Alexander Balmain Bruce > Quotes

“Nicodemus was barely able to speak a timid apologetic word in Christ's behalf, and Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple "secretly," for fear of the Jews. These were hardly the persons to send forth as missionaries of the cross--men so fettered by social ties and party connections, and so enslaved by the fear of man. The apostles of Christianity must be made of sterner stuff.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“Yet how poor, after all, is such a character compared with Abraham, the father of the faithful, and model of temperance and singleness of mind; who could use the world, of which he had a large portion, without abusing it; who kept his wealth and state, and yet never became their slave, and was ready at God's command to part with his friends and his native land, and even with an only son! So to live, serving ourselves heir to all things, yet maintaining unimpaired our spiritual freedom; enjoying life, yet ready at the call of duty to sacrifice life's dearest enjoyments: this is true Christian virtue, the higher Christian life for those who would be perfect. Let us have many Abrahams so living among our men of wealth, and there is no fear of the church going back to the Middle Ages.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“The miraculous feast in the wilderness was meant to say to the multitude just what our sacramental feast says to us: "I, Jesus the Son of God Incarnate, am the bread of life. What this bread is to your bodies, I myself am to your souls." And the communicants in that feast were to be tested by the way in which they regarded the transaction. The spiritual would see in it a sign of Christ's divine dignity, and a seal of His saving grace;”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“Christ's other source of consolation in prospect of death is the approval of His Father: "I am not alone, because the Father is with me." The Father has been with Him all along. On three critical occasions--at the baptism, on the hill of transfiguration, in the temple a few days ago--the Father had encouraged Him with an approving voice.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“It was as if he said: "I know it is no light matter to call any one, even Thee, Son of God, of the One living eternal Jehovah. But I shrink not from the assertion, however bold, startling, or even blasphemous it may seem. I cannot by any other expression do justice to all I know and feel concerning Thee, or convey the impression left on my mind by what I have witnessed during the time I have followed Thee as a disciple." In this way was the disciple urged on, in spite of his Jewish monotheism, to the recognition of his Lord's divinity.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“Peter's feeling at the present time seems to have been much the same: "If Thou be the Son of God, why shouldst Thou suffer an ignominious, violent death? Thou hast power to save Thyself from such a fate; surely Thou wilt not hesitate to use it!" The attached disciple, in fact, was an unconscious instrument employed by Satan to subject Jesus to a second temptation, analogous to the earlier one in the desert of Judea.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“There shall be true glory, where no one shall be praised by mistake or in flattery; true honor, which shall be denied to no one worthy, granted to no one unworthy; nor shall any unworthy one ambitiously seek it, where none but the worthy are permitted to be.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“He took Jesus, we are told (laid hold of Him, we suppose, by His hand or His garment), and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Be it far from Thee, Lord;" or more literally, "God be merciful to Thee: God forbid! this shall not be unto Thee." What a strange compound of good and evil is this man! His language is dictated by the most intense affection: he cannot bear the thought of any harm befalling his Lord; yet how irreverent and disrespectful he is towards Him whom he has just acknowledged to be the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“If any one will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross." The plain meaning of these words is, that there is no following Jesus on any other terms--a doctrine which, however clearly taught in the Gospel, spurious Christians are unwilling to believe and resolute to deny.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“For it was while Jesus was at home "in His own city," as Capernaum came to be called, that the palsied man was brought to Him to be healed; and from all the evangelists we learn that it was on His way out from the house where that miracle was wrought that He saw Matthew, and spoke to him the word, "Follow Me.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“But it was His wish that certain selected men should be with Him at all times and in all places, -- His travelling companions in all His wanderings, witnessing all His work, and ministering to His daily needs. And so, in the quaint words of Mark, "Jesus calleth unto Him whom He would, and they came unto Him, and He made twelve, that they should be with Him.”
― A.B. Bruce, The Training of The Twelve

“The apostolic character, in short, must combine freedom of conscience, enlargement of heart, enlightenment of mind, and all in the superlative degree.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“To be present with Him thereafter, men needed only to forsake their sins.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“Thomas declares at once his acceptance of a miraculous fact, and his belief in a momentous doctrine. In the first part of his address to Jesus he recognizes that He who was dead is alive: My Lord, my beloved Master! it is even He,--the very same person with whom we enjoyed such blessed fellowship before He was crucified. In the second part of his address he acknowledges Christ's divinity, if not for the first time, at least with an intelligence and an emphasis altogether new. From the fact he rises to the doctrine: My Lord risen, yea, and therefore my God; for He is divine over whom death hath no power. And the doctrine in turn helps to give to the fact of the resurrection additional certainty; for if Christ be God, death could have no power over Him, and His resurrection was a matter of course.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“But granting all this, and even granting that the Sanhedrists had been right in their opinion of the character of the disciples, their theft theory is ridiculous. The disciples, even if capable of such a theft, so far as scruples of conscience were concerned, were not in a state of mind to think of it, or to attempt it. They had not spirit left for such a daring action. Sorrow lay like a weight of lead on their hearts, and made them almost as inanimate as the corpse they are supposed to have stolen. Then the motive for the theft is one which could not have influenced them then. Steal the body to propagate a belief in the resurrection! What interest had they in propagating a belief which they did not entertain themselves? "As yet they knew not the Scriptures, that He must rise again from the dead;" nor did they remember aught that their Master had said on this subject before His decease.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“To such effect did the Son of man claim to be Lord of the Sabbath-day; and His claim, so understood, was acknowledged by the church, when, following the traces of the apostolic usage, she changed the weekly rest from the seventh day to the first, that it might commemorate the joyful event of the resurrection of the Saviour, which lay nearer the heart of a believer than the old event of the creation, and called the first day by His name, the Lord's day.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“Now love was to be the outstanding royal law, and free grace was to antiquate Sinaitic ordinances. And why now? In both cases, because Jesus was about to die. His death would be the seal of the New Testament, and it would exemplify and ratify the new commandment”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“Be this as it may, we know on the best authority that Nathanael was a man of great moral excellence. No sooner had Jesus seen him than He exclaimed, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" The words suggest the idea of one whose heart was pure; in whom was no doublemindedness, impure motive, pride, or unholy passion: a man of gentle, meditative spirit, in whose mind heaven lay reflected like the blue sky in a still lake on a calm summer day.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“The main point in this connection is the injunction appended to the heavenly voice: "Hear Him." This command refers specially to the doctrine of the cross preached by Jesus to the twelve, and so ill received by them.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“These two things, truth and love, Jesus asks for His own, as of vital moment: truth as the badge of distinction between His Church and the world; love as the bond which unites believers of the truth into a holy brotherhood of witness-bearers to the truth.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“How easily and plausibly might He have taken up the position of one who did well to be angry! "I am the Christ, the Son of God," He might have said, "and have substantiated my claims by a thousand miracles in word and deed, yet they willfully refuse to recognize me; I am a poor homeless wanderer, yet they, knowing this, demanded the tribute, as if more for the sake of annoying and insulting me than of getting the money. And for what purpose do they collect these dues? For the support of a religious establishment thoroughly effete, to repair an edifice doomed to destruction, to maintain a priesthood scandalously deficient in the cardinal virtues of integrity and truth, and whose very existence is a curse to the land. I cannot in conscience pay a didrachmon, no, not even so much as a farthing, for any such objects.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“He, in effect, says to us thereby: Be not afraid to regard my death as an act of the same kind as that of Mary: an act of pure, devoted love. Let the aroma of her ointment circulate about the neighborhood of my cross, and help you to discern the sweet savor of my sacrifice. Amid all your speculations and theories on the grand theme of redemption, take heed that ye fail not to see in my death my loving heart, and the loving heart of my Father, revealed..4”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“The infant church, in its original nomadic or itinerant state, seems to have been a motley band of pilgrims, in which all sorts of people as to sex, social position, and moral character were united, the bond of union being ardent attachment to the person of Jesus. This church itinerant was not a regularly organized society, of which it was necessary to be a constant member in order to true discipleship.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“They remembered what John, His forerunner, had said of One among them whom they knew not, and who yet was far greater than himself; and they remarked that his statements, however improbable they might have appeared at the time, had been verified by events, and he himself proved to be a true prophet by Christ's miracles, if not by his own. "John," said they to each other, "did no miracle; but all things that John said of this man were true.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“The love of Christ remained for them throughout life a thing passing knowledge; and the longer they lived, the more cordially did they acknowledge the truth of their Master's words: "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“They learned to say: "For Christ's sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But what does it matter? The Church is spreading; believers are multiplying on every side, springing up an hundred-fold from the seed of the martyrs' blood; the name of our Lord is being magnified. We will gladly suffer, therefore, bearing witness to the truth.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“The panorama of the kingdom of God was to be hid from their eyes till the curtain was lifted in three distinct historical movements--the ascension, the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost on the multitude who had come to keep the feast, and the conversion of Samaritans and the Gentiles.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“It was when they had dined that Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him; it was after they had supped Jesus gave His disciples His new commandment of love, and that Peter made his vehement protestation of devotion to his Master's cause and person. The name by which the risen Lord addressed His disciple--not Peter, but Simon son of Jonas--was fitted to remind him of his weakness, and of that other occasion on which, calling him by the same name, Jesus warned him that Satan was about to sift him as wheat. The thrice-repeated question, "Lovest thou me?" could not fail painfully to remind Peter of his threefold denial, and so to renew his grief.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“As spokesman for the whole company, that disciple promptly said: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and know that Thou art that Christ, the son of the living God," or, according to the reading preferred by most critics, "that Thou art the Holy One of God." Three anchors, we infer from these words, helped the twelve to ride out the storm: Religious earnestness or sincerity; a clear perception of the alternatives before them; and implicit confidence in the character and attachment to the person of their Master.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography

“The remainder of the prayer (with exception of the two closing sentences) respects the Church at large,--those who should believe in Christ through the word of the apostles, heard from their lips, or reported in their writings. What Jesus desires for the body of believers is partly left to be inferred; for when He says, "I pray not for these alone," He intimates that He desires for the parties next to be prayed for the same things He has already asked for his disciples: preservation in the truth, and from the evil in the world, and sanctification by the truth.”
― Alexander Balmain Bruce, The Training of the Twelve: How Jesus Christ Found and Taught the 12 Apostles; A Book of New Testament Biography