Quotes from Horatius Bonar

Devotion," said Bishop Hall, "is the life of religion, the very soul of piety, the highest employment of grace." It is much to be feared that "we are weak in the pulpit because we are weak in the closet.

A Christian is one who has been "crucified with Christ," who has died with Him, been buried with Him, risen with Him, ascended with Him, and is seated "in heavenly places" with Him (Rom 6:3-8; Gal 2:20; Eph 2:5-6; Col 3:1-3).

A false idea or a diverging step at the outset may lead to a false religion throughout life, to an imperfect and superficial goodness, as one incorrect figure or sign in an equation falsifies both process and result.

Let us see God before man every day.

It is much to be feared that "we are weak in the pulpit because we are weak in the closet.

The first true touch of that Cross has secured for me the eternal blessing. I am in the hands of Christ, and none shall pluck me out (Joh 10:28).

It is not merely that we "glory in the cross" (Gal 6:14), but we draw strength from it.

Study the Speakers, Not the Sermons

Without this, nothing else will profit. Not orthodoxy, or learning, or eloquence, or power of argument, or zeal, or fervor will accomplish anything without this. This is what gives power to our words and persuasiveness to our arguments, making them as either the balm of Gilead to the wounded spirit or sharp arrows of the mighty to the conscience of the stouthearted rebel.

There might even be the sound of the gospel, but it seemed to contain no glad tidings at all. It did not come from warm lips to startled ears as the message of eternal life – the glorious gospel of the blessed God (1 Timothy 1:11). Men lived, but their minister never asked them whether they were born again!

Fields plowed and sown, but yielding no fruit! Machinery constantly in motion, but all without one particle of produce! Nets cast into the sea and spread wide, but no fishes caught! All this for years – for a lifetime!

Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die; another's life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity.

Yes, He is ris'n who is the First and Last; Who was and is; who liveth and was dead; Beyond the reach of death He now has pass 'd, Of the one glorious Church the glorious Head.