Top 140 Quotes & Sayings by George Whitefield - Page 2

As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm and unskilled guides.

All our afflictions, all our temptations are to make heaven more desirable, and earth more loathsome.

A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.

I would rather wear out than rust out.

If one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action, deserves eternal damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve, whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God!

Though you have sinned much, that is no reason why you should despair, but only why you should love much, having so much forgiven.

There are many likewise, who go on in a round of duties, a model of performances, that think they shall go to heaven; but if you examine them, though they have a Christ in their heads, they have no Christ in their hearts.

Whoever reads the gospel with a single eye, and sincere intentions, will find, that our blessed Lord took all opportunities of reminding his disciples that His Kingdom was not of this world; that His doctrine was a doctrine of the Cross; and that their professing themselves to be His followers, would call them to a constant state of voluntary suffering and self-denial.

We must all have the spirit of martyrdom, though we may not all die martyrs.

The Lord Jesus sits in heaven, ruling over all, and causing all things to work for his children's good.

If you know Christ and him crucified, you know enough to make you happy, supposing you know nothing else. And without this, all your other knowledge cannot keep you from being everlastingly miserable.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, even persecutors, the worst of sinners: his righteousness is sufficient for them; his Spirit is able to purify and change their hearts.

Other men may preach the gospel better than I, but no man can preach a better gospel.

The care of the soul is 'a matter of the highest importance;' beyond any thing which can be brought into comparison with it.

Believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by secret prayer. The spirit of grace is always accompanied with the spirit of supplication. It is the very breath of the new creature, the fan of the divine life, whereby the spark of holy fire, kindled in the soul by God, is not only kept in, but raised into a flame.

My prayer today is that God would make me an extraordinary Christian.

The renewal of our natures is a work of great importance. It is not to be done in a day. We have not only a new house to build up, but an old one to pull down.

How sweet is rest after fatigue! How sweet will heaven be when our journey is ended.

People want to recommend themselves to God by their sincerity; they think, 'If we do all we can, if we are but sincere, Jesus Christ will have mercy on us.' But pray what is there in our sincerity to recommend us to God? ... therefore, if you depend on your sincerity for your salvation, your sincerity will damn you.

When you hear of a notorious sinner, instead of thinking you do well to be angry, beg of Jesus Christ to convert, and make him a monument of his free grace.

As Christ was born of the Virgin's womb, so must He be spiritually formed in our hearts. As He died for sin, so must we die to sin. And as He rose again from the dead, so must we also rise to a divine life.

Know, by sad experience, what it is to be lulled to sleep with a false peace. Long was I lulled asleep; long did I think myself a Christian, when I knew nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I say salvation is the free gift of God. It is God's free grace, I preach unto you, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Jesus Christ justifies the ungodly. Jesus Christ passed by and saw you polluted with your blood and bid you live.

He [Jesus Christ] loves to see poor sinners coming to Him, He is pleased to see them lie at His feet pleading His promises; and if you thus come to Christ, He will not send you away without His Spirit; no, but will receive and bless you.

You might as reasonably expect to find a living man without breath, as a true Christian without the spirit of prayer and supplication.

See that you feel the truths that you speak.

It is an undoubted truth that every doctrine that comes from God, leads to God; and that which doth not tend to promote holiness is not of God.

Come away, my dear brethren, fly, fly, fly for your lives to Jesus Christ; fly to a bleeding God, fly to a throne of grace; and beg of God to break your heart; beg of God to convince you of your actual sins; beg of God to convince you of your original sin; beg of God to convince you of your self-righteousness; beg of God to give you faith, and to enable you to close with Jesus Christ.

We are immortal till our work is done.

Lord help me to begin to begin.

The riches of His free grace cause me daily to triumph over all the temptations of the wicked one, who is very vigilant, and seeks all occasions to disturb me.

God has condescended to become an author, and yet people will not read his writings. There are very few that ever gave this Book of God, the grand charter of salvation, one fair reading through.

God is well pleased when all our actions proceed from love, love to Himself, and love to immortal souls.

I have just put my soul as a blank into the hand of Jesus, my Redeemer, and desired Him to write on it what He pleases; I know it will be His image.

I began to read the Holy Scriptures upon my knees, laying aside all other books, and praying over, if possible, every line and word...I would be so overpowered with a sense of God's Infinite Majestey, that I would be contrained to throw myself on the ground, and offer my soul as a blank in His hands, to write on it what He pleased.

Dare, dare, my dear brethren in Christ, to follow the Captain of your salvation, who was made perfect through sufferings

Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of it. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the field, seal Thy truth, and come home to die.

Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure.

Although believers by nature are far from God, and children of wrath, even as others, yet it is amazing to think how nigh they are brought to him again by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You need not fear the greatness or number of your sins.

Following Christ means following him through life, following him in every word and gesture, following him out of one clime into another.

Why fear ye that the Lord Jesus Christ will not accept of you? Your sins will be no hindrance, your unworthiness no hindrance; if your own corrupt hearts do not keep you back, nothing will hinder Christ from receiving of you.

Had I a hundred hands, I could employ them all. The harvest is very great. I am ashamed I can do no more for him who has done so much for me.

Let us, therefore, not be weary of well-doing; for we shall reap an eternal harvest of comfort, if we faint not.

The sinner can no more raise himself from the deadness of sin than Lazarus, who had been dead four days, until Jesus came.

What could the Lord Jesus Christ have done for you more than he has? Then do not abuse his mercy, but let your time be spent in thinking and talking of the love of Jesus, who was incarnate for us, who was born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem us from the wrath to come.

I am never better than when I am on the full stretch for God.

Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer.

Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God.

Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified

The reason why congregations have been so dead is, because they had dead men preaching to them. O that the Lord may quicken and revive them! How can dead men beget living children?

Though they have a Christ in their heads, they have no Christ in their hearts.

I offer you salvation this day; the door of mercy is not yet shut, there does yet remain a sacrifice for sin, for all that will accept of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will embrace you in the arms of His love.

Nothing is more generally known than the duties which belong to christianity; and yet, how amazing is it, nothing is less practised?

For, if we have not charity, we are not Christians: charity is the great duty of Christians.

Left to himself, man is half beast and half devil.

Let us...once and forever put an end to that lie which says that Calvinism and an interest in evangelism are not comparable.

Works? Works? A man get to heaven by works? I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!

O poor New England! There is a deep laid plot against your civil and religious liberties, and they will be lost. Your golden days are at an end. You have nothing but trouble before you. . . . Your liberties will be lost.

Speak every time my dear brother as if it were your last