Feast of Columba, Abbot of Iona, Missionary, 597 Commemoration of Ephrem of Syria, Deacon, Hymnographer, Teacher, 373 Although read more

Feast of Columba, Abbot of Iona, Missionary, 597 Commemoration of Ephrem of Syria, Deacon, Hymnographer, Teacher, 373 Although it is indisputable that our Lord founded a church, it is an unproved assumption that the church is an aggregation of visible and organized societies. The theory upon which the public worship of the primitive churches proceeded was that each community was complete in itself, and that, in every act of public worship, every element of the community was present.

Because they were prejudiced against the meanness of our Saviour's birth and condition, and had upon false grounds (though, as read more

Because they were prejudiced against the meanness of our Saviour's birth and condition, and had upon false grounds (though, as they thought, upon the infallibility of tradition and of Scripture interpreted by tradition) entertained quite other notions of the Messiah from what he was really to be, because they were proud and thought themselves too wise to learn of him, and because his doctrine of humility and selfdenial did thwart their interest and bring down their authority and credit among the people; therefore they set themselves against him with all their might, opposing his doctrine and blasting his reputation and persecuting him to the death: and all this while did bear up themselves with a conceit of the antiquity and privileges of their church, and their profound knowledge in the laws of God, and a great external show of piety and devotion and an arrogant presence and usurpation of being the only church and people of God in the world.

Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730 The fortitude of a Christian consists in patience, not in read more

Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730 The fortitude of a Christian consists in patience, not in enterprises which the poets call heroic, and which are commonly the effects of interest, pride, and worldly honor.

Beginning a short series on education: The history of our student movement [Inter-Varsity] has demonstrated that a prayer-less read more

Beginning a short series on education: The history of our student movement [Inter-Varsity] has demonstrated that a prayer-less chapter is a fruitless chapter. Prayer spells all the difference between working for God in our own strength and wisdom or being fellow laborers together with Him in the work that He is seeking to do in the University.

There is more hid in Christ than we shall ever learn, here or there either; but they that begin first read more

There is more hid in Christ than we shall ever learn, here or there either; but they that begin first to inquire will soonest be gladdened with revelation; and with them He will be best pleased, for the slowness of His disciples troubled Him of old. To say that we must wait for the other world, to know the mind of Him who came to this world to give Himself to us, seems to me the foolishness of a worldly and lazy spirit. The Son of God is the teacher of men, giving to them of His Spirit -- that Spirit which manifests the deep things of God, being to a man the mind of Christ. The great heresy of the Church of the present day is unbelief in this Spirit.

Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626 Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392 read more

Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626 Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392 Pierce that in you, that was the cause of Christ's piercing; that is sin and the lusts thereof. Look and be pierced with love of Him, who so loved you, that He gave Himself in this sort to be pierced for you. Look upon Him, and His heart opened, and from that gate of hope promise yourself, and look for all manner of things that good are: the deliverance from the evil of our present misery [and] the restoring to the good of our primitive felicity. Look back upon it with some pain; for one way or other, look upon it we must.

The New Testament is uniformly consistent in seeing something as being wrong in man himself... These analyses of man are read more

The New Testament is uniformly consistent in seeing something as being wrong in man himself... These analyses of man are based on man's responsibility for his evil actions; they are not saying that it is simply his motions that have gone astray: it is man's will that is the central problem.

The ascetic believed that, because he was so holy, the Devil was permitted special liberties with him, and he found read more

The ascetic believed that, because he was so holy, the Devil was permitted special liberties with him, and he found in his increasing agony of effort a token of divine approval. Not along this track lies the path of moral progress. Christianity says: face the evil once for all, and disown it. Then quiet the spirit in the presence of God. Let His perfections fill the field of vision. In particular, let the concrete embodiment of the goodness of God in Christ attract and absorb the gaze of the soul. Here is the righteousness, not as a fixed and abstract ideal, but in a living human person. The righteousness of Christ is a real achievement of God's own Spirit in man.

Beginning a short series on prayer: Wherever... thou shalt be, pray secretly within thyself. If thou shalt be far read more

Beginning a short series on prayer: Wherever... thou shalt be, pray secretly within thyself. If thou shalt be far from a house of prayer, give not thyself trouble to seek for one, for thou thyself art a sanctuary designed for prayer. If thou shalt be in bed, or in any other place, pray there; thy temple is there.