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S.D. Gordon

In the early 1900s, Samuel Dickey Gordon was a widely traveled speaker in high demand. A prolific author, he wrote more than 25 devotional books, most with the phrase "Quiet Talks" in the title. His first book sold half a million copies over 40 years!

As a young man, he was hard working , consecrated and sought the best God had for him. He served as assistant secretary of the Philadelphia Young Men's Christian Association in 1884-86 so efficiently that he became state secretary for the YMCA in Ohio, serving from 1886 to 1895. In this period he developed a quiet style of devotional speaking which was quite the opposite of the powerful forensics which dominated the pulpit style of that period.

An incessant and tireless itinerant, Gordon never lacked for opportunities to preach. He never called himself a preacher, preferring the title of lecturer. In a real sense he was unique. His manner of speaking, never dull, always illustrated by parabolic stories, had gripping power to hold the attention and stir the heart.

      Samuel Dickey Gordon was a popular speaker and writer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

      He was born in Philadelphia August 12, 1859. As a young man, he was hard working, consecrated and sought the best God had for him. He served as assistant secretary of the Philadelphia Young Men's Christian Association in 1884-86 so efficiently that he became state secretary for the YMCA in Ohio, serving from 1886 to 1895. In this period he developed a quiet style of devotional speaking which was quite the opposite of the powerful forensics which dominated the pulpit style of that period.

      Gordon never lacked for opportunities to preach. He wrote more than two-dozen devotional books, most with the phrase "Quiet Talks" in the title.

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S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 1 - The Master Passion

The Earliest Calvary Picture. There's a great passion burning in the heart of God. It is tenderly warm and tenaciously strong. Its fires never burn low, nor lose their fine glow. That passion is to win man back home again. The whole world of man is included in its warm, eager reach. The old home hea... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks on Following the Christ 9 - Finger-Posts

The Parable of the Finger-Posts. Waiting is harder work than working. It takes more out of you. And it puts more into you, too, of fine-grained, steady strength, if you can stand the strain of it. And if, to the waiting is added perplexity, the pull upon your strength is much greater. It is harder t... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks On Service 5 - Deep-Sea Fishing: The Ambition of Service.

(Luke v:1-11.) A Water Haul. Jesus was very fond of the outdoors. The Gospels have a woodsy smell. He taught in the synagogues, but He seemed to prefer the open air. He would go out on a country road, or down by the beach of the Galilean lake, and the people would eagerly gather around Him, and He w... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks on Following the Christ 10 - Fellow-Followers

God's Problem. God needs men. That is the tremendous fact that stands out in every generation. There never has been a corner since Adam walked out of Eden where that need was not thrust into some man's face, and thrust into God's face. It is being thrust into our faces to-day as ever before, and as ... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 2 - The Master's Plan

Will the World Be Won? The great passion of God's heart is a love-passion. Love never fails. It waits and, if need be, waits long; but it never fails to get what it is waiting for. Love sacrifices; though it never uses that word. It doesn't know it is sacrificing, it is so absorbed in its gripping p... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks On Service 6 - Money: The Golden Channel of Service.

(Luke xvi:1-18.) [16] Touching a Limitless Circle. There is an inky shadow over the home of God. There is a sharp pain tugging at the heart of God. It's a family matter; a family disgrace. One of God's family has gone off from the home circle and made a bad mess of things. Such an affair is always a... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks on Following the Christ 11 - The Glory Of The Goal,--Face to Face

"With You Always.". Have you ever seen Christ? No, I don't mean have you been to some uplifting convention, and been tremendously caught by some talented, earnest speaker, and been swayed by the atmosphere of the hour and place, and felt that all was not just as it should be with you; and then you p... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 3 - The Urgent Need

Three Great Groups. The human heart is tender. It answers quickly to the cry of need. It is oftentimes hard to find. In Christian lands it is covered up with selfishness. And in heathen lands the selfishness seems so thickly crusted that it is hard to awaken even common humanitarian feeling. But tha... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 4 - The Present Opportunity

Somebody's Knocking at the Door. There's a soft, tender passion in the heart of God. Its flame burns steadily. It never flags nor dims. It's a passion for His child-man. And that very passion itself draws man to Himself with a drawing power that is irresistible. They can't resist being drawn, even t... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 5 - The Pressing Emergency

The October Panic. A man walked up the steps of a well-known bank in lower New York one morning, about a half-hour before opening-time, and stood before the shut door. In a few minutes another came, and stood waiting beside him. Others came, one by one, until soon a small group stood in line, waitin... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 6 - The Past Failure

Some of God's Failures. God fails, sometimes. That is to say, the plan He has made and set His heart upon fails. Eden was God's plan for man. A weedless, thornless, world-garden of great beauty and fruitfulness; a man and woman living together in sweet purity and strong self-mastery; their children ... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 7 - The Coming Victory

Failure Swallowed by Victory. But God's failures are only for a while. They are real. There is the tragic element in them. There is the deep, sad tinge of disappointment running throughout this old Book of God. Yet the failures are only for a time. Sometimes it seems a very long time, especially if ... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 8 - The Church

Forces That Win. God's world is full of winning forces. The great ball of fire around which our earth revolves is the greatest winning force in the life of the earth. It is constantly winning the earth to itself with a power unseen but tremendous, beyond anybody's power to calculate. The swing of th... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 9 - Each One of Us

Our Drawing Power. The greatest human winning force is a man swayed in every bit of his being by the Spirit of Jesus. Man himself is the most attractive thing on God's earth. He has the greatest drawing power. He is attractive to God. He drew out of the creative power of God this world of beauty and... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 10 - Jesus

Jesus Draws Men. The great heart-magnet is God. No one is so winsomely attractive as He. His winning power is beyond any other. Man is winsome. But it is because God made him winsome, and re-makes him yet more winsome. He gave him a bit of His own self. That's the secret of all our human winsomeness... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 11 - The Holy Spirit

The Last Talk Together. A little group of men were climbing the winding path that led up Olivet's slope. The Master was in the midst, and the others before and behind, where they could hear His voice. For they were talking together as they walked along. That is to say, He was talking, and they were ... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 12 - Prayer

The Greatest Doing Is Praying. The greatest of all things we can do is to pray . Jesus lived a life of prayer. All that He did and said grew out of His prayer. There is no way of knowing exactly how far it was so. But the more I study His life the stronger grows the impression that His teaching and ... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks with World Winners 13 - Money

Limitations. Money seems almost almighty in its power to do things, and make changes. It can make a desert blossom as a rose. It can even defy death. Medical skill holds the life here that otherwise would have been snuffed out. Great buildings go up. Colleges begin their life with apparatus and book... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks on John's Gospel 2 - The Wooing Lover - part 2

The Forgotten Preacher. With a simplicity in sticking to his main point, John goes quietly on: "that he might be a witness of the light." That's rather interesting. It was of the light he was to bear witness; not of himself. It was not the technical accuracy of his work, not its scholarliness and sk... Read More
S.D. Gordon

Quiet Talks on John's Gospel 2 - The Wooing Lover - part 3

The Oldest Family. "But," John goes on. That was a steadying "but." It was hard on John to recall how they treated his Friend and Master. But there is a "but." There's another aide, an offset to what he's been saying, a bright bit to offset the black bit. But as many as did receive Him. Some receive... Read More

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