Holy Saturday Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564 (1) God's children read more

Holy Saturday Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564 (1) God's children ought to walk in constant amazement of spirit as to God, His nature, and works. (2) The glorifying of God is the great work of God's children. (3) Delightful privacy with God argues strong affection. (4) Frequent prayer an argument of much of God's Spirit; true prayer is the pouring out of the heart to God; God's children are most in private with God; the prayers of God's people most respect spiritual mercies; God's people wait for and rest in God's answer. (5) God's people are sensible of their unworthiness. (6) God Himself is regarded as the portion of His people. (7) Ready obedience to God. (8) The patience of God's children under God's hand. (9) The mournful confession of God's people. (10) God's people long after God in an open profession of His ordinances. (11) Their hearts are ready and prepared. (12) God's people's sense of their own insufficiencies.

Good Friday Faith is the acknowledgment of the entire absence of all goodness in us, and the recognition read more

Good Friday Faith is the acknowledgment of the entire absence of all goodness in us, and the recognition of the cross as the substitute for all the want on our part. The whole work is His, not ours, from first to last.

Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an
ordinary man has.

Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian or an
ordinary man has.

At the Day of Judgment, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done.

At the Day of Judgment, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done.

But we must believe that Judas, who repented even to agony, who repented so that his high-prized life, self, soul, read more

But we must believe that Judas, who repented even to agony, who repented so that his high-prized life, self, soul, became worthless in his eyes and met with no mercy at his own hand, -- must we believe he could find no mercy in such a God? I think when Judas fled from his hanged and fallen body, he fled to the tender help of Jesus, and found it -- I say not how. He was in a more hopeful condition now than during any moment of his past life, for he had never repented before. But I believe that Jesus loved Judas even when he was kissing Him with traitor's kiss; and I believe that He was his Saviour still.

To the rich man, Lazarus was part of the landscape. If ever he did notice him, it never struck him read more

To the rich man, Lazarus was part of the landscape. If ever he did notice him, it never struck him that Lazarus had anything to do with him. He was simply unaware of his presence, or, if he was aware of it, he had no sense of responsibility for it... A man may well be condemned, not for doing something, but for doing nothing.

Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945 Every contrition for sin is apt to encourage a not quite charitable read more

Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945 Every contrition for sin is apt to encourage a not quite charitable wish that other people should exhibit a similar contrition.

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: "The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul" (Psa 19:7). Most read more

Continuing a short series on forgiveness: "The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul" (Psa 19:7). Most laws condemn the soul and pronounce sentence. The result of the law of my God is perfect. It condemns but forgives. It restores - more than abundantly - what it takes away.

Setting aside the scandal caused by His Messianic claims and His reputation as a political firebrand, only two accusations of read more

Setting aside the scandal caused by His Messianic claims and His reputation as a political firebrand, only two accusations of personal depravity seem to have been brought against Jesus of Nazareth. First, that He was a Sabbath-breaker. Secondly, that He was "a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners" -- or (to draw aside the veil of Elizabethan English that makes it sound so much more respectable) that He ate too heartily, drank too freely, and kept very disreputable company, including grafters of the lowest type and ladies who were no better than they should be. For nineteen and a half centuries, the Christian Churches have laboured, not without success, to remove this unfortunate impression made by their Lord and Master. They have hustled the Magdalens from the Communion-table, founded Total Abstinence Societies in the name of Him who made the water wine, and added improvements of their own, such as various bans and anathemas upon dancing and theatre-going. They have transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and, feeling that the original commandment "Thou shalt not work" was rather half-hearted, have added to it the new commandment, "Thou shalt not play.".