The mystical union, on the one hand. The resurrection of the body, on the other. I can't reach the ghost read more

The mystical union, on the one hand. The resurrection of the body, on the other. I can't reach the ghost of an image, a formula, or even a feeling, that combines them. But the reality, we are given to understand, does. Reality is the iconoclast once more. Heaven will solve our problems--but not, I think, by showing us subtle reconciliations between all our apparently contradictory notions. The notions will all be knocked from under our feet. We shall see that there never was any problem.

Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877 If, when God sends judgments upon others, we do read more

Commemoration of William Augustus Muhlenberg of New York, Priest, 1877 If, when God sends judgments upon others, we do not take warning and example by them; if instead of reflecting upon ourselves and questioning our ways we fall to censuring others; if we will pervert the meaning of God's providences and will not understand the design and intention of them; then we leave God no other way to awaken us to a consideration of our evil ways but by pouring down his wrath upon our heads, so that he may convince us that we are sinners by the same argument from whence we have concluded others to be so.

I am persuaded that some have scarce any better or more forcible argument to satisfy their own minds that they read more

I am persuaded that some have scarce any better or more forcible argument to satisfy their own minds that they are in the right in religion than the inclination they find in themselves to hate and persecute them whom they suppose to be in the wrong.

Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872 God has brought us into this time; He, and not ourselves read more

Commemoration of Frederick Denison Maurice, Priest, teacher, 1872 God has brought us into this time; He, and not ourselves or some dark demon. If we are not fit to cope with that which He has prepared for us, we would have been utterly unfit for any condition that we imagine for ourselves. We are to live and wrestle in this time, and in no other. Let us humbly, tremblingly, manfully look at it, and we shall not wish that the sun could go back its ten degrees, or that we could go back with it. If easy times are departed, it is that the difficult times may make us more in earnest; that they may teach us not to depend on ourselves. If easy belief is impossible, it is that we may learn what belief is, and in whom it is to be placed.

CHRISTMAS DAY GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN Lo, God, our God has come! To us a Child is born, read more

CHRISTMAS DAY GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN Lo, God, our God has come! To us a Child is born, To us a Son is given; Bless, bless the blessed morn! O happy, lowly lofty birth, Now God, our God, has come to earth! Rejoice, our God has come! In love and lowliness; The Son of God has come The sons of men to bless. God with us now descend to dwell, God in our flesh, Immanuel. Praise ye the word made flesh! True God, true man is He. Praise ye the Christ of God! To Him all glory be. Praise ye the Lamb that once was slain, Praise ye the king that comes to reign.

The more we fear crosses, the more reason we have to think that we stand in need of them: let read more

The more we fear crosses, the more reason we have to think that we stand in need of them: let us not be discouraged when the hand of God layeth heavy ones upon us. We ought to judge of the violence of our disease by the violence of the remedies which our spiritual physician prescribes for us. It is a great argument of our wretchedness and of God's mercy, that, notwithstanding the difficulty of our recovery, He vouchsafes to undertake our cure.

Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, & John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535 The redeemed in Heaven crying read more

Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, & John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535 The redeemed in Heaven crying continually, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood," give, say the scriptures, an adoration which, in depth and fullness, no angel of them all can ever equal. Yet even then, we have not reached the centre. For when we worship, we are in God's presence, and it is what He says and does to us that is the all-important thing, not what we say and do toward Him. Since He is here and speaking to us, face to face, it is for us, in a hush of spirit, to listen for and to His voice, reproving counseling, encouraging, revealing His most blessed will for us; and, with diligence, to set about immediate obedience. This and this, upon which He has laid His hand, must go; and this and this to which He calls us must be at once begun. And here and now I start to it. That is the heart of worship, its very core and essence.

God does not lead all His servants by one road, nor in one way, nor at one time; for God read more

God does not lead all His servants by one road, nor in one way, nor at one time; for God is in all things; and that man is not serving God aright, who can only serve Him in his own self-chosen way.

When religion is in the hands of the mere natural man, he is always the worse for it; it adds read more

When religion is in the hands of the mere natural man, he is always the worse for it; it adds a bad heat to his own dark fire and helps to inflame his four elements of selfishness, envy, pride, and wrath. And hence it is that worse passions, or a worse degree of them are to be found in persons of great religious zeal than in others that made no pretenses to it. History also furnishes us with instances of persons of great piety and devotion who have fallen into great delusions and deceived both themselves and others. The occasion of their fall was this: ... They considered their whole nature as the subject of religion and divine graces; and therefore their religion was according to the workings of their whole nature, and the old man was as busy and as much delighted in it as the new.