Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavour Fellowship, 1951 How often we look upon God as our read more

Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavour Fellowship, 1951 How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource! We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go. And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven.

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.

Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841 The [Roman] imperial coinage (which was read more

Commemoration of Peter Chanel, Religious, Missionary in the South Pacific, Martyr, 1841 The [Roman] imperial coinage (which was regularly used as a propaganda medium... is full of the characteristic motifs of Advent and Epiphany, celebrating the blessings which the manifestation of each successive divine emperor was to bring to a waiting world. Among the adulatory formulas with which the emperor was acclaimed, Prof. Ethelbert Stauffer mentions, as going back to the first century, "Hail, Victory, Lord of the earth, Invincible, Power, Glory, Honour, Peace, Security, Holy, Blessed, Unequalled, Great, Thou alone worthy art, Worthy is he to inherit the Kingdom, Come, come, do not delay, Come again" (p. 155) [in Christ and the Caesars]. Indeed, one has only to read Psalm lxxii, in Latin, in the official language of the empire, to see that it is largely the same formal language which is used alike in the Forum for the advent of the emperor, and in the catacombs for the celebration of the "Epiphany of Christ" (p. 251). Who was worthy to ascend the throne of the universe and direct the course of history? Caesar, or Jesus?

Thank God, our Christian chance is not permanently gone from us [in world affiars]. Ecclesiastics seems for the most part read more

Thank God, our Christian chance is not permanently gone from us [in world affiars]. Ecclesiastics seems for the most part to have failed, failed both man and God; but God has not failed, Jesus has not failed. The God-man still remains the only leader into cooperation whose wisdom is sufficient for a permanent, competent, and free Society. The dictators and would-be dictators will not do. They overreach themselves. Eventually they will destroy one another, and kill off most of us. But even that disaster will not eradicate the desire of men and women to lay down lives for that which is more than themselves. Men will continue to demand not the freedom from that degree of unity for which the dictatorships stand, but rather a finer, more noble, more perceptive kind of unity: a human solidarity which is not nationalistic but world-embracing, a human integration which in aim and purpose is not secularist but spiritual. What the world unwittingly is groping after is allegiance to the eternal, the compassionate, the completely integrating Christ.

This last section of Psalm 22 [i.e., verses 27-31] reminds us of Hebrews 12:2: "Looking unto Jesus the author and read more

This last section of Psalm 22 [i.e., verses 27-31] reminds us of Hebrews 12:2: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." The "joy" that was set before Jesus was, we feel, knowing of the riches which would come to his brethren out of his death. In short, we are his joy, set before him when on the cross. As we have seen, only as the circle of the love of Jesus becomes world wide and as big as history will it be complete.

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.

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 It is not that we keep His commandments first, and read more

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 It is not that we keep His commandments first, and that then He loves; but that He loves us, and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace, which is revealed to the humble, but hidden from the proud.

I saw that a humble man, with the blessing of the Lord, might live on a little; and that where read more

I saw that a humble man, with the blessing of the Lord, might live on a little; and that where the heart is set on greatness, success in business did not satisfy the craving, but that commonly with an increase of wealth, the desire of wealth increased.

It seems to me, as time goes on, that the only thing that is worth seeking for is to know read more

It seems to me, as time goes on, that the only thing that is worth seeking for is to know and to be known by Christ -- a privilege open alone to the childlike, who, with receptivity, guilelessness, and humility, move Godward.