Christians

“ 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 ”

“ In spite of his prejudices for some of which his own religion is responsible, for others, the Christians themselves—Christianity is the one religion of the world besides his own that challenges his attention and interest. ”

“ The work of grace in the hearts of Christians is such, that they can tell sinners what it is. They declare it in their songs of praise, their thanksgivings and prayers, and earnest love to their Redeemer.
2. Professing Christians are witnesses to the world as to what that standard of morality is, which the precepts of the gospel require of its followers. They profess to live according [Pg 91] to that standard. They have taken the commands of Christ to be their rule of duty, and they virtually tell others to judge of what the religion of Jesus Christ requires, by the way they live and act. ”

“ 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! ”

“ From whom and through whom, when and to whom, was that discipline by which men become Christians delivered? For wherever the truth of that which is the Christian discipline at once and faith be shown to be, there will be the truth of the Scriptures, of their exposition, and of all Christian traditions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ That you walk worthily, agreeably, suitably, and congruously to those happy circumstances into which the grace of God has brought you, whom he has converted from heathenism to Christianity. Observe, Christians ought to accommodate themselves to the gospel by which they are called, and to the glory to which they are called ”

“ We are Christians precisely because we have struck, in the person of Jesus, upon a fact which is incomparably richer in content than the feelings that arise within ourselves.” “Only because Christ is present for us can we possess God with complete clearness and certainty.” ”

“ May we all thus experience what it is, to be not almost only, but altogether Christians! Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus: knowing we have peace with God through Jesus Christ: rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, and having the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost given unto us! ”

“ We profess and call ourselves Christians. Is it not about time that, casting aside all human teachings, whether Economic or Socialistic, we tried to see what the Gospel says about the subject, and about our duty in regard to it? ”

“ As the great central rite of Christian worship it is presented day after day, in myriads of churches, from age to age, to the eyes and hearts of men. The act in which Christians assemble, in which they offer up at once their repentance and their requests, their thanksgivings and their praises, to Him who has formed them into one Body, lives upon this truth. And further, the order of men which is the backbone of the Church, the great Christian priesthood, made by our Lord in instituting the rite and conferring the gift, exists for its continuance. ”

“ And for three centuries there is reason to believe that the Christians, if feeble in influence and few in numbers when compared with the whole population, were remarkable for their graces and virtues—for their noble resistance to those temptations which enthrall so great a number of our modern believers. ”

“ Our conversation must be as becomes the gospel. Walk honestly; euschemonos— decently and becomingly, so as to credit your profession, and to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and recommend religion in its beauty to others. Christians should be in a special manner careful to conduct themselves well in those things wherein men have an eye upon them, and to study that which is lovely and of good report. ”

“ He sees quite clearly that Christianity is to be a new life, a new social and ethical manifestation in the world, because Christians believe that God has made plain to them in Jesus Christ His character, nature, and redemptive purposes, and has given, by His Spirit, a practical power to their wills to correspond with the truth revealed to their intelligences and hearts. ”

“ Christians are directed to have faith in Christ, as the effectual means of obtaining the change they desire. ”

“ 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. ”

“ And Christians, roused at length to a sense of their responsibility, began to devise means, under the blessing of God, for teaching these, their ignorant brethren of the human family, the knowledge of the only true God, and the way of eternal life. ”

“ First, The embodying of Christians in one society by the gospel charter will greatly promote Christianity. When the world shall see so many of those that were its children called out of its family, distinguished from others, and changed from what they themselves sometimes were,—when they shall see this society raised by the foolishness of preaching, and kept up by miracles of divine providence and grace, and how admirably well it is modelled and constituted, they will be ready to say, We will go with you, for we see that God is with you. ”

“ Let Christians, those who have believed in God, learn to maintain good works, especially such as these, supporting ministers in their work of preaching and spreading the gospel, hereby becoming fellow-helpers to the truth, 3 John 5-8. That they be not unfruitful. Christianity is not a fruitless profession; the professors of it must be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. ”

“ Every thing besides Christ is sand. Some build their hopes upon their worldly prosperity, as if they were a sure token of God's favour, Hos. xii. 8. Others upon their external profession of religion, the privileges they enjoy, and the performances they go through in that profession, and the reputation they have got by it. They are called Christians, were baptized, go to church, hear Christ's word, say their prayers, and do nobody any harm, and, if they perish, God help a great many! ”

“ Now, for us in Christendom, the proof from "contrast" is less obvious, and we have lost also something of the fresh and fiery zeal—must we not add the occasionally misguided zeal?—of the First Christians: but, by way of compensation, we have, besides our individual experiences,the collective evidence of many generations shewing what Christ's Spirit can do to help us when we obey it, to chasten us when we disobey. ”

“ You will probably have what is called a Christian Church here; they will not admit that we are Christians, but they cannot think us further from the plan of salvation as revealed from heaven than we know them to be, so we are even on that ground, as far as it goes. ”

“ Christians, be ye more serious in your movements; Be ye not like a feather at each wind, And think not every water washes you.
Ye have the Old and the New Testament, And the Pastor of the Church who guideth you Let this suffice you unto your salvation.
If evil appetite cry aught else to you, Be ye as men, and not as silly sheep, So that the Jew among you may not mock you. ”

“ The early Christians are believed to have held their property in common, and the principle is sanctioned by the words of Christ himself, and has been maintained as a counsel of perfection in almost all ages of the Church. ”

“ It is thus clear that, under the ministry of inspired men, souls were brought into Christ by believing through hearing, repeating and being baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Their obedience made them Christians. ”

“ Even so one of them visited our coasts, preaching the doctrine of truth; whence they who still serve the righteousness of his preaching are called Christians. And these are they who, above all the nations of the earth, have found the truth: for they acknowledge God the Creator and Maker of all things in the only begotten Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and other God than him they worship none. They have the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ himself engraven on their hearts, and these they observe, looking for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. ”

“ Though some Christians are weak and others strong,—though of different sizes, capacities, apprehensions, and practices, in minor things, yet they are all the Lord's—all eying, and serving, and approving themselves to Christ, and are accordingly owned and accepted of him. ”

“ The business of Christians, particularly in their solemn religious assemblies, is to praise and glorify God with a holy awe and reverence of his majesty, and therefore those that are here called upon to praise God are called upon to fear him. ”

“ Perhaps the very best relief or palliation to be found for all the shortcomings, the wasted labors, the failures of Christians in their purposed efforts to convert the heathen here or elsewhere, is to be spoken in this confession; namely, that during all these ages a constant and earnest debate, sometimes a very passionate and angry one, has been going on among Christians themselves — the very best and most intelligent of them — as to, What is Christianity; what makes a Christian; what is it to be a Christian? ”

“ And such faith is produced and preserved in us by preaching why Christ came, what He brought and bestowed, [13] what benefit it is to us to accept Him. This is done when that Christian liberty which He bestows is rightly taught, and we are told in what way we who are Christians are all kings and priests and so are lords of all, and may firmly believe that whatever we have done is pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God, as I have said. ”

“ The credulous have been excited to look upon us as heretics. while, blessed be God, our aim and bent have been the very power and work of religion upon our souls, that we might be God's workmanship, through Christ Jesus, His blessed Son: taking this to be the very life and soul of true religion, the effect and fruit of the Divine nature, which makes us Christians indeed here and fits us for glory hereafter. ”

“ Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the Word that cometh forth from the Lord.—Reverting to the present time, about contemporary with the realisation that Christendom is smitten, the hypocrisy of professed Christians is spoken against. ”

“ By all means, therefore, let Christians remain Christians, and see in Christ their Ormuzd, or personification of the good principle. Only let them remember that there are two sides to every question, and cease to entertain hard and bitter thoughts towards those who follow the truth after a different fashion. ”

“ The rich experience gathered from missionary labors among the heathen here and elsewhere has drawn out very distinctly and sharply among professed Christians a radical difference of opinion and estimate applied to their religion, which we may state in plain and familiar terms as amounting to this: one class of persons will interpret and value and teach Christianity, as the means of saving souls one by one, redeeming them from guilt and an endless doom of woe ”

“ It is this theology which shapes the Ecclesiastical Institutions of Christendom; it is the idea whereof they are the embodiment, the substance to which they are the form. When priests and ministers speak of "Christianity" they commonly mean the "Christian theology," not the "Christian religion." Men who believe this theology and comply with its circumjacent ceremonies are called "Christians;" not such as have merely the "Christian religion," who are called only "amiable men," "deists," "infidels," and the like. ”

“ For, thank God, there exist thousands of very real “Christians”— (“by their fruits ye shall know them”) , doing unostentatious good everywhere, rescuing the lost, aiding the poor, comforting the sick, and helping the world to grow happier and better. ”

“ Look within the limits of private life, and you will find true Christians, thank God, among clergymen and laymen alike; you will find men and women who deserve to be called, in the highest sense of the word, disciples of Christ. ”