Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885 After saying our prayers, read more

Commemoration of James Hannington, Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, Martyr in Uganda, 1885 After saying our prayers, we ought to do something to make them come true.

Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901 What are our lame praises in comparison with read more

Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901 What are our lame praises in comparison with His love? Nothing, and less than nothing; but love will stammer rather than be dumb.

Feast of Mary, Martha & Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord 'Twas an unhappy Division that has been made between read more

Feast of Mary, Martha & Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord 'Twas an unhappy Division that has been made between Faith and Works; though in my Intellect I may divide them, just as in the Candle I know there is both Light and Heat. But yet, put out the Candle, and they are both gone.

It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart read more

It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.

"They shall return unto me with their whole heart." "Ye shall search for me with all your heart." He makes read more

"They shall return unto me with their whole heart." "Ye shall search for me with all your heart." He makes a direct call to us for single-mindedness: a single-minded longing for Him -- no lesser aim will do; no desire to be good, no striving to measure up to some standard we have set for ourselves, to correct some failure we have been shown in our way of life. These may be temporarily necessary, but they will turn to dust and ashes, they will end in a grim dryness, unless at the back of them all is what He asks of us --a never-ending search for a real knowledge of Him, for a sense of His reality, a confidence in His companionship, a joy and delight in the very person of God Himself. It is for this that we must learn to long and long, till our prayers for it become not just a form of words, but a stretching out of our whole being to Him. ... The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn November 27, 1999 When God finished man He breathed into the human form the divine life, "and man became a living soul." Man is created to be a witness and likeness of God. God and man are so near to one another that it was possible for the Eternal Word to become Man without ceasing to be God, to re-ascend to the Highest without dehumanizing the Manhood which He had assumed; so near that the believer may say in the fullest meaning of the words, "I live, yet not I, but Christ".

The Son of God did not come from above to add an external form of worship to the several ways read more

The Son of God did not come from above to add an external form of worship to the several ways of life that are in the world, and so to leave people to live as they did before, in such tempers and enjoyments as the fashion and the spirit of the world approve; but as He came down from Heaven altogether Divine and heavenly in His own nature, so it was to call mankind to a Divine and heavenly life; to the highest change of their own nature and temper; to be born again of the Holy Spirit; to walk in the wisdom and light and love of God, and to be like Him to the utmost of their power, to renounce all the most plausible ways of the world, whether of greatness, business, or pleasure; to a mortification of their most agreeable passions; and to live in such wisdom, purity, and holiness as might fit them to be glorious in the enjoyment of God to all eternity. (Continued tomorrow).

Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the read more

Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 The peculiarity of ill temper is that it is the vice of the virtuous. It is often the one blot on an otherwise noble character. You know men who are all but perfect, and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or "touchy" disposition. This compatibility of ill temper with high moral character is one of the strangest and saddest problems of ethics... No form of vice -- not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself -- does more to unChristianize society than evil temper. For embittering life, for breaking up communities, for destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for withering up men and women, for taking the bloom off of childhood -- in short, for sheer, gratuitous misery-producing power -- this influence stands alone.

Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; read more

Christ's call is to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; He came not to call scoffers but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of Hell. This can be accomplished only by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093 Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of read more

Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093 Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240 If 'religion' is understood... as man's search for God on man's own terms, as his effort to make some kind of adjustment to the 'ground of being' on a level less radical than that of the self-forgetful commitment of faith, it clearly can become faith's greatest enemy, the last bastion of human pride to hold out against God. The experience of the Jews in relation to Jesus, and of the churches throughout the ages, demonstrates that this is the most persistent and far-reaching temptation which confronts men. To call attention to this is always an urgently necessary part of the prophetic ministry within the Church.