Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916 Faith is to the soul what life read more

Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916 Faith is to the soul what life is to the body. Prayer is to faith what breath is to the body. How a person can live and not breathe is past my comprehension, and how a person can believe and not pray is past my comprehension too.

Feast of the Holy Innocents Though Christ a thousand times In Bethlehem be born, If he's not born in read more

Feast of the Holy Innocents Though Christ a thousand times In Bethlehem be born, If he's not born in thee Thy soul is still forlorn. The cross on Golgotha Will never save thy soul; The cross in thy own heart Alone can make thee whole. ... anonymous, 3rd century December 29, 2002 Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170 The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.

We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic read more

We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

But since cause and effect is under the personal control of God, He can introduce into the situation other causes read more

But since cause and effect is under the personal control of God, He can introduce into the situation other causes than the ones which we ourselves can control. When in faith we come to God for cleansing from the mess we have made of things, and when we ask for power to reverse causes we have set in motion, God sends in other causes by His Holy Spirit. It may be by direct intervention, or by a combination of circumstances which He controls. We can, therefore, be delivered from the wrath to come, because God will add other causes than those that we have initiated.

Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873 A knowledge of the Bible without a college read more

Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873 A knowledge of the Bible without a college course is more valuable than a college course without a knowledge of the Bible.

Must we then have strange music... unlike the world's music, and a special language with an imagery that illuminates the read more

Must we then have strange music... unlike the world's music, and a special language with an imagery that illuminates the minds only of the religious? Or dare we do what our Lord did, and see the Name hallowed in all life that is real and honest and good? Indeed, it was a scandal to the religious men of Jesus' day when they saw what He did with sacred things. With Jesus all life was sacred and nothing was profane until sin entered in. And so it was that the word "common," which used to mean profane and unclean, became the New-Testament word for the Communion of Saints and for the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

No indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.

No indulgence of passion destroys the spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.

What then are we afraid of? Can we have too much of God? Is it a misfortune to be freed read more

What then are we afraid of? Can we have too much of God? Is it a misfortune to be freed from the heavy yoke of the world, and to bear the light burden of Jesus Christ? Do we fear to be too happy, too much delivered from ourselves, from the caprices of our pride, the violence of our passions, and the tyranny of this deceitful world?

Continued from yesterday: The result of all this is that the Christian is a free man. It is here read more

Continued from yesterday: The result of all this is that the Christian is a free man. It is here to be observed that the term "freedom" is ambiguous in common usage. It is sometimes used to imply that a man can do just as he likes, undetermined by any external force. To this the determinist replies that as a matter of fact this freedom is so limited by the laws which condition man's empirical existence as to be illusory. The rejoinder from the advocates of free will is that no external force can determine a man's moral conduct (and with mere automatism we are not concerned), unless it is presented in consciousness, and that in being so presented it becomes a desire, a temptation, or a motive. In suffering himself to be determined by these, the man is not submitting to external control, but to something which he has already made a part of himself, for good or ill. When, however, we have said that, we are faced with a further problem. Not all that is desired is desirable, and in being moved by my immediate desire I may be balking myself of that ultimate satisfaction which is the real object of all effort. If that is so, then to "do as I like" may well be no freedom at all. There is a law of our being which forbids satisfaction to be found along that line, as it is written, "He gave them their desire, and sent leanness into their souls." (Ps. 106:15) (Continued tomorrow).