Quotations for July, 2010

 Thursday, July 1, 2010
Commemoration of John & Henry Venn, Priests, Evangelical Divines, 1813, 1873

By giving humans freedom of will, the Creator has chosen to limit His own power. He risked the daring experiment of giving us the freedom to make good or bad decisions, to live decent or evil lives, because God does not want the forced obedience of slaves. Instead, He covets the voluntary love and obedience of sons who love Him for Himself.

... Catherine Marshall (1914-1983), Beyond Our Selves, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961, p. 26 (see the book; more at Free will, Freedom, Slave, Son)

 Friday, July 2, 2010

We are not to throw away those things which can benefit our neighbor. Goods are called good because they can be used for good: they are instruments for good, in the hands of those who use them properly.

... St. Clement of Alexandria (150?-220?), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. II, Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, trs., Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885, p. 595 (see the book; more at Obedience)

 Saturday, July 3, 2010
Feast of Thomas the Apostle

Broadly speaking, I learned to recognize sin as the refusal to live up to the enlightenment we possess—to know the right order of values and deliberately to choose the lower ones; I learnt that, however much these values may differ with different people at different stages of spiritual growth, for one’s self there must be no compromise with that which one knows to be the lower value.

... Margaret Bondfield (1873-1953), A Life’s Work, Hutchinson, 1948, p. 355 (see the book; more at Growth)

 Sunday, July 4, 2010

The way of the Church as a body that has the mandate to express the ministry of the great Diakonos [Servanthood] is not spectacular. The “first fruits” of fraternities, house-churches, para-parochial congregations, retreats (not for retreat’s sake, but for the sake of going out into the world) etc. should not continue to exist alongside the Church. They should be acknowledged as really doing the business of the Church.

... Hendrik Kraemer (1888-1965), A Theology of the Laity, London: Lutterworth Press, 1958, p. 179 (see the book; more at Body of Christ, Church, Congregation, Minister, Service, World)

 Monday, July 5, 2010

We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration... The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees... So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.

... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Divine Conquest, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1950, Revell, 1950, p. 57 (see the book; see also Ps. 94:12-13; Rom. 3:3-4; more at Danger, Deliverance, Foe, God, Peril, Prayer, Strength)

 Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Feast of Thomas More, Scholar & Martyr, &
John Fisher, Bishop & Martyr, 1535

To preach more than half an hour, a man should be an angel himself, or have angels for hearers.

... George Whitefield (1714-1770) (see the book; see also n; more at Angel, Humor, Preach)

 Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I hate the devil and I would kill him, but I see there are several clergymen present, and they have their families to support.

... Melville D. Landon (b. 1839), Wise, Witty, Eloquent Kings of the Platform and Pulpit, F.C. Smedley, 1890, p. 218 (see the book; see also n; more at Religion)

 Thursday, July 8, 2010

The observances of the Church concerning feasts and fasts are tolerably well kept, upon the whole, since the rich keep the feasts and the poor keep the fasts.

... Sydney Smith (1771-1845), quoted in A Sketch of the Life and Times of the Rev. Sydney Smith, Stuart Johnson Reid, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1884, p. 127-128 (see the book; see also n; more at Church, Fasting, Humor, Religion)

 Friday, July 9, 2010

If you should ask me how I believe in God—that is to say, how God creates Himself in me and reveals Himself to me—my answer may, perhaps, provoke your smiles or your laughter, or it may even scandalize you. I believe in God as I believe in my friends, because I feel the breath of His affection, feel His invisible and intangible hand drawing me, leading me, grasping me.

... Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936), quoted in The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and in Peoples, Macmillan and Co., 1926, p. 194 (see the book; more at Affection, Belief, Friend, Knowing God, Leader)

 Saturday, July 10, 2010

When Christians join together to accomplish certain things, one may expect the organizations they form to reflect the characteristics of the Kingdom, but that will only happen as a consequence of the way people live and relate to each other in Christ. It will not necessarily follow from structures, policies, or documents.

... Graeme Irvine, former president, World Vision International, in a private communication from World Vision (see also Matt. 12:3,4; Rom. 14:17; more at Church)

 Sunday, July 11, 2010
Feast of Benedict of Nursia, Father of Western Monasticism, c.550

The test of worship is how far it makes us more sensitive to the “beyond in our midst,” to the Christ in the hungry, the naked, the homeless, and the prisoner. Only if we are more likely to recognize him there after attending an act of worship is that worship Christian rather than a piece of religiosity in Christian dress.

... John A. T. Robinson (1919-1983), Honest to God, London: SCM Press, 1963, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003, p. 90 (see the book; more at Charity, Religion, Worship)

 Monday, July 12, 2010

Cover, Lord, what has been: govern what shall be. Oh, perfect that which Thou hast begun, that I suffer not shipwreck in the haven.

... Theodore Beza (1519-1605), his last words, quoted in The Last Hours of Eminent Christians, Henry Clissold, London: Rivingtons, 1829, p. 169 (see the book; more at Beginning, Death, Perfection)

 Tuesday, July 13, 2010

He was too great for his disciples. And in view of what he plainly said, is it any wonder that all who were rich and prosperous felt a horror of strange things, a swimming of their world at his teaching? Perhaps the priests and the rich men understood him better than his followers. He was dragging out all the little private reservations they had made from social service into the light of a universal religious life. He was like some terrible moral huntsman digging mankind out of the snug burrows in which they had lived hitherto. In the white blaze of this kingdom of his there was to be no property, no privilege, no pride and precedence; no motive indeed and no reward but love. Is it any wonder that men were dazzled and blinded and cried out against him? Even his disciples cried out when he would not spare them the light. Is it any wonder that the priests realized that between this man and themselves there was no choice but that he or priestcraft should perish? Is it any wonder that the Roman soldiers, confronted and amazed by something soaring over their comprehension and threatening all their discipline, should take refuge in wild laughter, and crown him with thorns and robe him in purple and make a mock Caesar of him? For to take him seriously was to enter upon a strange and alarming life, to abandon habits, to control instincts and impulses, to essay an incredible happiness... Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is too much for our small hearts?

... H. G. Wells (1866-1946), The Outline of History, v. II [1920], The Review of Reviews Co., 1922, p. 598-599 (see the book; more at Greatness, Jesus)

 Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Feast of John Keble, Priest, Poet, Tractarian, 1866

Hosannah to the King

Of David’s ancient blood;

Behold, he comes to bring

Forgiving grace from God:

Let old and young

Attend his way,

And at his feet

Their honors lay.

 

Glory to God on high;

Salvation to the Lamb;

Let earth, and sea, and sky,

His wondrous love proclaim:

Upon his head

Shall honors rest,

And every age

Pronounce him bless’d.

... Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs [1707], in Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, ed. Samuel Melanchthon Worcester, Boston: Crocker & Brewster, 1834, book 3, hymn 45, p. 496 (see the book; more at Blessing, Glory, God, Grace, Honor, King, Lamb, Salvation)

 Thursday, July 15, 2010
Commemoration of Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, c.862
Commemoration of Bonaventure, Franciscan Friar, Bishop, Peacemaker, 1274

We preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), motto of the Dohnavur Fellowship (see also 2 Cor. 4:5; more at Christ, Historical, Jesus, Preach, Service)

 Friday, July 16, 2010
Commemoration of Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, 1099

If I say, “Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forget,” as though God, who twice a day washes all the sands on all the shores of all the world, could not wash such memories from my mind, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), If [1938], London: SPCK, 1961, p. 40 (see the book; more at Calvary, Forget, Forgiveness, God, Knowledge, Love, Memory)

 Saturday, July 17, 2010

Every logical position ... will eventually lead into trouble, and heresy, and chaos. Every logical position is fully consistent, but coherence arises from the human mind, not God’s. The human mind is finite and cannot grasp eternity, and therefore the finite mind sees the infinite as not graspable coherently. If we could grasp it all coherently, without contradiction, we would be God. The person who insists on being logical to the end winds up in a mess. I am not saying that we should not be rational. I am not anti-intellectual. I am saying that the intellect by itself is helpless to arrive at total truth.

... Kenneth L. Pike (1912-2001), Stir, Change, Create, p. 44 (see the book; more at Eternity, Helplessness, Heresy, Infinite, Logic, Reason, Trouble, Truth, Understanding)

 Sunday, July 18, 2010

I had one brother almost of my own age, whom I loved best... We used to read the lives of the Saints together. And when I read of the martyrdoms which they suffered for the love of God, I used to think that they had bought their entry into God’s presence very cheaply. Then I fervently longed to die like them, not out of any conscious love for Him, but in order to attain, as quickly as they had, those joys which, as I read, are laid up in Heaven. I used to discuss with my brother ways and means of becoming martyrs, and we agreed to go together to the land of the Moors, begging our way for the love of God, so that we might be beheaded there. I believe that our Lord had given us courage enough even at that tender age, if only we could have seen a way. But our parents seemed to us a very great hindrance.

... Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus, v. I, Sheed & Ward, 1944, p. 11 (see the book; more at Historical)

 Monday, July 19, 2010
Feast of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, & his sister Macrina, Teachers, c.394 & c.379

There is a misplaced sense of loyalty which makes many Christians feel reluctant to come out in open opposition to anything that calls itself by the same name, or uses words like “God” and “Christ;” even Christians who in practice dislike superstition as much as I do still often treat it as a minor aberration to be hushed up rather than a radical perversion to be denounced.

... John Wren-Lewis, They Became Anglicans, Dewi Morgan, London : A. R. Mowbray, 1963, p. 168-169 (see the book)

 Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Commemoration of Bartolomè de las Casas, Apostle to the Indies, 1566

It is clear that God wants us to get involved. It is our work to do, and we are blessed when we do it willingly.

... Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, Inc., in a private communication from World Vision (see also 1 John 3:17-18; more at Blessing, Cooperation, Mission, Will of God, Work)

 Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The men of faith might claim for their positions ancient tradition, practical usefulness, and spiritual desirability, but one query could prick all such bubbles: Is it scientific? That question has searched religion for contraband goods, stripped it of old superstitions, forced it to change its categories of thought and methods of work, and in general has so cowed and scared religion that many modern-minded believers... instinctively throw up their hands at the mere whisper of it... When a prominent scientist comes out strongly for religion, all the churches thank Heaven and take courage, as though it were the highest possible compliment to God to have Eddington believe in Him. Science has become the arbiter of this generation’s thought, until to call even a prophet and a seer ‘scientific’ is to cap the climax of praise.

... Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), As I see Religion, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1932, p. 123 (see the book; see also 1 John 3:17-18; more at Faith, Prophet, Religion, Science, Tradition)

 Thursday, July 22, 2010
Feast of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles

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.

... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, p. 16 (see the book; more at Prayer)

 Friday, July 23, 2010
Commemoration of Bridget of Sweden, Abbess of Vadstena, 1373

The book would have been richer if [it had represented] that small but significant section of preachers who are not content with generalization where ‘the social implications’ of Christianity are concerned, but who are prepared to take sides on concrete issues. This is an admittedly different and dangerous proceeding, but one which certainly the prophets of Israel were not afraid to tackle. This is a form of witness-bearing, which the pulpit shuns at its peril.

... O. Fielding Clarke (more at Danger, Preacher, Prophet, Social, Witness)

 Saturday, July 24, 2010
Commemoration of Thomas à Kempis, priest, spiritual writer, 1471

Now since our eternal state is as certainly ours, as our present state; since we are as certainly to live for ever, as we now live at all; it is plain, that we cannot judge of the value of any particular time, as to us, but by comparing it to that eternal duration, for which we are created.

... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 226 (see the book; more at Authenticity)

 Sunday, July 25, 2010
Feast of James the Apostle

Every man has in his own experience some knowledge of the perplexing uncertainty of this whirligig of time. Yet with his best thought, and largest opportunity, and the application of his highest ability, he cannot penetrate far. But the Christ of God unfolds both its meaning, and its order. He shows that the goal is freedom, and the guidance love... In this way Christ appeals direct to the spirit of man, not by its special acquirements or special ability, but through its common needs and common tasks.

... John Oman (1860-1939), Vision and Authority, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1928, p. 109 (see the book)

 Monday, July 26, 2010

Love always involves responsibility, and it always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are prepared to face His task and to take up His Cross.

... William Barclay (1907-1978), The Gospel of John, v. 2, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, p. 334 (see the book; more at Love)

 Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Commemoration of Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, Teacher, 1901

It may be that the grace of renewal will not be given to us in our separation, will not be given until we stand together for the healing of the nations.

... Gordon Rupp (1910-1986) (more at Church, Grace, Health, Purpose, Renewal)

 Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Commemoration of Johann Sebastian Bach, musician, 1750

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging.

... J. S. Bach (1685-1750), Glory and Honor: the musical and artistic legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach, Gregory Wilbur & David Vaughan, Cumberland House Publishing, 2005, p. 1 (see the book; more at Art, Glory of God, Music, Renewal)

 Thursday, July 29, 2010
Feast of Mary, Martha & Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord

I acknowledge, dear God, that I have deserved the greatest of Thy wrath and indignation; and that, if Thou hadst dealt with me according to my deserving, I had now, at this instant, been desperately bewailing my miseries in the sorrows and horrors of a sad eternity. But Thy mercy triumphing over Thy justice and my sins, Thou hast still continued to me life and time of repentance; Thou hast opened to me the gates of grace and mercy, and perpetually callest upon me to enter in, and to walk in the paths of a holy life, that I might glorify Thee and be glorified of Thee eternally.

... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), Holy Living [1650], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. III, London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1847, p. 34 (see the book; more at Prayers)

 Friday, July 30, 2010
Commemoration of William Wilberforce, Social Reformer, 1833

Infant Baptism... has been a witness for the Son of Man and the universality of His Kingdom, like no other. It has taught parents that to bring children into the world is not a horrible crime. It has led them to see Christ and His redemption of humanity through all the mists of our teachings and our qualifications. It has explained the nature of His Kingdom to the hearts of the poorest. Christ has preached at the fonts, when we have been darkening counsel in the pulpits.

... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), The Kingdom of Heaven [1864], London: Macmillan, 1893, p. 282-283 (see the book; see also Luke 18:16; more at Church)

 Saturday, July 31, 2010
Commemoration of Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus, 1556

Priestcraft ... is fostered whenever and wherever the ... whole people of God begins to view the ordained ministry as an office rather than as a function, and allows the office to shape the function rather than the function to shape the office. Most churches and most Christians in Britain—the denomination is immaterial—conceive the ministry as a professionalized caste with its own exclusive tabus, rather than as a specially trained task force, working to professional standards simply in order to make its service more effective. [Continued tomorrow]

... Christopher Driver (1932-1997), A Future for the Free Churches?, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 100 (see the book; more at Body of Christ, Church, Minister, Ordination, Service, Work)

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Compilation Copyright, 1996-2010, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day.
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
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Last updated: 01/13/10