Theodore L. Cuyler Quotes on Trusting God, Sorrow, Faith and Ministry
Theodore L. Cuyler pastored a large Brooklyn church for thirty years and wrote some four thousand short articles for the religious papers. He had a gift for the one-line summary: a sentence a tired reader could carry through the day. Many of his best lines came out of sorrow, after he buried a little son and later a grown daughter.
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 Theodore L. Cuyler. For a guide to all his books, see Theodore L. Cuyler books.
On trusting God in the dark
These come mostly from God's Light on Dark Clouds, the book he wrote after his daughter's death.
The real victory of faith is to trust God in the dark and through the dark.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, Trusting God in the Dark
The cloud is not so dense but love-rays shine through.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, God's Light on Dark Clouds
No cloud can be big enough to shut out heaven if we keep the eye towards the Throne.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, God's Light on Dark Clouds
The night is mother of the day; trust through the dark brings triumph in the dawn.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, The Night-Lodging and the Day-Dawn
When the balsam-trees in God's garden are cut deep with the knife, they emit the sweetest gums.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, Burning the Barley-Field
God's ripest and most royal scholars are made such by an expensive education
God's Light on Dark Clouds, God's School, and Its Lessons
God never mingles a cup of trial for one of his children without a merciful purpose.
The Empty Crib, God's Bitter Cups for Sick Souls
He prized what he called the grace of silence: not arguing with God in a dark hour.
Silence is a sedative to the soul; murmuring and quarreling with God only tears sorrows open and keeps them festering.
Stirring the Eagle's Nest, The Grace of Silence
God will not release us from duty; but he will sustain us in the doing it.
Stirring the Eagle's Nest, Burden-Bearing
Christian contentment is the cheerful acquiescence of the soul to the will of God in all conditions and under all weathers.
Help and Good Cheer, chapter XIX, How to Be Contented
On worry and living one day at a time
Cuyler called worry a sin, and he gave a plain cure for it: take short views.
Worry is not only a sin against God, it is a sin against ourselves.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, Short Views
There is only one practical remedy for this deadly sin of anxiety, and that is to take short views.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, Short Views
When the morrow comes, grace will come with it sufficient for its tasks or for its troubles.
Stirring the Eagle's Nest, The Journey of a Day
If half the time spent in worrying over our troubles were spent in seeking help from God, we should sooner get relief.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, Help from the Throne
Let God steer the boat and let us attend to the oars.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, A Golden Motto for Every Christian
There are 365 days in every year, but really there is only one working day, and that is to-day.
Beulah Land, chapter V, Living by the Day
On death, children and heaven
He wrote The Empty Crib after his four-year-old son died. These lines show the hope he held.
They who die in Jesus live a larger, fuller, nobler life, by the very cessation of care, change, strife, and struggle.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, Asleep in Jesus
For let us be assured that not one of us will ever see that Home unless we are made ready for it by Christ Jesus.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, Our Two Homes
Spare your tears from the darlings who are safe in the arms of Jesus, and spend them over the living who are yet dead in sin and sheer impenitence.
God's Light on Dark Clouds, Right Seeing
Believe it, O parents! that when God sets a child in the midst of us, he puts a looking-glass there to see ourselves in.
The Empty Crib, A Child in the Midst
If a child can love a parent and trust a parent and obey a parent, it can love and trust and obey God.
The Empty Crib, The Conversion of Children
God's grace does not make a boy a man: it simply makes him a better boy.
The Empty Crib, The Conversion of Children
And on the mother who raised him alone after his father died:
God made mothers before He made ministers; the progress of Christ's kingdom depends more upon the influence of faithful, wise, and pious mothers than upon any other human agency.
Recollections of a Long Life, Boyhood and College Life
On coming to Christ and following Him
These are from Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, which follows a believer from the first steps toward Christ to heaven.
One honest hour with Jesus may be the first step towards an eternity of glory.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, One Honest Hour with Jesus
Jesus Christ is as close to you to-day as he ever will be.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, Take Up Thy Bed and Walk
Conversion is simply an enlisting in the army of Jesus.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, After Conversion — What Next?
Carry the savor of your communion with Christ wherever you go.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, After Conversion — What Next?
Christ must be to you a pattern, and he must be to you a power.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, So Did Not I
No man ever falls who lives near to Jesus.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, Nearer to God
No sin is a trifle; no sin can be safely allowed to get headway.
Stirring the Eagle's Nest, The Little Coat
My dear friends, you must bear in mind that conversion is simply an enlisting in the army of Jesus.
Newly Enlisted, Newly Enlisted
There is a great difference between being "made alive" and keeping alive afterwards.
Heart-Life, Am I Alive?
On living so others see Christ
Cuyler often said a Christian's life preaches louder than his words.
Every follower of Christ must represent his religion purely, loftily, impressively before that multitude of "Bible-readers" whose only Bible is the Christian.
Pointed Papers for the Christian Life, The Christian the World's Bible
A sermon in shoes is often more eloquent and soul-convincing than a sermon on paper.
Recollections of a Long Life, Life at Home — And Friends Abroad
One Christ-like act is often worth a score of sermons.
Stirring the Eagle's Nest, The Miracle at the Gate Beautiful
Sinners may be drawn to Christ; they never can be driven.
Stirring the Eagle's Nest, The Miracle at the Gate Beautiful
The Almighty never "despises the day of small things," or else he would not put his mighty oaks into acorns, or his golden grain-crops into little seed-bags.
Thought-Hives, The Day of Small Things
On preaching and pastoral work
Cuyler spent his last years advising young ministers in The Young Preacher and How to Be a Pastor.
The more soul you put into your preaching, the more souls you will bring to Jesus Christ.
The Young Preacher, The Delivery of Sermons
The men who draw from God's inexhaustible reservoir of truth are commonly the men who hold out; for human brains often run dry, but the Bible never does.
The Young Preacher, Growing Sermons
Deep convictions of sin generally produce deep conversions; shallow convictions produce shallow Christians.
The Young Preacher, Winning Souls
Nothing costs too much that will save a soul.
The Young Preacher, Pastoral Work — How to Do It
Genius, scholarship, eloquence, are no substitutes for whole-souled love of Christ and holiness of life.
The Young Preacher, The Man Behind the Message
Saving faith in Christ is not an abstract opinion, it is an act; it is putting yourself into connection with the Saviour.
How to Be a Pastor, The Treatment of the Troubled
No one is ever troubled about believing in Christ as soon as he begins to obey Christ.
How to Be a Pastor, The Treatment of the Troubled
The true thermometer of a church, to indicate its spiritual temperature, is the weekly gathering around the mercy-seat.
Stray Arrows, The Church Thermometer
Read Cuyler for yourself
These lines read best in their setting, where Cuyler tells the story behind them. If you're in sorrow, start with God's Light on Dark Clouds. For daily help in following Christ, read Pointed Papers or Heart-Life. All sixteen of his books are on the Theodore L. Cuyler author page.