Alexander MacLaren Quotes

       Alexander MacLaren
       1826-1910
      
       Alexander Maclaren was an English non-conformist minister of Scottish origin. He publicly baptized into the fellowship of the Hope St. Baptist Church, Glasgow, some time between the ages of eleven and thirteen. He was educated at the Glasgow High School, and Glasgow University, and on the return of David Maclaren from Australia, the family moved to London. In 1842, at the age of sixteen, Maclaren entered Stepney College, a Baptist institution in London.
      
       Maclaren was twice president of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and president of the Baptist World Congress, in London, in 1905. He received honorary degrees of divinity from both Edinburgh and Glasgow Universities. In 1896 the citizens of Manchester had his portrait painted for their art gallery.
      
       Many attempts were made to draw Maclaren from Manchester, but he remained there despite his dislike of the climate and the workload, of which he sometimes complained. In 1903, he was made pastor emeritus and retired from the active ministry.

Oh, when we are journeying through the murky night and the dark woods of affliction and sorrow, it is something to find here and there a spray broken, or a leafy stem bent down with the tread of His foot and the brush of His hand as He passed; and to remember that the path He trod He has hallowed, and thus to find lingering fragrance and hidden strength in the remembrance of Him as "in all points tempted like as we are," bearing grief for us, bearing grief with us, bearing grief like us.     Topics: Affliction, Grief Anxious care rests on a basis of heathen worldly-mindedness, and of heathen misunderstanding of the character of God.     Topics: Anxiety, Worldliness Christ puts Himself at the head of the mystic march of the generations; and, like the mysterious angel that Joshua saw in the plain by Jericho, makes the lofty claim, "Nay, but as the captain of the Lord's host am I come up."     Topics: Christ Christ wrought out His perfect obedience as a man, through temptation, and by suffering.     Topics: Christ Being in Christ, it is safe to forget the past; it is possible to be sure of the future; it is possible to be diligent in the present.     Topics: Christ The sum of the whole matter is this: He who is one in will and heart with God is a Christian. He who loves God is one in will and heart with Him. He who trusts Christ loves God. That is Christianity in its ultimate purpose and result. That is Christianity in its means and working forces. That is Christianity in its starting point and foundation.     Topics: Christianity We believe that to Christ belongs creative power--that "without Him was not anything made which was made." We believe that from Him came all life at first. In Him life was as in its deep source. He is the fountain of life. We believe that as no being comes into existence without His creative power, so none continues to exist without His sustaining energy. We believe that the history of the world is but the history of His influence, and that the centre of the whole universe is the cross of Cavalry.     Topics: Creation If life has not made you by God's grace, through faith, holy--think you, will death without faith do it? The cold waters of that narrow stream are no purifying bath in which you may wash and be clean. No! no! as you go down into them, you will come up from them.     Topics: Death, Faith The grave has a door on its inner side.     Topics: Death I know what Eternity is, though I cannot define the word to satisfy a metaphysician. The little child taught by some grandmother Lois, in a cottage, knows what she means when she tells him "you will live forever," though both scholar and teacher would be puzzled to put it into other words.     Topics: Eternity Transiency is stamped on all our possessions, occupations, and delights. We have the hunger for eternity in our souls, the thought of eternity in our hearts, the destination for eternity written on our inmost being, and the need to ally ourselves with eternity proclaimed by the most short-lived trifles of time. Either these things will be the blessing or the curse of our lives. Which do yon mean that they shall be for you?     Topics: Eternity Faith, which is trust, and fear are opposite poles. If a man has the one, he can scarcely have the other in vigorous operation. He that has his trust set upon God does not need to dread anything except the weakening or the paralyzing of that trust.     Topics: Faith, Fear     Source: The Heath in the Desert and the Tree by the River, Jeremiah 17:6, 8.