John Angell James Quotes on Salvation, Prayer, Love and Earnestness
John Angell James was pastor of Carr's Lane Church in Birmingham, England, for over fifty years. He wrote for ordinary Christians: the anxious seeker, the church member, the parent, the widow and the young man starting out. His sentences are plain and pointed, the kind a pastor says across a kitchen table, and many of them stick.
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 John Angell James. For a guide to all his books, see John Angell James books.
On seeking salvation
These come from The Anxious Inquirer, the book he wrote for people worried about their souls.
If you do not, like David, seek the favour of God with your whole heart, you will never have it.
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, Religious Impressions, and the Unspeakable Importance of Retaining and Deepening Them
Not a single really holy feeling will ever come into the mind, or be kept there, but by God.
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, Religious Impressions, and the Unspeakable Importance of Retaining and Deepening Them
The more and sooner you hope in Christ, the more and sooner will you mourn for sin.
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, Mistakes into Which Inquirers Are Apt to Fall
You do not yet understand the design of Christ's work, which is not merely to deliver from hell, but also from sin.
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, Perplexities Which Are Often Felt by Inquirers
It is true his love is a holy love, and therefore the more to be depended upon.
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, Encouragements
He also gave the seeker words for a broken heart to pray:
Oh what a heart have I carried in my bosom, that could love the world, love my friends, love trifles, yea, love sin, but could not love thee!
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, On Repentance
On prayer
James believed the hidden life with God was where everything else began.
Prayer is the very soul of all religion, and privacy is the very life of prayer itself.
The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, Directions for the Profitable Reading of the Following Treatise
There must be time found and fixed for prayer, and the time fixed must be kept.
Christian Progress, The Means of Progress
Perhaps in modern times there was never so much of social prayer, and never less of private.
An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times, On the Necessity of Divine Influence for an Efficient Ministry
A prayerless profession of religion will soon be thrown aside as an encumbrance.
Pastoral Addresses, Address XI, Private Prayer
On growing in grace
He worried about believers who found peace and then stood still.
God's grace comes not upon the idle, but upon the diligent.
Christian Progress, The Means of Progress
To grow in faith is therefore to grow in bliss.
Christian Progress, Motives to Progress
It is not therefore the abstract abandonment of a sin, but the motive which leads to it, which is a proof of the work of grace.
Christian Progress, Mistakes Concerning Progress
The love of God, like the love of money, is never satisfied with its possession.
The Christian Professor Addressed, The Necessity and Importance of Professors Not Being Satisfied with Low Degrees of Piety
Do not make the average piety of professors the model or standard of your own; but look to the standard set up in the word of God.
The Christian Professor Addressed, The Young Professor
Faith is the root, out of which grows the whole tree of our godliness — its trunk, its branches, its leaves, and its fruit.
The Course of Faith, chapter I, Faith in General
Avoid first sins: they always, or nearly so, lead on to others.
The Young Man from Home, chapter IV, The Progressive Manner and Successive Steps by Which Many Young Men Are Led Astray
On Christian love
His book on 1 Corinthians 13 insists that love is warm without being soft on sin.
Man was made for love; to love God supremely, and to love whatever is like God, or related to him.
Christian Charity Explained, Improvement, by Way of Exhortation
Love to man arises out of love to God; but can it be possible to love God, and not to hate sin?
Christian Charity Explained, Christian Love Is Not to Be Confounded with That Spurious Candour
We may not have, it is true, the music of sound in our speech, but it is our own fault if we have not the music of love.
Christian Charity Explained, On the Kindness of Love
Not by exhibiting less of truth, but more of love.
Christian Charity Explained, Improvement, by Way of Exhortation
On the church in earnest
James wanted every member awake, not only the minister.
The doctrine will not always preserve life, but life will always preserve doctrine.
The Church in Earnest, Inducements to Earnestness
Our idea of the nature of earnest individual piety must be taken, not from the conventional standard of the age, but from the Word of God.
The Church in Earnest, Nature of Earnestness, Viewed with Reference to Individual Action
You have experimentally known the way of salvation, and the value of a soul, these ten, twenty, thirty years, and yet, up to this hour, you have perhaps never won a soul to God!
The Church in Earnest, Earnestness in the Way of Individual Exertion, and Direct Action for the Salvation of Souls
A profession of Christianity is the most solemn engagement on earth, and he that makes it, is either one of the best or one of the worst members of society.
The Christian Professor Addressed, What the Christian Profession Imports
We never feel even our dearest friends to be so dear, as when we have commended them to the goodness of God.
Christian Fellowship, or The Church Member's Guide, On the Duties of Church Members to Their Pastors
On preaching
These come from his book for ministers, An Earnest Ministry.
Whatever other deficiencies we have, the chief of all lies in the heart.
An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times, The Nature of Earnestness
We not only speak what we believe, but as we believe: if the faith be weak, so will be the utterance.
An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times, The Nature of Earnestness
If we would know how we are to convert souls to God, we have only to ask, how has God converted them?
An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times, Earnestness Exemplified in the Matter and Manner of Preaching
On the home
A mere profession of the Christian faith, is rather a hindrance to felicity than a help: nothing short of real religion can be expected to yield its joys.
The Family Monitor, Preface
Our religion should not only be upon the whole sincere, but it should be visible: our light should shine before our family, that they seeing our good works, might glorify God.
The Family Monitor, The Duties of Parents
God never intended by preaching to subvert or set aside the domestic constitution, or to silence the voice of the parental teacher.
The Church in Earnest, Christian Earnestness in Family Religion
Wherever sin or imperfection exists, there is scope for the forbearance of love.
The Marriage Ring, chapter III, Mutual Duties of Husband and Wife
On work and money
The Lord's providential visits are never granted to loiterers.
The Young Man's Friend and Guide through Life to Immortality, The Young Man Succeeding or Failing in Business
In all things, both in nature and in grace, God's doings and man's doings go together.
The Young Man's Friend and Guide through Life to Immortality, The Young Man Entering Life Undecided in Religion
Your property is the gift of God, given not for your own use only, but for the glory of his name and the good of his creatures.
The Christian Professor Addressed, The Professor in Prosperity
On sorrow and trust
James wrote one of the few books of his day for widows. These lines come from it and from his own letters.
Sorrow is one of the natural affections of the soul, not to be uprooted, but cultivated.
The Widow Directed to the Widow's God, Part I: Submission
The abstinence from murmuring and repining words, then, is not submission, unless the heart be still.
The Widow Directed to the Widow's God, Part I: Submission
Only believe that God can and will sustain you, and you will be sustained.
The Widow Directed to the Widow's God, Part II: Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah
The grace of God in the heart, the promise of God in the hand, and the glory of God in the eye, are enough to reconcile us to the longest life of severest poverty.
The Life and Letters of John Angell James, Letters: Success
Where to read more John Angell James
These lines come from fifteen of the eighteen John Angell James books in the library. If you want to read one book of his first, try The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation, the book that made his name. If you're already a believer and feel stuck, read Christian Progress. All his books are listed on the John Angell James author page, and our reading guide explains what each one is for.