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Commemoration of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833 The generality of nominal Christians... are almost entirely taken up with the read more
Commemoration of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833 The generality of nominal Christians... are almost entirely taken up with the concerns of the present world. They know indeed that they are mortal, but they do not feel it. The truth rests in their understandings, and cannot gain admission into their hearts. This speculative persuasion is altogether different from that strong practical impression of the infinite importance of eternal things, which, attended with a proportionate sense of the shortness and uncertainty of all below, while it prompts to activity from a conviction that the night cometh when no man can work, produces a certain firmness of texture, which hardens us against the buffetings of fortune, and prevents our being very deeply penetrated by the cares and interests, the good or evil, of this transitory state.
Too many people regard prayer as a formalized routine of words, a refuge for weaklings, or a childish petition for read more
Too many people regard prayer as a formalized routine of words, a refuge for weaklings, or a childish petition for material things. We sadly undervalue prayer when we conceive it in these terms, just as we should underestimate rain by describing it as something that fills the birdbath in our garden. Properly understood, prayer is a mature activity indispensable to the fullest development of personality -- the ultimate integration of man's highest faculties. Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strengths.
Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 The principal part of faith is patience.
Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977 The principal part of faith is patience.
The great unity which true science seeks is found only by beginning with our knowledge of God, and coming down read more
The great unity which true science seeks is found only by beginning with our knowledge of God, and coming down from Him along the stream of causation to every fact and event that affects us. .
Silence, indeed, is the one form of worship which is almost universally thought intolerable by Dissenting clergy. Despite their not-too-distant read more
Silence, indeed, is the one form of worship which is almost universally thought intolerable by Dissenting clergy. Despite their not-too-distant affinity to the Quakers, they think they will be heard for their much speaking. And since their organists too are equally reluctant to let any liturgical action pass without a ruminative obbligato on the Swell manual, congregations are subjected to unrelieved noise during a service which may well have begun with the reading of the sentence, "Be still, and know that I am God.".
Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888 Vain is the chiming of forgotten bells read more
Commemoration of John Bosco, Priest, Founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888 Vain is the chiming of forgotten bells That the wind sways above a ruined shrine. Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwells Hunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine. Light songs we breathe, that perish with our breath, Out of our lips that have not kissed the rod. They shall not live who have not tasted death. They only sing who are struck dumb by God.
The Christian clearly understands that Jesus does not reveal all that is signified by the word "God", but only as read more
The Christian clearly understands that Jesus does not reveal all that is signified by the word "God", but only as much as could be revealed through a perfect human personality living in absolute obedience to God's will. The knowledge of God that men have by virtue of Jesus' revelation is quite enough for men to live by in this life, and to live gloriously and thankfully by, Christians maintain -- the knowledge that God the Creator, the Almighty and Eternal, the Lord of history, is man's Heavenly Father, and that love might well be, and indeed is, the ultimate meaning of human existence.
Feast of Henry Martyn, Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India & Persia, 1812 I hear no one boast, read more
Feast of Henry Martyn, Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India & Persia, 1812 I hear no one boast, that he hath a knowledge of the Scriptures, but that he owneth a Bible written in golden characters. And tell me then, what profiteth this? The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.
Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089 Prayer and love are learned in the hour read more
Commemoration of Lanfranc, Prior of Le Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1089 Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart has turned to stone.