Whoever loves much,
does much.
... Thomas
à Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ
It does not make
a very great difference what side of Christ's work attracts us and appeals
to us most; doubtless Christ has many ways of drawing men to Himself. One
side of Christ's work will appeal most to one mind, another to another.
The mistake that is often made by those who speak most about Christian
experience is that they are so apt to insist upon everyone else's experience
-- on penalty of its utter worthlessness -- being exactly the same as their
own. The great thing is that we should be attracted by Christ in some way,
that we should come to God in that spirit of penitence which Christ taught
was the one condition of acceptance with Him, and with that steady purpose
of amendment which is, as he always taught, a part of true penitence.
... James
Hastings Rashdall, Principles
and Precepts
As long as I see
any thing to be done for God, life is worth having; but O how vain and
unworthy it is to live for any lower end!
... David
Brainerd's Journal
There is a pride
of faith, more unforgiveable and dangerous than the pride of the intellect.
It reveals a split personality in which faith is "observed" and appraised,
thus negating that unity born of a dying-unto-self, which is the definition
of faith. To "value" faith is to turn it into a metaphysical magic, the
advantages of which ought to be reserved for a spiritual elite.
... Dag
Hammarskjöld, Markings
The purifying worth
of prayer consists in the increasing contrast which it sets up between
the holy God and the creature; subordinating that creature's fugitive activities
and desires to the standard set by this solemn apprehension of Reality.
... Evelyn
Underhill
We cannot understand
the depth of the Christian doctrine of sin if we give it only a moral connotation.
To break the basic laws of justice and decency is sin indeed. Man's freedom
to honor principles is the moral dimension in his nature, and sin often
appears as lawlessness. But sin has its root in something which is more
than the will to break the law. The core of sin is our making ourselves
the center of life, rather than accepting the holy God as the center. Lack
of trust, self-love, pride, these are three ways in which Christians have
expressed the real meaning of sin. But what sin does is to make the struggle
with evil meaningless. When we refuse to hold our freedom in trust and
reverence for God's will, there is nothing which can make the risk of life
worth the pain of it.
... D.
D. Williams, Interpreting Theology
1918-1952
Moreover, you are
not to ask what each man's desserts are. Mercy is not ordinarily held to
consist in pronouncing judgment on another man's deserts, but in relieving
his necessities; in giving aid to the poor, not in inquiring how good they
are.
.. St.
Ambrose
There is a manifest
want of spiritual influence on the ministry of the present day. I feel
it in my own case and I see it in that of others. I am afraid there is
too much of a low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among
us. We are laying ourselves out more than is expedient to meet one man's
taste and another man's prejudices. The ministry is a grand and holy affair,
and it should find in us a simple habit of spirit and a holy but humble
indifference to all consequences. A leading defect in Christian ministers
is want of a devotional habit.
... Richard
Cecil
The uncertainty
lies always in the intellectual region, never in the practical. What Paul
cares about is plain enough to the true heart, however far from plain to
the man whose desire to understand goes ahead of his obedience.
... George
Macdonald
Every other creature
in nature is simply itself, without this discord which is our constant
lot. That is why we can study everything else in nature much more surely
than we can study ourselves. With ourselves, all we have to go on is an
occasional glimpse of some small part of the truth, and we must be content
with that, knowing that we are truly known by Him who alone knows us.
... Paul
Tournier, The Meaning of Persons
The doctrine of
justification by faith (a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile
legalism and unavailing self-effort) has in our times fallen into evil
company and has been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to
bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion
has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without
a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ
may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the soul
of the receiver. The man is "saved", but he is not hungry or thirsty after
God. In fact, he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged
to be content with little. The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders
of His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders
of His Word.
... A.
W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Poor souls are
apt to think that all those whom they read of or hear of to be gone to
heaven, went thither because they were so good and so holy... Yet not one
of them, not any man that is now in heaven (Jesus Christ alone excepted),
did ever come thither any other way but by forgiveness of sins. And that
will also bring us higher, though we come short of many of them in holiness
and grace...
... John
Owen, Sermons
A student may easily
exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists without any practical
regard to morals and religion; he may be learning not to live but to reason...
while the chief use of his volumes is unthought of, his mind is unaffected,
and his life is unreformed.
... Samuel
Johnson
God does not reserve
such a lofty vocation [as that of contemplation] to certain souls only;
on the contrary, He is willing that all should embrace it. But He finds
few who permit such divine things in them. Most shrink from the labour
instead of submitting, as they must, with endless patience.
... St.
John of the Cross
I will not judge
a person to be spiritually dead whom I have judged formerly to have had
spiritual life, though I see him at present in a swoon as to all evidences
of the spiritual life. And the reason why I will not judge him so is this
-- because if you judge a person dead, you neglect him, you leave him;
but if you judge him in a swoon, though never so dangerous, you use all
means for the retrieving of his life.
... John
Owen, Sermons
Martin Luther described
the doctrine of justification by faith as the article of faith that decides
whether the church is standing or falling. By this he meant that when this
doctrine is understood, believed, and preached, as it was in New-Testament
times, the church stands in the grace of God and is alive; but where it
is neglected, overlaid, or denied, ... the church falls from grace and
its life drains away, leaving it in a state of darkness and death.
... J.
I. Packer
Let a clergyman
but intend to please God in all his actions, as the happiest and best thing
in the world, and then he will know that there is nothing noble in a clergyman
but a burning zeal for the salvation of souls; nor anything poorer in his
profession [than] idleness and a worldly spirit.
... William
Law
He challenged the
church to rethink its own mission in the radically secular world of the
twentieth century... The nonbelieving brave men he met in the anti-Nazi
underground, the stark realities of prison life, and his disappointment
in the professional churchmen of Germany, all may have influenced Bonhoeffer
to see real Christianity as "non-religious" and "worldly"... The opposition
between sacred and secular, supernatural and natural, seemed unreal to
him -- the apparent opposites are united in Jesus Christ.
... John
D. Godsey, The Theology of Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
[He said] that
it was a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ
from other times; that we are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action
in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer. That his view
of prayer was nothing else but a sense of the Presence of God, his soul
being at that time insensible to everything but Divine Love; and that when
the appointed times of prayer were past, he found no difference, because
he still continued with God, praising and blessing Him with all his might,
so that he passed his life in continual Joy; yet hoped that God would give
him somewhat to suffer when he should have grown stronger.
... Brother
Lawrence
If Christians are
ever to be united, they must be united in Christ, their living head and
the source of their spiritual life.
... Philip
Schaff
Did you ever stop
to ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal which
wears it? It is just the opposite: it is to make its burden light. Attached
to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the plow would be intolerable;
worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A yoke is not an instrument of
torture; it is an instrument of mercy. It is not a malicious contrivance
for making work hard; it is a gentle device to make hard labor light. [Christ]
knew the difference between a smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and
a good one... The rough yoke galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth
yoke caused no pain, and the load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted harness
was a misery; the well fitted collar was "easy". And what was the "burden"?
It was not some special burden laid upon the Christian, some unique infliction
that they alone must bear. It was what all men bear: it was simply life,
human life itself, the general burden of life which all must carry with
them from the cradle to the grave. Christ saw that men took life painfully.
To some it was a weariness, to others failure, to many a tragedy, to all
a struggle and a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole
world's problem. And here is Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take
life as I take it. Look at it from my point of view. Interpret it upon
my principles. Take my yoke and learn of me, and you will find it easy.
For my yoke is easy, sits right upon the shoulders, and therefore my burden
is light."
... Henry
Drummond, "Pax Vobiscum"
Let us not forget
the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not think of it vaguely,
and fall into the heretical fancy that the Son of God became man merely
to transact certain things which were necessary to secure the salvation
of men, and that after this object was achieved His human nature recedes
into the background and impenetrable obscurity. No, it is not so; all-important
as His work on earth was -- the only foundation of our hope and blessedness
-- let us adore the revealed mystery that God gave us His Son, never to
recall Him, as it were, and take Him away from us; He spared Him not and
gave Him to us, allowing Him to become man, exalting Him as the Son of
Man, enthroning Him because of his obedience unto death, and giving unto
Him as the Son of Man all power in heaven and earth.
... Adolph
Saphir, Christ and Israel
Christmas turns
things tail-end foremost. The day and the spirit of Christmas rearrange
the world parade. As the world arranges it, usually there come first in
importance -- leading the parade with a big blare of a band -- the Big
Shots. Frequently they are also the Stuffed Shirts. That's the first of
the parade. Then at the tail end, as of little importance, trudge the weary,
the poor, the lame, the halt, and the blind. But in the Christmas spirit,
the procession is turned around. Those at the tail end are put first in
the arrangement of the Child of Christmas.
... Halford
E. Luccock
They were all looking for a king
To slay their foes, and lift them high;
Thou cam'st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry.
... George Macdonald
Jesus came! - and came for me.
Simple words! and yet expressing
Depths of holy mystery,
Depths of wondrous love and blessing.
Holy Spirit, make me see
All His coming means for me;
Take the things of Christ, I pray,
Show them to my heart today.
... Frances Ridley Havergal
Lord of all pots and pans and things, since I've no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things, or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the dawn-light, or storming Heaven's gates,
Make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates.Although I must have Martha's hands, I have a Mary mind,
And when I black the boots and shoes, Thy sandals, Lord, I find.
I think of how they trod the earth, what time I scrub the floor:
Accept this meditation, Lord, I haven't time for more.Warm all the kitchen with Thy love, and light it with Thy peace;
Forgive me all my worrying, and make my grumbling cease.
Thou who didst love to give men food, in room or by the sea,
Accept this service that I do -- I do it unto Thee.
... Cecily Halleck
In several striking
cases of conversion I have studied, those in need were inspired and affected,
not merely by the kindness of an individual... but by the love and sympathy
of the Church as a whole... Examples could be multiplied. This type of
service is a great witness to the reality of Christian life and faith;
but it presupposes a spirit of fellowship within the Church, a spirit which
is all too rare. It means that there is mutual respect and trust between
the minister and the members of his Church; and a spirit of fellowship
which is outward-looking and which issues in service.
... Owen
Brandon, The Battle for the Soul
The whole being
of any Christian is Faith and Love... Faith brings the man to God, love
brings him to men.
... Martin
Luther
Belief in God through
Christ is the most important of all aids to the following of Christ, but
(let us never forget) the following is the great thing. To those who, by
whatever means they are attracted to Him, really seek to do God's will
as He revealed it, Christ will prove a Saviour -- a Saviour from sin, a
Saviour from the power of sin here, and from the misery which sin brings
with it here and hereafter.
... James
Hastings Rashdall, Principles
and Precepts
The renewal of
our natures is a work of great importance. It is not to be done in a day.
We have not only a new house to build up, but an old one to pull down.
... George
Whitefield
[Thanks to Bill Blake
at pilgrimwb@aol.com]
All the blessings
we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition,
that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.
... John
Calvin, The Institutes of the
Christian Religion
Compilation Copyright, 1996-2008, by Robert McAnally Adams,
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