Alexander MacLaren
Alexander MacLaren
jesus simple mercy
Unless we are wedded to Jesus Christ by the simple act of trust in His mercy and His power, Christ is nothing to us.
beach ocean sound
The never-ceasing boom of the great ocean as it breaks on the beach, drowns all smaller sounds.
god vision divine
The vision of the Divine presence ever takes the form which our circumstances most require.
affliction cups salvation
The cup which my Saviour giveth me, can it be anything but a cup of salvation?
grace agents weapons
While the agent of renovation is the Divine Spirit, and the condition of renovation is our cleaving to Christ, the medium of renovation and the weapon which the transforming grace employs is "the word of the truth of the gospel," whereby we are sanctified.
ocean dark anxious-thoughts
He that has no present Christ has a future, dark, chaotic, heaving with its destructive ocean; and over it there goes forever--black-pinioned winging its solitary and hopeless flight, the raven of his anxious thoughts, and finds no place to rest, and comes back again to the desolate ark with its foreboding croak of evil in the present and evil in the future.
christian heart mean
The sum of the whole matter is this: He who is one in will and heart with God is a Christian. He who loves God is one in will and heart with Him. He who trusts Christ loves God. That is Christianity in its ultimate purpose and result. That is Christianity in its means and working forces. That is Christianity in its starting point and foundation.
littles too-much needs
The more we work the more we need to pray. In this day of activity there is great danger, not of doing too much, but of praying too little for so much work.
roots fidelity consecration
The root of all steadfastness is in consecration to God.
heart character men
Let us learn how the love of Christ, received into the heart, triumphs gradually but surely over all sin, transforms character, turning even its weakness into strength, and so, from the depths of transgression and the very gates of hell, raises men to God.
christ distrust diffidence
The true confidence which is faith in Christ, and the true diffidence which is utter distrust of myself--are identical.
blessed past expectations
And so, in calm expectation of a blessed future and a finished work which will explain the past, in honest submission of out way to God, in supreme delight in Him who is the gladness of our joy, the secret of tranquillity will be ours.
rejection leaving soul
The message of love can never come into a human soul, and pass away from it unreceived, without leaving that spirit worse, with all its lowest characteristics strengthened, and all its best ones depressed, by the fact of rejection.
grief scripture cups
Surely Scripture is right when it makes the sin of sins that unbelief, which is at bottom nothing else than a refusal to take the cup of salvation. Surely no sharper grief can be inflicted upon the Spirit of God than when we leave His gifts neglected and unappropriated.