"Thus a Christian, being consecrated by his faith, does good works; but he is not by these works made a more sacred person, or more a Christian. That is the effect of faith alone. … True, then, are these two sayings: "Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.""
— Martin Luther
Source: Concerning Christian Liberty (1520), Project Gutenberg edition
holiness, justification
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"I have spent this evening in looking at my past life and conversation, and in prayer to God for pardon and grace to help. My past life appears more sinful than it has ever done. My conduct as a Christian, indeed, in many things has been inconsistent. … I have laid my case before God, and asked him to humble me. … Sin has been mingled even in my devotions. Yet I am not without hope, because there is One whose righteousness is all-perfect, whose intercessions are all-prevalent."
— Calvin Wilson Mateer
Source: Mateer's college journal, quoted in Daniel W. Fisher, Calvin Wilson Mateer: Forty-five Years a Missionary in Shantung, China (1911), pp. 95–96