John Baillie

Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871 For the power Thou hast given read more

Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, First Bishop of Melanesia, & his Companions, Martyrs, 1871 For the power Thou hast given me to lay hold of things unseen: For the strong sense I have that this is not my home: For my restless heart which nothing finite can satisfy: I give Thee thanks, O God. For the invasion of my soul by Thy Holy Spirit: For all human love and goodness that speak to me of Thee: For the fullness of Thy glory outpoured in Jesus Christ I give Thee thanks, O God.

Impersonal realities do indeed exercise over me some kinds of constraint, as does the wind when it constrains me to read more

Impersonal realities do indeed exercise over me some kinds of constraint, as does the wind when it constrains me to battle against it or the rain when it compels me to take shelter. But the constraint of which I have been speaking is of a wholly different kind; it is a constraint to be pure-minded and loyal-hearted, to be kind and true and tender, and to love my neighbour as myself. And what could possibly be meant by saying that any reality of an impersonal kind could exercise over me such a constraint as that? I have never been able to see that it could mean anything at all. I have never been able to see how any being that is not a person could possess a moral and spiritual claim over me.

The final reality, and the ultimate fact of our total situation to which we need to be adjusted, is God. read more

The final reality, and the ultimate fact of our total situation to which we need to be adjusted, is God. That indeed would be my definition of God: God is He with whom we have ultimately to do, the final reality to which we have to face up, and with whom we have, in the last resort, to reckon.

Thanksgiving (U.S.) I thank Thee, O Lord God, that though with liberal hand Thou hast at all times showered read more

Thanksgiving (U.S.) I thank Thee, O Lord God, that though with liberal hand Thou hast at all times showered thy blessing upon our human kind, yet in Jesus Christ Thou hast done greater Things for us than Thou ever didst before: Making home sweeter and friends dearer: Turning sorrow into gladness and pain into the soul's victory: Robbing death of its sting: Robbing sin of its power Making peace more peaceful and joy more joyful and faith and hope more secure. Amen.

Feast of the Holy Cross Teach me. O God, to use all the circumstances of my life read more

Feast of the Holy Cross Teach me. O God, to use all the circumstances of my life to-day that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin. Let me use disappointment as material for patience: Let me use success as material for thankfulness: Let me use suspence as material for perseverance: Let me use danger as material for courage: Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering: Let me use praise as material for humility: Let me use pleasures as material for temperance: Let me use pains as material for endurance.