Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary The fall was simply this, that some read more

Feast of the Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary The fall was simply this, that some creature -- that is, something which is not God -- took His place with man; and man, trusting the creature more than God, walked in its light -- or darkness -- rather than in fellowship with God. Righteousness comes back when man by faith is brought to walk with God again, and to give Him His true place by acting or being acted upon in all things according to His will. Anything, therefore, not of faith is sin. And all such sin is bondage. Self-will is bondage, for self-will or independence of God means dependence on a creature; and we cannot be dependent on a creature, be it what it may, without (more or less) becoming subject to it. What has not been given up for money, or for some creature's love? But who has ever thus served the creature more than the Creator without waking at last to feel he is a bondman? I say nothing of the worse bondage which comes from our self-will, in the indulgence of our own thoughts, or passions, or affections. Even the very energies of faith, while, as yet unchastened, it acts from self, ... may only bring forth more bondage... Who but God can set men free? And He sets them free as they walk with Him. All independence of Him is darkness.

The most difficult task facing us today is to persuade the person who is enjoying Christian culture and Christian standards read more

The most difficult task facing us today is to persuade the person who is enjoying Christian culture and Christian standards that these do not survive of themselves.

Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883 It was not the pleasant things in the world that came read more

Feast of Harriet Monsell of Clewer, Religious, 1883 It was not the pleasant things in the world that came from the devil, and the dreary things from God! It was "sin brought death into the world and all our woe"; as the sin vanishes the woe will vanish too. God Himself is the ever-blessed God. He dwells in the light of joy as well as of purity, and instead of becoming more like Him as we become more miserable, and as all the brightness and glory of life are extinguished, we become more like God as our blessedness becomes more complete. The great Christian graces are radiant with happiness. Faith, hope, charity, there is no sadness in them; and if penitence makes the heart sad, penitence belongs to the sinner, not to the saint.

Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist True progress is not found in breaking away from the old ways, but read more

Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist True progress is not found in breaking away from the old ways, but in abiding in the teaching of Christ and His Spirit in the Church. There is an apparent contradiction here, for how can we abide, and yet advance? It is a paradox, like much else in scripture; but Christian experience proves it true. Those make the best progress in religion who hold fast by the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and not those who drift away from their moorings, rudderless upon a sea of doubt.

Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavour Fellowship, 1951 We, and all things, exist in God's lnfinitude now; read more

Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavour Fellowship, 1951 We, and all things, exist in God's lnfinitude now; our individuality begins with it; our personality grows strong because of it; and we know, if we know anything, that while the more we approach the good the more we please God, at the same time the more men approach the good the more nobly distinctive, the more beautifully individual do their characters become. To imagine, then, at the end of this life we shall cease to exist as conscious beings, that our characters, our personalities, will fall back into some boundless being, instead of becoming more and more definite, more and more individual, is certainly not to exalt God; for it is founded on the belief, either that God is now belittled by our present individuality, or that our present individuality is a mere delusion. In the latter case God, whom we find in the depths of our souls, is doubtless also a delusion, for if the self is not real it is no respectable witness on whose testimony we can accept God. Our deepest mature conviction is that finite and infinity interpenetrate, as time and eternity interpenetrate, and our problems must be solved in the light of that conviction.

Feast of Barnabas the Apostle The essential amorality of all atheist doctrines is often hidden from us by an read more

Feast of Barnabas the Apostle The essential amorality of all atheist doctrines is often hidden from us by an irrelevant personal argument. We see that many articulate secularists are well-meaning and law-abiding men; we see them go into righteous indignation over injustice and often devote their lives to good works. So we conclude that "he can't be wrong whose life is in the right" -- that their philosophies are just as good guides to action as Christianity. What we don't see is that they are not acting on their philosophies. They are acting, out of habit or sentiment, on an inherited Christian ethic which they still take for granted though they have rejected the creed from which it sprang. Their children will inherit some what less of it.

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 The Church has always found it easier to fulfill her priestly read more

Commemoration of Mellitus, First Bishop of London, 624 The Church has always found it easier to fulfill her priestly than her prophetic role. The temptation to institutionalism is always with us, and who will profess himself guiltless? We reduce Christianity to the service of an institution, the Church, for this enables us to be active in what is fondly called "the work of the Lord," while at the same time failing to grapple with the fundamental problem for all Christians, that of winning our generation for Christ. In our little circle of like-minded people we condemn outsiders because they do not come in. Perhaps we even make half-hearted attempts to get them to come in. And then we snuggle down again in the warmth of our fellowship, comforted that we have done all that might reasonably be expected of men in our situation. Fortified with this consolation we concentrate on keeping the institution, the Church, running as it should.

We will have no other master but our caprice -- that is to say, our evil self will have no read more

We will have no other master but our caprice -- that is to say, our evil self will have no God, and the foundation of our nature is seditious, impious, refractory, opposed to and contemptuous of all that tries to rule it, and therefore contrary to order, ungovernable and negative. It is this foundation which Christianity calls the natural man. But the savage which is within us, and constitutes the primitive stuff of us, must be disciplined and civilized in order to produce a man. And the man must be patiently cultivated to produce a wise man; and the wise man must be tested and tried if he is to become righteous, and the righteous man must have substituted the will of God for his individual will, if he is to become a saint.

"What Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, how Thou wilt." I had rather speak these three sentences from my heart in read more

"What Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, how Thou wilt." I had rather speak these three sentences from my heart in my mother tongue than be master of all the languages in Europe.