James Hamilton Quotes on Love to Christ, Work, Prayer and Joy
James Hamilton pastored the National Scotch Church in Regent Square, London, from 1841 until his death in 1867. He was a lover of nature and of books, and he wrote the way he preached: in short, bright sentences full of pictures. That makes him easy to quote, and his lines on work and on love to Christ still turn up in sermons today.
Many quotes credited to "James Hamilton" online come from other men of the same name, and many have no source. Every quotation below is copied exactly from his books in TheWay Library, with the book and chapter it comes from, so you can read each one in its setting. For his life story, see who was James Hamilton. For a guide to all his books, see James Hamilton books.
On love to Christ
The center of Hamilton's best-known book, Life in Earnest, is a chapter called "An Eye to the Lord Jesus." He believed love to Christ is the spring of everything else in the Christian life.
Deeper than the love of home, deeper than the love of kindred, deeper than the love of rest and recreation, deeper than the love of life, is the love of Jesus.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
Love to the Lord Jesus is essential and vital Christianity.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
Love to Christ is a motive equal to all emergencies.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
Love to Christ is the best incentive to action — the best antidote to idolatry.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
If you would be a happy, a holy, and a useful Christian, you must be an eminently Christ-loving disciple.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
There is a love to Jesus which nothing can destroy.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
Of all God's cords the finest, and perhaps the strongest, is the cord of love.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son, chapter I, The Fatherland
On work and diligence
Life in Earnest is built on Romans 12:11, "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." Hamilton is plain about our laziness and hopeful about what grace can make of it.
Two things are very certain, — that we have all got a work to do, and are all, more or less, indisposed to do it.
Life in Earnest, Industry
Life will be long enough for the work assigned if you be prompt enough.
Life in Earnest, Industry
The work of the day needs diligence; much more does the work of eternity.
Life in Earnest, A Word to Each and to All
Christian industry is just the outlet of a fervent spirit, a Christ-devoted heart.
Life in Earnest, A Word to Each and to All
There is no wearying in their work, for there is no waning in their love.
Life in Earnest, A Fervent Spirit
To look to Jesus is to come to God, and to come home to God is to be happy.
Life in Earnest, A Fervent Spirit
It is an eye fixed on Jesus which kindles the fervent spirit.
Life in Earnest, The Threefold Cord
Reconciled to God, he is reconciled to every thing which comes from God; and full of the love of Christ, he courts every thing which he can do for Christ.
Life in Earnest, The Threefold Cord
You cannot pray too much, though you should pray without ceasing, if your prayer take a practical direction, and lead you to do good without ceasing.
Life in Earnest, The Threefold Cord
On prayer
These come from The Mount of Olives, his lectures on prayer. He wanted his hearers to see prayer not as a chore but as meeting a Friend.
Prayer is a living heart that speaks in a living ear, — the ear of the living God.
The Mount of Olives, Conclusion
The man must be busier than Daniel who has not time to pray, and wiser than Daniel who can do what Daniel did without prayer to help him.
The Mount of Olives, Bible Instances
It is a closet wherever the soul finds itself alone with God.
The Mount of Olives, The Open Reward of Secret Prayer
We can shut to the door; but he can shut the heart and lock out the world and all its phantoms.
The Mount of Olives, The Intercessor Above: The Prompter Within
Just as God's Providence is the preserving of his creation once he has formed it, so Christ's intercession is the preserving of his Church now that he has bought it.
The Mount of Olives, The Intercessor Above: The Prompter Within
Now the Lord Jesus follows his own whithersoever they go, but they do not always follow him.
The Mount of Olives, The Parting Promise and the Present Saviour
The affrighted and apprehensive soul finds peace where it finds forgiveness; and the yearning, discontented soul finds joy where it finds a never-dying, all-sufficient Friend.
The Mount of Olives, Conclusion
To love an abstract and impersonal God is Platonism.
The Mount of Olives, Confession, Adoration, and Thanksgiving
Some may share a Saviour's tears who never profit by a Saviour's blood.
The Mount of Olives, The Mount of Olives
On Jesus Christ
Hamilton never let a subject end without bringing his hearers to Christ, whether he was preaching on Ecclesiastes, Moses or the Gospels.
Look into his countenance, for God is all which Jesus is.
The Royal Preacher, Borrowed Lights for a Dark Landing-Place
Even those who sometimes look forth to Christ on the Cross, too seldom look up to Christ on the Throne.
Lessons from the Great Biography, The Risen Redeemer
The atonement was God's love providing a satisfaction to God's justice, and making it as consistent with His rectitude as it is delightful to His benevolence to pardon the sin and restore and renew the sinner.
Lessons from the Great Biography, A Saviour's Farewell: The Father's House
Christ honours the faith which honours Himself and His Father.
Lessons from the Great Biography, The Fame of Jesus: Successful Intercession
It is not so much with God's people as with God Himself that you have to do, and His claims are paramount.
Moses, the Man of God, The Momentous Choice
Having died to atone, He lives to pity and pardon, to intercede and to save.
A Morning beside the Lake of Galilee, chapter IV, Lovest Thou Me
On joy, trials and the end of life
Many of these come from The Royal Preacher, where Hamilton answers Solomon's "vanity of vanities" with the joy God gives.
If God be your chiefest good, and conformity to God be your great desire, the future contains no real evil for you.
The Royal Preacher, Bright Moments on the Wing
The very faculty of joy is the gift of the Holy Ghost.
The Royal Preacher, Green Pastures
The love of Jehovah is a sanctuary where every holy being has a home.
The Royal Preacher, The Monument
Give the Saviour your heart whilst you have a heart to give.
The Royal Preacher, Old Age
The religion which fancies that it loves God, when it never evinces love to its brother, is not piety, but a poor mildewed theology, — a dogma with a worm in its heart.
The Royal Preacher, Green Pastures
God sometimes sends His people trials where they looked for blessings.
Moses, the Man of God, Marah
A thankful Christian is a happy man, and brings peculiar glory to God.
Thankfulness, and Other Essays, Thankfulness
From his memoirs
Hamilton wrote the lives of two believers he admired. These lines are his own comments on them.
In Christ believed they found their peace with God; in Christ loved they learned a new morality.
A Memoir of Lady Colquhoun, Sir John Sinclair; Thurso Castle; Stoke Newington
The believer fulfils his exalted function when, filled with the Divine Spirit, he so acts that in his graciousness men are reminded of the grace of God.
A Memoir of Lady Colquhoun, Sunset in Autumn
Nor is it a small matter to find that the Saviour has still disciples who are willing not only to suffer, but to die for his sake.
A Memoir of Richard Williams, Conclusion
Read them in context
A good line is best read with the page around it. Start with Life in Earnest, the short book most of the first quotes come from, then go to The Mount of Olives. All fifteen of his books are on the James Hamilton author page.