It is easy to recognize, in the relational rigidities of many chapel-going people, the "negative reflex actions" of a character read more

It is easy to recognize, in the relational rigidities of many chapel-going people, the "negative reflex actions" of a character structure which has survived the destruction of its intellectual and moral foundations. But equally, no one can go far in the Free Churches without lighting upon the new or newish cult of "sincerity as an end in itself" -- the first refuge of minds too lazy to rebuild their intellectual foundations -- and the sentimental distrust of "orthodoxy" and "authority", in theological contexts at least.

The perfection of His relation to us swallows up all our imperfections, all our defeats, all our evils; for our read more

The perfection of His relation to us swallows up all our imperfections, all our defeats, all our evils; for our childhood is born of His fatherhood. That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and his desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, "Thou art my refuge, because Thou art my home". Such a faith will not lead to presumption. The man who can pray such a prayer will know better than another that God is not mocked; that He is not a man that He should repent; that tears and entreaties will not work on Him to the breach of one of His laws; that for God to give a man, because he asked for it, that which was not in harmony with His laws of truth and right, would be to damn him -- to cast him into the outer darkness.

Spirit divine, attend our prayers. And make this house thy home; Descend with all thy gracious powers; O read more

Spirit divine, attend our prayers. And make this house thy home; Descend with all thy gracious powers; O come, great spirit, come! Come as the light; to us reveal Our emptiness and woe; And lead us in the paths of life Where all the righteous go. Come as the wind: sweep clean away What dead within us lies, And search and freshen all our souls With living energies. Come as the fire: and purge our hearts Like sacrificial flame; Let our whole soul as offering be To our redeemer's name. Spirit divine, attend our prayers, Make a lost world thy home; Descend with all thy gracious powers: O come, great Spirit, come!

Morning has broken like the first morning, Blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for read more

Morning has broken like the first morning, Blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word! Sweet the new rain's fall sunlit from heaven, Like the first dewfall on the first grass. Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden, Spring in completeness where His feet pass. Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning Born of the one light Eden saw play! Praise with elation, praise every morning, God's re-creation of the new day!

Feast of Matthias the Apostle If the ordinary canons of history, used in every other case, hold good in read more

Feast of Matthias the Apostle If the ordinary canons of history, used in every other case, hold good in this case, Jesus is undoubtedly an historical person. If he is not an historical person, the only alternative is that there is no such thing as history at all -- it is delirium, nothing else; and a rational being would be better employed in the collection of snuff-boxes. And if history is impossible, so is all other knowledge.

Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349 The Christian is the real radical of our read more

Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349 The Christian is the real radical of our generation, for he stands against the monolithic, modern concept of truth as relative. But too often, instead of being the radical, standing against the shifting sands of relativism, he subsides into merely maintaing the status quo. If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross, and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in Himself, then Christians should be the first into the field against what is wrong.

Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936 [The Christian] refuses to give his heart read more

Commemoration of Samuel & Henrietta Barnett, Social Reformers, 1913 & 1936 [The Christian] refuses to give his heart to, or be taken in by, the values and pleasures off this passing world. He does not hesitate to use all that is good and beautiful and true, partly because he knows that his God gives him "richly all things to enjoy", and partly because he knows that in all life's impermanent beauties and pleasures, there is the promise of the real and permanent which he is thoroughly convinced will exceed his wildest expectations. (Continued tomorrow).

Democracy is necessitated by the fact that all men are sinners; it is made possible by the fact that we read more

Democracy is necessitated by the fact that all men are sinners; it is made possible by the fact that we know it.

We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender! Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise; When passing read more

We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender! Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise; When passing through the gates of pearly splendor, Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.