Ability of speech in time and season is an especial gift of God, and that eminently with respect unto the read more

Ability of speech in time and season is an especial gift of God, and that eminently with respect unto the spiritual things of the Gospel; but a profluency of speech, venting itself on all occasions and on no occasions, making men open their mouths wide when indeed they should shut them and open their ears, and to pour out all that they know and ... what they do not know, making them angry if they are not heard and impatient if they are contradicted, is an unconquerable fortification against all true spiritual wisdom.

Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380 No indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as read more

Feast of Catherine of Siena, Mystic, Teacher, 1380 No indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.

If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.

If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.

We feel that other churches must accept, as the pre-conditions of fellowship, such changes as will bring them into conformity read more

We feel that other churches must accept, as the pre-conditions of fellowship, such changes as will bring them into conformity with ourselves in matters which we regard as essential, and that a failure to insist on this will involve compromise in regard to what is essential to the Church's being. But for precisely the same reason, we cannot admit a demand from others for any changes in ourselves which would seem to imply a denial that we already possess the esse of the Church.

Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099 Apart from God every activity is merely a passing whiff of read more

Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099 Apart from God every activity is merely a passing whiff of insignificance.

For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly read more

For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.

Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644 The common custom is, when the physician has given over read more

Feast of Paulinus, Bishop of York, Missionary, 644 The common custom is, when the physician has given over his patient, then and not till then to send for the minister, not so much to inquire into the man's condition and to give him suitable advice as to minister comfort and to speak peace to him at a venture. But let me tell you that herein you put an extremely difficult task upon us, in expecting that we should pour wine and oil into the wound before it be searched, and speak smooth and comfortable things to a man that is but just brought to a sense of the long course of a lewd and wicked life impenitently continued in. Alas! what comfort can we give to men in such a case? We are loth to drive them to despair; and yet we must not destroy them by presumption; pity and good nature do strongly tempt us to make the best of their case and to give them all the little hopes which with any kind of reason we can --and God knows it is but very little that we can give to such persons upon good ground, for it all depends upon the degree and sincerity of their repentance, which God only knows, and we can but guess at.

John Bunyan understood the Gospel when he wrote that tract, "The Jerusalem Sinner Saved." He knew that every sinner is read more

John Bunyan understood the Gospel when he wrote that tract, "The Jerusalem Sinner Saved." He knew that every sinner is a Jerusalem sinner who has crucified the Lord of Glory; and to whom, notwithstanding all this, the grace of God is exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Therefore the Apostle Paul himself is a pattern... of the grace of God abounding to the Christ-crucifiers. A new covenant is made with those who transgressed the first covenant. It is the brethren of Joseph, who have sold him into Egypt, who are made the partakers of Joseph's power and of Joseph's riches.

Enough has... been said to show that the impoverished secularized versions of Christianity which are being urged upon us for read more

Enough has... been said to show that the impoverished secularized versions of Christianity which are being urged upon us for our acceptance today rest not upon a serious application of the methods of scientific scholarship nor upon a serious intuitive appreciation of the Gospels as a whole in their natural context, but upon a radical distaste for the supernatural.