Lady Huntingdon

A great example to the women in the church is Lady Huntingdon who was influential during the English Reformation of the 18th century. She was a great promoter of George Whitefield and John Wesley. She used her high position for full effect for the gospel. She promoted the gospel to the servants in her house and she promoted the gospel to the royal family. Money and things did not mean much to her, but she used her goods for the glory of God. For example, she founded no less than 200 chapels and mission stations in England; in 1828, nearly forty years after her death, there were 35,000 people regularly attending these places of worship, and they were cared for by 72 ministers of the gospel.

Flavel

Take away the knowledge of Christ, and Christians would be the most sad and melancholy beings in the world: again, let Christ but manifest himself, and dart the beams of his light into their souls, it will make them kiss the stake, sing in the flames, and shout in the pangs of death, as men that divide the spoil. (The Excellency of the Subject, 14) John Flavel

Born Again

The evangelist D. L. Moody, who had a very effective ministry both in Britain and in the United States, on one occasion addressed a group of church workers. After the meeting he was confronted by an angry woman who said, "Mr. Moody, do you mean to tell me that I, an educated woman, taught from childhood in good ways and all my life interested in the church and doing good, must enter heaven the same way as the worst criminal of our day?" "No, madam," said Moody. "I don't. God does. He says everyone who would enter heaven, no matter how good they think they are, or how well educated, or zealous in good works, must be born again”.

Newton to Cowper

John Newton wrote the following to William Cowper on July 30, 1767: "But if He is the Captain of our salvation, if his eye is upon us, his arm stretched out around us, and his ear open to our cry, and if He has engaged to teach our hands to war and our fingers to fight, and to cover our heads in the day of battle, then we need not fear, though a host rise up against us; but, lifting up our banner in his name, let us go forth conquering and to conquer."

The Land

Rainey and Notley, in their book The Sacred Bridge, say that "of all the writing held sacred by the world's religions, only the Bible presents a message linked to geography. This is not just the location of religious centers but the experience of a people in its land . . . the religious experiences of that ancient people took place in relation to a geographical setting . . . the Bible is replete with geographical information, not as a guidebook for travelers or a textbook on geography, but often almost incidental to the message. Yet without geography, that message is often obscured or vitiated for the uninformed reader."

Spurgeon on Conversion

"When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul - when they were as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron; and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown all of a sudden from a babe into a man - that I had made progress in scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God ... I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, I ascribe my change wholly to God." (Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography: 1, The Early Years, Banner of Truth, pp. 164-165).

Spurgeon on Calvinism

I have my own opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing unchangeable eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross. (Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 1, 1856)

Paton

John G. Paton was a Scottish missionary to the New Hebrides of the South Pacific during the 19th century. The inhabitants of the islands were cannibals; in 1839 the London Missionary Society had sent John Williams and James Harris there to be missionaries. Both were killed and eaten by cannibals. This, therefore, was risky, perilous business for Paton as he began work in 1858.

Before he left a certain Mr. Dickson said to Paton, "The cannibals! You will be eaten by the cannibals!" Paton's response is classic: "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 live and die serving and honoring 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 rise as fair as yours in the likeness of the risen Redeemer."

In 1887, Paton wrote the following: "On our New Hebrides, more than 12,000 cannibals have been brought to sit at the feet of Christ . . . and 133 of the Natives have been trained and sent forth as teachers and preachers of the Gospel."

Ranavalona

Missionary work began in Madagascar in the 19th century under the auspices of the London Missionary Society. Welsh missionaries, David Jones and David Johns, did some great work there . . . the church grew to around 1,000 members during their time there. However, all the missionaries were expelled from the island when a new queen, named Ranavalona, came to the throne. She then persecuted the church for nearly 30 years. By the time of the queen's death . . . the church numbered 7,000 members! Ranavalona had killed almost 1,000 Christians, yet during her rule the church had grown to 7,000 members. How can this be? How could this happen? One of the Christian women who went through the persecutions gave the answer: "The Queen does not know that the best teacher of all, the Holy Spirit, is still with us."