Horatius Bonar > Quotes

“For we are not saved by believing in our own salvation, nor by believing anything whatsoever about ourselves. We are saved by what we believe about the Son of God and His righteousness. The gospel believed saves; not the believing in our own faith.”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“It is not opinions that man needs: it is TRUTH. It is not theology; it is God. It is not religion: it is Christ. It is not literature and science; but the knowledge of the free love of God in the gift of His only-begotten Son.”
― Horatius Bonar, Words to Winners of Souls

“Faith is the acknowledgment of the entire absence of all goodness in us, and the recognition of the cross as the substitute for all the want on our part. Faith saves, because it owns the complete salvation of another, and not because it contributes anything to that salvation.”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“We are forgiven, that we may be like Him who forgives us.”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“Your life is a Book; it may be a volume of larger or smaller size; and conversion is but the title-page or the preface. The Book itself remains to be written; and your years and weeks and days are its chapters and leaves and lines. It is a Book written for eternity; see that it be written well. It is a Book for the inspection of enemies as well as friends; be careful of every word. It is a Book written under the eye of God; let it be done reverently; without levity, yet without constraint or terror. Let”
― Horatius Bonar, Follow the Lamb

“It is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be forgiven, but because he has been forgiven, and the consciousness of his sin being pardoned makes him long more for its entire removal than ever he did before.”
― Horatius Bonar, God's Way of Holiness

“It is forgiveness that sets a man working for God. He does not work in order to be forgiven, but because he has been forgiven, and the consciousness of his sin being pardoned makes him long for its entire removal than ever he did before. An unforgiven man cannot work. He has not the will, nor the power, nor the liberty. He is in chains. Israel in Egypt could not serve Jehovah. "Let my people go, that they may serve Me." was God's message to Pharaoh (exodus 8:1) first liberty, then service.”
― Horatius Bonar

“The divine order then is first pardon, then holiness; first peace with God, and then conformity to the image of that God with whom we have been brought to be at peace.”
― Horatius Bonar, Gods Way of Holiness: Finding True Holiness through True Peace

“Bold preaching is the only preaching that is owned of God.”
― Horatius Bonar, Words to Winners of Souls

“The voice from the tree did not summon them to do, but to be satisfied with what was done”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“Stripe for stripe is human law; "by His stripes we are healed" is superhuman, the result of a legislation as gracious as it is divine.”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“Christianity was born for endurance; it is not an exotic, but a hardy plant, braced by the keen wind; not languid, nor childish nor cowardly. It walks with strong step and erect frame; it is kindly, but firm; it is gentle, but honest; it is calm, but not facile; decided, but not churlish. It does not fear to speak the stern word of condemnation against error, nor to raise its voice against surrounding evils, knowing that it is not of this world.”
― Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)

“Sin is too great an evil for man to meddle with. His attempts to remove it do but increase it, and his endeavours to approach God in spite of it aggravate his guilt.”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“Let your light shine. Do not obstruct it, or hide it, or mingle darkness with it. 'Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee' (Isa. 60:1). It is the light of love that you have received; let it shine. It is the light of truth; let it shine. It is the light of holiness; let it shine. And if you ask, How am I to get the light, and to maintain it in fulness? I answer, 'Christ shall give you light' (Eph. 5:14). There is light enough in Him who is the light of the world. 'The Lamb is the light thereof' (Rev. 21:23). There is no light for man but from the Lamb. It is the cross, the cross alone, that lights up a dark soul and keeps it shining, so that we walk in light as He is in the light; 'for God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”
― Horatius Bonar, Follow The Lamb

“The avoidance of little evils, little sins, little inconsistencies, little weaknesses, little follies, little indiscretions and imprudences, little foibles, little indulgences of self and of the flesh, little acts of indolence or indecision, or slovenliness or cowardice, little equivocations or aberrations from high integrity, little touches of shabbiness or meanness...little indifferences to the feelings or wishes of others, little outbreaks of temper, or crossness, or selfishness, or vanity - the avoidance of such little things as these goes far to make up at least the negative beauty of a holy life.”
― Horatius Bonar, God's Way of Holiness

“Remember how Paul and Barnabas urged this upon the Jews of Antioch, 'persuading them to continue in the grace of God' (Acts 13:43; Gal. 5:4; Titus 2:11; 1 Peter 5:12).”
― Horatius Bonar, Follow The Lamb

“Be Strong In The Grace That Is In Christ Jesus It was this grace or free love which first began with you, and with which you began. It was this which you at first 'apprehended,' or rather, which 'apprehended' you; and your special character is that of men who 'know the grace of God' (Col. 1:6); who have 'tasted that the Lord is gracious' (1 Pet. 2:3); men on whom God has had compassion (Rom. 9:15); men to whom He has shown His forgiving love. Such is your name.”
― Horatius Bonar, Follow The Lamb

“The believed gospel saves; but it is the believed promise that assures us of this salvation.”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“Love of novelties has been the shipwreck of many a soul.”
― Horatius Bonar, Follow the Lamb

“The question, therefore, which each of us has to answer to his own conscience is, "Has it been the end of my ministry, has it been the desire of my heart to save the lost and guide the saved? Is this my aim in every sermon I preach, in every visit I pay? Is it under the influence of this feeling that I continually live and walk and speak? Is it for this I pray and toil and fast and weep? Is it for this I spend and am spent, counting it, next to the salvation of my own soul, my chiefest joy to be the instrument of saving others? Is it for this that I exist? To accomplish this would I gladly die? Have I seen the pleasure of the Lord prospering in my hand? Have I seen souls converted under my ministry? Have God's people found refreshment from my lips and gone upon their way rejoicing, or have I seen no fruit of my labours, and yet am content to remain unblest? Am I satisfied to preach, and yet not know of one saving impression made, one sinner awakened?”
― Horatius Bonar, Words to Winners of Souls

“Go, labour on while it is day,
The world's dark night is hastening on.
Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away--
It is not thus that souls are won.”
― Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope

“The voice from the tree did not summon them to do, but to be satisfied with what was done.”
― Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness

“A false idea or a diverging step at the outset may lead to a false religion throughout life, to an imperfect and superficial goodness, as one incorrect figure or sign in an equation falsifies both process and result.”
― Horatius Bonar, God's Way of Holiness

“It is much to be feared that “we are weak in the pulpit because we are weak in the closet.”
― Horatius Bonar, Words to Winners of Souls

“The question, therefore, which each of us has to answer to his own conscience is, Has it been the purpose of my ministry and the desire of my heart to save the lost and guide the saved? Is this my aim in every sermon I preach and in every visit I make? Is it under the influence of this feeling that I continually live and walk and speak? Do I pray and toil and fast and weep for this? Do I spend and am I spent for this, counting it, next to the salvation of my own soul, my greatest joy to be the instrument of saving others?”
― Horatius Bonar, A Word to Fellow Pastors and Other Christian Leaders: Things Every Minister of the Gospel Must Consider

“It is not merely that we “glory in the cross” (Gal 6:14), but we draw strength from it.”
― Horatius Bonar, God's Way of Holiness

“The first true touch of that Cross has secured for me the eternal blessing. I am in the hands of Christ, and none shall pluck me out (Joh 10:28).”
― Horatius Bonar, God's Way of Holiness

“Hence it is that self-righteousness and grace are totally incompatible with each other; so that the moment we begin to palliate our sin, in order to obtain forgiveness, we are falling from grace. As soon as we begin to look for some good feeling or deed in us, in order to make us less unfit to apply to God for pardon, we are rejecting grace. When we allow doubts to arise in us on account of the greatness or the frequency of our sins, we are losing sight of grace. When we try to get or to regain peace in any way which supposes that we are less than the chief of sinners, we are misunderstanding grace, and refusing to acknowledge what it must always rest upon—that sin's malignity is unspeakable, and God's hatred of it unchangeable. And this was evidently in the mind of the Lord when he said, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." The grace, which he came to announce, was grace which had nothing to do with man in any other character save that of a sinner”
― Horatius Bonar, The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (50-in-1), Illustrated

“Study the Speakers, Not the Sermons”
― Horatius Bonar, A Word to Fellow Pastors and Other Christian Leaders: Things Every Minister of the Gospel Must Consider

“Devotion,” said Bishop Hall, “is the life of religion, the very soul of piety, the highest employment of grace.” It is much to be feared that “we are weak in the pulpit because we are weak in the closet.”
― Horatius Bonar, A Word to Fellow Pastors and Other Christian Leaders: Things Every Minister of the Gospel Must Consider