Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739 Whoso goes seeking God and seeking aught read more

Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739 Whoso goes seeking God and seeking aught with God does not find God; but he who seeks God by himself in truth does not find God alone: all God affords he finds, as well as God. Art thou looking for God, seeking God with a view to thy personal good, thy personal profit? Then in truth thou art not seeking God.

Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095 Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness read more

Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095 Men expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and endeavor on their part, and that, after they have done what they please while they live, God should snatch them up to heaven when they die. But though "the commandments of God be not grievous", yet it is fit to let men know that they are not thus easy.

It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for read more

It is always the simple things that change our lives. And these things never happen when you are looking for them to happen. Life will reveal answers at the pace life wishes to do so. You feel like running, but life is on a stroll. This is how God does things.

Democracy is necessitated by the fact that all men are sinners; it is made possible by the fact that we read more

Democracy is necessitated by the fact that all men are sinners; it is made possible by the fact that we know it.

Commemoration of Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945 Then are we servants of God, then are we read more

Commemoration of Ini Kopuria, Founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood, 1945 Then are we servants of God, then are we the disciples of Christ, when we do what is commanded us and because it is commanded us.

The one use of the Bible is to make us look at Jesus, that through Him we might know His read more

The one use of the Bible is to make us look at Jesus, that through Him we might know His Father and our Father, His God and our God. Till we thus know Him, let us hold the Bible dear as the moon of our darkness, by which we travel toward the east; not dear as the sun whence her light cometh, and towards which we haste, that, walking in the sun himself, we may no more need the mirror that reflected his absent brightness.

Continuing a short series of testimonies on the Scriptures: In holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought read more

Continuing a short series of testimonies on the Scriptures: In holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew; what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God's hands at length. In these Books we shall find the father from whom, the son by whom, and the holy Ghost in whom all things have their being and keeping up, and these three persons to be but one God, and one substance. Read [Holy Scripture] humbly with a meek and lowly heart, to the intent you may glorify God, and not your self, with the knowledge of it: and read it not without daily praying to God, that he would direct your reading to good effect: and take upon you to expound it no further than you can plainly understand it. For (as Saint Augustine says) the knowledge of holy Scripture is a great, large, and a high place, but the door is very low, so that the high & arrogant man cannot run in: but he must stoop low, and humble himself, that shall enter into it... The humble man may search any truth boldly in the Scripture, without any danger of error. (Continued tomorrow) ... "A Fruitful exhortation to the reading of holy Scripture", from the Anglican Homilies [1562] March 4, 2001 Commemoration of Felix, Bishop, Apostle to the East Angles, 647 Continuing a short series of testimonies on the Scriptures: Scripture in some places is easy, and in some places hard to be understood. This have I said, as touching the fear to read, through ignorance of the person. And concerning the hardness of Scripture, he that is so weak that he is not able to [eat] strong meat, yet he may suck the sweet and tender milk, and defer the rest, until he wax stronger, and come to more knowledge. For God receives the learned and unlearned, and casts away none, but [does not discriminate]. And the Scripture is full as well of low valleys, plain ways, and easy for every man to use, and to walk in: as also of high hills & mountains, which few men can climb unto. ... "A Fruitful exhortation to the reading of holy Scripture", from the Anglican Homilies [1562] March 5, 2001 Continuing a short series of testimonies on the Scriptures: We are to believe and follow Christ in all things, including his words about Scripture. And this means that Scripture is to be for us what it was to him: the unique, authoritative, and inerrant Word of God, and not merely a human testimony to Christ, however carefully guided and preserved by God. If the Bible is less than this to us, we are not fully Christ's disciples.

Our hearts deceive us, because we leave them to themselves, are absent from them, taken up in outward rules and read more

Our hearts deceive us, because we leave them to themselves, are absent from them, taken up in outward rules and forms of living and praying. But this kind of praying, which takes all its thoughts and words only from the state of our hearts, makes it impossible for us to be strangers to ourselves. The strength of every sin, the power of every evil temper, the most secret workings of our hearts, the weakness of any or all our virtues, is with a noonday clearness forced to be seen, as soon as the heart is made our prayer book, and we pray nothing, but according to what we read, and find there.

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).