James Waddel Alexander

James Waddel Alexander (March 13, 1804 – July 31, 1859) was an American Presbyterian minister and theologian who followed in the footsteps of his father, Rev. Archibald Alexander.

Virtue consists in doing our duty in the several relations we sustain in respect to ourselves, to our fellow men, and to God, as known from reason, conscience, and revelation.

Quotes

• There are regions beyond the most nebulous outskirts of matter; but no regions beyond the divine goodness. We may conceive of tracts where there are no worlds, but not of any where there us no God of mercy.
  • Consolation: in Discourses on Select Topics, Addressed to the Suffering People of God (New York: Charles Scribner, 1853), pp. 27–28.

• The true recipe for a miserable existence is this: Quarrel with Providence.
  • Consolation: in Discourses on Select Topics, Addressed to the Suffering People of God (New York: Charles Scribner, 1853), p. 166.

Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

• The life-boat may have a tasteful bend and beautiful decoration, but these are not the qualities for which I prize it; it was my salvation from the howling sea! So the interest which a regenerate soul takes in the Bible, is founded on a personal application to the heart of the saving truth which it contains.
  • P. 30.

• Virtue consists in doing our duty in the several relations we sustain in respect to ourselves, to our fellow men, and to God, as known from reason, conscience, and revelation.
  • P. 611.