Samuel Logan Brengle Quotes on Holiness, Prayer and the Holy Spirit

Holiness Holy Spirit Prayer Evangelism

Samuel Logan Brengle (1860–1936) spent nearly fifty years teaching holiness in the Salvation Army. He wrote for working people, so his sentences are short and his pictures come from everyday life: gunpowder in the cellar, a ship at anchor, a lover reading letters. Many of his lines pack a whole sermon into a few words.

Brengle quotes get passed around online without sources, and some are misquoted. 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, see who was Samuel Logan Brengle. For a guide to his books, see Samuel Logan Brengle books.

What holiness is

Brengle's definition of holiness was simple. It means being made like God, as God is seen in Jesus.

Holiness, then, is conformity to the nature of God. It is likeness to God, as He is revealed in Jesus.
The Way of Holiness, What Is Holiness?

Holiness is that state of our moral and spiritual nature which makes us like Jesus in His moral and spiritual nature.
Heart Talks on Holiness, Holiness: How to Get It

In regeneration sin is suspended, in sanctification it is destroyed.
Heart Talks on Holiness, Knowing Jesus

Sin in the heart is more dangerous than gunpowder in the cellar.
The Way of Holiness, Why Should We Be Holy?

To be holy and useful is possible for each one of us, and it is far better than to be great and famous.
The Way of Holiness, Why Should We Be Holy?

He was just as clear about what holiness does not mean:

It is an unscriptural and dangerous doctrine that there is any state of grace in this world from which we cannot fall.
Heart Talks on Holiness, Holiness: What It Is Not, and What It Is

How to receive it

For Brengle, holiness was God's work, received by a person who gives everything and believes. He liked to press his readers to do it "just now."

God and man must work together, both to save and to sanctify.
The Way of Holiness, How to Get Holiness

As for your circumstances, Holiness will make you their master instead of their servant.
The Way of Holiness, How to Get Holiness

Your business is to wait on God for orders and inspiration, and then to trust and obey.
Heart Talks on Holiness, Holiness: How to Get It

Yield yourself fully to Christ just now, and if you ask in faith you shall receive.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, Power

Quietly, intelligently, abandon yourself to the Holy Spirit just now in simple, glad, obedient faith, and the blessing shall be yours.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, Victory over Evil Temper by the Power of the Holy Spirit

Keeping the blessing

He had seen many people receive a clean heart and then lose it. So he wrote a good deal about how to keep it.

It is possible to lose the blessing of a clean heart, but, thank God, it is also gloriously possible to keep it.
Heart Talks on Holiness, How to Keep a Clean Heart

Backsliding usually begins through neglected, or hurried, secret prayer.
Heart Talks on Holiness, How to Keep a Clean Heart

The man who withholds his testimony to this grace will lose it.
Heart Talks on Holiness, How to Keep a Clean Heart

If you would keep the blessing, you must be quick to obey God.
The Way of Holiness, How to Keep Holiness

Do not let your poor heart be burdened with the thought that you have to do it all yourself.
The Way of Holiness, How to Keep Holiness

On the Holy Spirit

Brengle's book When the Holy Ghost Is Come is built on Acts 1:8. These lines come from it.

The preacher must be more than a man — he must be a man plus the Holy Ghost.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, Characteristics of the Anointed Preacher

The witness of the Spirit is dependent upon our faith.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, The Witness of the Spirit

Divine love is the test by which we are to try ourselves, and all teachers, and spirits.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, Trying the Spirits

Nothing more clearly distinguishes the man filled with the Spirit from the man who is not than the way each receives suffering.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, Victory Through the Holy Spirit over Suffering

I have sometimes seen a whole congregation wakened up and refreshed and made glad by the joyous overflow from one cleanhearted soul.
When the Holy Ghost Is Come, The Overflowing Blessing

Love-slaves of Jesus

Late in life Brengle wrote about the apostles who called themselves the slaves of Christ. He meant the willing service of someone in love.

The bondage that enthralled them was the unbreakable bondage of love.
Love-Slaves, Love-Slaves

The love slave does not fear the master, for he joys in the master's will.
Love-Slaves, Love-Slaves

Let Him show Himself to you that you may fall in love with Him.
Love-Slaves, Love-Slaves

On prayer and the Bible

Brengle read his Bible on his knees, and he urged everyone else to do the same.

Prayer is the way of approach to God, and the soul-winner keeps it open by constant use.
The Soul-Winner's Secret, Prayer

We must hold on to God, and not let go till the answer comes, or until God shows us why it does not come.
The Way of Holiness, Holiness and Prayer

Indeed, there are many good men, but few wrestlers with God.
Heart Talks on Holiness, Wrestlers with God

The truth is, that we love the Lord no better than we love His Word.
The Soul-Winner's Secret, Importance and Benefits of Bible Study

If, then, you would have strong faith, feed what faith you have on the Word of God.
The Soul-Winner's Secret, Importance and Benefits of Bible Study

A portion of the Bible ought to be read carefully and prayerfully and lovingly every day.
The Soul-Winner's Secret, Importance and Benefits of Bible Study

On worry and thanksgiving

He treated worry and complaining as matters of the heart, not just of mood.

Worry is a great foe to Holiness, and perfect trust puts an end to worry.
The Way of Holiness, Holiness and Worry

Our business is, then, always to pray, give thanks for such blessings as we have, and keep our minds stayed on God, and worry about nothing.
The Way of Holiness, Holiness and Worry

Know this, that if you are not thankful your heart is yet bad, your soul unclean, for good hearts and pure souls are thankful.
Heart Talks on Holiness, Thanksgiving

On winning souls

Brengle believed holiness always overflows into a desire to bring others to Christ.

You must know Jesus and be on friendly terms with Him to be able to introduce others to Him.
The Soul-Winner's Secret, The Personal Experience of the Soul-Winner

The best teacher of style in public speech is a heart filled to bursting with love to Jesus, and love and hope and fear and faith for men.
The Soul-Winner's Secret, So Spake

God meant that work for you and you for that work, and if you do not do it, it will never be done.
Heart Talks on Holiness, A Word to You Who Would Be Useful

Keep the fire of love and faith and sweet hopefulness burning in your heart, and you may start a blaze that will some day sweep the country or the world.
Love-Slaves, You!

On humility and growing old

Last, a few lines from a man who rose high in the Army and kept his eyes on Jesus.

A holy man is one who has found himself out, and pronounced judgment against himself, and come to Jesus to be made every whit whole.
The Way of Holiness, Holiness and Humility

It is not the work, but the heart and purpose behind the work that God looks at.
The Way of Holiness, Holiness and Duty

If honour comes, thank God and lay it at the torn feet of Jesus, and forget it, lest it ruin you.
Love-Slaves, You!

My mouth is full of laughter and my heart is full of joy.
Love-Slaves, My Testimony

Where to read more Brengle

These lines come from all five of his books in TheWay Library. If you want to read one book first, try The Way of Holiness, his short, plain handbook for young people. For more on the Spirit, read When the Holy Ghost Is Come. All his books are on the Samuel Logan Brengle author page, and our guide to the best books on holiness puts him beside other classic writers on the subject.