Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866 The deaf may hear the Saviour's voice, The fettered tongue its chains read more

Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866 The deaf may hear the Saviour's voice, The fettered tongue its chains may break; But the deaf heart, the dumb by choice, The laggard soul that will not wake, The guilt that scorns to be forgiven -- These baffle e'en the spells of heaven.

Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 Be patient, not only with respect to the read more

Feast of François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher, 1622 Be patient, not only with respect to the main trials which beset you, but also under the accidental and accessory annoyances which arise out of them. We often find people who imagine themselves ready to accept a trial in itself who are impatient of its consequences.

Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul, May keep the path, but will not reach the goal; While read more

Who seeks for heaven alone to save his soul, May keep the path, but will not reach the goal; While he who walks in love may wander far, But God will bring him where the Blessed are.

Just suppose members of our churches were voted on, like the members of certain civic clubs. Suppose three unexcused absences read more

Just suppose members of our churches were voted on, like the members of certain civic clubs. Suppose three unexcused absences required that the individual's name be automatically dropped from the roll, and he could be reinstated only by special vote of the body. Suppose absences from services had to be made up by attending services in some other place, or by carrying out some special project. Suppose church members had to be re-elected to membership each year, and that their attendance and participation in the program of activities determined how the vote went. Oh, well -- just suppose. ... from The Baptist Messenger September 16, 2002 Feast of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, Martyr, 258 Commemoration of Ninian, Bishop of Galloway, Apostle to the Picts, c. 430 Commemoration of Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, tractarian, 1882 This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see--brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians -- and I am one of them.

Welcome! all Wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span. Summer in winter, day in night, read more

Welcome! all Wonders in one sight! Eternity shut in a span. Summer in winter, day in night, Heaven in earth, and God in man. Great little one! whose all-embracing birth Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heav'n to earth!

Jesus! why dost Thou love me so? What hast Thou seen in me To make my happiness so great, So read more

Jesus! why dost Thou love me so? What hast Thou seen in me To make my happiness so great, So dear a joy to Thee?

Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 The term "baptism in (or of) the read more

Feast of Perpetua, Felicity & their Companions, Martyrs at Carthage, 203 The term "baptism in (or of) the Spirit" conjures up the idea of a separate initiatory experience which every Christian ought to enjoy, whereas evangelicalism is noted for its stress upon a "conversion" experience which marks the beginning of the believer's relationship to his Lord. Too often, alas, conversion has been the end as well as the beginning, with the result that some Christians have looked back, with mingled delight and wistfulness to a past event that now seems to have diminished relevance to daily living. We can fully understand, then, the appeal of a movement which promises a new dimension of Christian living, there in the New Testament, and now available in everyday experience.

Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr There is not a heart but has its moments of longing, read more

Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr There is not a heart but has its moments of longing, yearning for something better; nobler; holier than it knows now.

Feast of Andrew the Apostle This means that we do not know what are the limits of human history, read more

Feast of Andrew the Apostle This means that we do not know what are the limits of human history, but it does not mean that there are no real limits. It is important to assert this, because if we do not do so, the limit which we know apart from Christ becomes determinative of our outlook. That limit is death -- the death of the individual, and the death of the social structure in which his corporate personality is embodied. When these are the only limits that men know, then they are left in a hopeless alternation between hope for an individual survival of death, which evacuates their corporate life of ultimate significance, and hope for the eternity of some social or political or cultural achievement, which evacuates personal existence of ultimate significance. This false alternation is overcome in Christ in whom we are brought into relation with the true limit -- a consummation of all things in which both the significance of each personal life and the significance of history as a whole are to be gathered up.