Works? Works? A man get to heaven by works? I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!
Interpretation
This quote challenges the notion that good deeds alone can earn salvation.
In this quote, George Whitefield argues against the belief that one can attain heaven solely through their good works, likening it to the absurdity of trying to climb to the moon with an inadequate rope. It emphasizes the futility of relying on human efforts for spiritual salvation, suggesting that grace and faith are far more important than mere actions.
In practice
During a sermon discussing the importance of faith, this quote can illustrate the futility of relying solely on actions.
And now let me address all of you, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to accept of mercy and grace while it is offered to you; Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation; and will you not accept it, now it is offered unto you?
God is well pleased when all our actions proceed from love, love to Himself, and love to immortal souls.
If your souls were not immortal, and you in danger of losing them, I would not thus speak unto you; but the love of your souls constrains me to speak: methinks this would constrain me to speak unto you forever.
Whoever reads the gospel with a single eye, and sincere intentions, will find, that our blessed Lord took all opportunities of reminding his disciples that His Kingdom was not of this world; that His doctrine was a doctrine of the Cross; and that their professing themselves to be His followers, would call them to a constant state of voluntary suffering and self-denial.
The Christian world is in a deep sleep; nothing but a loud shout can awaken them out of it!
What could the Lord Jesus Christ have done for you more than he has? Then do not abuse his mercy, but let your time be spent in thinking and talking of the love of Jesus, who was incarnate for us, who was born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem us from the wrath to come.
Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.
To say that truth is not out there is simply to say that where there are no sentences there is no truth, that sentences are elements of human languages, and that languages are human creations.~ The suggestion that truth~ is out there is a legacy of an age in which the world was seen as the creation of a being who had a language his own.
We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.
The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.
I never considered myself a lucky person. I'm the most extraordinary pessimist. I truly am.
As long as our civilisation keeps trundling along generally forwards, then there is the possibility of a future where ethnicity is merely an interesting badge, not a uniform you can't take off.
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