Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means.

Wisdom denotes the pursuing of the best ends by the best means.

Feast of the Holy Innocents Though Christ a thousand times In Bethlehem be born, If he's not born in read more

Feast of the Holy Innocents Though Christ a thousand times In Bethlehem be born, If he's not born in thee Thy soul is still forlorn. The cross on Golgotha Will never save thy soul; The cross in thy own heart Alone can make thee whole. ... anonymous, 3rd century December 29, 2002 Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170 The nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.

One encounter with Jesus Christ is enough to change you, instantly, forever.

One encounter with Jesus Christ is enough to change you, instantly, forever.

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.

A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of read more

A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions, and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit; these and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.

Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170 It was the experience of the disciples who knew Jesus read more

Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170 It was the experience of the disciples who knew Jesus both before and after the Resurrection, and the conviction which they communicated to others, that laid the foundation of faith. This faith, once given, proved to be -- like the Person who gave rise to it -- essentially self-authenticating. And ever since, the Church has looked to the Cross, a symbol of weakness, as its unique source of power in preaching the Gospel, its authority both to teach and to preach has been of this kind. No amount of liaison between the Church and the source of any other authority, political or moral, must be allowed to obscure the simplicity -- and the mystery -- of the authority of Christ.

This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs; if we
grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall read more

This making of Christians will raise the price of hogs; if we
grow all to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on
the coals for money.

Faith is sometimes equated with credulity, but it can be so equated only when the profound mistake is made of read more

Faith is sometimes equated with credulity, but it can be so equated only when the profound mistake is made of thinking of faith as primarily a matter of intellectual assent. As the New Testament uses the word, faith is trust, acceptance, commitment, vision. It is not a belief in this or that creed, it is a quality which lies rather in the realm of intuition than the intellect. Faith has indeed an element of true simplicity; it is one of the qualities -- perhaps the fundamental quality -- of the child-like spirit without which no man can enter the Kingdom of God. ... Anonymous December 16, 1996 But lo' the snare is broke, the captive's freed, By faith on all the hostile powers we tread, And crush through Jesus' strength the Serpent's head. Jesus hath cast the cursed Accuser down, Hath rooted up the tares by Satan sown: All nature bows to His benign command, And two are one in His almighty hand. One in His hand, O may we still remain, Fast bound with love's indissoluble chain; (That adamant which time and death defies, That golden chain which draws us to the skies!) His love the tie that binds us to His throne, His love the bond that perfects us in one, His only love constrains our hearts t' agree, And gives the rivet of Eternity.

Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617 We have been adopted as sons by the Lord with this one read more

Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617 We have been adopted as sons by the Lord with this one condition: that our life express Christ, the bond of our adoption. Accordingly, unless we give and devote ourselves to righteousness, we not only revolt from our Creator with wicked perfidy, but we also abjure our Savior Himself.