What stupid means: 'someone who harms others without procuring any gain for himself or herself - in contrast to the much more predictable bandit who gains something from harming you.'

Carlo M. Cipolla (1922-2000), author of "The Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity"

The conscientious student is the most likely man to become a successful preacher.

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)

In all your conduct, manifest a most undeviating consistency. Children, even at a very early age, are eagle-eyed to observe inconsistencies of a parent. And the slightest inconsistency, though it is manifested only in a word or a look, lowers your influence over them in an inconceivable degree. When a child learns to distrust its mother, all her warnings, admonitions, and remonstrances - however earnest and unremitting - fall powerless. This is the chief reason, it is to be feared, why we so frequently see the children of pious parents grow up impenitent. The example of their parents has not been uniformly consistent with their instructions and therefore have these instructions been useless. Mothers! Watch your conduct. Your children watch it.

James Cameron (1809-1873)

Though the Word of God must be your chief study, beware of supposing it must be your only study.

James Cameron (1809-1873)

Single parenthood is a disaster for charity. A huge and persistent giving difference exists between never-married parents and and childless single people - even after correcting for income and other factors. Never-married parents are 21 percentage points less likely to give money each year than childless singles (56 to 77), and also 21 points less likely to volunteer (30 to 51). They are also far less likely to give in less formal ways (for example, they are less than half as likely to donate blood).

Arthur C. Brooks, in "Who Really Cares," published by Basic Books 2006, page 105.

The proud man conceives himself wise enough. He asks no counsel, and thus proves his want of wisdom.

Charles Bridges (1794-1869)

It was nineteen hundred years ago "when Jesus Himself a baby deigned to be and bathed in baby tears His deity," and on that night, when that tiny Child lay in the straw of Bethlehem, began the emancipation of womanhood.

Peter Marshall (1902-1949)

It is a Christian's duty to triumph, not only over the world, but over Satan.

William Bridge (1600-1670)

Continued dependence on government support induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (state of the union address, 1935)

People are more likely to give away earned income, such as wages, than they are to give away unearned income, such as welfare from the government.

Arthur C. Brooks, page 82, "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism," published by Basic Books, 2006.

[The Apostle Paul] was a metropolitan missioanry with an urban burden.

Matthew Recker

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent mortal busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may sometimes be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Paul understood that one of the best vehicles for the propagation of the gospel was the city.

Matthew Recker

People in favor of forced income redistribution are privately less charitable than those who oppose it, regardless of how much money they earn.

Arthur C. Brooks

People who favor government income redistribution are significantly less likely to behave charitably than those who do not.

Arthur C. Brooks

Outward female beauty with indiscreet conduct is valueless and morally ugly.

Sid S. Buzzell

In 2000, religious people – who, her family, earned exactly the same amount as secular people, $49,000 – gave about 3.5 times more money per year (an average of $2210 versus $642). They also volunteered more than twice as often (12 times per year, versus 5.8 times).

Arthur C. Brooks, "Who Really Cares America’s Charity Divide: Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters," (Basic Books: New York, 2007), page 34.

Americans are now nearly a completely conquered people.

Matthew J. Trewhella

The doctrine of the saints' final perseverance ... is misunderstood and misapplied; if men take encouragement from it, to relax in their efforts to advance in the way of holiness.

J. L. Dagg (1794-1884)

The first step to salvation is to see that there is o salvation.

William Bridge (1600-1670)

CHURCH DEFINED BY BAPTISTS A church is constituted by a group of people entering into a covenant with one another to serve the Lord as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Regardless of what another church does or does not do, regardless of what another preacher does or does not do, regardless of what a missionary does or does not do, a church comes into being when the people themselves enter into a covenant with one another to work together as a church of Jesus Christ.

Wayne Camp, cited by J. C. Settlemoir, "Landmarkism Under Fire," (Lizton, Indiana: New Testament Baptist Church, Revised 2017), page 327.

Always separate ecclesiology and soteriology and you'll go in the right direction toward understanding the biblical teaching of the church.

William Younger, cited by Charles L. Hunt, "The Body Of Christ: Separating Myth From Metaphor," (Bromley, KY: Charles L. Hunt, 2006), page 22.

CHURCH DEFINED BY BAPTISTS The church is in things spiritual independent of the state. It is formed under authority from Christ, and owes supreme allegiance to him. But we deny that an unbroken chain of succession is an essential mark of a true church.

Hezekiah Harvey (1821-1893)

CHURCH DEFINED BY BAPTISTS From these considerations, a New Testament church is readily defined as an independent body of penitent, believing, individual Christians, baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, voluntarily banded together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep his ordinances and to proclaim his gospel in all the world.

Luther Rice Burress (1842-1947)

There is historical evidence that Baptist churches existed in various parts of England during the years 1525-1558 in London, Kent, Essex, Lincolnshire and Bocking. A church practicing New Testament principles was established in Chesterton by 1457.

W. R. Downing, "The New Testament Church," (Morgan Hill, CA: PIRS Publications, Revised 2006), page 224.