If you are going through hell, keep going.- Winston Churchill

Solitude has but one disadvantage; it is apt to give one too high an opinion of one's self. In the world we are sure to be often reminded of every known or supposed defect we may have.- Lord Byron, 1788 - 1824

Let all our employment be to know GOD; the more one knows

Him, the more one desires to know Him. And as knowledge is

commonly the measure of love, the deeper and more extensive our

knowledge shall be, the greater will be our love; and if our

love of GOD were great, we should love Him equally in pains and

pleasures.-Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, p. 44

Setting aside the scandal caused by His Messianic claims

and His reputation as a political firebrand, only two

accusations of personal depravity seem to have been brought

against Jesus of Nazareth. First, that He was a Sabbath-

breaker. Secondly, that He was "a gluttonous man and a

winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners"--or (to draw

aside the veil of Elizabethan English that makes it all sound

so much more respectable) that He ate too heartily, drank too

freely, and kept very disreputable company, including grafters

of the lowest type and ladies who were no better than they

should be. For nineteen and a half centuries, the Christian

Churches have laboured, not without success, to remove this

unfortunate impression made by their Lord and Master. They have

hustled the Magdalens from the Communion-table, founded Total

Abstinence Societies in the name of Him who made the water

wine, and added improvements of their own, such as various bans

and anathemas upon dancing and theatre-going. They have

transferred the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and, feeling

that the original commandment "Thou shalt not work" was rather

half-hearted, have added to it a new commandment, "Thou shalt

not play. - Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), Unpopular Opinions, London: Gollancz, 1946, New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1947, p. 3

Does a man really and sincerely boast in the cross of Christ? That is the grand question. If he does, he is my brother - we are traveling on the same road; we are journeying towards a home where Christ is all, and everything outward in religion will be forgotten. But if he does not boast in the cross of Christ, I cannot feel comfort about him. Union on outward points only, is union only for a time - union about the cross is union for eternity. Error on outward points is only a skin deep disease - error about the cross is disease at the heart. Union about outward points is a mere man-made union - union about the cross of Christ can only be produced by the Holy Spirit.~ J.C. Ryle,Old Paths, “The Cross of Christ”, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1999], 259.