"The majority of men, even if touched by spiritual fervour, find it hard to keep on the high levels for long. Breathing is easier lower down." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"As is often the case, a brighter flame of zeal burned in the bosoms of sympathisers at a distance than in those of the actual workers, whose contact with hard realities and petty details disenchanted them." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
". . . the impression made by facts depends largely on their narrator, and not a little on the mood of the hearer. It was one thing to hear general statements, and another to sit with one’s brother, and see through his eyes the dismal failure of the ‘remnant’ to carry out the purpose of their return." ----A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"God prepares His servants for their work by laying on their souls a sorrowful realisation of the miseries which other men regard, and they themselves have often regarded, very lightly." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"No man will do worthy work at rebuilding the walls who has not wept over the ruins." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"Whatsoever names for the Supreme Excellence any tongues have coined, they all belong to our God, in so far as they are true and noble. The modern ‘science of comparative religion’ yields many treasures which should be laid up in Jehovah’s Temple." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"True prayer catches up the promises that flutter down to us, and flings them up again like arrows." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"The more loftily we think of our privileges, the more clearly should we discern our sins." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"f a man thinks that God has taken him for a servant, the thought should bow him with conscious unworthiness, not lift him in self-satisfaction." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"It is useless to ask God to help us to repair the wastes if we do not cast out the sins which have made them." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"The beginning of all true healing of sorrow is confession of sins." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"That penitent consciousness of evil is indispensible to all who would make their fellows happier. God works with bruised reeds. The sense of individual transgression gives wonderful tenderness, patience amid gainsaying, submission in failure, dependence on God in difficulty, and lowliness in success. Without it we shall do little for ourselves or for anybody else." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
"If our morning supplication is ‘Prosper Thy servant this day,’ and our purposes are for God’s glory, we need not fear facing anybody." --A Reformer's Schooling, Nehemiah 1:1-11
". . . note the plain Christian duty of sympathetic contemplation of surrounding sorrows." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . there is all the difference between hearing vague general reports, and sitting and hearing your own brother tell you what he had seen with his own eyes." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . I want to press upon all you Christian people the plain duty of knowing what you do know, and of giving an ample place in your thoughts to the stark staring facts around us." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . it is also true that there remains an enormous, shameful, dead mass of inertness in our churches, and that, unless we can break up that, the omens are bad, bad for society, worse for the church." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . a realisation of the dark facts is indispensable to all true work for alleviating them." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"No man will ever lighten a sorrow of which he has not himself felt the pressure." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"It [Jesus Christ's cross] is the pattern for our lives, and it lays down, with stringent accuracy and completeness, the enduring conditions of helping the sinful and the sorrowful." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"No work of any real use will be done except by those whose hearts have bled with the feeling of the miseries which they set themselves to cure." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . a sorrowful and participating contemplation of men’s sorrows springing from men’s sins will give tenderness to our words, will give patience, will soften our whole bearing." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"Help that is flung to people, as you might fling a bone to a dog, hurts those whom it tries to help, and patronising help is help that does little good, and lecturing help does little more." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"You must take blind beggars by the hand if you are going to make them see; and you must not be afraid to lay your white, clean fingers upon the feculent masses of corruption in the leper’s glistening whiteness if you are going to make him whole." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . I for my part have very little faith in the persistence and wide operation of any philanthropic motives except the highest-namely, compassion caught from Jesus Christ." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . you will never get the army of workers that is needed to grapple with the facts of our present condition, unless you touch the very deepest springs of conduct, and these are to be found in communion with God." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"Christian men are bound by every consideration to help to the utmost of their power, even in the incomplete attempts that are made to grapple with social problems. There is room enough for us all. But sure I am that until grapes and waterbeds cure smallpox, and a spoonful of cold water puts out Vesuvius, you will not cure the evils of the body politic by any lesser means than the application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
". . . let us remember that the Gospel is social second , and individual first . And that if you get the love of God and obedience to Jesus Christ into a man’s heart it will be like putting gas into a balloon, it will go up, and the man will get out of the slums fast enough; and he will not be a slave to the vices of the world much longer, and you will have done more for him and for the wide circle that he may influence than by any other means." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"I do not want to depreciate any helpers, but I say it is the work of the Christian church to carry to the world the only thing that will make men deeply and abidingly happy, because it will make them good." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
"I am sure that, under God, the great remedy for social evils lies mainly here, that the bulk of professing Christians shall recognise and discharge their responsibilities. It is not ministers, city missionaries, Bible-women, or any other paid people that can do the work. It is by Christian men and by Christian women, and, if I might use a very vulgar distinction which has a meaning in the present connection, very specially by Christian ladies, taking their part in the work amongst the degraded and the outcasts, that our sorest difficulties and problems will be solved. If a church does not face these, well, all I can say is, its light will go out; and the sooner the better." --The Church and Social Evils, Nehemiah 1:4
NEHEMIAH 3
“Most of us have got so
familiarised with the evils that stare us in the face every time we go out upon
the pavements, that we have come to think of them as being inseparable from our
modern life . . . .” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“. . . there is a solemn
obligation laid on Christian people to acquaint themselves with the awful
facts, and then to meditate on them, till sacred, Christ-like compassion,
pressing against the flood-gates of the heart, flings them open, and lets out a
stream of helpful pity and saving deeds.” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah
3:28
“. . . I believe that I
shall best serve my generation, and I believe that ninety-nine out of a hundred
of you will do so too, by trying to get [people] to love and fear Jesus Christ the
Saviour.” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“If you can get His love
into a [person's] heart, that will produce new tastes and new inclinations, which
will reform, and sweeten, and purify faster than anything else does.” --Over
Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“. . . we should fix it in
our minds that the principles of Christ’s Gospel adhered to by individuals, and
therefore by communities, would have rendered such a condition of things
impossible, and that the true repair of the ruin wrought by evil and ignorance,
in the single soul, in the family, the city, the nation, the world, is to be
found in building anew on the One Foundation which God has laid, even Jesus
Christ, the Living Stone, whose pure life passes into all that are grounded and
founded on Him.” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“. . . for one [person]
that says, ‘What can I do?’ there are twenty who say, ‘Somebody should
do something. Government should do something. The Corporation should do
something. This, that, or the other aggregate of [people] should do something.’
And the individual calmly and comfortably slips [their] neck out of the collar
and leaves it on the shoulders of these abstractions.” --Over Against His
House, Nehemiah 3:28
“. . . there are plenty of
things that need to be done by these somebodies. But what they do they will be
a long time in doing it, when they do get to work will only touch the fringe of
the question, and the substance and the centre of it you can set to work upon
this very day if you like, and not wait for anybody either to set you the
example or to show you the way.” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“If you want to do people
good you can; but you must pay the price for it. That price is personal
sacrifice and effort. The example of Jesus Christ is the all-instructive one in
the case.” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“A loving heart and a
sympathetic word, the exhibition of a Christian life and conduct, the fact of
going down into the midst of evil and trying to lift [people] out of it, are
the old-fashioned and only magnets by which [people] are drawn to purer and higher
life. That is God’s way of saving the world-by the action of single souls on
single souls.” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“Masses of [people] can
neither save nor be saved. Not in groups, but one by one, particle by particle,
soul by soul, Christ draws [people] to Himself, and He does His work in the
world through single souls on fire with His love, and tender with pity learned
of Him.” --Over Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“Let me remind you that if
you are a Christian [person] you have in your possession the thing which will
cure the world’s woe, and possession involves responsibility.” --Over Against
His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“He has found and saved us,
not only for our own personal good. That, of course, is the prime purpose of
our salvation, but not its exclusive purpose. He has saved us, too, in order
that the Word may be spread through us to those beyond.” --Over Against His
House, Nehemiah 3:28
“It is a very easy thing to
build churches and chapels. It is not such an easy thing-I believe it is an
impossible thing and that the sooner the Christian church gives up the attempt
the better-to get the godless classes into any church or chapel.” --Over
Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“What is needed besides is
that ladies and gentlemen that are a little higher up in the social scale than
these poor creatures, should go to them themselves; and excavate and work.
Preach, if you like, in the technical sense; have meetings, I suppose, necessarily;
but the personal contact is the thing, the familiar talk, the simple exhibition
of a loving Christian heart, and the unconventional proclamation in free
conversation of the broad message of the love of God in Jesus Christ.” --Over
Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“No carelessness, no
indolence, no plea of timidity or business shift the obligation from your
shoulders if you are a Christian. It is your business, and no paid agents can
represent you. You cannot buy yourselves substitutes in Christ’s army, as they
used to do in the militia, by a guinea subscription.” --Over Against His House,
Nehemiah 3:28
“. . . . [people] ask for
your money; Jesus Christ asks for yourself, for your work, and will not let you
off as having done your duty because you have paid your subscription.” --Over
Against His House, Nehemiah 3:28
“There are people in your
houses, people that sit by you in your counting-house, on your college benches,
who work by your side in mill or factory or warehouse, who cross your path in a
hundred ways, and God has given them to you that you may bring them to Him. Do
you set yourself, dear [friend], to work and try to bring them.” --Over Against
His House, Nehemiah 3:28
NEHEMIAH 4
“This passage paints
vividly the discouragements which are apt to dog all good work, and the courage
which refuses to be discouraged, and conquers by bold persistence.”
--Discouragements and Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“The true way to meet
opposition is twofold-prayer and prudent watchfulness.” --Discouragements and
Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“The union of appeal to God
with the full use of common sense, watchfulness, and prudence, would dissipate
many hindrances to successful service.” --Discouragements and Courage, Nehemiah
4:9-21
“. . . half-way through is
just the critical time in all protracted work.” --Discouragements and Courage,
Nehemiah 4:9-21
“It is a great piece of
Christian duty to recognise difficulties, and not be cowed by them.”
--Discouragements and Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“We may not be responsible
for discouragements suggesting themselves, but we are responsible for letting
them become dissuasives. Our one question should be, Has God appointed the
work? If so, it has to be done, however little our strength, and however mountainous
the accumulations of rubbish.” --Discouragements and Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“Prompt preparation against
possible dangers is often the means of turning them aside. Watchfulness is
indispensable to vigour of Christian character and efficiency of work.”
--Discouragements and Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“No time was wasted in
jubilation. The work was the main thing, and the moment the interruption was
ended, back to it they all went. It is a fine illustration of persistent
discharge of duty, and of that most valuable quality, the ability and
inclination to keep up the main purpose of a life continuous through
interruptions, like a stream of sweet water running through a bog.”
--Discouragements and Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“. . . it is well to
remember that building is the end, and fighting is but the means. The trowel,
not the sword, is the natural instrument. Controversy is second best-a
necessity, no doubt, but an unwelcome one, and only permissible as a subsidiary
help to doing the true work, rearing the walls of the city of God.”
--Discouragements and Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“All Christians have one
great Captain; and He will be in the forefront of every battle. His clear
trumpet-call should gather all His servants to His side.” --Discouragements and
Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
“Happy they who thus ‘from
morn till noon, from noon till dewy eve,’ labour in the work of the Lord! For
them, every new morning will dawn with new strength, and every evening be calm
with the consciousness of ‘something attempted, something done.’” --Discouragements
and Courage, Nehemiah 4:9-21
NEHEMIAH 5
“His religion went down
into the little duties of common life, and imposed upon him a standard far
above the maxims that were prevalent round about him.” --An Ancient
Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“. . . if you will take
these words, and disengage them from the small matter concerning which they
were originally spoken, I think you will find in them thoughts as to the
attitude which we should take to prevalent practices, the motive which should
impel us to a sturdy non-compliance, and the power which will enable us to walk
on a solitary road.” --An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“. . . unless you can say
‘No!’ and do it very often, your life will be shattered from the beginning.”
--An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“. . . non-compliance with
customary maxims and practices is the beginning, or, at least, one of the
foundation-stones, of all nobleness and strength, of all blessedness and
power.” --An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“. . . be sure of this,
that unless you are in a very deep and not at all a technical sense of the
word, ‘Nonconformists,’ you will come to no good. None!” --An Ancient
Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“It is so easy to do as
others do, partly because of laziness, partly because of cowardice, partly
because of the instinctive imitation which is in us all.” --An Ancient
Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“Unless you resolve
steadfastly to see with your own eyes, to use your own brains, to stand on your
own feet, to be a voice and not an echo, you will be helplessly enslaved by the
fashion of the hour, and the opinions that prevail.” --An Ancient Nonconformist,
Nehemiah 5:15
“Truth has always lived
with minorities, so do not let the current of widespread opinion sweep you
away, but try to have a mind of your own, and not to be brow-beaten or
overborne because the majority of the people round about you are giving
utterance, and it may be unmeasured utterance, to any opinions.” --An Ancient
Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“. . . let me remind you
that a mere traditional religion, which is only orthodox because other people
are so, and has not verified its beliefs by personal experience, is quite as
deleterious as an imitative unbelief.” --An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah
5:15
“Unless you are prepared to
say ‘No!’ to a great deal that will be pushed into your face in this great
city, as sure as you are living you will make shipwreck of your lives.” --An
Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“. . . my point is this,
that Jesus Christ requires from each of us that we shall abstain, restrict
ourselves, refuse to do a great many things that are being done round us.” --An
Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“Just because there are so
many people on the path, suspect it, and expect that the path with fewer
travellers is probably the better and the higher.” --An Ancient Nonconformist,
Nehemiah 5:15
“What did He mean by ‘the
world’? This fair universe, with all its possibilities of help and blessing,
and all its educational influences? By no means. He meant by ‘the world’ the
aggregate of things and [people] considered as separate from God. And when He
applied the term to [people] only, He meant by it very much what we mean when
we talk about society. Society is not organised on Christian principles; we all
know that, and until it is, if a [person] is going to be a Christian [they] he
must not conform to the world.” --An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“I would press upon you,
dear friends! that our Christianity is nothing unless it leads us to a
standard, and a course of conduct in conformity with that standard, which will
be in diametrical opposition to a great deal of what is patted on the back, and
petted and praised by society.” --An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“. . . remember that
Christ’s commandment not to be conformed to the world is the consequence of His
commandment to be conformed to Himself.” --An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah
5:15
“You will misunderstand the
whole genius of the Gospel if you suppose that, as a law of life, it is
perpetually pulling [people] short up, and saying: Don’t, don’t, don’t! There
is a Christianity of that sort which is mainly prohibition and restriction, but
it is not Christ’s Christianity. He begins by enjoining: ‘This do in
remembrance of Me,’ and the [person] that has accepted that commandment must
necessarily say, as he looks out on the world, and its practices: ‘So did not
I, because of the fear of God.’” --An Ancient Nonconformist, Nehemiah 5:15
“The instinct of imitation
is planted in us for a good end, and because it is in us, examples of nobility
appeal to us. And because it is in us Jesus Christ has lived the life that it
is possible for, and therefore incumbent on, us to live. It is safe to imitate
Him, and it is easy not to do as [people] do, if once our main idea is to do as
Christ did.
NEHEMIAH 8
“Any true religion in the
heart will make us eager to perceive, and willing to be guided by, the will of
God, revealed mainly in Scripture, in the Person, works, and words of Jesus,
and also in waiting hearts by the Spirit, and in those things which the world
calls ‘circumstances’ and faith names ‘providences.’” --Reading the Law with
Tears and Joy, Nehemiah 8:1-12
“There is a natural
adaptation or provision in the Gospel, both by what it brings to us and by what
it takes away from us, to make a calm, and settled, and deep gladness, the
prevalent temper of the Christian spirit.” --The Joy of the Lord, Nehemiah 8:10
“. . . quiet peace lies in
the heart of the man that is trusting in the Lord.” --The Joy of the Lord,
Nehemiah 8:10
“It may be quite true, that
you cannot help feeling sorrowful in the presence of sorrowful thoughts, and
glad in the presence of thoughts that naturally kindle gladness. But I will
tell you what you can do or refrain from doing-you can either go and stand in
the light, or you can go and stand in the shadow.” --The Joy of the Lord,
Nehemiah 8:10
“Your meditations may
either centre mainly upon your own selves, your faults and failings, and the
like; or they may centre mainly upon God and His love, Christ and His grace,
the Holy Spirit and His communion.” --The Joy of the Lord, Nehemiah 8:10
“. . . by the selection or
the rejection of the appropriate and proper subjects which shall make the main
portion of our religious contemplation, and shall be the food of our devout
thoughts, we can determine the complexion of our religious life.” --The Joy of
the Lord, Nehemiah 8:10
“If your thoughts are
chiefly occupied with God, and what He has done and is for you, then you will
have peaceful joy. If, on the other hand, they are bent ever on yourself and
your own unbelief, then you will always be sad. You can make your choice.” --The Joy of the Lord, Nehemiah 8:10
“Christian [people], the joy of
the Lord is a duty. It is so because, as we have seen, it is the natural effect
of faith, because we can do much to regulate our emotions directly, and much
more to determine them by determining what set of thoughts shall engage us.” --The
Joy of the Lord, Nehemiah 8:10
“A further closer vision of
the love of God in Jesus Christ brings with it ‘joy and peace in believing.’
But the prolongation of these throughout life requires the steadfast
continuousness of gaze towards Him.” --The Joy of the Lord, Nehemiah 8:10
“It is only where there is
much faith and consequent love that there is much joy. Let us search our own
hearts. If there is but little heat around the bulb of the thermometer, no
wonder that the mercury marks a low degree.” --The Joy of the Lord, Nehemiah
8:10
“If we have hearts full of
light, and souls at rest in Christ, and the wealth and blessedness of a
tranquil gladness lying there, and filling our being; work will be easy,
endurance will be easy, sorrow will be bearable, trials will not be so very
hard, and above all temptations we shall be lifted, and set upon a rock.” --The
Joy of the Lord, Nehemiah 8:10
NEHEMIAH 13
“Many
religious and moral reformations depend for their vitality on one [person], and
droop if [their] influence be withdrawn.” --Sabbath Observance, Nehemiah 13:15-22
“. . . the need for a
seventh day of rest is impressed on our physical and intellectual nature; and
devout hearts will joyfully find their best rest in Christian worship and
service.” --Sabbath Observance, Nehemiah 13:15-22
“The vigour of religious
life demands special seasons set apart for worship. Unless there be such
reservoirs along the road, there will be but a thin trickle of a brook by the
way. It is all very well to talk about religion diffused through the life, but
it will not be so diffused unless it is concentrated at certain times.”
--Sabbath Observance, Nehemiah 13:15-22
“There never was a time
when men lived so furiously fast as now. The pace of modern life demands Sunday
rest more than ever.” --Sabbath Observance, Nehemiah 13:15-22
“There is need for very
strong determination and much sanctified obstinacy in fighting popular abuses.”
--Sabbath Observance, Nehemiah 13:15-22
“The one thing needful for
Christian reformers is, not the power to appeal to force, but the force which
they can carry within them.” --Sabbath Observance, Nehemiah 13:15-22
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