Quotations for November, 2010

 Monday, November 1, 2010
Feast of All Saints

He was but a heathen that said, If God love a man, He takes him young out of this world; and they were but heathens, that observed that custom, to put on mourning when their sons were born, and to feast and triumph when they died. But thus much may we learn from these heathens, that if the dead, and we, be not upon one floor, nor under one story, yet we are under one roof. We think not a friend lost, because he has gone into another room, nor because he has gone into another land: and into another world, no man has gone; for that Heaven, which God created, and this world, is all one world... I spend none of my faith, I exercise none of my hope, in this, that I shall have my dead raised to life again.

This is the faith that sustains me, when I lose by the death of others, or when I suffer by living in misery myself: that the dead and we are now all in one Church, and at the resurrection, shall be all in one choir.

... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. I, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon XX, p. 401 (see the book; see also Heb. 11:16,35; more at Death & Resurrection)

 Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Feast of All Souls

Faith is illuminative, not operative; it does not force obedience, though it increases responsibility; it heightens guilt, but it does not prevent sin. The will is the source of action.

... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Lectures on certain difficulties felt by Anglicans in submitting to the Catholic Church, London: Burns & Lambert, 1850, p. 236 (see the book; more at Faith)

 Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Feast of Richard Hooker, Priest, Anglican Apologist, Teacher, 1600
Commemoration of Martin of Porres, Dominican Friar, 1639

Social workers and missionaries have always been exposed to the temptation to thank God that they are not as other men, and in some ways to despise and pity those to whom they minister. In the case of those serving the refugee, ... identification with those whom they serve may and does involve them in political as well as economic problems for which there is no easy solution. Not only is there a real need for sympathy and patience in understanding the mentality of the refugee, but there must also be readiness to recognize that the injustices done are in no small degree the result of the policies of the so-called Christian nations which today are trying to stand out for social and political justice.

... A. C. MacInnes (Angus Campbell) (1901-1977), “Social Justice,” included in Anglican Congress 1963: Report of Proceedings, Eugene Rathbone Fairweather, ed., Editorial Committee, Anglican Congress, 1963, p. 70-71 (see the book; more at Justice, Missionary, Nation, Patience, Pity, Service, Social, Sympathy, Temptation, Understanding)

 Thursday, November 4, 2010

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.

... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), included in Leaves of Gold, Evan S. Coslett & Clyde Francis Lytle, ed. [1948], Honesdale, Pa.: Coslett Publishing Company, 1938, p. 55 (see the book; more at Beginning, Fear, Life, Weakness)

 Friday, November 5, 2010

Jesus hath many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His Cross. He hath many seekers of comfort, but few of tribulation. He findeth many companions of His table, but few of His fasting. All desire to rejoice with Him, few are willing to undergo anything for His sake. Many follow Jesus that they may eat of His loaves, but few that they may drink of the cup of His passion. Many are astonished at His miracles, few follow after the shame of His Cross. Many love Jesus so long as no adversities happen to them. Many praise Him and bless Him, so long as they receive any comforts from Him. But if Jesus hide Himself and withdraw a little while, they fall either into complaining or into too great dejection of mind.

... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.xi, p. 103 (see the book; see also Matt. 8:21-27; 16:24,25; more at Weakness)

 Saturday, November 6, 2010
Feast of William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Teacher, 1944

It is not the distance of the earth from the sun, nor the sun’s withdrawing itself, that makes a dark and gloomy day; but the interposition of clouds and vaporous exhalations. Neither is thy soul beyond the reach of the promise, nor does God withdraw Himself; but the vapours of thy carnal, unbelieving heart do cloud thee.

... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. VIII, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, Sermon IV, p. 237-238 (see the book; see also Matt. 13:58; John 20:27; Acts 28:23-27, Rom. 4:20; more at Darkness, Faith, God, Heart, Promise, Soul, Unbelief)

 Sunday, November 7, 2010
Feast of Willibrord of York, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of Frisia, 739

If the appetite alone hath sinned, let it alone fast, and it sufficeth. But if the other members also have sinned, why should they not fast, too? ... Let the eye fast from strange sights and from every wantonness, so that that which roamed in freedom in fault-doing may, abundantly humbled, be checked by penitence. Let the ear, blameably eager to listen, fast from tales and rumours, and from whatsoever is of idle import, and tendeth least to salvation. Let the tongue fast from slanders and murmurings, and from useless, vain, and scurrilous words, and sometimes also, in the seriousness of silence, even from things which may seem of essential import. Let the hand abstain from ... all toils which are not imperatively necessary. But also let the soul herself abstain from all evils and from acting out her own will. For without such abstinence the other things find no favour with the Lord.

... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Selections from His Letters, Meditations, Sermons, Hymns and Other Writngs, tr. Horatio Grimley, CUP Archive, n.d., p. 208-209 (see the book; see also Matt. 9:14,15; 12:36,37; John 14:15; Acts 14:3; 1 Cor. 7:5; more at Evil, Fasting, God, Listening, Repentance, Silence, Vanity)

 Monday, November 8, 2010
Feast of Saints & Martyrs of England

[The solution lies] in a complete realization of what we mean by asserting that God is Almighty. The two ideas of Free-will and Divine Sovereignty can not be reconciled in our own minds, but that does not prevent them from being reconcilable in God’s mind. We measure Him by our own intellectual standard if we think otherwise. And so our solution of the problem of Free-will and of the problems of history and of individual salvation, must finally lie in the full acceptance and realization of what is implied by the infinity and the omniscience of God.

... William Sanday (1843-1920) & Arthur C. Headlam (1862-1947), A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1896, 10th ed., New York: Scribners, 1905, p. 350 (see the book; see also Rom. 9:17-24; Phil. 3:12; more at Abasement, Bible, God, Mind, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Paradox, Salvation)

 Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Commemoration of Margery Kempe, Mystic, after 1433

This astonishing sense of spiritual attack which, it seems to me, must inevitably follow the continual reading of the four Gospels, without preconception but with an alert mind, is not the sole privilege of the translator. It can happen to anyone who is prepared to abandon proof-texts and a closed attitude of mind, and allow not merely the stories but the quality of the Figure Who exists behind the stories to meet him afresh. Neat snippets of a few verses are of course useful in their way, but the overall sweep and much of the significance of the Gospel narratives are lost to us unless we are prepared to read the Gospels through, not once but several times.

... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1956, chapt. i, p. 11 (see the book; see also Matt. 10:26-28; more at Bible, Gospel, Jesus, Mind, Prejudice)

 Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Feast of Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, 461

Contemplating this blighted and sinister career, the lesson is burnt in upon the conscience, that since Judas by transgression fell, no place in the Church of Christ can render any man secure. And since, falling, he was openly exposed, none may flatter himself that the cause of Christ is bound up with his reputation, that the mischief must needs be averted which his downfall would entail, that Providence must needs avert from him the natural penalties for evil-doing. Though one was as the signet upon the Lord’s hand, yet was he plucked thence. There is no security for any soul except where love and trust repose, upon the bosom of Christ.

Now if this be true, and if sin and scandal may conceivably penetrate even the inmost circle of the chosen, how great an error it is to break, because of these offenses, the unity of the Church, and institute some new communion, purer far than the Churches of Corinth and Galatia, which were not abandoned but reformed, and more impenetrable to corruption than the little group of those who ate and drank with Jesus.

... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel of St. Mark [1887], London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 90-91 (see the book; more at Betrayal, Church, Conscience, Corruption, Providence, Security, Sin, Truth, Unity)

 Thursday, November 11, 2010
Feast of Martin, Monk, Bishop of Tours, 397

The Gospel leaves men, unless upon extraordinary occasions, their names, their reputations, their wealth and honours, if lawfully obtained and possessed; but the league that is between the mind and these things in all natural men must be broken. They must be no longer looked upon as the chiefest good, or in the place thereof.

... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. I-V [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. III, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, III.iv, p. 277 (see the book; see also Luke 16:13; Col. 3:1-5; Tit. 2:11-12; more at Goodness, Gospel, Honor, Man, Possession, Wealth)

 Friday, November 12, 2010

[Jesus’] moral teaching does not consist of a universal scheme of ethics, a series of precepts which would be universally valid by whomever they had been spoken. They are to be heard as His word, spoken by Him, with the impact of His person behind them.

... Gabriel Hebert (1886-1963), The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 105 (see the book; see also Matt. 7:28-29; Luke 10:22; Heb. 4:12-13; more at Jesus, Morality, Teach)

 Saturday, November 13, 2010
Feast of Charles Simeon, Pastor, Teacher, 1836

It is only by fidelity in little things that the grace of true love to God can be sustained, and distinguished from a passing fervor of spirit...

No one can well believe that our piety is sincere, when our behavior is lax and irregular in its little details. What probability is there that we should not hesitate to make the greatest sacrifices, when we shrink from the smallest?

... François Fénelon (1651-1715), Selections from Fénelon, ed. Mary Wilder Tileston, Boston: Roberts Bros., 1879, p. 160 (see the book; see also Luke 12:42-44; more at Faith, God, Grace, Hesitancy, Love, Sacrifice, Sincerity, Social)

 Sunday, November 14, 2010
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796

It is easy to criticise the many failings of the Church; it is all too easy to criticise the lives of those who profess and call themselves Christians; but I should say that it is almost impossible to read the Gospels thoroughly with adult, serious attention and then dismiss the central Figure as a mere human prophet or a tragic idealist. The reaction to such a study may indeed prove to be conversion or open hostility, but it would at least mean the end of childish and ill-informed attacks upon what is supposed to be the Christian religion.

... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), New Testament Christianity, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1956, chapt. i, p. 12 (see the book; see also Jer. 9:3; more at Apologetics, Church, Conversion, Hostility, Prophet)

 Monday, November 15, 2010

Sometimes thou shalt be forsaken of God, sometimes thou shalt be troubled by thy neighbors; and what is more, oftentimes thou shalt be wearisome even to thyself. Neither canst thou be delivered or eased by any remedy or comfort; but so long as it pleaseth God, thou oughtest to bear it. For God will have thee learn to suffer tribulation without comfort, and that thou subject thyself wholly to Him, and by tribulation become more humble. No man hath so cordial a feeling of the Passion of Christ, as he that hath suffered the like himself. The Cross therefore is always ready, and everywhere waits for thee. Thou canst not escape it, whithersoever thou runnest; for wheresoever thou goest, thou carriest thyself with thee, and shalt ever find thyself. Both above and below, without and within, which way so ever thou dost turn thee, everywhere thou shalt find the Cross; and everywhere of necessity thou must hold fast patience, if thou wilt have inward peace, and enjoy an everlasting crown.

... Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418], Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1877, II.xii, p. 107 (see the book; see also Ps. 22:1; Luke 9:23; 2 Tim. 3:11,12; more at Weakness)

 Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093
Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240

The charm of the words of great men, those grand sayings which are recognized as true as soon as heard, is this, that you recognize them as wisdom which has passed across your own mind. You feel that they are your own thoughts come back to you, else you would not at once admit them: “All of that has floated across me before, only I could not say it, and did not feel confident enough to assert it: or had not conviction enough to put it into words.” Yes, God spoke to you what He did to them: only, they believed it, said it, trusted the Word within them; and you did not. Be sure that often when you say, “It is only my own poor thought, and I am alone,” the real correcting thought is this: “Alone, but the Father is with me,”—and therefore I can live that lonely conviction.

... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons, v. I, Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1861, p. 239-240 (see the book; more at Knowing God)

 Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Feast of Hugh, Carthusian Monk, Bishop of Lincoln, 1200

The Servant Messiah carries out his ministry in the lives of his ministers. His life is reproduced in their lives, so they also are servants. But this ministry is exercised in and towards the Church, so as to enable the Church itself to carry out the ministry of the Servant. The Messiah came as a Servant; his ministers are servants; and the Church he created is a Servant-Church.

... Anthony T. Hanson (1916-1991), The Church of the Servant, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 60 (see the book; see also Zech. 3:8; Mark 10:42-45; Phil. 2:6-8; more at Church)

 Thursday, November 18, 2010

At this day... the earth sustains on her bosom many monster minds, minds which are not afraid to employ the seed of Deity deposited in human nature as a means of suppressing the name of God. Can anything be more detestable than this madness in man, who, finding God a hundred times both in his body and his soul, makes his excellence in this respect a pretext for denying that there is a God? He will not say that chance has made him different from the brutes; ... but, substituting Nature as the architect of the universe, he suppresses the name of God.

... John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion, v. I [1559], tr. John Allen, Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-School Work, 1921, I.v.4, p. 60 (see the book; see also Ps. 14:1; Rom. 1:20,21; more at Apologetics)

 Friday, November 19, 2010
Feast of Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 680
Commemoration of Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary, Philanthropist, 1231
Commemoration of Mechtild, Bèguine of Magdeburg, Mystic, Prophet, 1280

A fish in water does not drown.

A bird in the air does not plummet.

Gold in fire does not perish. Rather, it gets its purity and its radiant color there.

God has created all creatures to live according to their nature.

How, then, am I to resist my nature?

I must go from all things to God,

Who is my Father by nature,

My brother by His humanity,

My bridegroom by love,

And I His bride from all eternity.

... Mechthild of Magdeburg (ca. 1212-ca. 1282), The Flowing Light of the Godhead, Frank J. Tobin, tr., Paulist Press, 1998, p. 161 (see the book)

 Saturday, November 20, 2010
Feast of Edmund of the East Angles, Martyr, 870
Commemoration of Priscilla Lydia Sellon, a Restorer of the Religious Life in the Church of England, 1876

It is obvious ... that there are many lay people who can counsel more effectively than the minister can in such areas as adjusting to widowhood, coming to terms with advancing age, bringing principle to bear upon business decisions, because they have experience in these fields which the minister does not personally have. At the very least, they can add a note of reality to what the minister offers.

In many cases, the group takes up where the individual counseling left off, supplementing it or even eliminating it entirely. I have been repeatedly thankful that a group was available to give steady guidance to a person who had made a fresh start in Christian living, but who still had a long way to go. This has been especially true in cases of loneliness, moderate emotional instability, inability to understand others, and need of continued guidance in the use of prayer and the Bible and the accepting and giving of love. In the nature of the case no amount of individual counseling can fully deal with these needs. The “priesthood of all believers” becomes a realized fact, with each person helping to open up for his neighbor the way to God.

... Howard B. Haines (d. 2000), “Fellowship Groups: ‘Intercessory Love’”, in Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups, John L. Casteel, ed., NY: Association Press, 1957, p. 132-133 (see the book; more at Church)

 Sunday, November 21, 2010

Some relate ... that the eagle tries the eyes of her young by turning them to the sun; which if they cannot look steadily on, she rejects them as spurious. We may truly try our faith by immediate intuitions of the Sun of Righteousness. Direct faith to act itself immediately and directly on the incarnation of Christ and His mediation; and if it be not the right kind and race it will turn its eyes aside to anything else.

... John Owen (1616-1683), A Discourse Concerning Holy Spirit, bk. VI-IX [1674], in Works of John Owen, v. IV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1852, p. 323 (see the book; see also Heb. 6:13-15; 1 Pet. 1:7; more at Knowing God)

 Monday, November 22, 2010
Commemoration of Cecilia, Martyr at Rome, c.230
Commemoration of Clive Staples Lewis, Spiritual Writer, 1963

Man’s offense “smells to heaven”: massacres, broken treaties, beatings-up, theft, kidnappings, enslavement, deportation, floggings, lynchings, rape, insult, mockery, and odious hypocrisy, make up that smell. But the thing comes nearer than that. Those of us who have little authority, who have few people at our mercy, may be thankful. But how if one is an officer in the army (or, perhaps worse, an N.C.O.)? a hospital matron? a magistrate? a prison-warden? a school prefect? a trades-union official? a Boss of any sort? in a word, anyone who cannot be “answered back?” It is hard enough, even with the best will in the world, to be just. It is hard, under the pressure of haste, uneasiness, ill-temper, self-complacency, and conceit, even to continue intending justice. Power corrupts; the “insolence of office” will creep in. We see it so clearly in our superiors; is it unlikely that our inferiors see it in us? How many of those who have been over us did not sometimes (perhaps often) need our forgiveness? Be sure that we likewise need the forgiveness of those that are under us.

... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), “The Psalms”, in Christian Reflections, ed. Walter Hooper, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1967, p. 119-120 (see the book; more at Complacency, Corruption, Forgiveness, Hypocrisy, Justice)

 Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Commemoration of Clement, Bishop of Rome, Martyr, c.100

Jesus remains unshaken as the practical man; and we stand exposed as the fools, the blunderers, the unpractical visionaries.

... George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Androcles and the lion; Overruled; Pygmalion, New York: Brentano’s, 1916, p. lxxv (see the book; more at Historical)

 Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Consider that it is not failing in this or that attempt to come to Christ, but a giving over your endeavors, that will be your ruin.

... John Owen (1616-1683), The Glory of Christ [1684, 1691], in Works of John Owen, v. I, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1850, p. 428 (see the book; see also Matt. 15:22-28; Heb. 12:1-3; more at Call, Christ, Endeavor, Failure, Sin)

 Thursday, November 25, 2010
Commemoration of Katherine of Alexandria, Martyr, 4th century
Thanksgiving (U.S.)

Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone.

... Karl Barth (1886-1968), The Epistle to the Romans, translated from the 6th edition by Edwyn C. Hoskyns, London: Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1933, 6th ed., Oxford University Press US, 1968, p. 88 (see the book; see also Rom. 3:19; more at Religion)

 Friday, November 26, 2010

Thy word remaineth for ever, which word now appeareth unto us in the riddle of the clouds, and through the mirror of the heavens, not as it is: because that even we, though the well beloved of thy Son, yet it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. He looked through the lattice of our flesh and he spake us fair, yea, he set us on fire, and we hasten on his scent. But when he shall appear, then shall we be like him, for we shall see him as he is: as he is, Lord, will our sight be, though the time be not yet.

... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Confessions [397], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1886, XIII.xvi, p. 366 (see the book; see also Cant. 1:3; 2:9; Isa. 40:6-8; 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2; more at Prayers)

 Saturday, November 27, 2010

Many we have who plead themselves to be Christians; which might be allowed them, would they not do such things as the Christian religion abhoreth. But this is the least part of their claim. They will also be the only Christians, all others who differ from them—however falsely so called, being only a drove of unbelievers, hasting unto hell.

... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. XIV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 487 (see the book; more at Church)

 Sunday, November 28, 2010

Evangelism is not an activity at all. It is rather an attitude of mind behind all Christian activity. Evangelism is not a list of certain things done, but the spirit in which they are done. That is precisely why it cannot be organized. It is perhaps best described as an attitude of mind towards God and the world—an attitude which the Church must recover if she is to be true to her Lord, and to seize hold of the present opportunity.

... C. Gordon Bridge, Evangelism: Some principles and experiments, London: SPCK, 1937, p. 8 (see also Matt. 10:7,8; more at Mission)

 Monday, November 29, 2010

Of all spirits, I believe the spirit of judging is the worst, and it has had the rule of me, I cannot tell you how dreadfully and how long... This, I find, has more hindered my progress in love and gentleness than all things else. I never knew what the words, “Judge not that ye be not judged,” meant before; now they seem to me some of the most awful, necessary, and beautiful in the whole Word of God.

... Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872), letter to his motherThe Life of Frederick Denison Maurice: Chiefly Told in His Own Letters, v. 1, ed. John Frederick Maurice, London: Macmillan, 1885, p. 129-130 (see the book; see also Luke 6:37; more at Weakness)

 Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Feast of Andrew the Apostle

After all, we are told, our salvation has already been accomplished by the grace of God... It was unkind to speak to men like this, for such a cheap offer could only leave them bewildered and tempt them from the way to which they had been called by Christ. Having laid hold on cheap grace, they were barred forever from the knowledge of costly grace. Deceived and weakened, men felt that they were strong now that they were in possession of this cheap grace—whereas they had in fact lost the power to live the life of discipleship and obedience. The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works.

... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, London: SCM Press, 1964, p. 14-15 (see the book; see also 2 Thess. 3:13; more at Obedience)

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Compilation Copyright, 1996-2010, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day.
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Last updated: 01/30/10