-Arthur W. Pink

Regeneration is a more radical and revolutionizing change than glorification. The one is a passing from death unto life, the other an entrance into the fulness of life. The one is a bringing into existence of “the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:22), the other is a reaching unto the full stature of the new man. The one is a translation into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1:13). the other an induction into the higher privileges of that kingdom. The one is the begetting of us unto a living hope (1 Peter 1:3), the other is a realization of that hope. At regeneration the soul is made “a new creature” in Christ, so that “old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The regenerate soul is a partaker of every grace of the Spirit so that he is “complete in Christ” (Col. 2:10), and no growth on earth or glorification in heaven can make him more than complete.

-Jonathan Edwards

There are many that are full of expressions of their own vileness, who yet expect to be looked upon as eminent saints by others as their due; and it is dangerous for any so much as to hint the contrary or to carry it towards them any otherwise than as if we looked upon them as some of the chief of Christians. There are many that are much in crying out their wicked hearts and their great short-comings and unprofitableness, and speaking of themselves as though they looked on themselves as the meanest of the saints; who yet, if a minister should seriously tell them the same things in private, and should signify that he feared they were very low and weak Christians and that they had reason solemnly to consider of their great barrenness and unprofitableness and falling so much short of many others, it would be more than they could digest. They would think themselves highly injured and there would be danger of a rooted prejudice in them against such a minister.

-Arthur W. Pink, Spiritual Growth, Chapter 10, Part II.

Then take heed, young Christian, where you attend. If you cannot find a place where Christ is magnified, where His presence is felt, where the Word is ministered in the power of the Spirit, where your soul is actually fed, where you come away as empty as when you went, then far better to remain at home and spend the time on your knees, feeding directly from God's Word, and reading that which you do find helpful unto your spiritual life.

-Read the Scriptures.

Nothing is more appalling in the Church of Christ today than the ignorance, on the part of intelligent people, of the Bible. Nor, in some places, is the pulpit much better than the pew. A text forms a peg on which to hang an essay. Well thought out and well expressed the latter may be, but what the people need is to “understand the Scriptures.” After listening to a sermon in which Emerson and Browning were freely quoted, a member asked his minister “Why not give Paul a chance? Some of his thoughts are even more to the point than those to which you have referred us today!”

-S. E. Pierce

A young convert is much taken with his own importunity in prayer, with his own enlargements and affections (they being very warm and lively), with the multitude of means and the much time he spends in the use of and observance of them; whereas a believer of longer standing and greater measure of spiritual growth values those discoveries which the Holy Spirit gives him in prayer and inward converse with the Lord, of the Father's free love, and the Son's personal, particular, and prevalent intercession on his behalf: and he is more taken with those, than with his own fervor and supplications. The ‘babes’ in Christ are particularly affected with a sense and enjoyment of pardoning mercy and calling God ‘Father.’ Hence, the blessings of pardon of sin, peace with God, the spirit of adoption, and an advancement in and an increased spiritual perception of these precious realities, must be a growth in grace such as is quite suited to their spiritual stature and circumstances.

-Thomas Manton

A Christian should labor for a good heart well-headed, and a head well-hearted.