Leave Him [God] out of our explanations, and the life of thought is decapitated... Without God, everything dries up.

Leave Him [God] out of our explanations, and the life of thought is decapitated... Without God, everything dries up.

The abstract metaphysical monotheism, the constant emphasis laid on God's unity and infinite and incomprehensible essence, could not give light read more

The abstract metaphysical monotheism, the constant emphasis laid on God's unity and infinite and incomprehensible essence, could not give light to the mind or peace to the heart... How human is the God of the Old Testament -- the God who appears, speaks, guides, who loves and is loved, even as the Man of the New Testament, Christ Jesus, is divine! This difference between the idea of an absolute and infinite God and the God of Scripture is, after all, that which separates the true believer and Christian from the natural man.

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.

As Christians we believe that man is not a thing; he is not a commodity to be bought and sold, read more

As Christians we believe that man is not a thing; he is not a commodity to be bought and sold, and he is not to be used in an impersonal way. Man, a child of God, is a person with a personal destiny and with eternal value. This Christian belief underlies the democratic principle that the State, first of all, exists for the sake of its citizens; the individual is important... As Christians we also believe that we are made for one another because we are made for God. "Solidarity" is a good word for our essential condition. Beneath all our differences is a unity... This Christian belief underlies a second basic democratic principle, which is, in governing themselves, people of a community -- in a town, a city, a state, a nation -- can, despite inevitable conflicts, press effectively toward the goal of justice and liberty for all.

Feast of Mark the Evangelist The first article of Christian faith is that man has one and only one read more

Feast of Mark the Evangelist The first article of Christian faith is that man has one and only one true object of worship. There is one Holy God, creator of heaven and earth. He is Lord of all life. To Him we are beholden for our life in all its meaning and its hope. Monotheism for the Christian means that anything else which is put in the place of our loyalty to God is an idol. The worship of national power, or racial prestige, or financial success, or cultural tradition, is a violation of the one truth about life, that all created things come from God. To commit life to the one true God is to refuse to have any other gods at all. Values there are in abundance, interests, plans, programs, loyalties to family and nation. But these are not gods; they do not save us; they are not holy in themselves.

But what is worship? What ought to result from it? What is the point and peak and heart and centre read more

But what is worship? What ought to result from it? What is the point and peak and heart and centre of it? Is it the offering we bring to God of praise and adoration, of thanksgiving and sacrifice, our praise, our sacrifice to Him? That has its place, not legitimate only, but imperative. And yet to put that in the foreground is to make the service fundamentally man-centered and subjective, which, face to face with God, is surely almost unthinkably unseemly. Or is the ideal we should hold before us that other extreme, so ardently pressed on us these days, that, face to face with the Lord God Almighty, High and Holy, it is for us to forget ourselves and -- leaving behind our petty little human joys and needs and sins and risings above thanksgiving and petition and confession -- to lose ourselves in an awed adoration of God's naked and essential being, blessing and praising Him, not even for what he has done for us, and been for us, but for what, in Himself, He is. To me, that seems not an advance, but a pathetic throw-back to the primitive of Brahmanism. We shall not learn to know God better, nor how to worship Him more worthily, by careful rubbing out from memory every wonder of Christ's revelation of Him. [Excerpt continued tomorrow.].

Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642 Continuing a short series of verse on Christ: Break Thou read more

Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642 Continuing a short series of verse on Christ: Break Thou the bread of life, Dear Lord, to me, As Thou didst break the loaves Beside the sea; Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord; My spirit pants for Thee, O living word! Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, To me, to me, As Thou didst bless the bread By Galilee; Then shall all bondage cease, All fetters fall; And I shall find my peace, My All-in-All.

Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384 Christian men and women, old and young, should study well in the New read more

Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384 Christian men and women, old and young, should study well in the New Testament, for it is of full authority, and open to understanding by simple men, as to the points that are most needful to salvation. Each part of Scripture, both open and dark, teaches meekness and charity; and therefore he that keeps meekness and charity has the true understanding and perfection of all Scripture. Therefore, no simple man of wit should be afraid to study in the text of Scripture. And no cleric should be proud of the true understanding of Scripture, because understanding of Scripture without charity that keeps God's commandments, makes a man deeper damned... and pride and covetousness of clerics is the cause of [the Church's] blindness and heresy, and deprives them of the true understanding of Scripture.

Pardon comes not to the soul alone; or rather, Christ comes not to the soul with pardon only! It is read more

Pardon comes not to the soul alone; or rather, Christ comes not to the soul with pardon only! It is that which He opens the door and enters by, but He comes with a Spirit of life and power.