“If you were good enough, there would be no need of confessing Christ at all. It is just because you are not good enough, that Christ says to you, "Follow me." He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It is not the perfect people whom He wants in His church, but those who have a deep sense of their own imperfection, and who believe that His strength is made perfect in weakness.”

—  Washington Gladden

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 155.

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Washington Gladden14
American pastor 1836–1918

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