Samuel Rutherford Quotes

A right heart leans on Christ, hangs on Christ, builds on Christ and cleaves to Christ.

God is a good choice to lean on. He has a proven record of faithfulness to those who commit their lives to Him.

Through the many struggles in my life, my faith is sometimes the only thing I have to hold onto. God was my only friend.

We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a persuasion that we have none of our own.

You cannot trust Jesus in areas in which you don't think him competent.

Have you not observed that faith is generally strongest in those whose character may be called the weakest?

God is pleased continually to vary His mode of dealing with us, in order that we may not be tempted to trust in donors, or in circumstances, but in Him alone, and to keep our eye fixed upon Him.

Doubting does not prove that a man has no faith, but only that his faith is small. And even when our faith is small, the Lord is ready to help us.

To come to faith on the basis of experience alone is unwise, though not so foolish as to reject faith altogether because of lack of experience ... the quality of a Christian's experience depends on the quality of his faith, just as the quality of his faith depends in turn on the quality of his understanding of God's truth.

I'm a writer of faith. I was raised Catholic, and I have a deeply Catholic imagination.

All that I am hangs by a thread tonight

We may not understand how the spirit works; but the effect of the spirit on the lives of men is there for all to see; and the only unanswerable argument for Christianity is a Christian life. No man can disregard a religion and a faith and a power which is able to make bad men good. . .

The longer I live the more convinced I become that God governs in the affairs of men. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance.

We receive God's grace by humbly admitting that we need it.

A Catholic is a person who has plucked up courage to face the incredible and inconceivable idea that something else may be wiser than he is.

Do we accustom ourselves to see all things in the light of faith? Do we correct all our judgments by it? Alas! The greater part of Christians think and act like mere heathens; if we judge (as we justly may) of their faith by their practice, we must conclude they have no faith at all.

Right faith is of necessity required for Baptism, since it is said: "the justice of God is by faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22) ... Therefore, Baptism without faith avails nothing and thus we must recall that without faith no one is acceptable to God.

I live by the mercy of Jesus, to whom I owe everything and from whom I expect everything.

miss my daily Mass, and have a superstitious feeling that anything may happen on the days I don't go. However, nothing in particular has.

We are nothing with all our gifts be they ever so great, except God assist us.

Gouverneur Morris had often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system (Christianity) than did he himself.

A person may be qualified to do greater good to mankind and become more beneficial to the world, by morality without faith than by faith without morality.

And do you count for nothing God who fights for us?

I cannot work; I cannot speak; I cannot live or love as I should, unless God's wisdom lights my path.

I was about 21 when I read that [Mere Christianity], and my faith was really being shaken during those days. Its a great, classic book.