Quotes by John Angell James
John Angell James (1785–1859) — Prediger · Kongregationalistisch · England
John Angell James war ein englischer kongregationalistischer Prediger und Schriftsteller, der von 1805 bis zu seinem Tod 1859 an der Carrs Lane Chapel in Birmingham wirkte. Bekanntheit erlangte er durch weitverbreitete Erbauungsschriften wie „The Anxious Inquirer“ sowie durch seinen Einsatz für persönliche Bekehrung, Seelsorge und Ernsthaftigkeit im Predigtdienst. Heutigen Bibellesern bieten seine Schriften praxisnahe Anregungen für die persönliche Glaubenspraxis und das geistliche Leben.
Era: Revival & the 19th Century
Recurring topics: Growth & Character, Humility & Pride, Discipleship, Church & Congregation, Love, Faith & Trust, Service & Love of Neighbour, Suffering & the Question of God
Quotes by John Angell James
Boasting is always suspicious, or superfluous. For real greatness no more needs a publisher, than the sun!
John Angell James
God does not afflict His children willingly. He takes no delight in seeing our tears – or hearing our groans. But He does take delight in doing us good, making us holy, conforming us to His own image, and fitting us to dwell in His own presence.
John Angell James
Let your children have this conviction in their hearts, “If there are but two real Christians in the world, my father is one, and my mother is the other.” It is dreadful – but not uncommon for children to employ themselves in contrasting the appearance which their parents make…at the Lord’s Table – and at their own table; in the house of God – and at home!
John Angell James
As men are more proud of their understanding than of their disposition, it is very probable that religious opinions are more frequently the cause of conceit and self-importance, than anything else which could be mentioned.
John Angell James
Prayer is a means of assisting the minister which is within the reach of all. They who can do nothing more, can pray. The sick, who cannot encourage their minister by their presence in the sanctuary, can bear him upon their hearts in their lonely chamber: the poor who cannot add to his temporal comfort by monetary donations, can supplicate their God “to supply all [his] needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19): the timid, who cannot approach to offer him the tribute of their gratitude, can pour their praises into the ear of Jehovah, and entreat him still to encourage the soul of His servant: the ignorant, who cannot hope to add one idea to the stock of his knowledge, can place him before the fountain of celestial radiance: even the dying, who can no longer busy themselves as in former times for his interests, can gather up their remaining strength, and employ it in the way of prayer for their pastor.
John Angell James
To return evil for good is devil-like. To return evil for evil is beast-like. To return good for good is man-like. But to return good for evil is God-like.
John Angell James
Ask yourselves the solemn question. In proportion as you store your minds with biblical texts and biblical ideas – are you all the while seeking to have your heart filled with biblical feelings, and your life with biblical actions?
John Angell James
Let us never forget that, to be profited, that is, to be spiritually improved in knowledge, faith, holiness, joy and love, is the end of hearing sermons, and not merely to have our taste gratified by genius, eloquence and oratory.
John Angell James
When the hand of faith opens to lay hold of Christ, it drops the sin it had grasped before. You must part with your sin – or Christ.
John Angell James
The evidence of genuine piety is to be found in real humility, self-distrust, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, sorrow for sin, and a continual effort to regulate your thoughts, feelings, and conduct by the Word of God.
John Angell James
Afflictions tend to wean us from the world – and to fix our affections on things above.
John Angell James
I find afflictions to be good for me. I have always found them so. Afflictions are happy means in the hands of the Holy Spirit to subdue my corruptions, my pride, my evil passions, my inordinate love to the creature. Afflictions soften my hard heart, bring me to my knees, increase faith, increase love, increase humility, increase self-denial. Afflictions make me poor in spirit, and nothing in my own eyes.
John Angell James
The doctrines of Scripture are facts, which involve corresponding emotions and principles of action, and must, from their very nature, if believed, be operative upon the heart and the life. If the doctrines of Scripture exert no godly influence, carry with them no practical weight, exert no moral power, they are not truly believed.
John Angell James
They who would grow in grace, must love the habitation of God’s house. It is those that are planted in the courts of the Lord who shall flourish, and not those that are occasionally there.
John Angell James
[Christian love] is that benevolent disposition or kindness which consists in good-will to all creatures, and which leads us, as we have opportunity to promote their happiness… Such is love – not a mere natural amiableness of temper—not a soft, weakly, disposition. No! but a fruit of the Spirit. It is a benevolence, which is the result of regeneration; cherished by a sense of God’s love to us in Christ Jesus; guided in its exercises by the Holy Scriptures; and directed, as its end, to the glory of God.
John Angell James
Press right home to your conscience the question, “What do I have of the mind of Christ?” Does my heart answer, does my disposition correspond, to the holy, meek, humble, forgiving, benevolent, patient, self-denying mind of Christ? Do men who know the beauty and glory of the Original, as it is delineated on the page of the gospel, when they see me, say, “There is the image of Christ!” Or do they look skeptically on, and after standing in silence for some time, profess they can see little or no resemblance? Oh, be satisfied with nothing short of a copy of Christ’s heart into yours!
John Angell James
True Christian mercy, that which will be accepted in the sight of God, and receive His smile; that which will ensure His gracious and unmerited reward, and which will have no slight connection with our celestial happiness, is exercised in designed obedience to God’s command, in express imitation of His conduct, and with an earnest desire to promote His glory.
John Angell James
A Christian is truly regenerated – but at the same time only partially sanctified. Sin is dethroned – but not destroyed! His predominant taste and disposition are holy – but godly principles may not yet have struck their roots very deep into his soul. His holy purposes are somewhat vacillating, and his inclinations to evil sometimes strong. We have the burden of our fleshly corruptions to carry, which without great labor and effort, will sadly retard us in our Christian lives.
John Angell James
“Luck!” There is no such thing in our world, none in nature, none in human affairs. Luck means that an event has no cause at all. It is a bad word – a heathen term. Drop it from your vocabulary! Trust nothing to luck, and expect nothing from it. Avoid all practical dependence upon it or its kindred words: fate, chance, fortune. Never forget your dependence upon God. He can exalt you to prosperity – or sink you into the lowest depth of adversity. He can make everything to which you set your hand to prosper – or to fail. Devoutly acknowledge this. Abhor the atheism that shuts God out of His own world!
John Angell James
There is no one gift which offers so strong a temptation both to vanity and to pride – as that of public speaking. If the orator really excels, and is successful, he is the immediate spectator of his success, and has not even to wait until he has finished his discourse; for although the decorum of public worship will not allow of audible tokens of applause, it does of visible ones – the look of interest, the tear of penitence or of sympathy, the smile of joy, the deep impression on the mind, the death-like stillness, cannot be concealed – all seem like a tribute of admiration to the presiding spirit of the scene; and then the compliments which are conveyed to his ear, after all the silent plaudits which have reached his eye – are equally calculated to puff him up with pride. No men are more in danger of this sin than the ministers of the Gospel; none should watch more sleeplessly against it.
John Angell James
Can it be, that the chief object of existence is to sing, and play, and dress and dance? Do not these things, when we reflect upon them, look more like the pursuits of butterflies and grasshoppers, and canary birds – than of rational creatures? Is it not melancholy to see beings with never-dying souls, sinking to the amusements of children; and employing time as if it were given them for nothing but mirth; and using the world as if it were created by God only to be a sort of playground for its inhabitants?
John Angell James
Love is a grace which many professing Christians think far too little about; but it is of infinite value in the eyes of God. Love is the most characteristic feature of Christ’s image in a renewed man. Love is the most precious fruit of grace; and yet the fruit which too many of His professed followers seem to think themselves hardly under any obligation to cultivate.
John Angell James
The essence of man’s sin, the sum of his moral depravity, is to love himself supremely; to seek himself finally and exclusively; to make self, in one shape or another, the center to which all his busy thoughts, anxious cares and diligent pursuits, constantly tend. Self-love is the most active and reigning principle in fallen nature! SELF is the great idol which mankind is naturally disposed to worship… "Love is not self-seeking" (1 Cor. 13:5).
John Angell James
When a world is perishing, and immortal souls are sinking daily in crowds to perdition, a Christian should look, with grudging eye, on almost every dollar he spends in luxury!
John Angell James
Death is the moment of destiny; the seal of eternity; the cessation of probation; the commencement of retribution and judgment! The antecedents of death are dreadful – so are the accompaniments – so are the consequences! To every sense – death is revolting! To every social affection – death is crucifying! To reason – death is perplexing! To everything but saving faith – death is overwhelming!
John Angell James
It is a very common supposition that it is an easy thing to be a Christian. And if to be a Christian were nothing more than going to a place of worship, indulging in pious emotions, subscribing to religious institutions, and professing certain religious opinions – the supposition would be correct – for nothing is more easy than all this! But if the spirit of true piety is poverty of spirit, humility, self-abasement, forgiveness of insults, patience under provocation, penitence, meekness, purity, peaceableness, thirsting after righteousness – then must it be obvious to everyone who knows his own heart, that to be a true Christian is the most difficult thing in the world!
John Angell James
Sources: wikipedia.org, banneroftruth.org, christianstudylibrary.org
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