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Alexander MacLaren

Alexander MacLaren Quotes

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Famous Alexander MacLaren Quotes

“As in mysterious and transcendent union the Divine takes into itself the human in the person of Jesus, and eternity is blended with time; we, trusting Him, and yielding our hearts to Him, receive into our poor lives an incorruptible seed, and for us the soul-satisfying realities that abide forever mingle with and are reached through the shadows that pass away.”

HumansHeartPersonsSoulRealityJesusPoorForeverDivineShadowEternityUnionsSeedsMysteriousSatisfyingPassing AwayTranscendentPoor LifeTrusting Him
Book:MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture
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“Oh, remember that as certain as the historical fact, He died on Calvary; so certain is the prophetic fact, He shall reign, and you and I will stand there. I durst not touch that subject. Take it into your own hearts, and think about it, a kingdom, a judgment-seat, a crown, a gathered universe; separation, decision, execution of the sentence.”

ThinkingHeartFactsRememberCertainUniverseDecisionSubjectsJudgmentDiedHistoricalSentencesSeparationKingdomsSeatsExecutionCrownsReignPropheticCalvaryHistorical Facts
Book:MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture
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“It is not the thinker who is the true king of men, as we sometimes hear it proudly said. We need one who will not only show, but be the Truth; who will not only point, but open and be the Way; who will not only communicate thought, but give, because He is the Life. Not the rabbi's pulpit, nor the teacher's desk, still less the gilded chairs of earthly monarchs, least of all the' tents of conquerors, are the throne of the true king. He rules from the cross.”

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Author:Alexander MacLaren
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“The sum of the whole matter is this: He who is one in will and heart with God is a Christian. He who loves God is one in will and heart with Him. He who trusts Christ loves God. That is Christianity in its ultimate purpose and result. That is Christianity in its means and working forces. That is Christianity in its starting point and foundation.”

HeartMeanMatterWholeChristianPurposeForceChristResultsChristianityUltimateFoundationStartingGod LoveStarting PointChrist Love
Book:Sermons preached in Manchester
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“Ah, there is nothing more beautiful than the difference between the thought about sinful creatures which is natural to a holy being, and the thought about sinful creatures which is natural to a self-righteous being. The one is all contempt; the other, all pity.”

SelfBeautifulNaturalDifferencesHolyCreaturesPityContemptRighteousSelf RighteousSelf Righteousness
Book:Sermons preached in Union chapel, Manchester
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“Transiency is stamped on all our possessions, occupations, and delights. We have the hunger for eternity in our souls, the thought of eternity in our hearts, the destination for eternity written on our inmost being, and the need to ally ourselves with eternity proclaimed by the most short-lived trifles of time. Either these things will be the blessing or the curse of our lives. Which do yon mean that they shall be for you?”

NeedsHeartMeanSoulEarthOur LivesWrittenBlessingEternityHungerDelightPossessionCurseDestinationOccupationAlliesTriflesShort Lived
Book:The Book of Esther
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“He that has no present Christ has a future, dark, chaotic, heaving with its destructive ocean; and over it there goes forever--black-pinioned winging its solitary and hopeless flight, the raven of his anxious thoughts, and finds no place to rest, and comes back again to the desolate ark with its foreboding croak of evil in the present and evil in the future.”

EvilBlackChristDarkForeverOceanFlightDestructiveOver ItHopelessAnxiousSolitaryChaoticBack AgainRavensDesolateArkForebodingAnxious Thoughts
Book:Sermons preached in Union chapel, Manchester
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“If life has not made you by God's grace, through faith, holy--think you, will death without faith do it? The cold waters of that narrow stream are no purifying bath in which you may wash and be clean. No! no! as you go down into them, you will come up from them.”

IfsThinkingMayMadeDeathWaterGraceColdHolyCleanCome UpStreamsBathsGod's GracePurifyingCold Water
Book:Sermons preached in Union chapel, Manchester
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“As the flowers follow the sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by its shining, so must we, if we would know the joy of God, hold our souls, wills, hearts, and minds, still before Him, whose voice commands, whose love warns, whose truth makes fair our whole being. God speaks for the most part in such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling voices, His voice is little likely to be heard.”

IfsKnowsMindHeartLittlesStillsSoulWholeJoySpeakVoiceSilenceSunHeardFlowerFairsShiningCommandHeart And MindPetalsTumult
Book:MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture
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“Unbelief is criminal because it is a moral act, an act of the whole nature.-Belief or unbelief is a test of a man's whole spiritual condition, because it is the whole being, affections, will, conscience, as well as the understanding, which are concerned in it.”

MenWellsWholeSpiritualBeliefUnderstandingMoralConditionsConscienceConcernedTestsAffectionCriminalsUnbelief
Book:MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture
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“A picture without sky has no glory. This present, unless we see gleaming beyond it the eternal calm of the heavens, above the tossing tree tops with withering leaves, and the smoky chimneys, is a poor thing for our eyes to gaze at, or our hearts to love, or our hands to toil on.”

LifeHeartHandsEyeHeavenPoorTreeSkyEternalGloryCalmToilChimneysWitheringTree Tops
Book:MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture
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“Did any of you, parents, ever hear your child wake from sleep with some panic fear and shriek the mother's name through the darkness? Was not that a more powerful appeal than all words? And, depend upon it, that the soul which cries aloud on God, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," though it have "no language but a cry," will never call in vain.”

ChildrenSoulMotherFatherJesusNamesLanguageParentChristPrayerSleepPowerfulLordDarknessCryDependsJesus ChristOur ChildrenAppealsVainYour ChildrenPanicOur LordLord Jesus ChristOur Lord Jesus Christ
Book:Sermons preached in Union chapel, Manchester
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“The hand that holds the seven stars is as loving as the hand that was laid in blessing upon the little children; the face that is as the sun shining in its strength beams with as much love as when it drew publicans and harlots to His feet. The breast that is girt with the golden girdle is the same breast upon which John leaned his happy head.”

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Author:Alexander MacLaren
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“In making our decisions, we must use the brains that God has given us. But we must also use our hearts which He also gave us. A man who has not learned to say, No -who is not resolved that he will take God's way, in spite of every dog that can bay or bark at him, in spite of every silvery choice that woos him aside-will be a weak and a wretched man till he dies.”

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Author:Alexander MacLaren
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“"Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush of His hand as He passed; and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrance and hidden strength in the remembrance of Him as "in all points tempted like as we are," bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us."”

HandsChristianRememberNightDarkGriefPathFeetBrokenSorrowWoodsStemRemembranceBentBrushesAfflictionTemptedFragranceBereavementHere And ThereSprayLingeringDark WoodsHidden Strength
Book:Sermons Preached in Manchester: First series
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