Quotations for December, 2010

 Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Commemoration of Charles de Foucauld, Hermit, Servant of the Poor, 1916

Read and read again, and do not despair of help to understand the will and mind of God therein, though you think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble your heads though you have not commentaries and expositions; pray and read, and read and pray; for a little from God is better than a great deal from men. Also, what is from men is uncertain, and is often lost and tumbled over and over by men; but what is from God is fixed as a nail in a sure place... There is nothing that so abides with us as what we receive from God; and the reason why Christians at this day are at such a loss as to some things is, that they are contented with what comes from men’s mouths, without searching and kneeling before God to know of Him the truth of things. Things we receive at God’s hands come to us as truths from the minting house, though old in themselves, yet new to us. Old truths are always new to us if they come with the smell of Heaven upon them.

... John Bunyan (1628-1688), Christ a Complete Saviour [1692], p. 238 (see the book; see also Ps. 121:1,2; Matt. 6:25-34; 1 John 4:4-5; more at Bible)

 Thursday, December 2, 2010

Paul uses the example of differing opinions about food and days among the believers in Rome to teach that Christians should not despise or judge one another. Note that he does not advise them to find a happy medium between the contending opinions or to average the two extremes into a compromise. On the contrary, he admonished that “every one be fully convinced in his own mind.” He declares that God is able to make both stand, since both of them are serving the Lord in obedience to their individual convictions of His will... Each of us has to find personally what is the will of God for his own life, and let all others meet their responsibility to do the same... For God, by giving different commands to many, and putting them together according to His plan, shall accomplish ultimately His complete will.

... Kokichi Kurosaki (1886-1970), One Body in Christ, Kobe, Japan: Eternal Life Press, 1954, ch. 9 (see the book; see also Rom. 14:5; more at Church, Contention, Conviction, Judgment, Obedience, Responsibility, Service, Teach, Will of God)

 Friday, December 3, 2010
Commemoration of Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, Missionary, 1552

Love is the greatest thing that God can give us, for Himself is love: and it is the greatest thing we can give to God, for it will also give ourselves, and carry with it all that is ours. The apostle calls it the band of perfection; it is the old, and it is the new, and it is the great commandment, and it is all the commandments; for it is the fulfilling of the Law. It does the work of all the graces without any instrument but its own immediate virtue. For as the love to sin makes a man sin against all his own reason, and all the discourses of wisdom, and all the advices of his friends, and without temptation and without opportunity, so does the love of God; it makes a man chaste without the laborious arts of fasting and exterior disciplines, temperate in the midst of feasts, and is active enough to choose it without any intermedial appetites, and reaches at glory through the very heart of grace, without any other aims but those of love. It is a grace that loves God for Himself, and our neighbors for God. The consideration of God’s goodness and bounty, the experience of those profitable and excellent emanations from Him, may be, and most commonly are, the first motive of our love; but when we are once entered, and have tasted the goodness of God, we love the spring for its own excellency, passing from passion to reason, from thanking to adoring, from sense to spirit, from considering ourselves to an union with God: and this is the image and little representation of heaven; it is beatitude in picture, or rather the infancy and beginnings of glory.

... 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. 156 (see the book; see also Ps. 34:8; 1 Pet. 2:1-3; more at Love)

 Saturday, December 4, 2010
Commemoration of Nicholas Ferrar, Deacon, Founder of the Little Gidding Community, 1637

Form-criticism... has made an end of the false notion, which for a long time dominated critical scholarship, that it was possible throughout the gospels to distill from them a “Life of Jesus” that would be free from dogmatic presuppositions and not affected by any “retouching” derived from the faith of the Church. In fact, however, faith in Jesus Christ crucified and risen did not first appear at some later stage in the tradition, but was the foundation of the tradition, the very soil out of which it grew; and it is in light of that faith alone that the tradition can be understood.

This faith in Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Exalted One, explains both the things which the primitive tradition makes known to us, with its manifest concern for the factual truth of the tradition about Jesus, and at the same time the peculiar liberty which the evangelists take in making alterations in the record in points of detail. In relating the acts and words of Jesus, they do not refer back to any sort of “archives” possessed by the community... Jesus Christ is not for them a figure of past history whose proper place is in a library.

... Günther Bornkamm (1905-1990), “The Stilling of the Storm in Matthew”, as quoted in The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History, Gabriel Hebert, London: SCM Press, 1962, p. 37 (see the book; see also Ps. 16:10; Matt. 8:24-27; Acts 2:22-24; more at Christ, Church, Community, Criticism, Crucifixion, Faith, Historical, Jesus, Resurrection, Tradition, Truth)

 Sunday, December 5, 2010

We know so well what the unique quality was that held this great and beautiful pride and exquisite humility together. It lay in the relationship he held with God. We know the familiar idea of Jesus’ oneness with God: only we deal with it too much as a doctrine of the Church, not as an element in Jesus’ own experience. If we never find it in reality, in life, we cannot reveal the true Christ-like character at all—we will always be trying earnestly to be something, but on too superficial and obvious a plane.

... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 77-78 (see the book; see also Luke 22:26,27; more at Jesus)

 Monday, December 6, 2010
Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326

The Church exists, and does not depend for its existence upon our definition of it: it exists wherever God in His sovereign freedom calls it into being by calling his own into the fellowship of His Son.

And the Church exists solely by His mercy. God shuts up and will shut up every way except the way of faith which simply accepts His mercy as mercy. To that end, He is free to break off unbelieving branches, to graft in wild slips, and to call “No people” His people. And if, at the end, those who have preserved through all the centuries the visible “marks” of the Church find themselves at the same board with some strange and uncouth late-comers on the ecclesiastical scene, may we not fancy that they will hear Him say—would it not be so like him to say—“It is my will to give unto these last even as unto thee?” Final judgment belongs to God, and we have to beware of judging before the time. I think that if we refuse fellowship in Christ to any body of men and women who accept Jesus as Lord and show the fruits of His Spirit in their corporate life, we do so at our peril. It behooves us, therefore, to receive one another as Christ has received us.

... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 150 (see the book; see also Matt. 20:1-6; Rom. 11:15-21; 15:7; 1 Pet. 2:10; more at Church)

 Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Feast of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Teacher, 397

Christ did not throw about that great word Salvation. But once, in the heart of an angry crowd, their enthusiasm soured suddenly into a growling muttering. He applied it confidently to a man who, under the inspiration of His friendship, had broken with his sorry past and his old selfish, unclean ways, and was doing what he could to put things right. Now that, He said, is what I call a saved man. Very solemnly He tells us that on the Day of Judgment we shall not be asked the questions we are expecting, but others that will puzzle and startle us. Those folk on the left hand were, as far as we hear, respectable folk; their business books were straight, their home life was kindly, they themselves were clean-living men and women: nothing whatever is laid to their charge excepting this, that they lived in a world needing their help and were too absorbed in something—what it was, we are not told; it may have been their souls—to give what aid they could.

... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), From the Edge of the Crowd, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924, p. 23-24 (see the book; see also Matt. 11:15; 25:31-46; Luke 19:2-10; more at Christ, Judgment, Question, Regeneration, Repentance, Salvation)

 Wednesday, December 8, 2010

We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.

... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, p. 17 (see the book; see also Eccl. 11:1; 1 Cor. 13:4-7; more at Love)

 Thursday, December 9, 2010

The truth is that the only key to the Christian life is the life of Christ; that the only solution to the many problems that thicken round our lives as we live them is to be found in the study of His life as He lived it; and that we shall never begin to understand what we ourselves are until we have begun to understand what He is.

... R. H. J. Steuart (1874-1948), quoted in The Light of Christ, Evelyn Underhill, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 100 (see the book; see also Mark 8:27-30; more at Jesus)

 Friday, December 10, 2010
Commemoration of Thomas Merton, Monk, Spiritual Writer, 1968

Lord, remove every barrier the enemy has put in place, so that the only barrier which remains is the cross itself.

... Jon Reid (more at Prayers)

 Saturday, December 11, 2010

Good when He gives, supremely good;

Nor less when He denies:

Afflictions, from His sovereign hand,

Are blessings in disguise.

... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), attributed, The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, p. 4 (see the book; see also Heb. 12:10,11; more at Weakness)

 Sunday, December 12, 2010

The childish idea that prayer is a handle by which we can take hold of God and obtain whatever we desire, leads to easy disillusionment with both what we had thought to be God and what we had thought to be prayer.

... Robert L. Short (1932-2009), The Parables of Peanuts [1968], New York: HarperCollins, 2002, p. 305 (see the book; see also 1 Cor. 14:20; more at Prayer)

 Monday, December 13, 2010
Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304
Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784

But what is worship? What ought to result from it? What is the point and peak and heart and centre of it? Is it the offering we bring to God of praise and adoration, of thanksgiving and sacrifice, our praise, our sacrifice to Him? That has its place, not legitimate only, but imperative. And yet to put that in the foreground is to make the service fundamentally man-centered and subjective, which, face to face with God, is surely almost unthinkably unseemly. Or is the ideal we should hold before us that other extreme, so ardently pressed on us these days, that, face to face with the Lord God Almighty, High and Holy, it is for us to forget ourselves and, leaving behind our petty little human joys and needs and sins, rising above thanksgiving and petition and confession, to lose ourselves in an awed adoration of God’s naked and essential being, blessing and praising Him, not even for what he has done for us, and been for us, but for what, in Himself, He is.

To me, that seems not an advance, but a pathetic throw-back to the primitive of Brahmanism. We shall not learn to know God better, nor how to worship Him more worthily, by careful rubbing out from memory every item of the wonder of Christ’s revelation of Him. [Continued tomorrow]

... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1945, p. 24 (see the book; see also Ps. 85:8; Heb. 13:15,16; Rev. 1:5,6; more at Christ, Forget, Offering, Praise, Revelation, Sacrifice, Thanksgiving, Worship)

 Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Feast of John of the Cross, Mystic, Poet, Teacher, 1591

[Continued from yesterday]

The redeemed in Heaven crying continually, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,” give, say the scriptures, an adoration which, in depth and fullness, no angel of them all can ever equal.

Yet even then, we have not reached the centre. For when we worship, we are in God’s presence, and it is what He says and does to us that is the all-important thing, not what we say and do toward Him. Since He is here and speaking to us, face to face, it is for us, in a hush of spirit, to listen for, and to, His voice, reproving, counselling, encouraging, revealing His most blessed will for us; and, with diligence, to set about immediate obedience. This and this, upon which He has laid His hand, must go; and this and this to which He calls, must be at once begun. And here and now I start to it. That is the heart of worship, its very core and essence.

... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), Experience Worketh Hope, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1945, p. 24-25 (see the book; more at Angel, Counsel, Diligence, Encouragement, Heaven, Listening, Obedience, Worship)

 Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The tests of life are to make, not break us. Trouble may demolish a man’s business but build up his character. The blow at the outward man may be the greatest blessing to the inner man. If God, then, puts or permits anything hard in our lives, be sure that the real peril, the real trouble, is that we shall lose if we flinch or rebel.

... Maltbie D. Babcock (1858-1901), Thoughts for Every-day Living, New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1901, p. 2 (see the book; see also John 16:33; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17; more at Weakness)

 Thursday, December 16, 2010

I do not know a warning that I judge more necessary to be given to those who are called this day, than to charge them not to trade too much with their natural gifts, and abilities, and learning. These are talents in their kind; but it is the Spirit must manage all that learning they have, or it will prejudice them, and you also. I have known some good men have been so addicted to their study, that they have thought the last day of the week sufficient to prepare for their ministry, though they employ all the rest of the week in other studies. But your business is to trade with your spiritual abilities...

A man may preach a very good sermon, who is otherwise himself; but he will never make a good minister of Jesus Christ, whose heart and mind [are] not always in the work. Spiritual gifts will require continual ruminating on the things of the Gospel in our minds.

... John Owen (1616-1683), An Ordination Sermon (Sermon IV) [1678], in Works of John Owen, v. IX, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, pp. 448, 451 (see the book; see also Ps. 19:14; 119:11; 1 Tim. 4:13-15; more at Gospel)

 Friday, December 17, 2010
Commemoration of Eglantine Jebb, Social Reformer, Founder of ‘Save the Children’, 1928

Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.

... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Apologia pro Vita Sua [1864], London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1864, p. 374 (see the book; see also Luke 8:22-25; more at Bible)

 Saturday, December 18, 2010

Picture God as saying to you, “My son, why is it that day by day you rise, and pray, and genuflect, and even strike the ground with your forehead, nay, sometimes even shed tears, while you say to Me: ‘My Father, give me wealth!’ If I were to give it to you, you would think yourself of some importance, you would fancy that you had gained something very great. Yet because you asked for it, you have it. But take care to make good use of it. Before you had it, you were humble; now that you have begun to be rich you despise the poor. What kind of a good is that which only makes you worse? For worse you are, since you were bad already. And that it would make you worse you knew not; hence you asked it of Me. I gave it to you, and I proved you; you have found—and you have found out!... Ask of Me better things than these, greater things than these. Ask of Me spiritual things. Ask of Me Myself!”

... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Sermons, cccxi, 14-15 (see the book; see also Prov. 10:2; Matt. 7:7,8; 1 John 3:17; more at Knowing God)

 Sunday, December 19, 2010

In a Christian community, everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable. A community which allows unemployed members to exist within it will perish because of them. It will be well, therefore, if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community, that he may know in hours of doubt that he, too, is not useless and unusable. Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the fellowship.

... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 95-96 (see the book; see also Rom. 14:13; 1 Cor. 12:22,23; Heb. 5:12-14; more at Weakness)

 Monday, December 20, 2010

Though the light and comfort of the outward world, keeps even the worst men from any constant strong sensibility of that wrathful, fiery, dark, and self-tormenting nature, that is the very essence of every fallen, unregenerate soul; yet every man in the world has, more or less, frequent and strong intimations given him, that so it is with him, in the inmost ground of his soul.

How many inventions are some people forced to have recourse to, [in order] to keep off a certain inward uneasiness, which they are afraid of, and know not whence it comes? Alas, it is because there is a fallen spirit, a dark, aching fire within them, which has never had its proper relief, and is trying to discover itself, and calling out for help, at every cessation of worldly joy.

... William Law (1686-1761), Christian Regeneration [1739], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. V, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 140 (see the book; see also Isa. 5:11,12; Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Tim. 5:6; more at Sin)

 Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Here is the Truth in a little creed,

Enough for all the roads we go:

In Love is all the law we need,

In Christ is all the God we know.

... Edwin Markham (1852-1940), included in Masterpieces of Religious Verse, James Dalton Morrison, ed., New York: Harper & Bros., 1948, p. 140 (see the book; see also Rom. 13:10; more at Gospel, Law, Love)

 Wednesday, December 22, 2010

We are born knowing nothing and with much striving we learn but a little; yet all the while we are bound by laws that hearken to no plea of ignorance, and measure out their rewards and punishments with calm indifference. In such a state, humility is the virtue of men, and their only defense; to walk humbly with God, never doubting, whatever befall, that His will is good, and that His law is right.

... Paul Elmer More (1864-1937), Pages from an Oxford Diary, Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1972, c1937, excerpt included in The Questing Spirit, Halford E. Luccock & Frances Brentano, New York: Coward-McCann, 1947, p. 602 (see the book; see also Ps. 19:7; more at Weakness)

 Thursday, December 23, 2010

The Christ of God was not then first crucified when the Jews brought Him to the Cross; but Adam and Eve were His first real murderers; for the death which happened to them, in the day that they did eat of the earthly tree was the death of the Christ of God, or the divine life in their souls. For Christ had never come into the world as a second Adam to redeem it, had He not been originally the life and perfection and glory of the first Adam.

... William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love [1752-4], in Works of Rev. William Law, v. VIII, London: G. Moreton, 1893, p. 7 (see the book; see also Isa. 53:9-10; Rom. 5:14; 1 Cor. 15:22,45; more at Christ, Cross, Crucifixion, Death, Easter, Eden, Glory, Life, Perfection, Redemption, Tree, World)

 Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas Eve

What does this desire and this inability of ours proclaim to us but that there was once in man a genuine happiness, of which nothing now survives but the mark and the empty outline; and this he vainly tries to fill from everything that lies around him, seeking from things that are not there the help that he does not get from those that are present? Yet they are quite incapable of filling the gap, because this infinite gulf can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object—that is, God, Himself. He alone is man’s veritable good, and since man has deserted Him it is a strange thing that there is nothing in nature that has not been capable of taking His place for man: stars, sky, earth, elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever, plague, war, famine, vices, adultery, incest. And since he has lost the true good, everything can equally appear to him as such—even his own destruction, though that is so contrary at once to God, to reason, and to nature.

... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #425, p. 138-139 (see the book; see also Ps. 42; 86:10; Amos 8:11,12; more at Apologetics)

 Saturday, December 25, 2010
CHRISTMAS DAY

However high be your endeavours, unless you renounce and subjugate your own will—unless you forget yourself and all that pertains to yourself—not one step will you advance on the road to perfection.

... St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), quoted in The Light of Christ, Evelyn Underhill, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 100 (see the book; see also Rom. 6:13; more at Obedience)

 Sunday, December 26, 2010
Feast of Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr

Above all, it is not necessary that we should have any unexpected, extraordinary experiences in meditation. This can happen, but if it does not, it is not a sign that the meditation period has been useless. Not only at the beginning, but repeatedly, there will be times when we feel a great spiritual dryness and apathy, an aversion, even an inability to meditate. We dare not be balked by such experiences. Above all, we must not allow them to keep us from adhering to our meditation period with great patience and fidelity.

It is, therefore, not good for us to take too seriously the many untoward experiences we have with ourselves in meditation. It is here that our old vanity and our illicit claims upon God may creep in by a pious detour, as if it were our right to have nothing but elevating and fruitful experiences, and as if the discovery of our own inner poverty were quite beneath our dignity. With that attitude, we shall make no progress.

... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 88 (see the book; see also Ps. 119: 15,16; 1 Cor. 14:1-6; more at Prayer)

 Monday, December 27, 2010
Feast of John, Apostle & Evangelist

It is a singularly unpleasant thought that a book about Holy Communion is more likely to produce disagreement and controversy than one written on almost any other Christian subject. It seems a truly terrible thing that this Sacred Appointment, which was surely meant to unite, in actual practice divides Christians more sharply than any other part of their worship. Christians of various denominations may, and frequently do, work together on social projects, they may study the Scripture together, and they may ... pray together. But the moment attendance at the Lord’s Table is suggested, up go the denominational barriers.

... I would make a strong plea that we do not exclude from the Lord’s Table in our Church those who are undoubtedly sincere Christians. I cannot believe that to communicate together with our Lord should be regarded as the consummation, the final pinnacle, of the whole vast work of Reunion. Suppose it is the means and not the end. We might feel far more sharply the sin of our divisions and of our exclusiveness if we came humbly together to receive the Body and Blood of our Lord, and in that reception we might find such a quickening of our common devotion to Him that the divisions between us might be found not nearly so insuperable as we supposed.

... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Appointment with God, New York, Macmillan, 1954, p. 59,61 (see the book; see also Matt. 26:17-30; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 13:26; 22:19,20; John 13:1-4; Acts 2:42,46,47; 20:7; 1 Cor. 10:16,17,21,22; 11:20-34 ; more at Worship)

 Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Feast of the Holy Innocents

God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority... It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him, is to oppose Him.

... John Owen (1616-1683), Works of John Owen, v. IX, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, Sermon XIII, p. 171 (see the book; see also Gen. 6:9; Ps. 55:6; Jer. 9:2; 2 Pet. 3:11; more at Obedience)

 Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Feast of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1170

Mass evangelism undoubtedly has its place; parochial missions can make their contribution; a specially gifted evangelist can proclaim his message; the specialist Christian can make his contribution in factory, in politics and in teaching; all these are genuine contributions to the evangelistic activity of the Christian Church: but in the last analysis it is the worshipping community, that part of the Body of Christ that worships, lives and proclaims the Gospel in all its activities in any given neighborhood, which is the real evangelising agent used by the Spirit of God. It is here amidst the people, that the Church must worship and live her life. If she is faithful both to her God and to her Gospel, she will be used to hold forth the Word of light to the conversion of those that see and hear. But if its light is hid, then wherewith shall the neighborhood be lighted? And if the salt has lost its savour, wherewith shall the district be salted?

... Bryan S. W. Green (1901-1993), The Practice of Evangelism, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1951, p. 71 (see the book; more at Conversion, Evangelization, Faith, Gospel, Light, Mission, Neighbor, Preach, Teach, Worship)

 Thursday, December 30, 2010

We are so farre off from condemning any of their labours that traveiled before us in this kinde, either in this land or beyond sea, ... that we acknowledge them to have beene raised up of God, ... and that they deserve to be had of us and of posteritie in everlasting remembrance... Therefore blessed be they, and most honoured be their name, that breake the yce and give the onset upon that which helpeth forward to the saving of soules. Now what can be more available thereto, than to deliver Gods booke unto Gods people in a tongue which they understand? ... So if we, building upon their foundation that went before us, and being holpen by their labours, doe endeavour to make that better which they left so good; no man, we are sure, hath cause to mislike us; they, we perswade ourselves, if they were alive, would thanke us... For is the Kingdom of God become words or syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them if we may be free?

... Miles Smith (1554-1624), in the preface to The Authorised Version of the English Bible [1611], Cambridge: The University Press, 1909, p. 19,28 (see the book; see also Acts 2:7-12; more at Bible, Blessing, Bondage, God, Kingdom, Salvation)

 Friday, December 31, 2010
Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384

The witness has never failed. Repeatedly, the light has shone forth in the darkness, held aloft by hands that perished in the destruction of the institution that failed. Christians tend to defend the institution of their own creation with tenacity. It is institutional Christianity that repeatedly shackled the Church. The Church again and again has to lose itself in order to find itslef. It falls to rise; it fails in order to fight better. Many of the missionary institutions of the Church are expendable. They should always be treated as expendable.

... Leonard M. Outerbridge, The Lost Churches of China, Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1952, p. 10-11 (see the book; see also Dan. 6:10; John 1:4,5; Acts 5:29; more at Church, Darkness, Failure, Fight, Light, Mission, Missionary, Witness)

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        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day.
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Last updated: 02/14/10