Temptation Quotes - Page 33

• Say not that thou hast royal blood in thy veins; say not that thou art born of God if thou canst not prove thy pedigree by daring to be holy!

  William Gurnall

  Art, Blood, Veins

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• Come and let the healing, cleansing rays of Calvary play upon your hearts until the very seed of evil is sterilized.

  Stuart Holden

  Healing, Heart, Play

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• Not simply the righteousness of our Saviour, not simply the beauty of His holiness or the graces of His character, are we to put on as a garment. The Lord Himself is our vesture. Every Christian is not only a Christ bearer, but a Christ wearer. We are so to enter into Him by communion, to be so endued with His presence, and imbued with His Spirit that men shall see Him when they behold us, as they see our garments when they look upon our bodies.

  Adoniram Judson Gordon

  Christian, Character, Men

  Adoniram Judson Gordon (1897). “Yet Speaking: A Collection of Addresses”

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• Thou shalt never wash my feet.

  John the Apostle

  Feet

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• Whatever hinders us from receiving a blessing that God is willing to bestow upon us is not humility, but the mockery of it. A genuine humility will ever feel the need of the largest measures of grace, and will be perfected just in the degree in which that grace is bestowed. The truly humble man will seek to be filled with all the fullness of God, knowing that when so filled there is not the slightest place for pride or for self.

  George Bowen

  Humble, Humility, Pride

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• Most (Christians) have an ungrounded trust in Christ, hoping that He will pardon, justify and save them, while the world has their hearts, and they live to the flesh. And this trust they take as justifying faith.

  Richard Baxter

  Christian, Heart, World

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• Let none, however difficult the circumstances, consider himself as debarred from the way of holiness. Have we but God and the cross of Christ, we have the means for becoming altogether holy in our walk and conversation. What dungeon is there that can shut us out from this? Only let us use the present location and means faithfully and truly, taking them from God's hand, and we shall find him able to free us from all that is really a hindrance. Let us each one desire to be a saint in his own place and calling, instead of building 'castles in the air' of future holiness.

  Gerhard Tersteegen

  Mean, Air, Hands

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• But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

  Saint Peter

  Joy, Suffering, May

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• After all that corrupt poets, and more corrupt philosophers, have told us of the blandishments of pleasure, and of its tendency to soften the temper and humanize the affections, it is certain, that nothing hardens the heart like excessive and unbounded luxury; and he who refuses the fewest gratifications to his own voluptuousness, will generally be found the least susceptible of tenderness for the wants of others.

  Hannah More

  Heart, Luxury, Want

  Hannah More (1818). “Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great, to General Society: An Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World. Remarks on the Speech of M. Dupont. And Tracts Written During the Riots of 1817”, p.9

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• If Christ justifies you, He will sanctify you! He will not save you and leave you in your sins.

  Robert Murray M'Cheyne

  Sin, Christ, Justify

  Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Andrew Alexander Bonar (1866). “The life and remains, letters, lectures, and poems of [the Rev] Robert Murray McCheyne”, p.213

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• Self-absorption is always a temptation to young people, and if their religion is of a sort to add to this self-absorption, I feel that it is a serious mistake. If I had my way, the whole subject of feelings and emotions in the religious life would be absolutely ignored. Feelings there will be, doubtless, but they must not be in the least depended on, nor in any sense taken as the test or gauge of one's religion. They ought to be left out of the calculation entirely. You may feel good or you may feel bad, but neither the good feeling nor the bad feeling affects the real thing.

  Hannah Whitall Smith

  Religious, Real, Mistake

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• The only right a Christian has is the right to give up his rights.

  Oswald Chambers

  Christian, Giving Up, Rights

  Oswald Chambers (2016). “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”, p.25, Gideon House Books

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• I humbly believe our life is to learn our nothingness and His being everything; when we agree with Him that we are nothing and not astonished at our evil nature breaking forth, when we are willing for the last to be first, when we are willing to be the least in Heaven that every one we know should be higher than ourselves, then, I think, our lesson is learnt. If we are annoyed at any disparaging remark or conduct of our fellows, it is because we are not yet fully aware of our being nothing.

  Charles George Gordon

  Believe, Thinking, Evil

  Charles George Gordon (1888). “Letters of General C.G. Gordon to His Sister, M.A. Gordon”, London ; New York : Macmillan

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• I fear it is sometimes forgotten that God has married together justification and sanctification. They are distinct and different things, beyond question, but one is never found without the other. All justified people are sanctified, and all sanctified people are justified. ... Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ's work for you, unless you can show us the Spirit's work in you.

  J. C. Ryle

  People, Together, Different

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• I am, as ever, a poor sinner, a captive of eternal love, running by the side of His triumphal chariot, and I have no desire to be anything else as long as I live.

  Nicolaus Zinzendorf

  Running, Long, Desire

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• if we continue with what is surely our greatest Western temptation, and think that in some way history owes us a solution, that we can, by pursuing our own most parochial self-interest, achieve in some miraculous way a consummation of world order, then we are heading not simply towards great disappointments, but towards disaster and tragedy as well.

  Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth

  Disappointment, Thinking, Self

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• If we listen to our self-love, we shall estimate our lot less by what it is than by what it is not; shall dwell upon its hindrances and be blind to its possibilities; and, comparing it only with imaginary lives, shall indulge in flattering dreams of what we should do if we had but power, and give if we had but wealth, and be if we had no temptations.

  James Martineau

  Dream, Self, Indulge In

  James Martineau (1905). “Tides of the Spirit: Selections from the Writings of James Martineau”

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• The only impregnable citadel of virtue is religion; for there is no bulwark of mere morality, which some temptation may not overtop or undermine, and destroy.

  Jane Porter

  Religion, May, Morality

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.21

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• To undertake the direction of the economic life of people with widely divergent ideals and values is to assume responsibilities which commit one to the use of force; it is to assume a position where the best intentions cannot prevent one from being forced to act in a way which to some of those affected must appear highly immoral. This is true even if we assume the dominant power to be as idealistic and unselfish as we can possibly conceive. But how small is the likelihood that it will be unselfish, and how great are the temptations!

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Responsibility, People, Use

  "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 15 : The Prospects of International Order, 1940 - 1943.

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• The temptations of prosperity insinuate themselves after a gentle, but very powerful manner; so that we are but little aware of them and less able to withstand them.

  Francis Atterbury

  Powerful, Littles, Able

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• The habit of virtue cannot be formed in a closet. Habits are formed by acts of reason in a persevering struggle through temptation.

  Bernard Gilpin

  Struggle, Virtue, Reason

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• The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of deep religious faith. They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone's freedom is at risk.

  Edward Kennedy

  Religious, Men, Order

  "Kennedy Tells Falwell Group Of Tolerance" by Phil Gailey, www.nytimes.com. October 4, 1983.

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• It is a constant battle to resist the temptation to have more luxuries, to acquire more stuff, and to live more comfortably.

  David Platt

  Luxury, Battle, Stuff

  David Platt (2010). “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream”, p.130, Multnomah

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• The Constitutional Convention debated whether America should even have a standing army. ... They worried that a powerful military could rival civilian government for power in our new country, and of course they worried that having a standing army around would create too much of a temptation to use it.

  Rachel Maddow

  Country, Powerful, Military

  Rachel Maddow (2012). “Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power”, p.8, Broadway Books

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• If experience teaches anything, it is that what the community undertakes to do is usually done badly. This is due in part to the temptation to corruption that such enterprises involve, but even more, perhaps, to the lack of personal interest on the part of those engaged in them.

  Suzanne La Follette

  Community, Society, Done

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