Octavius Winslow Quotes on Christ, Prayer, Trial and Revival
Octavius Winslow wrote with a pastor's warmth and a poet's ear. His paragraphs build, and then they land on a short sentence that sums up the whole page. That's why his lines get copied onto cards and passed around. Many of the Winslow quotes you'll find online have no source, though, and some are reworded.
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 Octavius Winslow. For a guide to all his books, see Octavius Winslow books.
On Christ
Winslow's great subject was Jesus Christ. He believed a Christian never outgrows his need of Christ, but finds Him more precious every year.
The Gospel is Christ first, Christ last, Christ midst, Christ without end.
Christ Ever with You, The Farewells
Christ is not only supremely, but He is increasingly precious to the believer.
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Christ
A Christ unappropriated is a Christ whose worth is undervalued, and whose preciousness is unfelt.
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Christ
We must know the Lord Jesus to admire Him, and must admire Him to love Him, and must love Him to serve Him.
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Christ
Study God in Christ, and Christ on the cross.
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Christ
Christ is our only altar; Christ is our only sacrifice; Christ is our only door into heaven; Christ is all, and in all.
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Christ's Blood
The personal glory of the Lord Jesus is to the Bible, what the sun is to our planet.
The Glory of the Redeemer, The Pre-existent Glory of the Redeemer
He came down to earth as man, he went up to heaven as God.
The Glory of the Redeemer, The Pre-existent Glory of the Redeemer
If the grace that flows from Jesus is sweet, Jesus himself is sweeter still.
Midnight Harmonies, Honey in the Wilderness
On coming to Christ
He pressed the gospel on his readers simply. Don't wait to improve yourself. Come now.
Your next step, and only step, is to go to Christ, just as you are.
Christ Ever with You, Christ a Saviour
Christ is the Object of faith, and Christ alone.
The Ministry of Home, The Power of the Tongue
He that has never tasted the love of Jesus, is yet a stranger to the sweetness of the truth.
The Silver Trumpet
O give to Christ the golden period of your life!
Glimpses of the Truth as It Is in Jesus, The Axe Laid at the Root
On trial and sorrow
Winslow buried a son, a daughter, his mother and his wife. He wrote to the suffering as one who knew the road.
And God's highest school is the school of trial.
Midnight Harmonies, Jesus Veiling His Dealings
You are still a child, and God is still a Father.
Midnight Harmonies, Songs in the Night
Submission is sweet, resignation is sweeter, but joyous satisfaction with the whole of God's conduct is sweeter still.
Midnight Harmonies, Solitude Sweetened
God comforts his sorrowful ones with the characteristic love of a mother.
Midnight Harmonies, God, Comforting as a Mother
Nothing is too insignificant, nothing too mean to take to Christ.
Midnight Harmonies, Leaning upon the Beloved
Encircled by danger, you are also encircled by Christ.
Christ Ever with You, Christ a Shield
Blessed loneliness, hallowed solitude, shared and sweetened and sanctified by Jesus!
Christ Ever with You, Christ in Retirement
But sickness is God's messenger, bent upon a mission of mercy and of love.
The Ministry of Home, The Gift of Suffering
What a portrait is a child of God purified, sanctified, and disciplined by trial!
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Trial
On prayer
For Winslow, prayer was the pulse of the Christian life. When it weakens, everything weakens.
Prayer is the breathing of the life of God in the soul.
The Inquirer Directed to the Work of the Holy Spirit, The Spirit the Author of Prayer
How much passes current for prayer with man, which is not prayer with God!
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Prayer
The seasons of adversity, trial, and sorrow, are the most praying seasons with God's people.
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of Prayer
No real, believing prayer is ever lost, even as the moisture exhaled from earth is never lost.
Midnight Harmonies, The Incense of Prayer
Prayer finds acceptance within the veil, only as it is presented in the name of Jesus.
Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, Declension in Prayer
On spiritual decline and revival
These lines come from Winslow's two books on how a believer grows cold and how God restores him. He's searching, but he never leaves a reader without hope.
Thy sad distance from God is the secret of thy soul's leanness.
Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, Declension in Prayer
Love to God will expel love to the world; love to the world will deaden the soul's love to God.
Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, Declension in Love
The cross of Jesus is the very soul of Christianity; all is death where Jesus is not.
Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, Declension in Connexion with Doctrinal Error
As truth experimentally received draws the heart to God, so error cherished in the mind leads the heart from God.
Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, Declension in Connexion with Doctrinal Error
Divine grace in the soul can never really die; true faith can never utterly and finally fail.
Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in the Soul, Incipient Declension
Christ's death for sin must be our death unto sin.
The Inner Life, The Inner Life in Its Gradual and Imperceptible Relapse
Take your deadness to Christ, — take your barrenness to Christ, — take your decay to Christ, — take to Christ your frame of mind just as it is.
The Inner Life, The Re-quickening of the Inner Life
There is a fresh supply in Christ; a fresh supply in the Spirit; a fresh supply in the heart of God; a fresh supply in the covenant of grace.
The Inner Life, The Renewed Anointing of the Inner Life
On the Holy Spirit
Winslow wrote a whole book on the Spirit's work. He held that the Spirit is God, and that His great work is to make much of Christ.
Without this blessed Spirit, you can never know yourself, nor Christ, nor God, nor heaven.
The Inquirer Directed to the Work of the Holy Spirit, The Godhead and Personality of the Holy Spirit
But the great work of the Spirit is to glorify Christ.
The Glory of the Redeemer, The Holy Spirit Glorifying the Redeemer
On God's Word and the end of the road
Last, two lines on Scripture, and one written after the death of his son.
The promises of God are the jewellery of the Bible.
The Precious Things of God, The Preciousness of the Divine Promises
What a deep and precious mine of Gospel truth is God's most blessed Word!
The Silver Trumpet
When a believer in Jesus is matured by grace for glory, the Lord of the harvest takes him to heaven.
Hidden Life, Chapter V
Where to read more Winslow
These lines come from eleven of his books. If you want to read one first, try The Precious Things of God, which gave us more of these quotes than any other. If you're carrying a heavy sorrow, read Midnight Harmonies or Christ Ever with You. All his books are on the Octavius Winslow author page, and our reading guide explains which to read for what.