"The church and the Christian should not be interested only, or even primarily, in the general social effects of salvation, but in the fact that men and women should be brought nearer to God, and should live for his glory. When the church gives the world the impression that she is interested in revival only in order to heal certain moral sores, she is denying her own message. I am not primarily interested in revival in order that the streets of our cities may be cleansed; I am interested in it because I believe that for any man not to glorify God is an insult to God. I know that such a man is held bound, and my desire for him is that he may come to know God and glorify him in his daily life. The church is not interested primarily in the social consequences of irreligion. As I read my history, I see that it was because our fathers and grandfathers made that very error, towards the end of the Victorian era, that Christendom is in its present position. They became so interested in social conditions that they forgot this primary truth. They thought that if everybody was kept in order by certain Acts of Parliament, all would be well. But that is morality, and not Christianity."
– Sanctified Through the Truth, 17.
"There are many today who say that Christianity is failing, and they say that because they know nothing about it. The foolish people who say-'But look at the wars, look at the international situation! Your Christianity has been going for two thousand years and yet look at the state of the world, look at the terrible possibilities even now.' But Christianity never said that it was in the world to banish war, it never claimed to do so, it has never offered itself as a social or a political movement for reformation. That is not what it is for. It makes Christians, and until you get Christians, you will never get Christian experience, you will never get Christian living, you will never get Christian anything. You cannot get the by-products of Christianity unless you have a belief in the Christian message first."
– I Am Not Ashamed, 26.
"Light not only exposes the darkness; it shows and provides the only way out of the darkness. This is where every Christian should be jumping to the task. The problem of man is the problem of a fallen, sinful, polluted nature. Can nothing be done about it? We have tried knowledge, we have tried education, we have tried political enactments, we have tried international conferences, we have tried them all but nothing avails. Is there no hope? Yes, there is abundant and everlasting hope: 'Ye must be born again.' What man needs is not more light; he needs a nature that will love the light and hate the darkness-the exact opposite of his loving the darkness and hating the light."
– Expositions on the Sermon on the Mount, Vol. 1, 168-69.
