said the holy man, ‘or heathens?’ ‘Certainly not Christians,’ said they, ‘for no one hath opened our ears.’ Then the holy man, lifting up his eyes, replied, ‘What man, when there are stones at hand, layeth a foundation with reeds?’ They answered, ‘No man of prudence.’ ‘Ye have well said,’ said he, and straightway did he take them to his own house and instruct them in the divine oracles, and arrange with them that he should go into their country to carry the holy religion. ”

“ No vision of the future can surpass that which the Christian Church {123} has cherished from the beginning, that we shall all 'come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a Perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ ... ”

“ When we read and hear of the wisdom and zeal, the strictness and conscientiousness, the devotion and charity, of the professors of religion in former ages, and see the reverse of this in those of the present age, we cannot but sit down, and wish, with a sigh, O for primitive Christianity again! ”

“ Christianity is not a mere profession, but a principle. Every being is possessed with a principle. Satan has a principle, which might properly be termed devilanity; Christ has a principle which is termed Christianity. When this Christ principle is instilled into man's soul by the Spirit of God he becomes a Christian. He possesses the Christ-life, nature, or principle. ”

“ Or, the apostle may speak of their being called to be Christians, by the preaching of the word, which they gladly received, and professed cordially to believe, and so were received into the society and fellowship of the church—Christ the head, and believers the members; real believers really, professed believers visibly. Note, Christians are the called, called out of the world, the evil spirit and temper of it,—above the world, to higher and better things, heaven, things unseen and eternal,—called from sin to Christ, from vanity to seriousness, from uncleanness to holiness ”

“ Christians, if we would only rouse ourselves to believe that we belong to the Kingdom that Christ is preparing to deliver up to the Father, that God may be all in all, how the glory would fill our hearts, and expel everything mean, and low, and earthly! How we should be borne along in this blessed faith! ”

“ O what gainers will you be, if you learn this lesson?
’Tis the shame of religion, that Christians are so unlike themselves, unless upon their knees. Our lives and language should tell the world what we are, and whither we are going. Christians, let little things content you in the world, but aspire after great things in the grace of God. Many little think what high degrees of holiness they may grow up to even in this life with pains and diligence. ”

“ To this intellectual, moral, and religious activity, heightened and intensified by supernatural faith, we owe the spread of Christianity throughout the Gentile world, more than to the zeal and labors of all the apostles. ”

“ The very essence of Christianity is personal loyalty, passionate loyalty to our adorable Chief. We have laid other foundations—regeneration, sacraments, justification, works, faith, the Bible—any one of which, however necessary to salvation in its due place and proportion, may become a religion about Christ and without Christ. ”