Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883 The New Jerusalem, when it comes, will probably be found so read more

Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883 The New Jerusalem, when it comes, will probably be found so far to resemble the old as to stone its prophets freely.

There is no condition wherein a man does not depend on many others, wherein he is not more obliged to read more

There is no condition wherein a man does not depend on many others, wherein he is not more obliged to follow their fancies than his own. All the commerce of life is a perpetual constraint to the laws of good breeding, and the necessity of humoring others; and besides, our own passions are the worst tyrants: if you obey them but by halves, a perpetual strife and contest exists within; and if you entirely give up yourself to them, it is horrid to think to what extremities they will lead. May God preserve us from that fatal slavery, which the mad presumption of man calls liberty! Liberty is to be found only in Him.

Feast of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells, Hymnographer, 1711 [The] doctrine of [inevitable] progress sustained our fathers read more

Feast of Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells, Hymnographer, 1711 [The] doctrine of [inevitable] progress sustained our fathers in the carrying of capitalistic democratic culture to most parts of the globe. Its core was the conviction that, in thus extending the range of western liberal culture and developing its assumptions, they were in effect establishing on earth that which would grow into the kingdom of God. Some put it sharply but un-Biblically: "building the kingdom"; others, of a more secular turn of mind, echoed J. A. Symonds' hymn, "These Things Shall Be". That whole view exists today only as debris, for it has foundered on the rocks, not so much of human sin, as of the contradictions and complexities of the very western culture that was the substance of its belief.

Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330 Wherever we turn in the church of God, read more

Feast of Commemoration of Helena, Protector of the Faith, 330 Wherever we turn in the church of God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle, and end of everything to us... There is nothing good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous, which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor, because, if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the joy of heaven, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus., or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that night be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done -- but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with Him, and we desire nothing more.

Christianity does not remove you from the world and its problems; it makes you fit to live in it, triumphantly read more

Christianity does not remove you from the world and its problems; it makes you fit to live in it, triumphantly and usefully.

While it is right to stress the dangers of the permissive society, the argument from danger is not in itself read more

While it is right to stress the dangers of the permissive society, the argument from danger is not in itself a good argument, because it seems to imply that, if the danger could be removed, if there was no risk of a child and no peril of infection, then the objection would be removed, too. It tends to imply that the objection is to the attendant dangers and not to the thing itself. But if sexual intercourse before and outside marriage is against the teaching of Jesus, then the thing is not only dangerous, it is wrong in itself.

Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730 It is the Church's mission to confront the world from read more

Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730 It is the Church's mission to confront the world from the Godward side of life with the Christian principles of a free and just society. The dignity, the value, and the importance of every individual are made abundantly clear by the Son of God. He has shown us what human life is intended to be, and we must be willing to stand against whatever is amiss in the temper and disposition of the world, or of any segment of it.

Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349 It behoves thee to love God wisely; and that read more

Commemoration of Richard Rolle of Hampole, Writer, Hermit, Mystic, 1349 It behoves thee to love God wisely; and that may thou not do but if thou be wise. Thou art wise when thou art poor, without desire of this world, and despisest thyself for the love of Jesus Christ; and expendeth all thy wit and all thy might in His service. Whoso will love wisely, it behoves him to love lasting things lastingly, and passing things passingly; so that his heart be set and fastened on nothing but in God.

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.