Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384 [John] Wycliffe's doctrine of "dominion founded in grace" was a peculiar feature read more

Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384 [John] Wycliffe's doctrine of "dominion founded in grace" was a peculiar feature of his system. He taught that God, as the great feudal superior of the universe, allotted to all earthly authorities their rule in fief as subject to Himself. The priesthood was not an office of dominion, but of service, and its prerogatives ceased when service was not rendered. Dominion was not granted to one person as God's Vicar on earth, but the King was as much God's Vicar as the Pope; nay, every Christian held his rights immediately of God.

Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 Do those who say, "Lo here, or lo read more

Feast of Chad, Abbot of Lastingham, Bishop of Lichfield, Missionary, 672 Do those who say, "Lo here, or lo there, are the signs of His coming", think to be too keen for Him, and spy His approach? When He tells them to watch lest He find them neglecting their work, they stare this way and that, and watch lest He should succeed in coming like a thief!

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, read more

Let no man think to kill sin with few, easy, or gentle strokes. He who hath once smitten a serpent, if he follow not on his blow until he be slain, may repent that ever he began the quarrel. And so will he who undertakes to deal with sin, and pursues it not constantly to the death.

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 He knoweth nothing as he ought to know it, who read more

Commemoration of Richard Baxter, Priest, Hymnographer, Teacher, 1691 He knoweth nothing as he ought to know it, who thinketh he knoweth anything without seeing its place and the manner how it relateth to God, angels, and men, and to all the creatures in earth, heaven and hell, time and eternity.

Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675 Most Christians would agree with C. S. Lewis when he says read more

Commemoration of Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking, 675 Most Christians would agree with C. S. Lewis when he says [of the doctrine of the Final Judgment], "There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power". But we cannot do so, for two reasons: first, because it enjoys the full support of Christ's own teaching; and second, because it makes a good deal of sense. If the gospel is extended to us for our acceptance, it must be possible also to reject and refuse it. The alternative would be for God to compel an affirmative response. It would be nice to be able to say that all will be saved, but the question arises, Does everyone want to be saved? What would love for God be like if it were coerced? There is a hell because God respects our freedom and takes our decisions seriously -- more seriously, perhaps, than we would sometimes wish. God wants to see hell completely empty; but if it is not, He cannot be blamed. The door is locked only on the inside. It is not Christians but the unrepentant who "want" it [to be locked].

Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 To pass from estrangement from God to be a son read more

Commemoration of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690 To pass from estrangement from God to be a son of God is the basic fact of conversion. That altered relationship with God gives you an altered relationship with yourself, with your brother man, with nature, with the universe. You are no longer working against the grain of the universe; you're working with it... You have been forgiven by God and now you can forgive yourself. All self hate, self-despising, self-rejection, drop away, and you accept yourself in God, respect yourself, and love yourself... You cease to move into yourself, away from others. You give up your antagonism. You begin to move toward others in love. God moved toward you in gracious, outgoing love, and you move toward others in that same outgoing love.

Feast of Henry Martyn, Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India & Persia, 1812 Continuing a short series about the read more

Feast of Henry Martyn, Translator of the Scriptures, Missionary in India & Persia, 1812 Continuing a short series about the early church: The life of the early Church lay in constant intercommunication between all its parts; its health and growth were dependent on the free circulation of the life-blood of common thought and feeling. Hence it was firmly seated first on the great lines of communication across the empire, leading from its origin in Jerusalem to its imperial center in Rome. It had already struck root in Rome within little more than twenty years after the Crucifixion, and it had become really strong in the great city about thirty years after the Apostles began to look round and out from Jerusalem. This marvelous development was possible only because the seed of the new thought floated free on the main currents of communication, which were ever sweeping back and forward between the heart of the Empire and its outlying members. Paul, who mainly directed the great movement, threw himself boldly and confidently into the life of the time; he took the Empire as it was, accepted its political conformation and arrangement, and sought only to touch the spiritual and moral life of the people.

There is in St. Paul's definite, soul-stirring assertion of the wrath of God and the reality of the judgment at read more

There is in St. Paul's definite, soul-stirring assertion of the wrath of God and the reality of the judgment at hand, a truth more profound than any that underlies our somewhat enfeebled ideas of universal benevolence and the determined progress of the race. There is something more true in his denunciation of idolatry as sin than in our denial that it is possible for a man to worship an idol, or in our suggestion that all idolatry is only a road to spiritual worship of the one true God... One day, I think, we shall return to these stern doctrines, realizing in them a truth more profound than we now know, and then we shall preach them with conviction, and, being convinced ourselves, we shall convince others.

Nails were not enough to hold God-and-man nailed and fastened on the Cross, had not love held Him there.

Nails were not enough to hold God-and-man nailed and fastened on the Cross, had not love held Him there.