“everything is needful that He sends; nothing can be needful that He withholds.”
“Thus I set off at a venture, having no resource but in the Lord's mercy and faithfulness; and, indeed, what other can we wish for? Presently my subject opened; and I know not when I have been favoured with more liberty. Why do I tell you this? Only as an instance of His goodness, to encourage you to put your strength in Him, and not to be afraid even when you feel your own weakness and insufficiency most sensibly. We are never more safe, never have more reason to expect the Lord's help, than when we are most sensible that we can do nothing without Him.”
“We have no Scriptural evidence that we serve the Lord at all, any farther than we find a habitual desire and aim to serve him wholly.
He is gracious to our imperfections and
weakness; yet he requires all the heart, and
will not be served by halves, nor accept what is performed by a divided heart.”
Source: Cardiphonia or the Utterance of the Heart
“When we are duly apprized of our absolute dependence upon him and of our obligations to him as our Creator, Benefactor, and Lawgiver, sin will appear exceedingly sinful, and will bring a burden upon the conscience, which can only be removed by faith in the Redeemer.”
Source: Memoirs of the Life of William Grimshaw
“You have need of patience; and if you ask, the Lord will give it: but there can be no settled peace till our will is in a measure subdued. Hide yourself under the shadow of His wings; rely upon His care and power; look upon Him as a physician who has graciously undertaken to heal your soul of the worst of sicknesses, sin. Yield to His prescriptions, and fight against every thought that would represent it as desirable to be permitted to choose for yourself. When you cannot see your way, be satisfied that He is your leader. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you, He knows your path”
“Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. He sometimes offers to teach us humility; but though I wish to be humble, I desire not to learn in this school. His premises perhaps are true, that we are vile, wretched creatures—but he then draws abominable conclusions from them; and would teach us, that, therefore, we ought to question either the power, or the willingness, or the faithfulness of Christ.”
“To be humble, and like a little child, afraid of taking a step alone, and so conscious of snares and dangers around us as to cry to Him continually to hold us up that we may be safe, is the sure, the infallible, the only secret of walking closely with Him.”
“How unspeakably wonderful to know that all our concerns are held in hands that bled for us.”
“Zeal without knowledge is like expedition to a man in the dark.”
“How Sweet the name of Jesus... the rock on which I build, my shield and hiding place, my never failing treasury, filled with boundless stores of grace.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. John Newton ... to which are Prefixed Memoirs of His Life, &c
“Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. John Newton ... to which are Prefixed Memoirs of His Life, &c
“By one hour's intimate access to the throne of grace, where the Lord causes His glory to pass before the soul that seeks Him you may acquire more true spiritual knowledge and comfort than a day's or a week's converse with the best of men, or the most.”
Source: The works of the rev. John Newton
“I know not a better rule of reading the Scripture, than to read it through from beginning to end and when we have finished it once, to begin it again. We shall meet with many passages which we can make little improvement of, but not so many in the second reading as in the first, and fewer in the third than in the second: provided we pray to him who has the keys to open our understandings, and to anoint our eyes with His spiritual ointment.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. John Newton ...
“If you once love Him, you will study to please Him.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. John Newton ...
“Whoever is truly humbled — will not be easily angry, nor harsh or critical of others. He will be compassionate and tender to the infirmities of his fellow-sinners, knowing that if there is a difference — it is grace alone which has made it! He knows that he has the seeds of every evil in his own heart. And under all trials and afflictions — he will look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust, acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved.”
“Of all people who engage in controversy, we, who are called Calvinists, are most expressly bound by our own principles to the exercise of gentleness and moderation.”
Source: Forty-one Letters on Religious Subjects, Originally Published Under the Signatures of Omicron and Vigil
“I once was lost, but now am found.”
“How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer's ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, And drives away his fear.”
Source: Olney hymns: in three books. I. On select texts of Scripture. II. On occasional subjects. III. On the progress and changes of the spiritual life
“If two angels were sent down from heaven,--one to conduct an empire, and the other to sweep a street,--they would feel no inclination to change employments.”
“All shall work together for good; everything is needful that He sends; nothing can be needful that He withholds.”
Source: The Voice of the Heart
“God works powerfully, but for the most part gently and gradually.”
“I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences that He is indeed our Master.”
Source: The works of the Rev. John Newton ...: containing, an authentic narrative, etc., letters on religious subjects, cardiphonia, discourses intended for the pulpit, sermons preached in the parish church of Olney, a review of ecclesiastical history, Olney hymns, poems, Messiah, occasional sermons, and tracts, to which are prefixed, Memoirs of his life, &c. by the Rev. John Cecil
“A soul disengaged from the world is a heavenly one; and then are we ready for heaven when our heart is there before us.”
“Experience is the Lord's school, and they who are taught by Him usually learn by the mistakes they make that in themselves they have no wisdom; and by their slips and falls, that they have no strength.”
“But by the grace of God I am what I am”
“If it were possible for me to alter any part of his plan, I could only spoil it.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. John Newton ...
“If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer - His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. John Newton ... to which are Prefixed Memoirs of His Life, &c
“The art of spreading rumors may be compared to the art of pin-making. There is usually some truth, which I call the wire; as this passes from hand to hand, one gives it a polish, another a point, others make and put on the head, and at last the pin is completed.”
“My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart, and to heal the broken one.”
“Every drop of rain hits its appointed target.”
“Let me endeavor to lead you out of yourself: let me invite you to look unto Jesus.”
Source: The Works of the Rev. John Newton ...
“May we sit at the foot of the cross; and there learn what sin has done, what justice has done, what love has done.”
Source: One Hundred and Twenty Nine Letters from the Rev. John Newton ... to the Rev. William Bull, of Newport Pagnell: Written During a Period of Thirty-two Years, from 1773 to 1805 ...
“If our zeal is embittered by expressions of anger, invective, or scorn—we may think we are doing service of the cause of truth, when in reality we shall only bring it into discredit!”
Source: The works of the Rev. John Newton ...: containing, an authentic narrative, etc., letters on religious subjects, cardiphonia, discourses intended for the pulpit, sermons preached in the parish church of Olney, a review of ecclesiastical history, Olney hymns, poems, Messiah, occasional sermons, and tracts, to which are prefixed, Memoirs of his life, &c. by the Rev. John Cecil
“Our work is great; our time is short; the consequences of our labors are infinite.”
“The best advice I can give you: Look unto Jesus, beholding his beauty in the written word.”
“I am not what I ought to be! Ah! how imperfect and deficient! - I am not what I wish to be! I 'abhor what is evil,' and I would 'cleave to what is good!' - I am not what I hope to be! Soon, soon, I shall put off mortality: and with mortality all sin and imperfection! Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was - a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the Apostle, and acknowledge; By the grace of God, I am what I am!”
“When people are right with God, they are apt to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are not right with God, they are easy on themselves and hard on others.”
“We have no clear ideas of the agency of [demonic] spirits, nor is it necessary. The Scripture says little to satisfy our curiosity; but tells us plainly that he is always watching us, and desiring to sift us as wheat. I believe we give him no more than his due, when we charge him with having a hand in all our sins. I believe he cuts us all out abundance of work.”
“So long as men are compassionate to such a degree that they cannot hear a fly struggling in a spider's web without emotion it can never be reasonably maintained that it is their natural impulse to wound and kill the dumb animals, or to butcher one another in what is called the field of honour.”
“As to myself, if I were not a Calvinist, I think I should have no more hope of success in preaching to men, than to horses or cows.”
Source: The Voice of the Heart
“We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to his glory and our own advantage.”
Source: The works of the Rev. John Newton ...: containing, an authentic narrative, etc., letters on religious subjects, cardiphonia, discourses intended for the pulpit, sermons preached in the parish church of Olney, a review of ecclesiastical history, Olney hymns, poems, Messiah, occasional sermons, and tracts, to which are prefixed, Memoirs of his life, &c. by the Rev. John Cecil
“God often takes a course for accomplishing His purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He brings a death upon our feelings, wishes, and prospects when He is about to give us the desire of our hearts.”
Source: The Voice of the Heart
“When I was young, I was sure of many things; now there are only two things of which I am sure: one is, that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour. He is well-taught who learns these two lessons.”
“Not only the guilt, but the love of sin, and its dominion, are taken away, subdued by grace, and cordially renounced by the believing pardoned sinner.”
Source: Messiah: Fifty Expository Discourses, on the Series of Scriptural Passages, which Form the Subject of the Celebrated Oratorio of Handel : Preached in the Years 1784 and 1785, in the Parish Church of St Mary Woolnoth, Lombard-Street
“"What Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, how Thou wilt." I had rather speak these three sentences from my heart in my mother tongue than be master of all the languages in Europe.”
Source: The works of the Rev. John Newton ...: containing, an authentic narrative, etc., letters on religious subjects, cardiphonia, discourses intended for the pulpit, sermons preached in the parish church of Olney, a review of ecclesiastical history, Olney hymns, poems, Messiah, occasional sermons, and tracts, to which are prefixed, Memoirs of his life, &c. by the Rev. John Cecil
“What will it profit a man if he gains his cause and silences his adversary if at the same time he loses that humble, tender frame of spirit in which the Lord delights, and to which the promise of his presence is made?”
Source: The works of the rev. John Newton
“I am a great Sinner and God is a great Savior”
“To embrace what are called the Calvinistic doctrines was an infallible token of a humble mind.”
Source: The works of the rev. John Newton
“How many times has He delivered me! Yet, alas! How distrustful and ungrateful is my heart even until the present!”
“The Christian must know that the season, measure, and continuance of his sufferings are appointed by Infinite Wisdom, and designed to work for his everlasting good; and that grace and strength shall be afforded him according to his need.”
Source: The Select Works of the Rev. John Newton: ... to which are Prefixed Memoirs of His Life & C
