Search This Blog

Thursday 31 August 2017

Quotes I Sep 17

“in this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any country.” - Robert E Lee, 1856 he wrote to his wife

If you're at the edge of an abyss the only progressive step is backward! -William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924-2006) _Credo_ [2004], "War and Peace"

I was redirected to another standard e-mail which amongst other things states “If you are concerned about extremism in a school or organisations that works with children, or if you think a child might be at risk of extremism, contact the National Helpline.”  I would like to do that and tell them that children in the UK are in danger from an extremist organisation I know – which is at work in every school, imposing an unevidenced and dangerous ideology on children which could cause them untold harm. How do I report the government?- David Robertson, The Wee Flea

Today Western governments (at least in public) and most of the media and academic elites feel that they can lecture us in what real Islam is, and what everyone wants. They assure us that millions of Muslims coming to the West will just integrate and that their values are basically the same as ours. But what if they are wrong? Or is it ‘racist’ or ‘Islamaphobic’ to even ask the question?  -  David Robertson ,https://theweeflea.com/2017/08/03/douglas-murray-the-strange-death-of-europe-part-one-meaningless-shallowness/

The monarchy is a political referee, not a political player, and there is a lot of sense in choosing the referee by a different principle from the players. It lessens the danger that the referee might try to start playing.- Conrad Russell, 5th Earl Russell, as quoted in The Spectator (11 January 1997).

Wednesday 30 August 2017

Quotes 31 Aug 17

I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of." —C. S. Lewis

“I think it wiser not to keep open the source of war, but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavoured to obliterated the marks of civil strife,"  - Robert E Lee. 

“in this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any country.” - Robert E Lee, 1856 he wrote to his wife

A king is a king, not because he is rich and powerful, not because he is a successful politician, not because he belongs to a particular creed or to a national group. He is King because he is born. And in choosing to leave the selection of their head of state to this most common denominator in the world- the accident of birth- Canadians implicitly proclaim their faith in human equality; their hope for the triumph of nature over political manoeuvre, over social and financial interest; for the victory of the human person.- Jacques Monet, in "The Canadian Monarchy" in The West and the Nation : Essays in Honour of W. L. Morton(1976), edited by Ramsay Cook, and Carl Berger. p. 324.

The UK needs to build a city the size of Liverpool every year to house all the new people who come to Britain each year – let alone the primary school places and the strains on the National Health Service.Whilst many immigrants work hard and overall provide a benefit to the economy – the fact is that according to a report from University College London in 2013 entitled “the fiscal effects of immigration to the UK” the overall cost to the UK economy of immigration between 1995 and 2011 was at least £114 billion.“During Britain’s EU debate one millionaire pro-EU entrepreneur insisted that migration into Britain was necessary because he didn’t want his daughter to become a “potato picker”  Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe(page 50)

Tuesday 29 August 2017

Quotes 30 Aug 17

“I think the internet is the friend of information but the enemy of thought" ~ Tim Keller http://sumo.ly/Ezec

I cannot think of the one without being encircled by the splendour of the three, nor can I discern the three without straightway being carried back to the one. - Gregory of Nazianzus in Calvin Institutes, I.13.17

God brings men into deep waters, not to drown them but to cleanse them. -John Hill Aughey (1828-1911)

“in order to incorporate as large and wide number of people as possible it is necessary to come up with a definition of inclusion that is as wide and unobjectionable as possible. If Europe is going to become a home for the world it must search for a definition of itself that is wide enough to encompass the world. This means that in the period before this aspiration collapses our values become so wide as to become meaninglessly shallow. So whereas European identity in the past could be attributed to highly specific, not to mention philosophically and historically deep foundations (the rule of law, the ethics derived from the continent’s history and philosophy), today the ethics and belief of Europe – indeed the identity and ideology of Europe – have become about ‘respect’, ‘tolerance’ and (most self abrogating of all) ‘diversity’. Such shallow self definitions may get us through a few more years, they have no chance at all being able to call on the deeper loyalties that societies must be able to reach if they are going to survive for long.”  Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe P.7

A crown
Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns.
Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights
To him who wears the regal diadem.- John Milton, Paradise Regained (1671), Book II, line 458.

Monday 28 August 2017

Quotes 29 Aug 17

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.'-Lewis

We will never be clothed in Christ's righteousness until we first understand that we have no righteousness of our own.- John Calvin‏ @JohnCalvinDaily

We Britons should rejoice that we have contrived to reach much legal democracy (we still need more of the economic) without losing our ceremonial Monarchy. For there, right in the midst of our lives, is that which satisfies the craving for inequality, and acts as a permanent reminder that medicine is not food. Hence a man's reaction to Monarchy is a kind of test. Monarchy can easily be "debunked", but watch the faces, mark well the accents of the debunkers. These are the men whose taproot in Eden has been cut — whom no rumor of the polyphony, the dance, can reach – men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire mere equality they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honor a king they honor millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead — even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served — deny it food and it will gobble poison.- C. S. Lewis, in "Equality", in The Spectator, Vol. CLXXI (27 August 1943)

“For religion had not only retreated in Western Europe. In its wake there arose a desire to demonstrate that in the 21st-century Europe had a self-supporting structure of rights, laws and institutions which could exist even without the source that had arguably given then life…… In the place of religion came the ever-inflating language of “human rights” (itself a concept of Christian origin). We left unresolved the question of whether or not our required rights were reliant on beliefs that the continent had ceased to hold or whether they existed of their own accord. This was, at the very least, an extremely big question to have left unresolved while vast new populations were being expected to “integrate”. Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe P.6

Sunday 27 August 2017

Quotes 29 Aug 17

"The family transforms ambition into service, miserliness into munificence, the weak into the strong, cowards into heroes, tenderhearted mothers into ferocious lionesses" Herman Bavinck

"Truly Christ’s love surpasses knowledge, and we adore him in awe rather than come to a complete mastery of what we study." —Vern Poythress

Great Britain is a republic with a hereditary president, while the United States is a monarchy with an elective king.- The Knoxville Journal 9 Feb 1896, Quoted in "The Politics of American Foreign Policy" by Peter Heys Gries p 170

“In 2014 women who were born overseas accounted for 27% of all live births in England and Wales, and 33% of newborn babies had at least one immigrant parent, a figure that had doubled since the 1990s.”  Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe Page 3

“David Coleman, a professor of demography at Oxford University, has shown that on current trends people who identified themselves as a ‘white British’ in the 2011 census will cease to be a majority in the United Kingdom in the 2060s. However, he stresses, if current levels of immigration to Britain continue, let alone rise, that number will move closer to the present. It would be a time when, as Prof Coleman says, Britain would become “unrecognisable to its present inhabitants”.  Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe(Page 3



Friday 25 August 2017

Quotes 26 Aug 17

Thomas Chalmers once said that the sermons of the Scottish Moderates were like a winter's day, short, clear, and cold. "The brevity," he said, "is good, and 
the clarity is better, but the coldness is fatal. Moonlight preaching ripens no harvest."

The insuperable objection to monarchy is that the king or queen is elevated, and respect is accorded, for no reason other than birth . . . No one who believes either in the claims of merit or in the pursuit of equality can defend the system.-Mervyn Jones, 1977. Quoted in 100 good reasons to be a Republican, "New Statesman", August 2000.

Well, what do you say to that?  I am just going to speak from the heart here.  What we have witnessed was a total eclipse of the facts. 
     --Don Lemon, CNN News anchorman 
      (His reaction to President Donald Trump's speech 
       at a rally in Phoenix Tuesday night.) 
      _CNN.Com_ [August 23, 2017], 
      "Don Lemon: Trump Speech A 'Total Eclipse Of The Facts'" 

“What is the effect of people coming into Europe in very large numbers who have not inherited the doubts and intuitions of Europeans? Nobody knows now, and nobody ever did. All we can be certain of is that it will have an effect. Putting tens of millions of people with their own sets of ideas and contradictions into a continent with its own set of ideas and contradictions is bound to have consequences. The presumption of those who believed in integration is that in time everybody who arrives will become like Europeans, a presumption made less likely by the fact that so many Europeans are unsure whether they want to be Europeans. A culture of self-doubt and self-distrust is uniquely unlikely to persuade others to adopt its stance. Meantime it is possible that many – at least – of the incomers will either hold fast to their own certainties or even, quite plausibly, attract Europeans in the generations to come with these certainties. It is also plausible that many of those who come will enjoy the lifestyle, will take part in the aspirations and the fruits of the economic uplift so long as it continues, and yet despise or disdain the culture into which they have come. They may use it – as President Erdogan memorably said of democracy – like a bus, and get off whenever it has taken them to their desired destination.  Douglas Murray – The Strange Death of Europe“Page 2

Thursday 24 August 2017

25 Aug 17

When you meet anyone who professes not to believe in the existence of satan and his demons, you can generally be sure that person has fallen in   ` to the clutches of satan. - Abraham Kuyper, You can do greater things than Christ, p 57

The second-most important book for every Christian: your local church’s membership directory.- The Gospel Coalition‏

The extent to which you recognise your sin is the extent to which you recognise God's grace, and to which you cherish Christ's cross.- Sam Allberry

“We confess and believe, that the Son of God, or the Eternal Word, is very and true God, having his Personal Subsistence of the Father alone, and yet for ever of himself as God, and of the Father as the Son, the Eternal Son of an eternal Father; not later in Beginning. There was never any time when he was not, not less in Dignity, not other in Substance, Begotten without diminution of his Father that begat, of one Nature and Substance with the Father; Begotten of the Father, while the Father communicated wholly to the Son, which He retained wholly in himself, because both were Infinite; without inequality of Nature, without division of Essence, neither Made, nor Created, not Adopted, but Begotten before all Time; not a Metaphorical, or subordinate God; not a God by Office, but a God by Nature, Coequal, Coessential, and Coeternal, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost.”- An Orthodox Creed (1678)

Wednesday 23 August 2017

24 Aug 17

Dry wells send us to the fountain. ~John Knox http://ow.ly/S7lI30bzJzQ

Believe Christ�s love more; than your own feeling. Your Rock doth not ebb and flow, though your sea doth. ~John Knox http://ow.ly/S7lI30bzJzQ

If Christ was not man, he could not have been a sacrifice; if Christ was not God, he could not have been a remedy. http://ow.ly/3znU30bzJzP

If Christ is in your house your neighbors will soon know it. -Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)
(In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Families")

Legislation is helpless against the wild prayer of longing that rises,
day in, day out, from all these households under my protection:  'O God,
put away justice and truth for we cannot understand them and do not want
them.  Eternity would bore us dreadfully.  Leave Thy heavens and come
down to our earth of waterclocks and hedges.  Become our uncle.  Look
after Baby, amuse Grandfather, escort Madam to the Opera, help Willy with his home-work, introduce Muriel to a handsome naval officer.  Be interesting and weak like us, and we will love you as we love ourselves. - Herod, contemplating the massacre of the innocents, in "For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio" by W. H. Auden



Tuesday 22 August 2017

Quotes 23 Aug 17


When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. -Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) _The Passionate State of Mind_ [1954]

I believe in the incomprehensibility of God. -Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) _Letter to Eveline Hanska_ [1837]

The spotlessness of his human nature was necessary to his being a sacrifice, and the union of the divine nature was necessary to his being a valuable sacrifice. ~Thomas Boston http://ow.ly/eeKK30e6vs6

Sin is finite in regard of the subject, infinite in regard of the great God against whom it is. ~Stephen Charnock http://ow.ly/wlwd30e6vs5

God never takes anything from his children, but he maketh it up in a better kind. ~Richard Sibbes http://ow.ly/YLVX30bzJzR

Monday 21 August 2017

22 Aug 17

It is wrong to follow the advice of an adversary, nevertheless it is right to hear it, that you may do the contrary; and this is the essence of good policy. -Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 1184-1291) _Gulistan_ [1258]

Advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill. - JRR Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring

Why is it that people who can’t take advice always insist on giving it?
-- James Bond, Casino Royale

If a person does not believe the full counsel of God's Word, is not living a godly life, and is not discerning in spirit, then he has no business giving you advice about anything.  Apartfrom the Spirit of God, he cannot counsel you wisely. --Charles F. Stanley (1932-    )  _Everyday Inspiration_ [2015],

The mind grows by what it feeds on. -Josiah Gilbert Holland writing under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb (1819–1881), _Lessons in Life: A Series of Familiar Essays_ "Reproduction in Kind" (1862)

Sunday 20 August 2017

Quotes 21 Aug 17

 The doctrine of the gospel is a doctrine of holiness. This it teacheth, requireth, and commandeth; this the mysteries and grace of it lead unto - John Owen‏ @John_OwenQuotes

In every loss there is only a suffering, but in every discontent there is a sin, and one sin is worse than a thousand sufferings. ~Thomas Watson http://ow.ly/d87L30e6vs7

Our whole nature had sinned, and our whole nature must suffer; Christ took our nature, that he might suffer what was due to our nature. ~Stephen Charnock http://ow.ly/wlwd30e6vs5

Human will does not by liberty obtain grace, but by grace obtains liberty.- John Calvin‏ @JohnCalvinDaily

The problem with (Scottish) nationalism isn't the name...it's the damaging impact of constantly asserting victimhood as it's core belief.- Douglas Alexander @D_G_Alexander


Friday 18 August 2017

Quotes 19 Aug 17

Religion is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. -S. Hawking
Atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the light. - J. Lennox 
Joshua D Jones  ðŸ§€ðŸ¥ƒ‏ @BlueCheezWhisky

Why do bad things happen to good people?
That only happened once - and he volunteered. - Joshua D Jones  ðŸ§€ 🥃‏ @BlueCheezWhisky

Political correctness = your rights end where my feelings start - 
Heather Gilbert

Contentment consisteth not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire; not in multiplying of wealth, but in subtracting men's desires. -Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) (In Frank S. Mead's _12,000 Religious Quotations_ [1996], "Contentment")

I have given my life for the peoples of the world, and so my life itself denounces all forms of racism, hate and violence. But be assured of this: Hate will never overcome hate, it will only breed more hate. And violence will never overcome violence, it will only breed more violence.- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Thursday 17 August 2017

Quotes 18 Aug 17

If you really want to be free from some sinful habit, ask God to make it repulsive to you.- Desiring God‏@desiringGod

Nuclear weapons could bring about the Book of Revelation in a matter of hours; they could do it today. . . . Events that we call "acts of God"--floods, earthquakes, eruptions--are flesh wounds compared to the human act of nuclear war:
a million Hiroshimas. -Martin Amis (1949-    ) _Einstein's Monsters_ [1987]

I think that each and every one of us should look inside our own hearts and examine our own personal acts of terrorism, hatred, intolerance, negativity. We're all responsible.  It's not just Bin Laden, it's all of us.  We've all contributed to hatred in the world today. - Madonna (1958-    )(In John D. Luerssen's _Mouthing Off: A Book of Rock and Roll Quotes_ [2002], "9.11.2001")

"I never thought of God as humorous," said Father Stone, coldly.  "The Creator of the platypus, the camel, the ostrich, and Man? Oh, come now!" Father Peregrine laughed. - Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)  _The Fire Balloons_ [1951]

[We] shall laugh in heaven not because of gags, not because of comical props, not because of slap-stick routines, but because of the essence of pure joy that will pervade the place. "The joy of the Lord" will be ours to a degree we never thought possible. -John Gilmore (1934-    )

Wednesday 16 August 2017

17 Aug 17

“We will never medicate the weariness of life with the empty comforts of television.”
Desiring God‏ @desiringGod

Hope is necessary in every condition.  The miseries
of poverty, sickness, of captivity, would, without
this comfort, be insupportable.
     --Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
      _The Rambler_ [1750-1752], Number 67

You always have to speak the truth. You do not always have to speak. - Saturday Live BBC Radio 4, 5 Aug 17

A Jew does not have to believe in God, only to do what he says. - Rabbi Jonathan Romayne,- Saturday Live BBC Radio 4, 5 Aug 17

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Quotes 16 Aug 17

“God created sex as a beautiful gift and placed it precisely where he knew it should be: marriage.”- Piper:

One sin liked and loved will make way for every other.~ John Owen @John_OwenQuotes

The key to forgiving your spouse again for the same sins is to remember that Jesus never stops forgiving you.Desiring God‏

"Religion brought forth Prosperity,And the daughter has murdered the Mother."  Cotton Mather

When I see so many children of Christians turn out
worse than others, when I find some of the sons of
ministers among the ringleaders in sin, what can I
do but pray that I may sooner die than have such
a curse fall on myself? If any of us have neglected home duties, let us
beware lest we have the blood of our children laid at our door. -C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 12 [1866]

Monday 14 August 2017

Quotes 15 Aug 17

Those who are Christ's are delivered from the law and escape the condemnation of it; the law has its full force upon Christ and stops there.- Jonathan Edwards‏ @Edwards_1703

The most laborious and the most self-denying Christians are the most happy~Jonathan Edwards.

Christ reveals himself to none but poor and afflicted sinners, who groan, are heavy-laden, and pine away with sorrow and misery ~ Calvin

“There is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy.”- John Calvin‏ @JohnCalvinDaily

“I simply taught, preached, wrote God’s Word:  otherwise I did nothing… The Word did it all.” ~ Martin Luther White Horse Inn‏ @WhiteHorseInn

Sunday 13 August 2017

Quotes 14 Aug 17


My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot. -Ashleigh Brilliant (1933-    (In R. Daniel Watkins' _An Encyclopedia of Compelling Quotations_ [2001], "Drama")

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.- Pope Benedict quoting Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palailogos

Today Western governments (at least in public) and most of the media and academic elites feel that they can lecture us in what real Islam is, and what everyone wants. They assure us that millions of Muslims coming to the West will just integrate and that their values are basically the same as ours. But what if they are wrong? Or is it ‘racist’ or ‘Islamaphobic’ to even ask the question?  -  David Robertson ,https://theweeflea.com/2017/08/03/douglas-murray-the-strange-death-of-europe-part-one-meaningless-shallowness/

To the unregenerate, God's will is inevitably unpleasant, simply because it is his will and not their will. https://buff.ly/2wni902 Banner of Truth‏ @BannerofTruth  6

"Sex is about timing. The world says: any time, any place. God says: my time, my place."D A Carson Quotes‏ @dacarsonspeaks

Friday 11 August 2017

Quotes 12 Aug 17

A perfect faith is nowhere to be found, so it follows that all of us are partly unbelievers.- John Calvin‏ @JohnCalvinDaily

What is important is not the number of people praying but the nature of the praying. - Timothy Keller‏Verified account @timkellernyc

Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. - H. L. Mencken (b 1880, d 1956

Better is the poor, being sound and strong of
constitution, than a rich man that is afflicted
in his body.  Health and good estate of body are above all gold, and a strong body above infinite wealth.  There is no riches above a sound body. -The Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 30:14-16http://www.biblestudytools.com/kjva/ben-sira/30.html

Everyone can master a grief but he that has it. -William Shakespeare (1564-1616) _Much Ado About Nothing_ [1598-1600]; Act III, Scene II, Line 26 http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/much_3_2.html

Thursday 10 August 2017

Quotes 11 Aug 17

Multiculuralism is in its essence anti-Europeans civilisation.  It is in its essence an and-Western ideology. - Samuel Huntingdon, Who are we? p171

'A violent storm arose... and each called to his own god.'  -Jonah 1 It's when violent storms hit that we find out who our true gods are. - Joshua D Jones  ðŸ¥ƒ‏ @BlueCheezWhisky

All these were honoured in their generations, and
were the glory of their times.  There be of them,
that have left a name behind them, that their
praises might be reported.
And some there be, which have no memorial; who are
perished, as though they had never been; and are
become as though they had never been born; and
their children after them. -The Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus 44:7-9 http://www.biblestudytools.com/kjva/ben-sira/44.html

Christianity, if false, is of no importance. If true, of infinite importance, the only thing it cant be is moderately important― C.S. Lewis

"Many blush to confess their faults, who never blush to commit them." (William Secker)

Wednesday 9 August 2017

Quotes 10 Aug 17

Thousands of people are quite willing to be saved by Christ, but when it comes to the very first step, namely, that Jesus must be accepted as ruler, lawgiver, master, king, and Lord, then they start back and reject eternal life. -C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892 _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 23 [1877]

'We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.’- A.W. Tozer

Nothing is more powerful to overcome temptation than the fear of God.- John Calvin‏ @JohnCalvinDaily

"God's providence extends to every particular thing. He guides our incomings and outgoings; he disposes of our journeys; nay, his providence extends to the smallest things, to the sparrows and the the hairs of our heads; he governs every particular passage of our lives." Richard Sibbes

"The preacher must bring his message, nothing more; and he must deliver it in the name of Christ and with authority… He must not say: “Now, listen; this is my opinion, and I will show you why,” nor must he beg his audience: “Will you not please agree with me and accept what I say?”  He must say: “THUS SAITH THE LORD!” For a preacher is an ambassador, and as such he must speak.- Herman Hoeksema , The Triple Knowledge, II: 412

Tuesday 8 August 2017

Quotes 9 Aug 17


Like David many times in the Psalms, we suffer from temporary discouragement and despair because of hardships that God allows to come our way. However, the Christian's life should not be predominately characterized by discouragement, despair, depression, and defeat. Because of the promises and power of God in Jesus Christ, we can — and should — live lives of great hope, joy, and victory.- P. Andrew Sandlin

The smallest coffins are the heaviest. - David Gibson, Destiny, p 38.

"The world is infinitely deceived in thinking that contentment lies in having more than we already have." Jeremiah Burroughs

"The worldling’s Bible is the Christian. He never reads the Book, but he reads the disciple of Christ and he judges the Christian religion by the lives of its professors! The world will learn better and will more likely be brought to know Christ when the lives of Christians are better, and when the Bible of the Christian Life shall be more in accordance with the Bible of Christian Doctrine!” ~~ Charles Spurgeo

Harmony seldom makes a headline. -Silas Bent (1882-1945) (In R. Daniel Watkins' _An Encyclopedia of Compelling Quotations_ [2001], "Journalism")

Monday 7 August 2017

Quotes 8 Aug 17

"In our culture, freedom is the ability to do what we want. In the Bible, freedom is the ability to do what we should." (Kevin DeYoung)

"Christ is the goal; Christ and him crucified is the message; taking up the cross is the way he calls us to live." - Sinclair Ferguson

"There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other
, that you can boast about it.”- Bertrand Russell

When pain & suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were. #WalkingWithGod, Timothy Keller‏@timkellernyc

"The Sabbath has a way of doing just what it was meant to do, sheltering one day in seven from the demands of economics. Its benefits cannot be commercialised. Leisure, by way of contrast, is highly commercialised. But leisure is seldom more than a bit of time ransomed from habitual stress. Sabbath is a way of life, one long since gone from this country, of course, due to secularising trends, which are really economic pressures that have excluded rest as an option, first of all from those most in need of it. 'The Givenness of Things', Marilynne Robinson, p. 115.

Sunday 6 August 2017

Quotes 7 Aug 17

Suffering is unbearable if you aren’t certain that God is for you and with you.- Timothy Keller‏

People going to Planned Parenthood generally weren't planning and they certainly weren't planning on parenthood.- Soquel by the Creek‏ @SoquelCreek

We need the Spirit’s help to grasp the greatness of God, the supremacy of Christ, and the rich benefits of the gospel. - Tony Merida, Proclamation Trust‏ @proctrust

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money;it lies in the enjoyment of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.-Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)

A great fortune is a great slavery. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BC - 65 AD)  _Moral Essays; "To Polybius on Consolation"

Friday 4 August 2017

Quotes 5 Aug 17


“Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.” —Martin Luther

God does not forsake the work which his own hands have begun.- John Calvin‏@JohnCalvinDaily

Jesus loves you and me too much to save us from the penalty of sin just to leave us under its cruel tyranny.- White Horse Inn‏ @WhiteHorseInn

"Our salvation is our inheritance, the full glory of being with the Lord for ever." —Edmund Clowney

Justice without strength is helpless, strength without
justice is tyrannical . . . . Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just. -Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) _Pensees_ [1670], Number 298

Thursday 3 August 2017

Quotes 4 Aug 17


How fast we learn in the day of sorrow!  Scripture
shines out in a new effulgence; every verse seems
to contain a sunbeam, every promise stands out in
illuminated splendor; things hard to be understood
become in a moment plain. -Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)In Burning Words of Brilliant Writers_ [1895])

Remorse is the poison of life.-"Edward Rochester"(A character in Emily Bronte's_Jane Eyre_ [1847], Chapter 14)

There is one thing that is very rare;true sorrow over one's sin.-Soren Kierkegaar(1813-1855)_Without Authority_ [1850]

Measure your growth in grace by your sensitiveness to sin -Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
      _Disciples Indeed_ [19

"John Profumo, whose high-flying political career ended in a Cold War
scandal of sex and espionage that gave way to a lifetime of atonement,
died at around midnight Thursday, according to a statement issued
today by London's Chelsea and Westminster hospital. . . . [A]fter his
fall, he withdrew permanently from public office, refused to discuss
the scandal and, instead, turned to charitable work among the poor in
the hardscrabble East End of London. " -March 10, 2006, New York Times obituary of Profumo.

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Quotes 3 Aug 17

The state of Monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods.-James I of England, speech to Parliament at Whitehall (21 March 1609), from Political Works of James I.

We're Christians. It doesn't matter who we voted for, we're called to pray for wisdom for our government.To not do so is sin. - Joshua D Jones  ðŸ§€ 🥃‏ @BlueCheezWhisky

God knows you better than you do.
God loves you more than you do.
God's more committed to your ultimate joy than you are.
Trust him.- Sam Allberry‏ @SamAllberry

Life is a voyage that's homeward-bound! -Herman Melville (1819-1891) _White Jacket_ [1850], Chapter 93

He who hath heard the Word of God can bear his silences.- Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Word of God")


Tuesday 1 August 2017

Quotes 2 Aug 17 - Lord Alfred Douglas

Last night unto my bed bethought there came
Our lady of strange dreams, and from an urn
She poured live fire, so that mine eyes did burn
At the sight of it.  Anon the floating fame
Took many shapes, and one cried: “I am shame
That walks with Love, I am most wise to turn
Cold lips and limbs to fire; therefore discern
And see my loveliness, and praise my name.”

And afterwords, in radiant garments dressed
With sound of flutes and laughing of glad lips,
A pomp of all the passions passed along
All the night through; till the white phantom ships
Of dawn sailed in. Whereat I said this song,
“Of all sweet passions Shame is the loveliest.”
In Praise of Shame, Lord Alfred Douglas 1894 Douglas later denied that this was about homosexual love saying it concerned the shame of nakedness after the fall. But shame was a term for things homosexual then, hence now we have Pride.

‘Sweet youth,
Tell me why, sad and sighing, thou dost rove
These pleasent realms? I pray thee speak me sooth
What is thy name?' He said, ‘My name is Love.'
Then straight the first did turn himself to me
And cried, ‘He lieth, for his name is Shame,
But I am Love, and I was wont to be
Alone in this fair garden, till he came
Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill
The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.'
Then sighing, said the other, ‘Have thy will,
I am the love that dare not speak its name.'
Two Loves, Lord Alfred Douglas
Douglas’s most famed line has now become the love shouted out loud.

Quotes 1 Aug 17 - Monarchy

If instead of insisting on rights everyone does his duty, there will immediately be the rule of order established among mankind. There is no such thing as the divine right of kings to rule and the humble duty of the ryots to pay respectful obedience.-Mohandas Gandhi, "Rights or Duties?", Harijan Magazine, 6 July 1947. Quoted in Mahatma Gandhi: The Essential Writings, edited by Judith M. Brown. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008. (p.91)

Of the various forms of government that have prevailed in the world, a hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule.-Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, (1776-1788).

A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright.-Robert A. Heinlein in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)

Humans should not worship other humans at all, but if they must do so it is better that the worshipped ones do not occupy any positions of political power.-Christopher Hitchens, The Monarchy: A Critique of Britain's Favourite Fetish (1990), Chatto Counterblasts

We know well that the Primitive Church in her greatest purity were but voluntary congregations of believers, submitting themselves to the Apostles, and after to other Pastors, to whom they did minister of their Temporals, as God did move them. So as Ecclesiasticus, cap. 17, says, God appointed a Ruler over every people, when he divided nations of the whole Earth. And therefore if a people will refuse all government, it were against the law of God; and yet if a popular State will receive a Monarchy it stands well with the Law of God.-Sir Henry Hobart, 1st Baronet, C.J., Bruton v. Morris (1614), Lord Hobart's Rep. 149; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 100.