“Lengthening and Strengthening” by J. D. Jones

Notes from Chapter 10 of Paul’s Certainties by J. D. Jones. This chapter contains the sermon “Lengthening and Strengthening” based on Isaiah 54:2, “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.”

“I can see no sign of decay about the kingdom of Christ.”

“Ascend the mount, brethren, and notice that every inch of this world of ours is ’promised land.’”

“The danger of the Church is ever to be content with narrow boundaries, to be satisfied with less than God has in store for her.”

“They tell us we ought not to think of disturbing India and China and Mohammedan countries, which already possess religions eminently suited to the genius of the people. But when I go to my Master, I hear nothing of any limitation of this kind.”

“When are we going to stop our aggressive work? Not till the Divine Guide bids us ; and He will not bid us stop till every knee shall bow in the name of Christ, and every tongue confess He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

“Use your vote, not at the bidding of a party, but at the bidding of your King.”

“Banish the word ’secular’ out of your dictionaries.”

“It is at our mortal peril we become broader, unless we also become deeper.”

“I do not think I am wrong in saying that to some extent we have lost our fathers’ faith in Christ as the one and only Redeemer. Perhaps we do not openly avow it even to ourselves; still, there is a sort of feeling abroad in the Church that it will come all right with the heathen, somehow. And the result is, the enthusiasm and the ardour have gone out of missionary work.”

“Unless there is a return to the simple but whole-hearted faith of our fathers, the work will drag still more, and perhaps utterly collapse.”

“A Church that has not some great truth, which with heart and soul it passionately believes in, is a doomed Church.”

“We need a revival of faith. We need to believe again as our fathers believed—in Christ, who is both very God and true Man. We need to believe as they believed, that on the Cross He did something for man which man could never have done for himself, whereby man receives pardon and eternal life. We need to believe as they believed, that on the third day He rose again, bringing life and immortality to light. We need to believe that this Jesus is the one Redeemer of men, the one Saviour of souls, the one Intercessor between God and man, and that to Him men must come if they would have life. We need to believe all this as they believed it, so that we may preach it with the same passionate ardour and conviction wherewith they preached it.”

“This is the prayer for the Church to-day: ’Lord, increase our faith.’”