Quotable

Few have lived to equal John the Baptist. His blows fell with a thud and a sharp edge that shook the oaks of Bashan. But his axe was heavier than the weak muscles of “this generation.” It had been forged in the wilderness and its edge was guaranteed not to turn. The modern counterpart is seen as an improvement on the rough and heavy one that John used. It is lighter and more highly polished...much easier to swing...but what sort of trees can it fell?

When John wielded his axe in Matthew 3, he made the chips fly. That rough-looking man...who ate no dainties...produced trembling in the hearts of the people and a confessing of their sins. This is the need of the times: men of God, skilled in the use of the axe of the Word...not just playing in the woods....

We need men who...hold not men’s persons in admiration...who travel the world as strangers and pilgrims...who willingly suffer the loss of all things for the Master. There is a widespread outcry nowadays against hard strokes. But...the blows of a man of God are worth their weight in gold.

—Franklin Ferguson, “God’s Axemen,” Counsel, March-April 1997