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Soul Stirring Quotes
John Moore, born in Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Author of the hymn,
Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
I wrote “Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary” after a most interesting experience. The company secretary of a large shipping firm telephoned the Seaman’s Chapel and requested that I visit a young merchant seaman, who was lying critically ill in a Glasgow Hospital. After getting permission from the nursing sister, I went in to visit the young sailor. I found him glad to have a visitor and eager to hear what I had to say. I talked about general things for a few moments and the put my hand in my case for a tract, not knowing which one I would pull out. It happened to be a tract based on “Pilgrim’s Progress,” with a color reproduction of “Pilgrim” coming to the cross with a great burden on his back. I showed the young seaman this picture and told him the story in brief, adding that Pilgrim’s experience had been my experience too. The more I told him, the more anxious he became. I explained that, when I came to the cross of Christ, my burdens rolled away, and my sense of sin and guilt before God was removed. By this time, the tears were running down his cheeks, and he nodded his head when I asked him, “Do you feel this burden on your heart today?” We prayed together, and never shall I forget the smile of peace and assurance that lit up his face as he said that his burden was lifted! Later that night, sitting by the fireside with paper and pen, I could not get the thought out of my mind–his burden is lifted! I started writing, and the words flowed on to the paper. The tune was written at the same sitting, but never for a moment did I imagine that this little hymn would become a favorite throughout the world. Since that time, I hear people from all over the world who are being blessed and saved, through the singing of this hymn. (To hear the melody of this hymn and to read more about the author, please click on the following link.)
Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
Spurgeon on the Bible verse, "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it."
"I gather from this promise, first, that it is a promise only made to those who do open their mouths wide. Some brethren never get their mouths filled because they never open them to any extent. They ask for some little mercy, and they may get it, or may not; there is no promise about such shut-mouthed prayers, but if they had opened their mouths wide they would to a certainty have had the mouth-filling blessing. With the world it is, the less you ask for the more likely you will be to obtain it, but God's thoughts are not as our thoughts: with God the more you ask the more likely are you to be heard. Half open your mouth and it may or may not be filled, but "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." We always pray well and successfully when the Spirit of God enables us to stand on elevated ground, and plead on Godlike terms for blessings which for value, number, and greatness are worthy of the infinite bounty of Jehovah. We are then dealing with God as he loves to be dealt with, for He is a rich and great God, and loves to be approached with great prayer and great request, and when we draw near in that fashion we shall be quite sure to succeed."
Charles Finney, on preaching, taken from his Memoirs. (He preached in Edinburgh.)
"The captain of a fire company, when a city is on fire, does not read to his company an essay, or exhibit fine specimens of rhetoric, when he shouts to them and directs their movements. It is a question of urgency, and he intends that every word shall be understood. He is entirely in earnest with them, and they feel as if criticism would be out of place in regard to the language he uses. It is a question of too much importance and urgency for his company to expect that he is going to trim his language, and speak to them under such circumstances with all the fine drapery and furniture of a studied and ornate discourse. So it always is when men are entriely in earnest about a thing. Their language is direct, simple, in point. Their sentences are short, cogent, powerful. The appeal is made directly to them for action; and hence all such discourses take effect. This is the reason why the ignorant Methodist preachers, and formerly the earnest Baptist preachers produced so much more effect than our most learned theologians and splendid divines. They do so now. The mere effort of a common exhorter will often move a congregation far beyond anything that those splendid exhibitions of rhetoric will do. Great sermons lead the people to praise the preacher. Good preaching leads the people to praise the Savior."
James Robe, Kilsyth, Scotland in defence of the revival that was taking place.
"I seriously beg of any who are prejudiced against this dispensation of God's extraordinary grace, and look upon it as a delusion, that they will show themselves so charitable, as to direct me and other ministers, what we shall answer distressed persons of all ages, who come to us crying bitterly that they are undone, because of unbelief and other sins -'What shall we do to be saved!' And as a young girl about twelve, who had been in distress for some time called upon me in the house where I was, and asked me with great sedateness,'What shall I do to get Christ?', shall we tell them that they are not Christless, and are not unconverted, when we evidently see many of them to be such? Shall we tell them that their fears of the wrath of God are all but delusion, and that it is not such a dreadful thing that they need to be much afraid of it" Shall we tell persons lamenting their cursing, and swearing, Sabbath-breaking, and other immoralities, that it is the devil that now makes them see these evils to be offensive to God, and destructive to their souls? Shall we tell them, who, under greatest uneasiness, inquire of us what they shall do to get an interest and faith in Jesus Christ, that Satan is deluding them, when they have, or show any concern this way" In fine, shall we pray and recommend it to them to pray to God, to deliever them from such delusions? It would be worse than devilish to treat the Lord's sighing and groaining prisoners at this rate; and yet such treatment is a natural consequence of reckoning this the work of the devil, and a delusion." The Log College, by Archibald Alexander
Quotes of David Livingstone: Famous Scottish missionary to Africa.
"If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all."
"I will go anywhere, provided it is forward."
"I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the kingdom of Christ."
Quote of John Paton taken from "John G. Paton, Scottish Missionary to the New Hebrides."
"Amongst many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, 'The Cannibals! You will be eaten by Cannibals." At last I replied, 'Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer."
Another Quote from Missionary Paton.
"How much my father's prayers at this time impressed me I can never explain, nor could any stranger understand. When, on his knees and all of us kneeling around him in Family Worship, he poured out his whole soul with tears for the conversion of the Heathen World to the service of Jesus, and for every personal and domestic need, we all felt as if in the presence of the living Saviour, and learned to know and love Him as our Divine Friend. As we rose from our knees, I used to look at the light on my father's face, and wish I were like him in spirit, -hoping that, in answer to his prayers, I might be privileged and prepared to carry the blessed Gospel to some portion of the Heathen World." - John Paton, Scottish Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides.
Quote of Robert Moffat found in "A Scottish Christian Heritage."
"Oh! Christians..., can you as subjects of divine love, as possessing the blessed Gospel of the Son of God, and as holding his last commission from the Mount of Olives to publish it to the ends of the earth, - can you gaze on these fields of human blood, these regions of unutterable woe, without emotion? Ah! brethren, could you behold the scenes your missionaries witness, you would wake up with a power of pity which would impel you to deeds of compassion, compared with which your past exertions would appear as nothing."
- Robert Moffat, 1842, Scottish Pioneer Missionary to Africa. Father-in-law to David Livingstone.