E.J. Waggoner > Quotes

“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” Eph. 4:31. Have you read those words and thought, “Oh, that it might be so?” Have you earnestly tried to put away that evil speaking, together with “the root of bitterness” from which it springs, and failed, because “the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison?” James 3:8.  Read the Divine exhortation, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 2:3, 5. And similar to this is the admonition, “Let brotherly love continue.” Heb. 13:1. What a blessed state of mind this must be; and what a heaven there would be on earth, if such a state of things only existed, even among those who profess the name of Christ. Yet how many who have set this blessed ideal before themselves, find themselves wondering how it is to be attained. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“When the word of the Lord found Elijah in the wilderness, as he fled from Jezebel, it said to him: “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:11-13. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Rom. 10:17. “With the heart man believeth.” The hearing of faith puts the words of God in your heart. But Christ dwells in your heart by faith (Eph. 3:17), because His Spirit is in His word; so that the hearing of faith brings the life of Christ into your heart, and that is righteousness. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“43. Making Mistakes The fact that God dwells in you, as He does in everyone who believes on the name of Jesus, does not preclude you from exhibiting the limitations of humanity. It keeps you from sin, but not from all the mistakes that arise from the limitations of human vision and judgment. The mystery of godliness is God in you—God manifested in the life of righteousness and you manifested in the frailties of the flesh. The one contrasts with the other, and by the very contrast it is manifest that the life is not of you, but of God; and that to Him alone belongs the glory.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“have strength in yourself.  But even if you are the most helpless person who ever lived, God is willing to take you—if you will submit to Him—and work through you in the most marvelous manner by His mighty word. He loves to do it. He has “chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and the base things of the world, and things which are despised,”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Leprosy was one of the most loathsome and dreaded diseases known to the people. The leper was an outcast, compelled to keep away from even his own family. The disease was a slow, progressive death; the victim’s body becoming increasingly deformed until death ended his misery.  No other disease more aptly illustrates the defilement of sin;”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“The light shone in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it. His light could not be quenched. Satan could not take His light, because he could not tempt Him to sin. Even when He laid down His life, He still had as much life left. His life triumphed over death. It is infinite life so He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him. Christ will dwell in His completeness in every one who will let Him. This is the mystery of the Gospel.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“servant”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Let your mind grasp the thought that the same Spirit that convinces of sin also convinces of righteousness. It is always a Comforter. The Spirit does not lay aside one office while it performs another. It does not leave aside the revealing of righteousness when it convinces of sin, nor does it cease to be a convincer of sin when it reveals righteousness. It does both at the same time, and that is the comfort to all those who will take it. It convinces of sin because it convinces of righteousness. But let us consider this matter further, and then meditate on it.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Revelation 18 shows the desperate condition of the religious world just before the Lord comes, and the call from God is, “Come out of her, My people.” It is a call to you to reform your life, to forsake sin and self, and to take the salvation of God. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Your life is made up of three things—deeds, words, and thoughts. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“realize that we are really suffering with Him, and only with Him, then we are as sure of victory as we are that He has overcome. Romans 8:17.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Studies in the Book of Hebrews

“It can’t be doubted that there is power in the word of God, far above that of any other book. The Lord through the prophet Jeremiah rebukes the false prophets, who speak their own words instead of the words of God, and says: “What is the chaff to the wheat?” “Is not My word like as a fire? Saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Jer. 23:28, 29.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Isa. 61:1, 2. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“What is prayer and what is the purpose for which it is offered? It is the expression of your consent to what God is willing and waiting to do for you. It is expressing to God your willingness to let Him do for you what He wants to. It is not left for you to instruct the Lord in regard to what you need. “Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” He knows what you need much better than you know yourself. “For we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.” Rom. 8:26.  God knows all the needs that you have, and is ready and anxious to supply them; but He waits for you to realize your need of Him. He cannot consistently, with the infinitely wise principles by which He works, bestow on you spiritual blessings that you would not appreciate. He cannot work for you without your cooperation. Your heart must be in a condition to receive an appropriate gift before it can be bestowed. And when it is in that condition, you will feel an earnest longing that will naturally take the form of prayer. And when this longing is felt, when your soul feels an intense desire for the help that God alone can give, when the language of your soul is, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God,” the effect is to open the channel between God and your soul. Then the flood of blessings can descend which God was already waiting to pour out. And it is the intensity of your desire that determines how wide the door will be opened.  You need to more clearly realize the great truth that God sees and knows everything that you need and has every provision made for all your wants. He knows them even before you have thought of those wants yourself. Your work is not to determine what must be done to relieve your wants, but to place yourself in a position where God can relieve them by the means which He has provided. You want to move according to His plans, and not set about the fruitless task of trying to make Him work for you according to some plans of your own.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“In the Bible, this very idea of living by bread by eating it, is carried over and applied to the word of God. “But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that roll. And He said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And He said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with My words unto them.” “Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, all My words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.” Eze. 2:8–3:4,10.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Most of the great manifestations of the power of God in the earth are silent and unseen. You only know that the power is there by the results. Think of the thousands of millions of tons of water that the sun is constantly lifting up from the earth to the clouds, to send down again in dew and rain. Not a sound is heard. But you can’t fill a cup of water from the faucet without much noise. The power manifested in the growing plants is beyond all human conception, yet there is no sound. A growing plant can break a rock in pieces yet it is all done silently. The heavens declare the glory of God, yet they don’t ring bells and blow trumpets. God’s work is so mighty that the results speak for themselves; advertisement would belittle it. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“46. Weakness and Strength When you are strong then you are also weak; and you are weak in the very point where your strength is. Were this not so, you would have something of your own to glory in. You are very apt to pride yourself on your “strong points;” but such points are strong only in comparison with other points in your character that are weaker. Compared with the power of the forces of evil, you have no strength, but can manifest only varying degrees of weakness.  It is on these “strong points” that people make their greatest moral failures. Peter’s strong point was his boldness; but behold him cowering in the judgment hall, afraid to confess his Lord! Solomon was the wisest man on the earth; but what more pitiable exhibition of folly could there be than the king of Israel surrounded by seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, listening to their counsel and leading the people of God into idolatry! Moses’s strong point was his meekness; but we find him at Meribah saying to the multitude, “Hear now, ye rebels; must we bring you water out of this rock?”  People naturally trust in their “strong” points, and everyone is weak when trusting in themselves. We speak about “guarding our weak points;” but our strong points need guarding just as much. Your weak points include your strong ones. You have nothing but weak points. Whatever point it is that you trust in, that point especially is weak. And you are not guarding the weak points unless you are guarding every point. But you must remember that it is not your resolutions, your will, or your vigilance that guards you, but your faith. “The shield of faith” is what quenches the fiery darts of the wicked. Eph. 6:16. The armor that is prepared for you is not of human manufacture, but is such as God Himself has made in His own wisdom, and endowed with His own strength.  But you need not be discouraged because you find yourself weak where you had fancied yourself strong, for your dependence is not in self, but in God; and depending on Him, you are strong where you are weak. This was the experience of Paul, as he wrote to the Corinthians. 2 Cor. 12:10. You only need to unite your weakness to God’s strength. Then, like the apostle, you can “take pleasure in infirmities, and reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.”  God has to reveal your weakness to you before He can save you. The devil, on the other hand, leads you to think you are strong in order that, by trusting in yourself, you may fall and be ruined. When you feel strong, the admonition is, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10:12. But when you feel weak, too weak to do anything of yourself, you are in a position to gain the victory. The danger is that you will not feel weak enough; for even in your weakest moments you have strength enough to resist the Holy Spirit and prevent God from working in your life. If you are weak enough to yield entirely to the Lord, then for those purposes for which you need strength, you become as strong as the Lord Himself, for you have His strength.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Faith in Christ supplies spiritual life just as surely as eating nourishing food supplies physical life. The Savior says to you, “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” John 6:54, 55. You eat His flesh, by feeding on His word (verse 63), for it is written that you shall live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“So by these miracles Christ teaches you that the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, is the crowning glory of the Gospel. Kept as God intended, it enables you to see Christ as both Redeemer and Creator. His Redeeming power is His creative power. The Sabbath of the Lord, the memorial of creation, reminds you of the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes. It reveals to you, as nothing else can, that Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit “to preach the Gospel to the poor;” “to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”            Luke 4:18, 19.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Many people do this ignorantly, but the result is the same. It was because the Jews were ignorant of God’s righteousness that they went about to establish their own righteousness. Rom. 10:1-3. If you realize the infinite depth and height and breadth of the character of God, which is summed up in His law, you will readily see that nothing short of the power of God can produce that character in you. Only God Himself can do the works of God. For you to assume that you by yourself are able to do God’s righteous works, is to make yourself equal with God; and that is the very “mystery of iniquity” itself. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“He says, “I will dwell in them and walk in them;” “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you;” and “because I live, ye shall live also.” John 14:18, 19. It is by the Holy Spirit that He dwells in you; for He desires you “to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts.” Eph. 3:16, 17. And “at that day”—the day that ye receive the gift of the Holy Ghost—“ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” John 14:20. “And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.” 1 John 3:24. And we “receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Gal. 3:14. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Therefore when you read the admonitions to let certain evil things be put away from you, and to let certain graces appear, you are not to regard them as commands for you to put them away, but as the agency by which the task is to be accomplished.  God’s power to create is as great now as it ever was. He who in the beginning caused the ground to bring forth fruit, and who made a perfect man of the dust of the ground, can take these earthen vessels and make them “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” You are to become so familiar with the fact that God is Creator, that when He says, “Let this be done,” you will at once and continually respond, “Amen, even so, let it be done, Lord Jesus;” and thus the new heart will be created, from which will proceed thoughts and words acceptable in His sight.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He releases you from the enemy and sets you free again. But He sets you free that you may hold steadfastly to Him by a firmer faith. In the bitterness of sin you are taught your own weakness and worthlessness, and in the sweetness of His forgiveness you are taught His power to save.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“The power of the word of God is best appreciated when you consider the work of creation. “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap; He layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:6-9.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Faith”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“10. The Christian Life It was said: “The child at school looks at the copy in the writing book, and imitates it, trying to write each line better. That is the Christian life, and that is all of it.”  Is that all of it? Not by any means. If it were all of it, there would be no hope for you; for the pattern is Jesus Christ, in whom dwelleth “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” and you can never, ever, successfully copy His life. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55:8, 9. If you would copy the life of Christ as the schoolboy copies his lesson, and do it successfully, you must have power equal to that of God.  If the boy whose hand the master holds and guides in imitating the copy, were used as an illustration of the Christian life, it would be a step nearer the truth; but even that would not be the truth. That is mechanical. The boy may yield his hand willingly to the master, that it may be guided, but the writing is after all not his own. God does not use you as a dead instrument to be operated on, although you are to yield yourself as an instrument of righteousness to Him.  The Christian life is simply the life of Christ. If the master who sets the copy for the schoolboy, could put all his own skill and power into that boy, so that what he writes will not be merely an imitation of the master’s copy, but the master’s own writing, and still the free act of the boy, we should have an excellent illustration of the Christian life. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:12, 13. “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6. And how was it that He walked? Christ Himself said, “The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” John 14:10. Christ has set you the copy, but instead of standing off and watching you try to imitate Him, He gladly comes in to your heart, becoming one with you, so that His life is your life, and His acts are yours. This is life—your Christian life.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“Christ comes to live in you when you believe, for He dwells in your heart by faith.”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“There is life in the words of God. Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. The word received in faith brings the Spirit and the life of God to your soul. So when you hear the words, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee,” and receive those words in penitence, as the living words of the living God, a new life is begun in you and you are a different person. It is the power of God’s forgiveness, and that alone, that keeps you from sinning. If you continue to sin after you receive pardon, it is because you have not grasped the fullness of the blessing that was given to you in the forgiveness of your sins. ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith

“The prophet, speaking of God’s dealing with ancient Israel, said, “In all their afflictions He was afflicted.” Isa. 63:9. It is still the same now. As an eagle bears her young on her wings, so the Lord puts Himself under you, bearing all your sin and sorrow. He takes it on Himself, and in Him it is lost, by the same process by which at the last “He will swallow up death in victory.”  Christ took on Himself the curse, in order that the blessing might come on us. Gal. 3:13, 14. Although He knew no sin, He was made to be sin for you, that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21. He suffered the death to which you were doomed, that you might share His life. And this exchange is made when you come into touch with Him, by confessing that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” How much you lose by holding Jesus off as a stranger, or by regarding faith in Him as a theory. When you know that He identifies Himself with you in your fallen condition, taking on Himself, and from you, your infirmities, how precious becomes the assurance, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” ”
― E.J. Waggoner, Living by Faith