John Calvin Quotes
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Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God.
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I have not so great a struggle with my vices, great and numerous as they are, as I have with my impatience. My efforts are not absolutely useless; yet I have never been able to conquer this ferocious wild beast.
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Whether each of the faithful has a particular angel assigned him for his defence, I cannot venture certainly to affirm... not one angel only has the care of every one of us, but that they all with one consent watch for our salvation.
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If we are given gold, would we not test it to determine it's value? If we doubted its genuineness - we would test it by fire...and so God with us.
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In truth we know by experience that song has great force and vigour to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and ardent zeal.
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Unless we endeavor to do good to our neighbor, through our cruelty we transgress this law.
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The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the days of their life.
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Prayer doesn't change things - God changes things in answer to prayer.
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In our good works nothing is our own.
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Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.
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While all men seek after happiness, scarcely one in a hundred looks for it from God.
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We must resist wandering thoughts in prayer. Raising our hands reminds us that we need to raise up our minds to God, setting aside all irrelevant thoughts.
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To search for wisdom apart from Christ means not simply foolhardiness but utter insanity.
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Involvement in public life provides the opportunity to shape our manners in accordance with civil justice.
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It is not lawful for you to make a compromise with God: to try to fulfill part of your duties and to omit others at your own pleasure.
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It is a promise which eminently deserves our observation that all who are united to Christ and acknowledge Him to be Christ and Mediator will remain to the end safe from all danger, for what is said of the body of the Church belongs to each of its members since they are one in Christ.
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When we know God to be our Father, should we not desire that he be known as such by all? And if we do not have this passion, that all creatures do him homage, is it not a sign that his glory means little to us?
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Prayers will never reach God unless they are founded on free mercy.
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Unless we fix certain hours in the day for prayer, it easily slips from our memory.
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God is undoubtedly ready to pardon whenever the sinner turns. Therefore, he does not will his death, in so far as he wills repentance. But experience shows that this will, for the repentance of those whom he invites to himself, is not such as to make him touch all their hearts. Still, it cannot be said that he acts deceitfully; for though the external word only renders, those who hear it, and do not obey it, inexcusable, it is still truly regarded as an evidence of the grace by which he reconciles men to himself.
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Faith will tell us Christ is present, When our human senses fail.
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Faith and patience are exceptional virtues in those that suffer. Patience is the fruit and evidence of faith.
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No one in this earthly prison of the body has sufficient strength of his own to press forward with a due degree of watchfulness, and the great majority of Christians are kept down with such great weakness that they stagger and halt and even creep on the ground, and so make very slight advances.
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If God were not to test us, there would be no patience.