Let us resist the beginning of evil. Let us banish sinful thoughts. We are in danger from a single evil thought. If we suffer it to lodge and rest in the heart, we rock a giant. It will soon arise and overpower us.

From sermon on Mortification of Sin by Asahel Nettleton quoted in John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 104.

Christianity begins with a momentous declaration. It does not begin by telling the sinner what he must do; it begins by telling the sinner what God has done. Thus Machen is absolutely correct when he asserts in Christianity and Liberalism that ‘liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood’.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 82.

The problem with the modern man is that he has no sense of sin; he does not realize that he is ‘guilty before God’. One of the major reasons for this tragic situation is that the modern man has been exposed to a type of preaching which is, all too often, innocuous and anemic. There can be no question but that the sins of the pulpit have come home to roost in the pew.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 80.

Preaching certainly involves application, and application is an essential part of preaching. But explication is the essential prerequisite in preaching.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 14.

It is evident from these scriptures that the great centralities of the gospel — the pre-existence of Christ, his incarnation, his atoning death, his resurrection from the dead — are expressed in the indicative mood. These great central facts of the gospel are not — indeed, they could not be — expressed in the imperative mood which denotes a command, a request, an exhortation; they are not — indeed, they could not be — expressed in the subjunctive mood which denotes that which is contingent, hypothetical, or prospective. No, these great central facts of the gospel are expressed in the Scriptures in the only mood that is consonant with them, namely, the indicative mood. Thus Machen’s observation, ‘Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative’, reveals the perceptiveness both of a grammarian and of a theologian.

John Carrick, The Imperative of Preaching: A Theology of Sacred Rhetoric, 10.

One of the benefits to the believer who reads mythology is an understanding of how ancient Man answered ultimate questions about life without the light of revelation.

Victor P. Hamilton, The Handbook on the Pentateuch, 68.

Every change in the industrial world since the Sabbath was instituted has been a new reason why God’s Sabbath laws and ours should not be changed.

Wilbur F. Crafts, Practical Christian Sociology, 187.

Philosophy must veil her face in the presence of Jesus Christ, as God manifest in the flesh

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, 346.

The great primal revelation of God is as the “I am,” the personal God. All the names and titles given to Him; all the attributes ascribed to Him; all the works attributed to Him, are revelations of what He truly is. He is the Elohim, the Mighty One, the Holy One, the Omnipresent Spirit; He is the creator, the preserver, the governor of all things. He is our Father. He is the hearer of prayer; the giver of all good.

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, 345.

God really is what we believe Him to be, so far as our idea of Him is determined by the revelation which He has made of Himself in his works, in the constitution of our nature, in his word, and in the person of his Son. To know is simply to have such apprehensions of an object as conform to what that object really is. We know what the word Spirit means. We know what the words infinite, eternal, and immutable, mean. And, therefore, the sublime proposition, pregnant with more truth than was ever compressed in any other sentence, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and immutable,” conveys to the mind as distinct an idea, and as true (i. e., trustworthy) knowledge, as the proposition “The human soul is a finite spirit.” In this sense God is an object of knowledge. He is not the unknown God, because He is infinite. Knowledge in Him does not cease to be knowledge because it is omniscience; power does not cease to be power because it is omnipotence; any more than space ceases to be space because it is infinite.

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, 339.