Rowland Hill (preacher)

Rowland Hill A.M. (1744–1833) was a popular English preacher, enthusiastic evangelical and an influential advocate of small-pox vaccination. He was founder and resident pastor of a wholly independent chapel, the Surrey Chapel, London; chairman of the Religious Tract Society; and a keen supporter of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the London Missionary Society.

Quotes

 * I have learned by experience that no man's character can be eventually injured but by his own acts.
 * P. 45.


 * Unless you live in Christ, you are dead to God.
 * P. 90.


 * I do not want the walls of separation between different orders of Christians to be destroyed, but only lowered, that we may shake hands a little easier over them.
 * P. 188.


 * We can do more good by being good than in any other way.
 * P. 217.


 * But I am unable to reach the lofty theme; — yet I do not think that the smallest fish that swims in the boundless ocean ever complains of the immeasurable vastness of the deep. So it is with me, I can plunge with my puny capacity, into a subject, the immensity of which I shall never be able fully to comprehend.
 * P. 269.


 * Prayer is the breath of a new-born soul, and there can be no Christian life without it.
 * P. 457.


 * I like ejaculatory prayer; it reaches heaven before the devil can get a shot at it.
 * P. 470.


 * Cast thy burden on the Lord, Only lean upon His word; Thou wilt soon have cause to bless His unchanging faithfulness.
 * P. 600.


 * Conformity to the world has in all ages proved the ruin of the church. It is utterly impossible to live in nearness to God, and in friendship with the world.
 * P. 621.

Disputed

 * Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?
 * Reported as a remark made by Hill when he arranged an Easter hymn to the tune of "Pretty, Pretty Polly Hopkins, in The Rambler, Vol. 9 (1858), p. 191; it was earlier attributed to George Whitefield, in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 49 (June 1773 - January 1774), p. 430, and has also attributed to Charles Wesley, and sometimes his brother John, as well as William Booth, who popularized it as an adage in promoting The Salvation Army.