“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”
Booker T. Washington (1856 – 1915) Up From Slavery
“Shall I prevail upon any of you this morning to come to Jesus Christ?
There are a multitude of souls here; how shortly must you all die, and go to judgment!
… I must not flatter you, my dear friends; I will deal sincerely with your souls. Some of you may think I carry things too far. But, indeed, when you come to judgment, you will find what I say is true, either to your eternal damnation or comfort.
“May God influence your hearts to come to him!
I am not willing to go away without persuading you. I cannot be persuaded but God may make use of me as a means of persuading some of you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. …
My business this morning, the first day of the week, is to tell you that Christ is willing to be reconciled to you. Will any of you be reconciled to Jesus Christ?
Then, he will forgive you all your sins, he will blot out all your transgressions.
George Whitefield The Collected Sermons of George Whitefield. ——–
“Therefore, my dear brethren, let me beseech you to set a watch over yourselves; be careful that you do not run into that company which may tempt you to evil, for would a man run himself into danger on purpose?
Would a man enter himself into that company , where, before he goes, he knows he shall be exposed to great temptations; and therefore, if you have any reason to think that the company you are going into will be a temptation, I beseech you, by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, that you would not run into it.
How can you say, “Lead us not into temptation,” when you are resolved to lead yourselves into it, by running into the occasions of sin?”
George Whitefield The Collected Sermons of George Whitefield.
“Society has turned out to have scarce defense against the abyss of human decadence, for example against the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror.
This is all considered to be part of freedom and to be counterbalanced, in theory, by the young people’s right not to look and not to accept.
Life organized legalistically has thus shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of evil.”