Alexander Maclaren quotes

Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past; it is possible to be sure of the future; it is possible to be diligent in the present. (Alexander Maclaren)
The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of praying too little for so much work. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
No man loveth God except the man who has first learned that God loves him. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
You must cast yourself on God's gospel with all your weight, without any hanging back, without any doubt, without even the shadow of a suspicion that it will give. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
As we look upon that agony and those tearful prayers, let us not only look with thankfulness; but let that kneeling Saviour teach us that in prayer alone can we be forearmed against our lesser sorrows; that strength to bear flows into the heart that is opened in supplication; and that a sorrow which we are made able to endure is more truly conquered than a sorrow which we avoid. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
True faith, by a mighty effort of the will, fixes its gaze on our Divine Helper, and there finds it possible and wise to lose its fears. It is madness to say, "I will not be afraid; "it is wisdom and peace to say, "I will trust and not be afraid. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
That is faith, cleaving to Christ, twining round Him with all the tendrils of our heart, as the vine does round its support. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Trust Christ! and a great benediction of tranquil repose comes down upon the calm mind and the tranquil heart. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
If you would have clear and irrefragable for a perpetual joy, a glory and a defense, the unwavering confidence, "I am Thy child," go to God's throne, and lie down at the foot of it, and let the first thought be, "My Father in heaven;" and that will brighten, that will establish, that will make omnipotent in your life, the witness of the Spirit that you are the child of God. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Unless we are wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power, Christ is nothing to us. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Faith refers to Christ. Holiness depends on faith. Heaven depends on holiness. (Alexander Maclaren)
Let me always remember that it is not the amount of religious knowledge which I have, but the amount which I use, that determines my religious position and character. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
If you would know Christ at all, you must go to Him as a sinful man, or you are shut out from Him altogether. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
A living man must have a living God, or his soul will perish in the midst of earthly plenty, and will thirst and die whilst the water of earthly delights is running all around him. We are made to need persons not things. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Christ wrought out His perfect obedience as a man, through temptation, and by suffering. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
The tears of Christ are the pity of God. The gentleness of Jesus is the long-suffering of God. The tenderness of Jesus is the love of God. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Nothing but Christian faith gives to the furthest future the solidity and definiteness which it must have if it is to be a breakwater for us against the fluctuating sea of present cares and thoughts. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Duty is duty, conscience is conscience, right is right, and wrong is wrong, whatever sized type they may be printed in. " Large" or "small" are not words for the vocabulary of conscience. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
The mystery of the universe, and the meaning of God's world, are shrouded in hopeless obscurity, until we learn to feel that all laws suppose a lawgiver, and that all working involves a Divine energy. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
There is one thing that makes life mighty in its veriest trifles, worthy in its smallest deeds, that delivers it from monotony, that delivers it from insignificance. All will be great, nothing will be overpowering, when, living in communion with Jesus Christ, we say as He says, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Ah, my brother, it is a far harder thing, and it is afar higher proof of a thorough-going, persistent, Christian principle woven into the very texture of my soul, to go on plodding and patient, never taken by surprise by any small temptation, than to gather into myself the strength which God has given me, and, expecting some great storm to come down upon me, to stand fast, and let it rage. It is a great deal easier to die once for Christ than to live always for Him. (Alexander Maclaren)
Let us learn how the love of Christ, received into the heart, triumphs gradually but surely over all sin, transforms character, turning even its weakness into strength, and so, from the depths of transgression and the very gates of hell, raises men to God. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
The message of love can never come into a human soul, and pass away from it unreceived, without leaving that spirit worse, with all its lowest characteristics strengthened, and all its best ones depressed, by the fact of rejection. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
Turn your confidence and your fears alike into prayer. View quote
Alexander Maclaren
The act of faith, which separates us from all men, unites us for the first time in real brotherhood; and they who, one by one, come to Jesus and meet Him alone, next find that they are come to the city of God "and to an innumerable company. View quote
Alexander Maclaren