All things are God's already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any, that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service -- just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord's before as now.
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The pure eye for the true vision of another's claims can only go with the loving heart. The man who read more
The pure eye for the true vision of another's claims can only go with the loving heart. The man who hates can hardly be delicate in doing Justice, say to his neighbor's love, to his neighbor's predilections and peculiarities. It is hard enough to be just to our friends; and how shall our enemies fare with us?
Many man's scruples lie almost wholly about obedience to authority and compliance with indifferent customs, but very seldom about the read more
Many man's scruples lie almost wholly about obedience to authority and compliance with indifferent customs, but very seldom about the dangers of disobedience and unpeaceableness and rending in pieces the Church of Christ by needless separations and endless divisions.
Sinners' follies are the just sport of God's infinite wisdom and power; and those attempts of the kingdom of Satan, read more
Sinners' follies are the just sport of God's infinite wisdom and power; and those attempts of the kingdom of Satan, which in our eyes are formidable, in his are despicable.
Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304 Christians in their relationships should be the most human people read more
Feast of Agnes, Child Martyr at Rome, 304 Christians in their relationships should be the most human people you will ever see. This speaks for God in an age of inhumanity and impersonality and facelessness. When people look at us, their reaction should be, "These are human people" -- human, because we know that we differ from the animal, the plant, and the machine; and that personality is native to what has always been [human]. If they cannot look upon us and say, "They are real people", nothing else is enough. (Continued tomorrow).
The overwhelming recognition of human sin controls the Old Testament and the New Testament alike, and no understanding of our read more
The overwhelming recognition of human sin controls the Old Testament and the New Testament alike, and no understanding of our Lord's words and actions is possible if we persist in denying it.
Commemoration of George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, 1878 Is it not plain that all spiritual apathy read more
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Welcome! all Wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span. Summer in winter, day in night, read more
Welcome! all Wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span. Summer in winter, day in night, Heaven in earth, and God in man. Great little one! whose all-embracing birth Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heav'n to earth!
Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 Prodigal sons, forgiven and reconciled with their heavenly Father, could read more
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Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915 No one who is read more
Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915 No one who is fit to live need fear to die. Poor, timorous, faithless souls that we are! How we shall smile at our vain alarms, when the worst has happened! To us here, death is the most terrible word we know. But when we have tasted its reality, it will mean to us birth, deliverance, a new creation of ourselves. It will be what health is to the sick man. It will be what home is to the exile. It will be what the loved one given back is to the bereaved. As we draw near to it, a great solemn gladness should fill our hearts. It is God's great morning lighting up the sky.
