Young converts are prone to depend too much on joyful frames, and love high excitement in their devotional exercises; but their heavenly Father cures them of this folly, by leaving them for a season to walk in darkness and struggle with their own corruptions... They learn to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, and to distrust entirely their own wisdom and strength, and to rely for all needed aid on the grace of Jesus Christ. Such a soul will not readily believe that it is growing in grace. But to be emptied of self-dependence, and to know that we need aid for every duty, and even for every good thought, is an important step in our progress in piety. The flowers may have disappeared from the plant of grace, and even the leaves may have fallen off, and wintry blasts have shaken it, but now it is striking its roots deeper, and becoming every day stronger to endure the rugged storm. -Archibald Alexander (1772-1851)

When we go to Jesus and say, Lord, all I have are five loaves and two fishes. What good will that do??, the Lord says, ?Are you willing to give it to me?? The moment we say yes, people are fed! And then God says, ?I took no cherub, no seraphim, no archangel, no angel. I didn?t even take an unfallen Adam. I waited until man fell all the way. When I use him, it is obvious that I?m doing the work through him, and all the glory comes to Me. I am teaching man now that he who humbles himself shall be exalted, while he who exalts himself shall be abased. I am setting forth the proposition that little is much when God is in it. I am asking man to trust Me with his nothingness.  If you will say, ?Lord God, here is my zero,? God will just come and stand in front of your zero and all of a sudden you will discover that your zero (0) is ten (10). If you can get an accurate enough picture of yourself to say, ?Lord, I am two zeroes,? He will come and stand in front of you, and all of a sudden your two zeroes (00) will equal one hundred (100). In rare instances in the history of the church, men and women have been able to say, ?Lord God, here is my triple zero. (000).? That?s how ?one can chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight.? (See Deut 32:30.)  God is always willing to come and stand in front of your zeroes. But you know, if you put your zero on the other side of Christ, then immediately the decimal point is there and it?s only a fraction and he won?t do a thing. Come to the Lord and present your nothingness and He?ll stand by you and turn your cipher into power. -Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895-1960)

Humility is just feeling little because we are little. Humility is realizing our unworthiness because we are unworthy, the feeling and declaring ourselves sinners because we are sinners. -E.M. Bounds (1835-1913)

It is a many-phased principle. Humility is born by looking at God, and his holiness, and then looking at self and man?s unholiness. Humility loves obscurity and silence, dreads applause, esteems the virtues of others, excuses their faults with mildness, easily pardons injuries, fears contempt less and less, and sees baseness and falsehood in pride. A true nobleness and greatness are in humility. It knows and reveres the inestimable riches of the cross, and the humiliations of Jesus Christ. It fears the luster of those virtues admired by men, and loves those that are more secret and which are prized by God. It draws comfort even from its own defects, through the abasement which they occasion. -E.M. Bounds (1835-1913)

God has given me that disposition that, if this were the case that a man has done me an hundred injuries and I (though ever so much provoked to it) have done him one, I feel disposed and heartily willing humbling to confess my fault to him, and on my knees to ask forgiveness of him; though at the same time he should justify himself in all the injuries he has done me and should only make use of my humble confession to blacken my character the more and represent me as the only person guilty. -David Brainerd (1718-47)

As low trees and shrubs are free from many violent gusts and blasts of wind which shake and rend the taller trees, so humble souls are free from those gusts and blasts of error that rend and tear proud, lofty souls. -Thomas Brooks (1608-81)

It is the people who do little, that talk a lot about what they do, and pride themselves in it. The man who is really busy and who is striving for all he is worth, has no time to boast and talk. The more you do, the more you will realize and learn how little you have done and can do. The more you strive for salvation, the more will you discover the holiness and purity of God. The more you see that, the more hopeless will you see yourself. And, finally, you will so realize your utter hopelessness that, imagining that you are getting further from the gate each day, you will cry out in despair to Christ to have mercy upon you and to deliver you. And just there when you are about to fall and faint in sheer exhaustion and despair, a hand will suddenly appear and take hold of you and steady you and draw you in through the door. For when you give up and give in and realize your own strength is not enough, your are on the threshold and will be taken in. -Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)

The first step on the road to being a Christian is to cease being a snob, whether social, intellectual, or moral. -Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)

We deserve nothing but hell. If you think you deserve heaven, take it from me you are not a Christian. Now, that is a very good definition of a Christian. Any man who thinks  that he deserves heaven is not a Christian. But for any man who knows that he deserves hell, there is hope. -Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)

Becoming poor in spirit is the very first thing that must happen in the life of anybody who ever enters God?s kingdom. Nobody ever entered on the basis of pride. The doorway is very low, and only people who crawl can come in. -John MacArthur (20th century)

[Humility] consists not in thinking meanly of ourselves, but in not thinking of ourselves at all. -D.L. Moody (1837-99)

The most heavily laden branches bow the lowest. -Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

Spurgeon said that when he was converted, the first thing he realized was that it would not have been such a wonder to him if God had accepted the whole world, and rejected him. That is the right attitude. It shows self-knowledge and a due awareness of the unworthiness of this great blessing. It is the best way to be kept from spiritual pride. -Cornelis Pink (20th century)

Better to be last in heaven, than first in hell. -J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)

Extremes do indeed meet strangely sometimes. The conscience-hardened sinner and the eminent saint are in one respect singularly alike. Neither of them fully realizes his own condition. The one does not see his own sin, nor the other his own grace! -J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)

When I was a child I used every Sabbath to read David?s challenge to the giant, and I thought I was sanctifying the Sabbath over that Scripture. But for many years now, and more and more of late years, my Bible opens of itself to me at the place where Shimei casts stones and dirt at David, till David says, So let him curse, because the Lord hath said to him, Curse David. -Alexander Whyte (d. 1921)