Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915 It is vain for bishops and pious bigwigs to discuss read more

Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915 It is vain for bishops and pious bigwigs to discuss what dreadful things will happen if wild skepticism runs its course. It has run its course. It is vain for eloquent atheists to talk of the great truths that will be revealed if once we see free thought begin. We have seen it end. It has no more questions to ask; it has questioned itself. You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more skeptical world than that in which men doubt whether there is a world. It might certainly have reached its bankruptcy more quickly and cleanly if it had not been feebly hampered by the application of indefensible laws of blasphemy or by the absurd pretense that modern England is Christian. But it would have reached the bankruptcy anyhow.

Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601 Is a mediator between the eternal spirit and the read more

Feast of David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c.601 Is a mediator between the eternal spirit and the finite an unreality, an intrusion? The mystic soul may impatiently think so, but the moral soul finds such mediation the way to reality; and the mystic experience is not quite trustworthy about reality. The pagan gods had no mediators, because they were not real or good gods; but the living God has a living Revealer. To know the living God is to know Christ; to know Christ is to know the living God. We do not know God by Christ but in Him. We find God when we find Christ; and in Christ alone we know and share his final purpose. Our last knowledge is not the contact of our person with a thing or a thought; it is intercourse of person and person.

Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566 God hath work to do in this world; read more

Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566 God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him is to oppose Him.

Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist Continuing a short series on authenticity: There, right in the read more

Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist Continuing a short series on authenticity: There, right in the middle of our lives, is that which satisfies the craving for inequality, and acts as a permanent reminder that medicine is not food. Hence a man's reaction to Monarchy is a kind of test. Monarchy can easily be "debunked"; but watch the faces, mark well the accents, of the debunkers. These are the men whose tap-root in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach -- men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire mere equality, they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honour a king, they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.

By afflictions, God is spoiling us [i.e., taking away from us] of what otherwise might have spoiled us. When he read more

By afflictions, God is spoiling us [i.e., taking away from us] of what otherwise might have spoiled us. When he makes the world too hot for us to hold, we let it go.

Feast of Thomas the Apostle In the era of faith there is room for repentance, since each person can read more

Feast of Thomas the Apostle In the era of faith there is room for repentance, since each person can decide freely for Christ; in the era of sight, when the reign of Christ is manifest, only judgment is left for the undecided.

It is to be feared lest our long quarrels about the manner of His presence cause the matter of His read more

It is to be feared lest our long quarrels about the manner of His presence cause the matter of His absence, for our want of charity to receive Him.

I am unable to see how a man can find the hand of God in secular history unless he has read more

I am unable to see how a man can find the hand of God in secular history unless he has first found an assurance of it in his personal experience.

Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851 Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965 read more

Commemoration of Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, 1851 Commemoration of Albert Schweitzer, Teacher, Physician, Missionary, 1965 The renewal of our natures is a work of great importance. It is not to be done in a day. We have not only a new house to build up, but an old one to pull down. ... George Whitefield, letter [Thanks to Bill Blake at [email protected]] September 7, 2000 Commemoration of Douglas Downes, Founder of the Society of Saint Francis, 1957 There are three lessons I would write, Three words, as with a burning pen, In tracings of eternal light, Upon the hearts of men. Have Hope. Though clouds environ round, And gladness hides her face in scorn, Put off the shadow from thy brow: No night but hath its morn. Have Faith. Where'er thy bark is driven - The calm's disport, the tempest's mirth - Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven, The inhabitants of earth. Have Love. Not love alone for one, But man, as man, thy brother call; And scatter, like a circling sun, Thy charities on all. ... Friedrich von Schiller September 8, 2000 Temptations and occasions put nothing into a man, but only draw out what was in him before.