Quotes Jan 1

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it" G K Chesterton

Popular capitalism, which is the economic expression of liberty, is a far more attractive means for diffusing power in our society. Socialists cry "Power to the people" & raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they mean - power over people, power to the State.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

A thorough and clear sight of Jesus my Lord, will make me happy forevermore.-Samuel Rutherford

You have brought me, gracious God, through the year. Accept my thanks. I trust you for what you have withheld as I bless you for what you have given. May goodness & mercy follow me throughout ... life & bring me at last to the house of the Lord, where I shall be with you forever. - F B Meyer

Quotes Dec 31

If we were to understand how dear we are to God, our relation to Him, our value in His eyes, and how He protects us by His faithful promises and gracious presence, we would not tremble at every appearance of danger. - John Flavel@FlavelJohn

he application of collective guilt, running from one generation to another, is a dangerous doctrine which would leave few modern nations unscathed.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it" - G K Chesterton

Three genders: male, female and mentally ill.- Scary Biscuit@ScaryBiscuit

Quotes Dec 29 HB William E. Gladstone 1809

All the wonders of the Greek civilization heaped together are less wonderful than the single book of Psalms. Greece had all that this world could give her; but the flowers of Paradise blossomed in Palestine alone. --Gladstone, _Place of Ancient Greece_, 1865

Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right. - William E. Gladstone (1809 - 1898)

Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, they can't hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and trouble. ~ William Gladstone

Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic. William Ewart Gladstone

No man ever became great or good except through many and great mistakes.-- Gladstone

Justice delayed is justice denied. --William Ewart Gladstone

Quotes Dec 28

 "As we ourselves have run down the hill with the shepherds, looked at the baby, and heard the shepherds' testimony, have we believed? If we have, that is a happy thing indeed, for it means we are now Christians. That is fine, but then we must ask ourselves: what difference has this looking made in our present lives?" ~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, No Little People, What Difference Has Looking Made? (A Christmas Study)

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.-Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

An obedient wife is the likeliest woman in the world to command her husband.—George Swinnock

Quotes Dec 27

True knowledge of God corresponds to what faith discovers in the written Word.—John Calvin

And Then all countries and nations, even those which are now at most ignorant, shall be full of life knowledge. Great knowledge shall prevail everywhere. It may be hoped that then many of the Negroes and Indians Will be divines and that excellent books Will be published in Africa, in Ethiopia in Tartary, and other now  most barbarous country and not only learned  men but, others, of  more ordinary education shall then be very knowing in religion. Jonathan Edwards, The history of redemption-  (So are we now in his millennium?)

If Jesus be merely an example, He is not a worthy example; for He claimed to be far more.- J. Gresham Machen@jg_machen

Quotes Dec 26

Merry Christmas. Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.– G.K. Chesterton,

Then shall the many nations of Africa, Home now seem to be in a state but little above the beasts and in many respects much bellow them, revisit kid glorious light and delivered from all the darkness and shall become a civil, Christian, understanding and holding people. Then shall the vast continent of America, which now in great part is covered with barbarous ignorance and cruelty, be everywhere covered with glorious Gospel light and Christian love, and indeed instead of worshipping the devil as now they do, they shall serve God and praises shall be sung everywhere to the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed saviour of the world. So we may expect it will be in that great and populous part of the world, the East Indies, which are now mostly inhabited by the worshippers of the devil.- Jonathan Edwards, The history of redemption (So are we now in his millennium?)

“Being on the moon had a profound spiritual impact upon my life. Before I entered space with the Apollo 15 mission in July of 1971, I was a lukewarm Christian, to say the least! I was even a silent Christian, but I feel the Lord sent me to the moon so I could return to the earth and share his Son, Jesus Christ. The entire space achievement is put in proper perspective when one realizes that God walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon. I believe that God walked on the earth 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ. I have totally yielded my life to the Lord’s service to tell people everywhere about the life-changing message of Christ.” Colonel Jim Irwin, Commander of the Apollo 15 mission and the 8th man to walk on the moon.

“I will not convert. I believe in my religion and Jesus Christ. And why should I be the one to convert and not you?” Asia Bibi boldly asks staring her executioners in the face.”... The only Western leaders to welcome persecuted Christians are so-called far right, racist, nationalist, white supremacist, anti-immigrant, anti-open border, populists like Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who has offered Asia Bibi asylum in Italy. - NO ROOM IN THE INN FOR ASIA BIBI THIS CHRISTMAS, Jules Gomes

Quotes Dec 25

Without the moral values that are rooted in Christianity... which have formed and have been developed over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity... And we think it is right and natural to preserve moral (Christian) values".- PUTIN: "

GREENFORD (GREAT), a village and a parish in Brentford district, Middlesex. The village stands gear the river Brent and the Paddington canal, 1½ mile N by W of Hanwell r. station, and 4 NW by N of Brent ford; was known to the Saxons as Greneforde; is a long, straggling place; and has a post office, of the game of Greenford, under Hanwell, London W. The parish comprises 2, 009 acres. Real property, £5, 426. Pop., 557. Houses, 114. The property is much subdivided. The manor was given by King Etheldred to Westminster Abbey, and belongs now to the bishop of London. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London. Value, £700. * Patron, King's College, Cambridge. The church is ancient, of flint, and good; and contains some tombs and brasses. A school has £214 from endowment; and other charities have £35.-  John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales , 1870-2 (This is where we live)

What am I the better if I can dispute that Christ is God, but have no sense of sweetness in my heart that he is a God in covenant with my soul? What will it avail me to evince, by testimonies and arguments, that he hath made satisfaction for sin, if it through my unbelief, the wrath of God abideth on me? ... Will it be any advantage to me, in the issue, to profess and dispute that God works the conversion of a sinner by the irresistible grace of his spirit, if I was never acquainted experimentally with the deadness and utter impotence to good ... which is in my own soul by nature? ... It is the power of truth in the heart alone that will make us cleave unto it indeed in an hour of temptation. Let us, then, not think that we are in anything the better for our conviction of the truths of the great doctrines of the gospel ... unless we find the power of the truths abiding in our all hearts.- John Owen Works, XII:52

Quotes Dec 24 IM William Makepeace Thackeray, d.1863

'Tis not the dying for a faith that's so hard, Mister Harry-- every man of every nation has done that-- 'tis the living up to it that is difficult, as I know to my cost. --W. M. Thackeray, Henry Esmond

The wicked are wicked, no doubt, and they go astray and they fall, and they come by their deserts; but who can tell the mischief which the very virtuous do? (The Newcomes ch. 20) William Makepeace Thackeray

 To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; to forego even ambition when the end is gained - who can say this is not greatness?  - William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811 - 1863

A good laugh is sunshine in a house. --- William Makepeace Thackeray

 'Tis strange what a man may do, and a woman yet think him an angel. --William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) _Henry Esmond_ [1852], Book I, Chapter 7

Quotes dec 22

My love,
she said
that when all's considered
we're only
machines.

I chained her to my
bedroom wall
for future use
and she cried
Steve Turner, The Conclusion

This is that glory of Christ whereof one view by faith will scatter all fears, answer all the objections, and give relief against all the despondencies, of poor tempted souls; and an anchor it will be to all believers, which they may cast within the veil, to hold them firm and steadfast in all trials, storms and temptations in life and death, - John Owen, Works I. p.359

Oftentimes they go for water to the well, and are not able to draw ... They seek to promises for refreshment, and find no more savour in them than in the white of an egg: but when the same promise are brought to remembrance by the Spirit the Comforter, who is with them and in them, House full of life and power are they.- John Owen, Works XI p.347

Quotes Dec 21

He who has God as his portion is destitute of nothing which is requisite to constitute a happy life.- John Calvin@JohnCalvinDaily

“If you are single today, the portion assigned to you for today is singleness. It is God’s gift. Singleness ought not be viewed as a problem, nor marriage as a right. God grants either as a gift.” - Elisabeth Elliot

“The EU has no intention of giving us a good deal. It is only interested in humiliating us. It is making an example of us to show other EU states what happens when you dare to defy Brussels. We should walk away from this nonsense, with no deal.”-Brendan O’Neill on BBC Ulster

   We speak of these things in a poor, low, broken manner, -- we teach
   them as they are revealed in the Scripture, -- we labour by faith to
   adhere unto them as revealed; but when we come into a steady, direct
   view and consideration of the thing itself, our minds fail, our hearts
   tremble, and we can find no rest but in a holy admiration of what we
   cannot comprehend. Here we are at a loss, and know that we shall be so
   whilst we are in this world; but all the ineffable fruits and benefits
   of this truth are communicated unto them that do believe. John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ,p 229

Britain was taken into the EU by stealth. We were told integration would not cost Britain its sovereignty. And yet sovereignty was diluted time and again. The Brexit vote was a reckoning with decades of deception, - Joel Rodrigues.

Quoted 20 Dec

‘Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself ‘-Tolstoy

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
‘We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,’
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December."
~Oliver Herford, 'I Heard a Bird Sing.'

“The Remainer Theresa May doesn’t understand Brexit at all. She thinks Brexit voters are obsessed with immigration and voted to leave the EU because we hate foreigners. Actually we voted to leave the EU because we believe in sovereignty and democracy.”- Brendan O’Neill on Sky

“If you are single today, the portion assigned to you for today is singleness. It is God’s gift. Singleness ought not be viewed as a problem, nor marriage as a right. God grants either as a gift.” - Elisabeth Elliot

Quoted Dec 19

If we emphasise the word without the Spirit, then we will dry up, if we emphasise the Spirit without the word we will blow(!), up but if we emphasise the Spirit and the word we will grow up. Owen had his own version of this 'he that would utterly separate the Spirit from the word has as good as burnt his Bible'. - Sinclair B Ferguson, Some pastors and teachers. p. p244, Owen Works III:192

He who was eternally in the form of God, -- that is, was essentially
   so, God by nature, equally participant of the same divine nature with
   God the Father; "God over all, blessed for ever;" who humbleth himself
   to behold the things that are in heaven and earth, -- he takes on him
   the nature of man, takes it to be his own, whereby he was no less truly
   a man in time than he was truly God from eternity. And to increase the
   wonder of this mystery, because it was necessary unto the end he
   designed, he so humbled himself in this assumption of our nature, as to
   make himself of no reputation in this world, -- yea, unto that degree,
   that he said of himself that he was a worm, and no man, in comparison
   of them who were of any esteem.- - John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ p.229

Quotes Dec 18

God's heart is full of love, whilst the face of providence is full of frowns. - John Flavel, Works IV 426, The Mystery of Providence.p.133

The illustrations and metaphors of scripture for Christian progress are generally horticultural and not in any sense mechanical. Consequently the development and growth of Christian grace and piety are not something, to be anticipated with mechanical regularity. Like a plant the Christian grows not my constant equal stages of development , 'but but by sudden gusts and motions ... so the growth of believers consists principally in some intense, vigorous actings of grace on great occasions. - Sinclair B Ferguson, Some pastors and teachers, p.269 quoting John Owen, Works III 397

He who was eternally in the form of God, -- that is, was essentially
   so, God by nature, equally participant of the same divine nature with
   God the Father; "God over all, blessed for ever;" who humbleth himself
   to behold the things that are in heaven and earth, -- he takes on him
   the nature of man, takes it to be his own, whereby he was no less truly
   a man in time than he was truly God from eternity. And to increase the
   wonder of this mystery, because it was necessary unto the end he
   designed, he so humbled himself in this assumption of our nature, as to
   make himself of no reputation in this world, -- yea, unto that degree,
   that he said of himself that he was a worm, and no man, in comparison
   of them who were of any esteem.- - John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ p.229

Quotes Dec 17

“If we cannot get bacon, let us bless God that there are still some cabbages in the garden.”- Charles Spurgeon

God rest ye merry gentlethings
Let gender not dismay,
Remember Christ our Saviour
Created you this way.
To self-identify is king
A plant-pot you may be
Oh-o good tidings of di-versity – versity
Oh-o tidings of di-vers-sity!
Cranmer's Blog

(Calvin) believed that the fallen human mind is 'a perpetual factory of idols' and therefore deeply resistance to the iconoclasm grace. - Sinclair B Ferguson, Some pastors and teachers, p.67

But had we the tongue of men and angels, we were not able in any just
   measure to express the glory of this condescension; for it is the most
   ineffable effect of the divine wisdom of the Father and of the love of
   the Son, -- the highest evidence of the care of God towards mankind.
   What can be equal unto it? what can be like it? It is the glory of
   Christian religion, and the animating soul of all evangelical truth.
   This carrieth the mystery of the wisdom of God above the reason or
   understanding of men and angels, to be the object of faith and
   admiration only. A mystery it is that becomes the greatness of God,
   with his infinite distance from the whole creation, -- which renders it
   unbecoming him that all his ways and works should be comprehensible by
   any of his creatures, - John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christp 229

Quotes Dec 15

Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-days world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.
GEORGE HERBERT , Prayer

“A second referendum would be a losers’ vote. It would be the political class saying to voters: ‘You gave the wrong answer, you idiots, and now you must get it right.’ It wouldn’t be a democratic act — it would be an attempt to thwart a democratic act.” -Brendan O’Neill on Sky

"Maintaining a certain level of comfort is the agenda of an enormous amount of American evangelicalism but…. It needs to be said loud and clear that in the kingdom of God there ‘ain't no comfort zone and never will be." ~ J.I. Packer

“ Calvin’s attachment to Christmas ran deeper than mere preservation of tradition. For the Frenchman, Christmas and Easter formed the two most holy days of the year, and he set aside his regular practice of preaching through the books of the Bible, known as lectio continua, to hold sermons on the Nativity and the Passion of Christ. Some of Calvin’s most moving words from the pulpit flowed from his preaching at Christmas.“

Quotes 14 Dec

Separate me from my wife and children, ruin my reputation, destroy my life and my family – the authorities are capable of doing all of these things. However, no one in this world can force me to renounce my faith; no one can make me change my life; and no one can raise me from the dead...   Jesus is the Christ, son of the eternal, living God. He died for sinners and rose to life for us. He is my king and the king of the whole earth yesterday, today, and forever. I am his servant, and I am imprisoned because of this. I will resist in meekness those who resist God, and I will joyfully violate all laws that violate God’s laws.  - Wang Yi, imprisoned in China 2018

In 1897 the first Zionist Congress was held in Basle... Herzl wrote in his diary: "if I were to sum up the Basel Congress in one word - which I shall not do openly - it would be this: at Basle I have founded the Jewish state. If I were to say this today, I would be met by universal laughter. In five years, perhaps, and certainly in 50 everyone will see it." On May 14 1948, over three months before the 50 years Herzl's prophecy had run their course, the Jewish state of Israel was proclaimed. - H L Ellison, The Christian Approach to the Jew, P. 30

There is a state of perfect peace with God to be attained under imperfect obedience.  –John Owen

Quotes 13 Dec

While there is a devil and a wicked man in the world, never expect a charter of exemption from trouble—Thomas Watson

Depend upon it, however, let men rebel against this truth as they will, that God has determined the end from the beginning. He has left no screw loose in the machine, He has left nothing to chance or accident.-  Charles Spurgeon@CHSpurgeon

Christianity has occasionally calmed the brutal German lust for battle, but it cannot destroy that savage ecstasy....When once the restraining talisman, the Cross, is broken...the old stone gods will leap to life among forgotten ruins, and Thor will crash down his mighty hammer on the Gothic cathedrals. - Heinrich Heine, in Robert Carr, The Paths of Dictatorship

I bequeath all my property to my wife on the condition that she remarry immediately. Then there will be at least one man to regret my death.- Heinrich Heine

Matrimony - the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented. Heine (1797-1856)

IM Robert Browning Dec 12 1812-

And gain is gain, however small.- Robert Browning (1812-1889) In "Correct Quotes for DOS," WordStar International, 1991.

There are those who believe something, and therefore will tolerate nothing; and on the other hand, those who tolerate everything, because they believe nothing. -R. Browning

Stung by the splendour of a sudden thought. Robert Browning (1812-1889) "A Death in the Desert."

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?"
Robert Browning 1812-89 (Andrea del Sarto (1855) L.97

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!
Robert Browning (1812 - 1889) "'Rabbi Ben Ezra"

Quotes Dec 11

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure
without losing your enthusiasm.
 ~Winston Churchill

This is the choice before us: either try to
revolutionize the world and break under it, or
revolutionize ourselves and remake the world.
     --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979)
      _Crossways_ [1984]

“The power of Kings and Magistrates is only derivative, transferr'd and committed to them in trust from the People, in whom the power yet remaines fundamentally, and cannot be tak'n from them, without a violation of thier natural birthright.”- John Milton,

If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.- Timothy Keller@timkellernyc

Quotes Dec 10

“There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord. Amen.” ~ George H.W. Bush

I am persuaded that love and humility are the highest attainments in the school of Christ and the brightest evidences that He is indeed our Master. (John Newton)

Christ was wrapped in swaddling clothes the we might be wrapped in Christ. - Chris Roberts, sermon 9 Dec 2018

Quotes Dec 8

An older Christian in my life had more peace than me about a hard situation today.
I said, “You have more faith than me.”
He responded, “No, I have more experience with a faithful God.” - howertonjosh@howertonjosh

“My life is dominated by the notion of God...I am a believer – in both God’s presence and His absence...In the end, with all respect, I haven’t the stomach for atheism...It feels like a dead end to me, unhelpful and bad for the business of writing.”
- Nick Cave on God.

When I behold Thy works on high,
The moon that rules the night,
And stars that well adorn the sky,
Those glorious worlds of light;
Lord, what is man, or all his race,
Who dwells so far below,
That Thou shouldst visit him with grace,
And love his nature so? -
Isaac Watts@Wondrous_Cross

The only person whose opinion counts, the creator God of the universe, looks at me and he finds me more valuable than all the jewels in the earth. How can we worry about being snubbed now? How can we care that much about what we look like in the mirror? -Timothy Keller@timkellernyc

“There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people. Help us to remember it, Lord. Amen.” ~ George H.W. Bush

Quotes Dec 7

“There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified.” Edward Heath, prime ministerial TV broadcast, January 1973.

I learned ... that one can never go back, that one should not ever try to go back - that the essence of life is going forward. Life is really a one-way street, isn't it? Agatha Christie

To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy, but one would not be without that experience.   - Agatha Christie, 1890 - 1976

Most successes are unhappy. That's why they are successes - they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice. - Agatha Christie (1890-1976)Remembered Death, 1945.

Quotes Dec 6

'What we love
is what captures us.
Whoever has our love
has the whole of us;
love causes us
to give ourselves away,
as nothing else can.
Our love is like the rudder of a ship -
where it is turned,
there the ship goes.' -John Owen

Infants do not induce, or cooperate in, their own procreation and birth; no more can those who are 'dead in trespasses and sins' prompt the quickening operation of God's Spirit within them . J I Packer

The New Testament word for repentance means changing one's mind so that one's views, values, goals, and ways are changed and one's whole life is lived differently. The change is radical, both inwardly and outwardly; mind and judgement, will and affections, behaviour and lifestyle, motives and purposes, are all involved. Repenting means starting a new life.
J. I. Packer, Concise Theology, PG. 162.

The natural response to denials of Satan's existence is to ask, Who then runs his business.-- J.I. PACKER

Quotes Dec 5

"For what accords better and more aptly with faith than to acknowledge ourselves divested of all virtue that we may be clothed by God, devoid of all goodness that we may be filled by Him, the slaves of sin that He may give us freedom, blind that He may enlighten, lame that He may cure, and feeble that He may sustain us; to strip ourselves of all grounds of glorying that He alone may shine forth glorious, and we be glorified in Him?" -- John Calvin, Letter to the King of France.

A church that does not say the historic creeds on a regular basis is like a nation that does not remember her 'War of independence' or her 'fFight for Freedom'. She has forgotten where she has come from. She has forgotten who she is. She has despised her mother. For the great historic creeds are the wisdom of her mother passed down through the centuries and across the millennia. Ignorance can be excuse to a point, but not ingratitude. Our mother Kirk has left us with a rich inheritance and we would do well to guard the good deposit with thanksgiving. -Jonathan Gibson and Mark Earngey, Worshipping in the tradition. Principles from the past for the present.  in Reformation Worship,P63

If necessary, the ministers of the word are admonished not to go too much beyond the school of their text in their preaching. Rather they should as much as possible take all their ugh teaching, admonishment,exhortaton, rebuke, and comfort from the present text . -Martin Micronius, On the preaching of the word, ch 8 in Reformation Worship,P517

Quotes Dec 4

"[Man,] In his own naturalistic theories, with the uniformity of cause and effect in a closed system, with an evolutionary concept of a mechanical, chance parade from the atom to man, man has lost his unique identity. As he looks out upon the world, as he faces the machine, he cannot tell himself from what he faces. He cannot distinguish himself from other things."~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time

.. one of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God,we are with God all along, that while we need to be reassured of God's arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already at home. While we wait, we have to trust, to have faith, but it is God's grace that gives us that faith. As with all spiritual knowledge, two things are true, and equally true, at once. The mind can't grasp paradox; it is the knowledge of the soul.- Michelle Blake The Tentmaker, 1999, p. 153 (in Ch. 16)

A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes...and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent. -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer ,in a letter:, 1943

Advent is the time of promise; it is not yet the time of fulfilment. We are still in the midst of everything and in the logical inexorability and relentlessness of destiny. To eyes that do not see, it still seems as though the final dice are being cast down here in these valleys, on these battlefields, in these camps and prisons and bomb shelters. Those who are awake sense the working of the other powers and can await the coming of their hour.
Space is still filled with the noise of destruction and annihilation, the shouts of self-assurance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and helplessness. But round about the horizon the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on them already the first mild light of the radiant fulfilment to come. From afar sound the first notes as of pipes and voices, not yet discernable as a song or melody. It is all far off still, and only just announced and foretold. But it is happening, today.- Alfred Delp, in a Nazi prison shortly before he was hanged for "treason."

Quotes Dec 3

For whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard , toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evils. It is the heavenly Father's will s to exercise them as to put his own children to a definite test. Beginning with Christ, his firstborn, he follows his plan with all his children. -Calvin Letters,I:230

God is himself a father and knows what is best for his children. - Calvin to Viret on the death of Jacques Calvin's son, Letters I:231

1 I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
my only trust and Savior of my heart,
who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;
I pray thee from our hearts all cares to take.

2 Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,
reigning omnipotent in every place:
so come, O King, and our whole being sway;
shine on us with the light of thy pure day.

3 Thou art the life, by which alone we live,
and all our substance and our strength receive;
sustain us by thy faith and by thy power,
and give us strength in every trying hour.

4 Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
no harshness hast thou and no bitterness:
O grant to us the grace we find in thee,
that we may dwell in perfect unity.

5 Our hope is in no other save in thee;
our faith is built upon thy promise free;
Lord, give us peace, and make us calm and sure,
that in thy strength we evermore endure.
Attributed to Calvin, Sinclair B Ferguson, Some pastors and teachers, p.19

Quotes Dec 1

Muslim leaders had been tolerant and even gracious to Christians, rebuilding the church of Edessa after it was damaged by an earthquake in 679. But in the late seventh century things began to change. Peter Francopan: The silk roads P. 88

All the 101 members of the supreme military leadership, all but ten were arrested; of the 91 detained, all but nine were shot. These included three of the five marshals all the Soviet Union and two of its admirals, as well as the entire senior air force personnel, every head of every military district, and almost every divisional commander. The Red Army was brought to its knees - Peter Francopan: The silk roads P. 362 on Stalin's purges  pre-war.

Lord, I offer my heart to thee, promptly and sincerely. -Calvin's motto quoted in Sinclair B Ferguson, Some pastors and teachers, p.10

By the time he (Calvin0 WAS 26 he was a man on the run; he had become a pilgrim and would live the rest of his life as a refugee. -Sinclair B Ferguson, Some pastors and teachers, p.11

Quotes Nov 30

"Our insecurities, fears, and doubts can never be banished by the knowledge of who we are. They can only be banished by the knowledge of 'I AM.'" (Jen Wilkin)

The support of the Jews in the Middle East was vital for the propagation and spread of the word of Muhammad... Leading Jews Jews in the town, pledged their support to Muhammad in return for your guarantees of the mutual defence. - Peter Francopan: The silk roads P. 79

A letter sent in the 1640s by a prominent cleric reports that the new rulers (Muslims) not only did not fight against Christians,'but even commend our religion, show honour to the priests and monasteries and saints of our Lord', and make gifts endowing religious institutions -Peter Francopan: The silk roads P. 82

Ramisht of Siraf in the Persian Gulf ... personally funded new fabric Chinese cloth 'whose value cannot be estimated' according to one account of this period, that was draped over the Ha'ba after the original became damaged. Peter Francopan: The silk roads P. 148

Nishapur was one of the locations that suffered devastation. Every living being from women and children and the elderly to livestock and domestic animals -what that should as the order was given that not even dogs or cats be left alive. All the corpses were piled up in a series of the enormous pyramids as an gruesome warning of the consequences of standing up to the Mongols' Peter Francopan: The silk roads P. 160

Quotes Nov 29

God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with
other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our
lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ
for strength each day.  The weaker we feel, the harder
we lean.  And the harder we lean, the stronger we
grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away.
To live with your "thorn" uncomplainingly--that is,
sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help
others, even though every day you feel weak--is
true sanctification.  It is true healing for the
spirit.  It is a supreme victory of grace.
--J.I. Packer (1926-    )

A true understanding and humble estimate of oneself
is the highest and most valuable of all lessons.  To
take no account of oneself, but always to think well
and highly of others is the highest wisdom and
perfection.--Thomas A' Kempis (1380-1471)
_The Imitation Of Christ_ [c. 1420], Book 1, Chapter

Roman Catholicism continued to see the inner structure of the state in the old pagan way as the total bond of all natural society, and continue to deduce the principles for political life though natural reason apart from revelation -The christian idea of the state, Herman Dooyeweerd, p12

Quotes Nov 28

...never think that you are kneeling or standing alone, rather think that the whole of Christendom all devout Christians, are standing there besides you and you are standing among them in a common, united petition which God cannot disclaim. — Martin Luther.

Everyone thinks their own bias is objectivity. The first step to real objectivity is acknowledging one's own bias.- John Edward Philips

Thomas Aquinas prince of Roman Catholic scholasticism, made natural reason independent of the revelation of God in Christ Jesus. Learning, morality, political life and natural theology were then as autonomous areas of natural reason, practised in a pagan Aristotelian manner. - The christian idea of the state, Herman Dooyeweerd, p7

But neither marriage, nor family, nor blood relations, nor the free types of social existence, whether they are organised or not, can be considered as part of an all embracing state. Every societal relationship has received from God its own structure and law life, sovereign in its own sphere. The Christian world and life view, illumined by the revealed word of God, that posits sphere sovereignty of the temporal life spheres over against the pagan totality idea. - The christian idea of the state, Herman Dooyeweerd, p11

Quotes Nov 27

"For Christ by dying hath discharged the debt of death. Oh new and ineffable mystery! He was bound that he might set free; he was imprisoned that he might liberate; he suffered that he might heal; he died to restore life; he was buried to raise us up! He rose from death and trampled it down." -- Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, 313-326.

I'm not denyin' the women are foolish; God Almighty
made 'em to match the men.
     --George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819-1880)
      _Adam Bede_ [1859], Chapter 53

In the Jewish Talmud it is prohibited for a person to pray more than three times a day, as God is weary of prayer every hour. -Iskander Jadeed, How do we pray, P.30

I durst then ask the worst that heareth me, dare you now be drunk, or gluttonous, or worldly. Dare you be voluptuous,proud or fornicators any more? Dare you go home and make a jest at piety as you have done? - Richard Baxter preaching before Charles II n J I Packer, A man for all ministries,p.15

Quotes Nov 26

I believe there will be more in heaven than in hell. If you ask me why I think so, I answer, because Christ in everything is to have the preeminence (Col. 1:18), and I cannot conceive how he could have the preeminence if there are to be more in the dominions of Satan than in paradise.- Charles Spurgeon

God isn't asking you to be thankful.  He's asking you
to give thanks.  There's a big difference.
One response involves emotions, the other your choices,
your decisions about a situation, your intent, your
"step of faith."
--Joni Eareckson-Tada (1949-    )
      _A Place of Healing_ [2010],
      "How Do I Regain My Perspective?"

I bear my testimony that there is no joy to be found in all this world like that of sweet communion with Christ. I would barter all else there is of heaven for that. Indeed, that is heaven.- Charles Spurgeon

I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him.- Charles Spurgeon

Quotes Nov 24

Our joy is like the wave as it dashes on the shore—it throws us on the earth. But our sorrows are like that receding wave which sucks us back again into the great depth of godhead. We would have been stranded and left high and dry on the shore if it had not been for that receding wave, that ebbing of our prosperity, which carried us back to our Father and our God again.- Charles Spurgeon

Faith--and good fire insurance--buoyed Barbara
Kramer, 79, whose two-bedroom home and car
were destroyed.
"Apparently, I lost everything but I haven't lost
anything," she said.  "We're Christians and
everything we have belongs to the Lord so
if it's gone, it's just things."
--Alastair Gee _The Guardian_ [November 22, 2018],
"Thanksgiving In Paradise: Californians Seek Meaning After Inferno"

Our sorrows are all, like ourselves, mortal…They come, but blessed be God, they also go. We suffer today, but we shall rejoice tomorrow.- Charles Spurgeon

Quotes Nov 22

If all my senses were to contradict God, I would deny every one of them and sooner believe myself to be out of my right mind than believe that God could lie.-- Charles Spurgeon

"Europe is belatedly discovering how unbelievably stupid it was to import millions of people from cultures that despise Western values and which often promote hatred toward the people who have let them in."- Thomas Sowell@ThomasSowell

"Where’s his religion, I should like to know, when he goes flying in the face of the Bible like that? Threescore-and-ten’s the mark, and no man with a conscience, and a proper sense of what’s expected of him, has any business to live longer."- Charles Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit, chapter 11:

Unity in Christ through union with Christ is God’s gift to all believers and is a reality that the church is under obligation to display to the world every way it can.- J. I. Packer@DrJIPacker

In general, the art of government consists in taking
as much money as possible from one class of
citizens to give to the other.
     --Voltaire (1694-1778)
      _Philosophical Dictionary_ [1764], "Money"

Quotes Nov 21

To know how to be hungry is a sharp lesson, but to know how to be full is the harder lesson after all. So desperate is the tendency of human nature to pride and forgetfulness of God!”- Charles Spurgeon

God's word, does not teach us a contrast between nature and grace, that is  contrast between the nature of God's creation and the redemption in Christ Jesus. It teaches only and exclusively the radical uncompromising antithesis of sin and redemption, of the realm of darkness and the kingdom of God in Christ. - The christian idea of the state, Herman Dooyeweerd, p 5

I doubt whether it is generally realised that the centre of gravity of the Christian is very rapidly moving away from the Anglo-Saxon world.- Harold H Rowden, Turning the church inside out, P. 24

1. 0 little flock, fear not the Foe
Who madly seeks your overthrow;
Dread not his rage and power.
What though your courage sometimes faints,
His seeming triumph o'er God's saints
Lasts but a little hour.

2. Be of good cheer; your cause belongs
To Him who can avenge your wrongs;
Leave it to Him, our Lord.
Though hidden yet from mortal eyes,
His Gideon shall for you arise,
Uphold you and His Word.

3. As true as God's own Word is true.
Not earth nor hell with all their crew
Against us shall prevail.
A jest and byword are they grown;
God is with us, we are His own;
Our victory cannot fail.

4. Amen, Lord Jesus, grant our prayer;
Great Captain, now Thine arm make bare,
Fight for us once again!
So shall Thy saints and martyrs raise
A mighty chorus to Thy praise,
World without end. Amen.
Hymn #263 The Lutheran Hymnal, Johann M. Altenburg, 1632, Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1855, alt.Titled: "Verzage nicht, du Haeuflein klein"

Quotes Nov 20

Get to Christ somehow, anyhow, for if you get to him you shall live. It is not the greatness nor the perfection of your faith, it is his greatness and his perfection which is to be depended on.-- Charles Spurgeon

I still can hardly believe it.  I, with shriveled, bent
fingers, atrophied muscles, gnarled knees, and no
feeling from the shoulders down, will one day
have a new body, light, bright, and clothed in
righteousness--powerful and dazzling.
Can you imagine the hope this gives someone spinal-cord
injured like me?  Or someone who is cerebral palsied,
brain-injured, or who has multiple sclerosis?  Imagine
the hope this gives someone who is manic-depressive.
No other religion, no other philosophy promises new
bodies, hearts, and minds.  Only in the Gospel of
Christ do hurting people find such incredible hope.
--Joni Eareckson-Tada (1949-    ) _Heaven: Your Real Home_ [1995], Chapter 3

The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be, God sacrifices himself for man & puts himself where only man deserves to be.- Sam Allberry@SamAllberry

All earthly things are as salt water, that increases the appetite, but satisfies not.
—Richard Sibbes

Quotes Nov 19

"Look at your Lord hanging, look at him hanging, and giving you a directive from that kind of judicial bench which is the cross. Look at him hanging there, and concocting a medicine for you in your illness from his own blood. Look at him hanging there." Augustine

"The Jews always looked back to this work that God had done in space and time, and therefore they were linked to something that was tough enough to bear the weight of life, for they knew that God was not far away. Their affirmation was not just a poetic expression. Since God had acted in past history, the people knew they could trust Him for the future." ~ Francis Schaeffer, No Little People, No Little Places, commentary on Ps. 136:1-4.

I shouldn’t complain. My trials are fewer than my sins. - Joshua D Jones@BlueCheezWhisky

As soon as Christianity began to compromise learning, culture and political life with pagan and humanistic philosophy, with its view of state and culture, Christianity's inner strength has broken. At that moment the process of becoming 'like unto the world began', repeatedly arrested through the grace of God by a spiritualreveil, a Reformation. - introduction to The christian idea of the state, Herman Dooyeweerd, p3

Quotes Nov 17

You believe in God for your soul. Believe in him about your property. Believe in God about your sick wife or your dying child. Believe in God about your losses and bad debts and declining business.-- Charles Spurgeon

"Look at your Lord hanging, look at him hanging, and giving you a directive from that kind of judicial bench which is the cross. Look at him hanging there, and concocting a medicine for you in your illness from his own blood. Look at him hanging there." Augustine

"The Jews always looked back to this work that God had done in space and time, and therefore they were linked to something that was tough enough to bear the weight of life, for they knew that God was not far away. Their affirmation was not just a poetic expression. Since God had acted in past history, the people knew they could trust Him for the future." ~ Francis Schaeffer, No Little People, No Little Places, commentary on Ps. 136:1-4.

I shouldn’t complain. My trials are fewer than my sins. - Joshua D Jones@BlueCheezWhisky

Quotes Nov 16

The pith, the essence of faith, lies in this— a casting oneself on the promise.-- Charles Spurgeon

Prayer does need outside itself because it proofs are within. It is in the nature and function of man, like breathing, eating and drinking, and he practices it as part of his very being. -Samuel Johnson, quoted in Iskander Jadeed, How do we pray, P. 3

When I first entered upon my labours in the ministry I took special notice all everyone was humbled, reformed or converted; but when I had laboured long, if pleased God that the converts were so many, hat I could not afford time for such particular observation ... Families and considerable numbers at once ... came in and grow up I scarce knew how. - Richard Baxter  in J I Packer, A man for all ministries, p10

My soul is with the congregation of the first-born, my body rests in hope, and if here I may nonour my God either by doing or by suffering, I shall be most glad. - Oliver Cromwell, letter, 13 October 1638,  Quoted in John Broome, Oliver Cromwell A vindication, p.1

Quotes Nov 15

The Lord gets his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction.
     --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Gleanings Among The Sheaves_ [1869], "Sorrow's Discipline"
       http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42657/42657-h/42657-h.htm

It is a sign of growth in grace when Christians increase in a sense of their own unworthiness and insufficiency, and in dependence on God.- Jonathan Edwards@Edwards_SDG

For a society awash in expressive individualism, the greatest commandment is to be yourself and the second is like it: to affirm and applaud whatever self your neighbour chooses to be. - The Gospel Coalition@TGC

When all looks fair about, and thou seest not a cloud so big
as a Hand to threaten thee, forget not the Wheel of things: think of
sullen vicissitudes, but beat not thy brains to foreknow them.  Be
armed against such obscurities rather by submission than
fore-knowledge. The Knowledge of future evils mortifies present
felicities, and there is more content in the uncertainty or ignorance
of them. -- Sir Thomas Browne, _Christian Morals_

Quotes Nov 14

As sure as God puts His children in the furnace of affliction, He will be with them in it.- Charles Spurgeon@CHSpurgeon

"Jesus came to undo the works of the devil; Muhammad came to undo the work of Christ."- Sam Solomon

If you believe that the universe just happened and there is no God, but that somehow human rights still exist, you can't prove that. In fact, it takes a lot of faith to imagine humanistic values can arise from an impersonal universe. You have a lot of faith and multiple beliefs.- Timothy Keller@timkellernyc

"When I lack proper contentment, I have forgotten that God is God. We are now speaking about a practical test to judge if we are coveting against God. A quiet disposition and a heart giving thanks is the real test of the extent to which we love and trust God at that moment." ~ Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality

Quotes Nov 13

If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.- Charles Spurgeon@CHSpurgeon

The church has received it by tradition from the apostles to give baptism even to infants. - Origin, b. 185 A.D.

The modern state, by its emphatic reassertion of the pagan totality idea, is making clear its claim to sovereignty and total jurisdiction, its claim to total law. The modern state therefore seeks total control: its goal is to replace the predestination of man, to substitute for God is eternal decree the states temporal decree. The goal of social planning is simply this predestinarian purpose. - Rousas J Rushdoony,  introduction to The christian idea of the state, Herman Dooyeweerd, p.xi

Though in principle Luther asserted very strongly that priesthood could be exercised by any  believer, in certain circumstances, for practical purposes it was advisable for the church to choose individuals to exercise the priesthood on their behalf. Even  the English nonconformists, who reacted very strongly against certain aspects of clericalism, did little more then reassert the same doctrine without giving it very much practical effect. R W Dale, the great Congregationalist of The last century used to insist that the communion service be conducted once a year  by one of the deacons, in order to establish the principle. But very little more than that was done. - Harold H Rowden, Turning the church inside out, P. 20

A conceited, stubborn, fanatical dog that did not conform when he might have been preferred; hang him! This one fellow hath cast more reproach upon the Constitution and excellent discipline of our church than will be wiped out this Hundred years ... By God! He deserves to be whipped through the city. - Judge Jeffries at the trial of 70 year-old Richard Baxter, in J I Packer, A man for all ministries, p.8

Quotes Nov 12

From the Word of God I gather that damnation is all of man, from top to bottom, and salvation is all of grace, from first to last. He that perishes chooses to perish; but he that is saved is saved because God has chosen to save him.-- Charles Spurgeon

"It's only our foolish generation (and I am using "foolish" in the same sense it has in Romans 1) that lives in a universe which is purely material, everything being reduced to mass, energy and motion. Thus we find that the Jews left the true God for false gods, just as the Greeks, the Romans, etc., had false gods, but they were not as far from the truth as our generation. Our generation has nobody at home in the universe, nobody at all. Eventually, let us understand this: only a personal comforter can comfort man who is personal, and only one Comforter is great enough: the infinite-personal God who exists- that is, the God of JudeoChristian Scripture. Only He is the sufficient Comforter."- Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City

Danger for charismatics: a high expectation of God speaking today, but which doesn’t translate into careful biblical exegesis.
Danger for conservatives: careful biblical exegesis, but which doesn’t translate into a high expectation of God speaking today through it. - Sam Allberry@SamAllberry

Music is one of the greatest gifts God has given us;
it is divine and therefore Satan is its enemy.  For
with its aid many dire temptations are overcome;
the devil does not stay where music is.
     --Martin Luther (1483-1546)
      (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection
       of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Music")

Quotes Nov 10

The modern state therefore as sovereign claims prior jurisdiction in every sphere of life. It claims is the right to legislate ( for the sovereign is the source of law) for every realm, and its right of legislation, however  generously or cautiously applied, is a total right. The state as sovereign is simply the state as god. - Rousas John Rushdoony, in Herman Dooyeweerd, The Christian idea of the state, p.x

Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation. —Rumi (I think this shows that due to the absolute transcendence of Allah there is nothing one can really know about him. - GJW)

NASA has plans to probe Uranus in search of gas - Headline - https://ascienceenthusiast.com/nasa-plans-probe-uranus-search-gas/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork&fbclid=IwAR3uEnoRaSMAIyup0s87TYmWVvpmXgS_g73zDNQmhnTtCmW5KN943gFdQ54

"It is not that Christians are to 'give thanks' with a plastic smile, saying things are wonderful when they are hard. It is knowing that the hard things are really hard things, a result of the abnormality since the Fall, yet not revolting against God when the hard things come. It is in this sense we are to say, 'thank you.' I know that even out of this part of the battle and tears, my Heavenly Father will bring good-even though I may not know how all the pieces fit together."~ Dr. Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality

And what, in contrast, does humanism have to offer? Quite literally, nothing at all. A message that all is meaningless, that we humans have no significance beyond what we might choose to make up ourselves, that there is nothing above us but sky, nothing around us but pitiless indifference, nothing below us but the grave, nothing to look forward to but oblivion. No hope but more of what we already are, for there is nothing else to hope for. I was told by a humanist recently that he once asked the local humanist group why humanists don’t run food banks. They had no answer, he said; but to Christians the answer is obvious. Why should they? I might add that they don’t send gifts to children on the other side of the world either. There is nothing in humanism that would make anyone want to do so; because it is a creed which comes offering nothing, explaining nothing, motivating nothing.- This Christmas, beware evangelical humanists offering absolutely nothing, MATTHEW ROBERTS,https://matthewpwroberts.wordpress.com/2018/11/09/this-christmas-beware-evangelical-humanists-offering-absolutely-nothing/

Quotes Nov 9

It always seems inexplicable to me that those who claim free will so very boldly for man should not also allow some free will to God. Why should not Jesus Christ have the right to choose his own bride?-- Charles Spurgeon

The sovereign, original and foundation of all civil power lies in the people ... And if so, that people make you erect and establish what form of government seems to them most meet for their civil condition. It is evident that such governments as are by then erected and established, have no more power, nor for no longer time, then the civil power shall betrust them with. This is clear not only in reason, what in the experience of all commonwealths, where the people are not deprived of their natural freedom by the power of tyrants. - Roger Williams, The bloody tenant of persecution, 1644, quoted in Richard Forbes, Humanism and human rights, p4

The mythology of an age so dominates the mind and culture of man that his thought and action find expression within the mythological framework. Fallen man relates himself more readily to his culture myths them to reality. Any approach to a discussion of the christian idea of the state runs therefore counter to the spirit of the age and the accepted frameworks of thought and action. - - Rousas John Rushdoony, in  Herman Dooyeweerd, The christian idea of the state, p.vii

Quotes Nov 8

I am the subject of depression so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to. But I always get back again by this—I know that I trust Christ. I have no reliance but in him, and if he falls, I shall fall with him. But if he does not, I shall not.-- Charles Spurgeon

“A church full of love is a church well built up. I had rather see a church filled with love a thousand times, than filled with the best, the highest and most glorious gifts and parts that any men in this world may be made partakers of”.- John Owen

We come into the world crying, we go through it complaining, and we go out of it groaning!- William Tiptaft (1803-1864)

When I lack proper contentment, I have forgotten that God is God. We are now speaking about a practical test to judge if we are coveting against God. A quiet disposition and a heart giving thanks is the real test of the extent to which we love and trust God at that moment." ~ Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality

I’m not so bothered by the stock market any more, but I’m quite concerned about treasure in Heaven. I do care about the ideals which underpin the republic and democracy. But I no longer look on with naïve innocence at republicans and democrats. I dream about the New Jerusalem more than ever – but I’ve ceased to lose sleep over what happens in Washington or London. - Joshua D Jones, https://www.sanitys-cove.com/2016/11/the-morning-after.html?m=1

Quotes Nov 7

”Love and its exercise is the principal grace and duty that is required among, and expected from, the saints of God, especially as they are engaged in church-fellowship. What is this love? It is a fruit of the Spirit of God, an effect of faith, whereby believers, being knit together by the strongest bonds of affection, upon the account of their interest in one head , Jesus Christ, and participating of one Spirit, do delight in, value and esteem each other, and are in a constant readiness for all those regular duties whereby the temporal, spiritual and eternal good of one another may be promoted”.- John Owen

  'The knife of the guillotine strikes you in this place,' she
said, rapidly passing the nail of her little finger round the young
man's neck and then drawing it away.  'The scar is quite a thin one,
like a red thread...But only at the first blow.  When many people are
executed at the same time the blade soon becomes blunt.  Teeth are
formed on it...If you are executed try to be one of the first.'
        --Mark Aldanov, _The Ninth Thermidor_ 1923

There are those who have no luck.  Christopher Columbus cannot attach his name to his discovery.  Dr. Guillotin cannot detach his from his invention.--Victor Hugo, 1830

I, of all men, am perhaps the subject of the deepest depression at times.- Charles Spurgeon

Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy. --Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)
      _The Power of Myth_ [1988]; Episode 2, Chapter 22

Quotes Nov 6

The man who can fully understand the word covenant is a theologian. That is the key of all theology—the covenant of works by which we fell, and the covenant of grace by which we stand, Christ fulfilling the covenant for us as our surety and representative, fulfilling it by the shedding of his blood, so leaving for us a covenant wholly fulfilled on our side, which is Christ’s side, and only to be fulfilled now by God.- Charles Spurgeon

America's one of the finest countries anyone ever stole.~ Bobcat Goldthwaite

Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States.  Ask any Indian. --Robert Orben

"All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian." -- Pat Paulsen

What did the Indians call America before the white man came?  "Ours." --Anonymous

Quotes Nov 5

The usual rule is that the more we really know, the more 

conscious we are of the littleness of our knowledge. 

     --C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) 

      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 23 [1877] 

You are what you do. 

     --Lois McMaster Bujold (1949-    ) 

      _Brothers In Arms_ [1989] 

Sometimes when I have said a humorous thing in 

preaching I have not asked you to excuse me, for 

if God has given me humour I mean to use it 

in his cause. . . . 

Many a man has been caught, and his ear arrested, and 

his attention won by a quaint remark.  If anyone can prove 

it is a wickedness, and not a natural faculty, I will abandon it; 

but it is a faculty of nature, and it ought to be consecrated 

and used for the cause of Christ. 

--C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) 

      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 20 [1874] 

I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country

away from them.  There were great numbers of

people who needed new land, and the Indians were

selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.

     --John Wayne (1907-1979)

Once they were a happy race.  Now they are made

miserable by the white people, who are never

contented but are always encroaching.

     --Tecumseh (1768-1813)

       (Chief of the Shawnees)

Quotes Nov 3

What a Magna Carta is this! The old covenant says, “Keep the law and live.” The new covenant is, “You shall live, and I will lead you to keep my law, for I will write it on your heart.” - Charles Spurgeon

“I think it’s better to die as a brave and strong man than to die as a mouse and fearful person,” - Asia Bibi’s lawyer, Saif-ul-Mulook

The actions of men [are] the best interpreters of their thoughts.  --John Locke (1632-1704)  _An Essay Concerning Human Understanding_ [1690]; Book 1, Chapter 2, Section 3

They are the happiest Christians who have the lowest thoughts of themselves and in whose eyes Jesus is most glorious and precious. Newton

Knowledge is proud that it knows so much; wisdom is humble that it knows no more.
--William Cowper (1731-1800), _The Task_ (1785) Book VI, "Winter Walk at Noon"

Quotes Nov 2

“We are old enough oftimes, after hours of thinking and of labour, but we sleep, and we wake refreshed, as though we were beginning a new life.” - Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Library@SpurgeonMBTS

Forgiveness is not simply ignoring something sinful, but for loves sake deliberately releasing the offender from his obligation to suffer the penalty and make restitution. A repentant offender may need to make restitution as a part of reconciliation, but our offer of forgiveness is not contingent on that. - Patrick H Morrison, Forgive as the Lord forgave you, Page 10

“The God of the believer is never far from him; he is not merely the God of the mountain fastnesses, but of the dangerous valleys and battle plains.-Spurgeon on Psalm 11:4

The Lord has now arranged a new covenant of a different character. It is made with Christ Jesus, the second Adam, and with all whom he represents. It is on this wise: “You, Jesus, shall keep the law, and you shall also suffer a penalty for all the breaches of my law by all who are in you. If you do this, all those who are in you shall live eternally.”- Charles Spurgeon

Quotes Nov 1

“One of the chief uses of religion is that it makes us remember our coming from darkness, the simple fact that we are created.” GK Chesterton,The Boston Sunday Post

A man’s contentment is in his mind, not in the extent of his possessions. Alexander the Great, with all the world at his feet, cries for another world to conquer.- - Charles Spurgeon
·
“I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.“ — Psalm 18:3
Hearing a Call to Worship on the Lord's Day is like having a lifebuoy thrown over us.- Gethin Jones

“Doctrine divides!”
No, doctrine defines. -Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst

"Indeed, this is what is unique about Christian faith in contrast to all other religions and spiritualities. Faith is not simply faith in God. It is not about connecting to a power greater than ourselves in the world or, for that matter, in ourselves. It is not about our private choice to be spiritual. No, it is instead all about receiving God's promises of redemption, about receiving them at the only place and in the only way that we can receive them. It is about coming through Christ to receive what the Father has for us in him. And when we take hold of Christ, and of the promises made to us and received in him, we have the most important thing that God wants us to have. "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory." (@ Cor. 1:20) - David F. Wells, God in the Whirlwind: How the Holy-love of God Reorients Our World

Quotes Oct 31

You say, “If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.” You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.- Charles Spurgeon

Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.” - GK Chesterton,Orthodoxy

... the wisest and most gallant of all the men whom this age, rich in heroes, has produced. In what ever direction England finally moves it will go down to the ages that she had a ruler who had the glory of this island and the respect for religion close to his heart. - John Owen en Oliver Cromwell, in the Oxford orations of Dr John Owen, Page 47 quoted in - Sinlcair B Ferguson Some pastors and teachers, p.32

I offer my heart to you Lord, promptly and sincerely. (Cor meum tibi offero, Domine, prompte et sincere). - Calvin's motto quoted in - Sinclair B Ferguson Some pastors and teachers, p.66

Quotes Oct 30

“In times of adversity, believers comfort themselves with the solace that they suffer nothing except by God’s ordinance and command, for they are under his hand.” - Calvin

If I had never joined a church till I had found one that was perfect, I should never have joined one at all. And the moment I did join it, if I had found one, I should have spoiled it, for it would not have been a perfect church after I had become a member of it. Still, imperfect as it is, it is the dearest place on earth to us.- Charles Spurgeon

Narrated by Aisha That the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years' (i.e., till his death. Muhammad was age 53). -  Sahih Bukhari.Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64

"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do." ~John Wooden

Quotes Oct 29

Here's an important lesson to remember: No matter how gracious & loving & kind you are, when you speak the truth in love & shine light into darkness, some people will hate you for it -- and I mean hate.Dr. Michael L. Brown@DrMichaelLBrown

"Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn’t have said." - Unk

It is a good rule never to look into the face of a man in the morning till you have looked into the face of God.- Charles Spurgeon@CHSpurgeon

(Calvin's College a Montaigu) exacted enormous discipline. Classes began at 4 AM and continued (with some intermission) until at least eight p.m.. Calvin was a sponge for learning. - Sinclair B Ferguson,  Some pastors and teachers, p.10

Quotes Oct 27

I view the difficulties of Holy Scripture as so many prayer stools upon which I kneel and worship the glorious Lord. What we cannot comprehend by our understandings we apprehend by our affections.- Charles Spurgeon

If we could understand how patient God is with our weaknesses, we would not fail to show patience to others. - @desiringGod

“Don't let your happiness depend on something you may lose.”- C. S. Lewis@CSLewisDaily

Fear looks at the storm; Faith looks at the Saviour. - James Merritt

The high priest garment in ex 28:31-32 slips over the head, i.e. it is seamless. John mentioning Jesus' seamless garment in John 19 is a hint of his high priestly work in bearing our sin  - Philip Ryken, Exodus

Quotes Oct 26

I would not be a Stoic to have no passions, but a Christian, to order those I have. - Joseph Hall, Medications and vows, divine and moral.in Alex Ryrie, Being Protestant in Reformation Britain, p 18

The angel of the Lord. The covenant angel, the Lord Jesus, at the head of all the bands of heaven, surrounds with his army the dwellings of the saints. Like hosts entrenched so are the ministering spirits encamped around the Lord's chosen, to serve and succour, to defend and console them. Encampeth round about them that fear him. On every side the watch is kept by warriors of sleepless eyes, and the Captain of the host is one whose prowess none can resist. And delivereth them. We little know how many providential deliverances we owe to those unseen hands which are charged to bear us up lest we dash our foot against a stone.  - Charles Spurgeon, Treasury of David,Psalm 34:7,Exposition

I know the inconstancy of the people of England, how they ever mislike the present government & have their eyes fixed upon that person that is next to succeed; & naturally men be so disposed: ‘More to adore the rising than the setting sun.’- Elizabeth I.

He that eateth and drinketh,
And letteth grace pass,
Sitteth down like a ox,
And riseth like an ass.
Hill, Christ's prayer expounded in Alex Ryrie, Being Protestant in Reformation Britain, p 382

Quotes Oct 25

 ..you take a divine promise, spoken thousands of years ago, and lo, it is fulfilled to you! It becomes as true to you as if God had spoken it for the first time this very day, and you were the person to whom it was addressed- Charles Spurgeon

Whoever is utterly cast down and overwhelmed by the awareness of his calamity, poverty, nakedness, and disgrace has thus advanced farthest in knowledge of himself.- John Calvin@JohnCalvinDaily

Sin is an infinite evil because it is committed against an infinitely great and excellent Being, and so is a violation of infinite obligation.- Jonathan Edwards@Heart_Aflame

There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. —Richard Sibbes

'Even though being a good speller has lost its ranking in school, we can hope there is one group of artisans that still finds spelling important…the tattoo artist.'- Nanette L. Avery

Quotes Oct 24

I would rather speak five words out of this book than 50,000 words of the philosophers. If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God. If we want conversions, we must put more of God’s Word into our sermons.- Charles Spurgeon

“He would blush if anyone saw his sin, but he doesn’t blush for the sin itself.......You are afraid if a mere man is present; aren’t you afraid, then, at the presence of God, Father and Son? But alas, you don’t want to believe, in case you would have to obey” Ambrose

No one has made much progress in the school of Christ who doesn't look forward joyfully both to his death and the day of his final resurrection." John Calvin

... Nehemiah Wallington, who saw all five of his children die, for them in infancy... It was his wife Grace who consoled him, reminding him of the comfort which they could both find in submission to God's will. 'It is your daughter's wedding day', she reasoned, 'and will you grieve to see your daughter go home to her husband Christ Jesus?' Eventually, Wallington could draw comfort in believing that he was blessed through the loss of his children, for they were his treasure, and if his treasure was in heaven,  his heart would be there also. - Wallington, Notebooks, p59,64  in Alex Ryrie, Being Protestant in Reformation Britain, p126

Quotes Oct 23

If you wish to know God, you must know his Word. If you wish to perceive his power, you must see how he works by his Word. If you wish to know his purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by his Word.- Charles Spurgeon

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty" - T Jefferson

Come sweet Christ, let me find comfort, let me feel some taste, let me me feel some touch, let my heart prepared, touch my heart ... Let me have some feeling, some taste, some scent, some glimmering of thy glorious presence. - Michael  Sparke,  Crumbs of Comfort, in Alex Ryrie, Being Protestant in Reformation Britain, p45

Pray when the world is asleep, for as soon as it is awake, it will tcy and call on thee. - Dorothy Leigh, Mother's blessing, in Alex Ryrie, Being Protestant in Reformation Britain, p149

Quotes Oct 22

The words of Scripture thrill my soul as nothing else ever can. They bear me aloft or dash me down. They tear me in pieces or build me up. The words of God have more power over me than ever David’s fingers had over his harp strings. Is it not so with you?-Charles Spurgeon

Praise God from whom all coffee grows.
Praise him all drinkers here below.
Praise him for light and dark roasts.
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.Ma𝚛𝚝𝚢 𝙳𝚞𝚛𝚎n@martyduren

The criminalisation of homosexual practice is completely unacceptable, as is the criminalisation of opinions disagreeing with homosexual practice; any judgement must be left to God. - Patrick Sookhdeo, The death of Western Christianity, p.112

John Calvin argued that the efficacy of the sacraments is never tied to the time that it is given; salvation may come before, during, or after the administration of the sign, even as was the case with circumcision. Neither does the validity of baptism rest mini upon the one who receives or administers it. It rests instead on the character of the one who's promise it signifies. - - R C Sproul, Everyone's theologian An introduction to systematic theology. p288

Quotes Oct 20

I wish that our ministry—that mine especially—might be tied and tethered to the cross. I would have no other subject to set before you but Jesus only.- Charles Spurgeon

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude. - Alexis de Tocqueville

"As a woman in this world and now as a parent, I would love to believe that I can “tell a sexual predator by looking at them,” but in truth, the only sure way I can tell a sinner is by looking in the mirror." - Sherri Rice@sherririce95

Spiritual revival and restoration will not start at the White House, the State House, the School House or even the Church House; it will begin at our house, and it will begin with you and me. - Christian American Man@PhillipDWilson

The church,from where I'm standing,
can sometimes feel so  precarious & vulnerable.
But it's not.
It's built on The Rock,
     bought by His blood,
     anchored in His Glory.
Andy Prime@revandyprime

Quotes Oct 19

The chief aim of the enemy’s assaults is to get rid of Christ, to get rid of the atonement, to get rid of his suffering in the place of men.- Charles Spurgeon

Whichever escatological view we hold, we must hold it humbly because we do not know the future. We can all look backward but we do not know God's agenda for what's to come. We must be humble and acknowledge our eschatological view might not be accurate. - R C Sproul, Everyone's theologian An introduction to systematic theology. p314

The current anti-hate crime movement is generated not by an epidemic of unprecedented bigotry but by heightened sensitivity to prejudice and more important, by our societies emphasis on identity politics. - James Jacobs and Kimberly Potter, Hate crimes criminal law and identity politics, quoted in  Patrick Sookhdeo, The death of Western Christianity, p.104

There are strong reasons to question the inclusion of hate speech bans in international human rights law. First, the drafting history of international anti-hate speech laws sure is that such laws are a legacy of totalitarian states aimed at abusing human rights rather than strengthening tolerance. Second, the applicable standards are conflicting, impossible to reconcile with the principle of legal certainty inherent in the rule of law, and prone to abuses that undermine critically important freedoms of speech -  especially political speech . Third,  laws against hate speech and against "offence" are tools in the hands of those who would severely restrict religious freedom. Finally proponents of hate speech bands have yet to demonstrate any link between such bans and social peace and tolerance. - Jacob Mchangama, The problem with hate speech laws, in The review of faith and international affairs (2015) quoted in  Patrick Sookhdeo, The death of Western Christianity, p.106

Quotes Oct 18

 When you feed upon the word of God, the Spirit of God makes you like the Son of God for the glory of God.- Steven Lawson @DrStevenJLawson

If our Lord’s bearing our sin for us is not the gospel, I have no gospel to preach. Brethren, I have befooled you these thirty-five years if this is not the gospel. I am a lost man, if this is not the gospel, for I have no hope beneath the canopy of heaven, neither in time nor in eternity, save only in this belief—that Jesus Christ, in my place, bore both my punishment and sin.- Charles Spurgeon

The only difference between the kingdom today and the kingdom that we will know future is its visibility. Jesus is king right now. - R C Sproul, Everyone's theologian An introduction to systematic theology. p.153

All war is deception. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The law can only judge acts not feelings or thoughts. If the act is illegal anyway, to punish the offender's prejudices or feelings behind the commission of the crime is to punish emotions or thought. - Jules Gomes, Conservative Woman, quoted in  Patrick Sookhdeo, The death of Western Christianity, p.104

Quotes Oct 17

Galerius Maximus - The authority of the law shall be sealed in your blood,. It is the sentence_ of this   court that Thesis Cyprian be executed by the sword.
Cyprian:           Thanks be to God -The Acts of St Cyprian, in 2000 years of Christ's power,  part one, The age of the early church fathers, N R Needham  p.142

African Catholics did not rebaptise Donatists who rejoined them. Augustine argued that the validity of baptism did not depend on the personal worthiness or orthodoxy of the clergyman who baptises, but on Christ himself. As long as Christ's command to baptise with water in the name of the Trinity was obeyed, the baptism was valid - it was really Christ himself who was baptising the convert through the act of presbyter or bishop. - 2000 years of Christ's power,  part one, The age of the early church fathers, N R Meedham  p.245

Israel's biggest struggle was not with hostile nation but with false prophets in the camp or within the gates of the city.- R C Sproul, Everyone's a theologian An introduction to systematic theology. p.22

Truth in the Old Testament is not defined philosophically, but relationally. Its a root idea is faithfulness - firmness, steadfastness, trustworthiness, reliability. sureness. On the one hand, truth refers to the faithfulness of God. On the other hand, the Truth refers to human beings demonstrating faithful by living and speaking the truth. - Patrick Sookhdeo, The death of Western Christianity, p.71

Quotes Oct 16

Happiness is dependent upon our circumstances in the world. Joy is dependent upon our relationship with the Lord.- Steven Lawson@DrStevenJLawson

"In nature there are no rewards and punishments - only consequences." ~ Chinese Proverb

The relativist says, "There is no absolute truth except the absolute truth that there is absolutely no absolute truth. All truth is relative. What is true for one maybe four for another ...  There is no possibility o. - f a systematic understanding of truth, R C Sproul, Everyone's theologian An introduction to systematic theology. p.5

Prayer and pains through faith in Jesus Christ will do anything. - John Eliot, in John Legg,  The footsteps of God p.270

He who fears to suffer cannot belong to him who suffered' - Tertullian, - 2000 years of Christ's power,  part one, The age of the early church fathers, N R Meedham  p.129

Quotes Oct 15

The first sign of spiritual life, is to feel that you are dead! - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

... when the main study on sex abuse by American clergy reports that 81% of victims were male -and  largely postpubescent- how tenable is the proposition that homosexuality hasn't a thing to do with priestly sex abuse? - William McGurn, Oscar Wilde's Catholicism, The Wall Street Journal October 9 2018

The north west African church viewed live as a fierce struggle between light and darkness, and was marked by a  powerful zeal for purity of life and doctrine. It found its centre in the huge Tunisian seaport of Carthage, the third greatest city in the empire, after Rome and Alexandria. - 2000 years of Christ's power,  part one, The age of the early church fathers, N R Meedham  p.126

...  The fire of 1812 ... Destroyed all Carey's uncompleted manuscripts ... In One night the labours of years are consumed. I had lately brought some things to the utmost perfection  I could, and contemplated the mission with, perhaps, too much self congratulation. The Lord has laid me low, that I might look more simply to him. - John Legg,  The footsteps of God p. 267

God has a sovereign right to dispose of us as he pleases. We all to acquiesce in all that God does with us and to us. - William Carey letter to Fuller, in ,John Legg,  The footsteps of God p.268

Quotes Oct 13

By definition, a Christian should be an enigma to every person who is not a Christian. - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

I am concerned for my country and where it is going.  The mantra of the new progressive Nationalism seems to be “It doesn’t matter where you are from, it matters where you are going.” The trouble is that it actually does matter where you are from (history, geography, ancestry and society cannot be dismissed that easily) and it matters a great deal if we don’t all buy into the ‘follow the yellow brick road’ fantasy of the ‘progressive’ ideology that is now driving our country.- David Roberson, The Tartan Taliban – Article in the Daily Mail,  https://theweeflea.com/2018/10/12/the-tartan-taliban-article-in-the-daily-mail/

Keep your eye simply on Him; let His death, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when you wake in the morning look to Him; when thou lie down at night look to Him.- Charles Spurgeon@CHSpurgeon

If you have less of this world. may you have more of his comfortable presence! Oh, blessed exchange!Sanctified afflictions are a thousand times rather to be chosen than unsanctified prosperity.- John Berridge)

Quotes Oct 12

A man is not a Christian unless he can say with Paul, "I am what I am by the grace of God!" - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

 ... gender feminism isn’t fundamentally a pro-woman but an anti-man movement. It isn’t driven by the adrenaline of a genuine concern for women, but by a deep-rooted hatred of men. Feminism isn’t trying to correct misogyny; it is seeking to create a dark and bigoted misandry.- - The striptease of toxic feminism in the Brett Kavanaugh freak show, October 9, 2018, Jules Gomes, https://www.julesgomes.com/single-post/The-striptease-of-toxic-feminism-in-the-Brett-Kavanaugh-freak-show

Of all I have ever seen or learned, that book
[Ecclesiastes] seems to me the noblest, the wisest,
and the most powerful expression of man's life upon
this earth--and also the highest flower of poetry,
eloquence, and truth.
I am not given to dogmatic judgments in the matter
of literary creation, but if I had to make one I could
say that Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece
of writing I have ever known, and the wisdom
expressed in it the most lasting and profound.
--Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)
      (In Eric S. Christianson's
      _Ecclesiastes Through the Centuries_ [2007])

"...a person is not worshiping the Christian God as he should unless he recognizes that God is sovereign. When we speak of God's sovereignty, two thoughts are in mind--His work of creation and His work of providence. When we speak of providence, we mean His dealings in the world now." ~ Francis Schaeffer, Basic Bible Studies

""In a democracy, we have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees."- Thomas Sowell

Quotes Oct 11

No difficulty in believing the gospel is intellectual--it is always moral. - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

...the Supreme Court—the politburo of the American Left for over seventy years. - The striptease of toxic feminism in the Brett Kavanaugh freak show, October 9, 2018, Jules Gomes, https://www.julesgomes.com/single-post/The-striptease-of-toxic-feminism-in-the-Brett-Kavanaugh-freak-show

I had the happiness desecrate the Gunga (Ganges) by baptising the first Hindoo, viz. Krishna, and my son Felix. - William Carey, 28 December 1800 in John Legg,  The footsteps of God p.266

What Is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me. Truth is totally subjective.- Protagoras, quoted in  Patrick Sookhdeo, The death of Western Christianity, p.70

The Egyptian city of Alexandria was, after Rome the greatest city in the Roman Empire. ... Alexandria acted as its intellectual and cultural capital. - 2000 years of Christ's power,  part one, The age of the early church fathers, N R Meedham p.116

Quotes Oct 10

"Sacraments are God's authorised illustrations to prop up our weak faith. Sacraments are given not to make God's promises more sure but to make us more sure of God's promises." Ralph Davis

Our public discourse would be immediately improved if we didn't presume people who disagree with us must be morally inferior.- Sam Allberry@SamAllberry

The reason why congregations have been so dead, is because dead men preach to them. O that the Lord may quicken and revive them for his own names sake. For how can dead men beget living children?- George Whitefield Oct 9, 1740 @WhitefieldG

The intellectual, the moral, the religious seem to me all naturally bound up and interlinked together in one great and harmonious whole.” - Ada Lovelace

Apart from an outside supernatural assistance,
society goes from bad to worse until deterioration
is universal.  Not evolution but devolution is the
law of man without God.
     --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979)
      _The Prodigal World_ [1936]