Quotes Jun 1

Equality and human rights are not self evident truths. We hold these truths to be sacred and unalienable. That was the truth. That's why the Declaration grounded the unalienable rights in the creator rather than state. The most honest declaration would have been 'we hold these truths to be divinely revealed.'- Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World,  Page 391

"We have no reason to be discouraged and cast down if the religion we profess is not popular and few agree with us. We must remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in this passage: ‘The gate is narrow’. Repentance, and faith in Christ, and holiness of life, have never been fashionable. The true flock of Christ has always been small. It must not move us to find that we are reckoned singular, and peculiar, and bigoted, and narrow minded. This is the ‘narrow way’. Surely it is better to enter into eternal life with a few, than to go to ‘destruction’ with a great company" - J.C.Ryle

Never make the blunder of trying to forecast the way
God is going to answer your prayer.
     --Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
      (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection
       of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Prayer, Answer To")

God will always answer our prayers; but he will
answer them in his way, and his way will be
the way of perfect love.
Often if he answered our prayer, as we at the moment
desire, it would be the worst thing possible for us,
for in our ignorance we often ask for gifts which
would be our ruin. --William Barclay (1907-1978)
      (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection
       of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Prayer, Answers To")

Quotes 31 May

The way to God isn’t a what that you have to perform. It’s a who that you have to trust. - Jonathan LeemanStory of the Word: Meditations on the Narrative of Scripture (Wipf and Stock, 2017).(89)

I have spent a number of years in India and Africa where I found much righteous endeavour undertaken by Christians of all denominations; but I never as it happens, came across a hospital or orphanage run by the Fabian Society or a humanist leper colony. -  Malcolm Muggeridge. Jesus rediscovered. quoted in Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World, p 314

So great is my veneration of the Bible, that the earlier my children and begin to read it the more confident it will be my home that they will prove useful citizens of their country and respectable members of society. I have so many years made it a practise to read through the Bible once every year - John Quincy Adams, letters of John Quincy Adams to his son on the Bible and its teachings quoted in Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World, Page 38

The Bible is the best gift God has ever given to men. All the good from the saviour of the world is communicated to us through book,- Abraham Lincoln, Washington daily morning Chronicle 8 September 1864

The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilisation is built upon its words. -Dwight D Eisenhower message to the American Bible Society August 1956

Quotes 30 May

Whatever we ask on the basis of Christ’s work, in line with Christ’s character, consistent with Christ’s promises, for the glory of Christ’s Father, Christ will certainly do for us. Story of the Word: Meditations on the Narrative of Scripture - Jonathan Leeman(Wipf and Stock, 2017).(89)

We are a nation whose ideals were founded on the Bible. Also it is quite impossible to understand our literature without grasping this fact That is the strong practical case for ensuring that children at school are given adequate instruction in the part which the Judaeo-Christian tradition has played in moulding our laws manners and institutions. How can you make sense of Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott or the constitutional conflicts of the 17th century in both Scotland and England, without such fundamental knowledge? But I would go further than this. The truths of the Judaeo-Christian tradition are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace, in the true meaning of the word, for which we all long .there is  little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves. Political structures, state institutions, collective ideals are not enough ... (democracy requires) the life of faith as much to the temporal masters as to the  spiritual welfare of the nation. - Margaret Thatcher, speech 1988, quoted in Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World, p 162

The Bible has had a literary influence upon English literature not because it has been considered as literature, but because it is has been considered as the report of the Word of God-TS Eliot, Selected Essays, quoted in Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World, p 183

England with all my faults I love the still. -  William Cowper, England. - quoted in Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World, p 174

Russia, a superpower, was reduced in bankruptcy because the state deliberately rejected one of the 10 Commandments, 'You shall not steal'. In the name of collectivisation it took away citizens property. They had to work not for themselves or their children, but for their secular God the state.-  Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World, p 326

Quotes 29 May

The true Son left his home with the Father and went to the cross so that we who had run from the Father could be welcomed as sons.Story of the Word:- Jonathan Leeman Meditations on the Narrative of Scripture (Wipf and Stock, 2017). (140)

If you believe that final justice is up to you to administer, you’ll either become an oppressor yourself, or you’ll give up on the possibility of justice altogether. But when you trust that God will ultimately take care of justice, you can seek to overcome evil with good in a way that stirs repentance in your enemies and commends the gospel to all through your honourable living. Story of the Word: Meditations on the Narrative of Scripture (Wipf and Stock, 2017).(145)

You must submit to supreme suffering in order to discover the completion of joy. --John Calvin (1509-1564)

But to dance in the streets because you had just given mothers the right to kill their own unborn child is not civilised. It is barbaric. Rather than progressing into being a more tolerant, open and respectful society, Ireland has regressed over 1500 years into his pre-Christian pagan past, where the weakest members of society are not tolerated and not respected. They are destroyed.- David Robertsonhttp://theweeflea.com/2018/05/27/ireland-regresses-sunday-bloody-sunday/

Europe learnt many things from the Islamic world, one of them being the idea of using the sword to promote religion. The Bible would allow a theologian to make a case for 'just war'. But no one can learn from Jesus or his apostles use of the sword to coerce Christianity. - Vishal Mangalwadi,  The book that made your World, p 121

Quotes 28 May

Just as God presented Eve to Adam in the first wedding ceremony, so now the Father walks the church down the aisle to Jesus her bridegroom in the marriage celebration to which every other marriage points. Story of the Word: Meditations on the Narrative of Scripture (Wipf and Stock, 2017).(180)

Secularism is the most epistemologically un-selfconscious culture in the history of humanity.- Tim Keller:  #westminsterts

"Sermons, books, tracts, committee meetings, and the company of good men in their way; but the will never make up for the neglect of private prayer.- J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion

A dog barks when his master is attacked.  I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.-John Calvin (1509-1564)(In an undated letter to Margaret of Navarre)

There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence. --John Calvin (1509-1564) (In Craig Larson's_1001 Quotations That Connect_ [2009], #525)

Quotes 26 May

Here is why distinguishing between straight-line and jagged-line issues is important: churches and pastors should bind consciences on straight-line issues, while leaving jagged-line issues in the domain of Christian freedom. The more something is a straight-line issue, the more the church will institutionally address it. Pastors will talk about it from the pulpit, and a church might exercise discipline over it. The more something is a jagged-line issue, the less pastors should lend their pastoral weight to addressing the matter, and Christians on both sides of an issue should be made to feel welcome. . . . So much political dialogue among Christians these days thoughtlessly and divisively treats everything as a straight-line issue.- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (90, 93)

Sin is the dare of God's justice, the rape of his mercy, the jeer of his patience, the slight of his power, and the contempt of his love. —John Bunyan

The situation which was truly hopeless had the very majesty of God descend to us, since it was not in our power to ascend to him." ~ John Calvin

One can’t judge Wagner’s opera Lohengrin after a first hearing, and I certainly don’t intend to hear it a second time.- Rossini

Quotes 25 May

If you claim to care about politics and you are not an active member of a local church, I’m tempted to think you don’t understand politics at all. You are like someone who claims to love cars because you play with Matchbox cars on the floor making “Vroom!” noises. How easy it is to make pronouncements on political policies from afar. Get up, climb inside a real car, and turn on the ignition. Join a church and figure out how to love the person who looks different from you, or who makes a lot more or less money than you, or who even sins against you.- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (135)

We must seek to know something of heart-felt, communion with Him. Never, never let us forget, that "union" is one thing, and "communion" another. Thousands, I fear, who know what "union" with Christ is, know nothing of "communion."
~ J. C. Ryle

When you are tempted to despair, keep praying, keep reading, keep confessing, keep believing. Joy will come.- @desiringGod

“If God is not sovereign, then God is not God.” – R.C. Sproul

Idolatry comes in many forms, but the most insidious are the idols we make of the things we love.- Derek Thomas@DerekWHThomas

Quotes 24 May

The church’s most powerful political word is the gospel. And the church’s most powerful political testimony is being the church. There is more political power in the gospel and in being the church than there is in electing a president, installing a Supreme Court justice, or even changing a constitution. If you don’t understand that, you should not be a pastor. Change jobs. An excellent president or constitution might make a decades-long impact. An exceptional president or constitution might be felt for centuries. A faithful pastor and church, however, work on the time scales of eternity. They don’t just pass laws. Through God’s Word and Spirit, they change hearts. They raise the dead. They give sight to the blind. They usher people into true righteousness and true justice and true love.- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (146)

Homophobia simply does not exist. It is clearly an invention and an instrument of the totalitarian dominance over the thoughts of others. The homo-movement is lacking scientific arguments, that is why it created an ideology which wants to dominate by creating its own reality. It is the Marxist pattern according to which reality does not create thinking, but thinking creates its own reality. He who does not accept this created reality is to be considered as being sick. It is as if one could influence an illness with the help of the police or with the help of courts. In the Soviet Union, Christians were put into psychiatric clinics. These are the methods of totalitarian regimes, of National Socialism and of Communism. The same happens in North Korea to those who do not accept the reigning way of thinking.
|Some bishops today do not have the courage anymore to speak the truth, and they allow themselves to be intimidated. They do not understand that homophobia is a deception which serves to threaten people. But we Christians may not have fear in the face of threats. In the first centuries [after Christ], the disciples of Jesus were put into prison, or one had them eaten up by wild beasts. Today one tears them apart with the help of psycho terror, while at the same time making use of the lack of knowledge. However, from a bishop and from a priest, one may expect that he is capable of looking behind these ideologies. We are the ones who try, with the help of God's Grace, to love all people, also those who feel attracted to the same sex. But it must be clear that to love does not mean to obey the gender propaganda.- Cardinal Gerhard Müller

It was hypocritical.  Bishop Curry was at a wedding that upheld the traditional Cranmer prayer book (and biblical) view of marriage as being between a man and a woman – and which expressly said so. Yet he does not believe that – and has been active in getting the reference to procreation and to man and woman removed from the prayer book in his church. Incidentally his province is meant to be under the discipline of the whole Anglican Church, yet the Archbishop of Canterbury not only invited him but also enthusiastically endorsed him. Biblical Evangelicals within the Church of England have been well and truly shafted!   It is important to grasp that Liberals like Curry use words in different ways – we need to ask what does he mean by Jesus, love and the cross. We may be hearing one thing when he is saying another.- David Robertson, https://theweeflea.com/2018/05/21/bishop-michael-currys-sermon-a-distorted-gospel-divides-the-church/#respond

It’s a great consolation for me to remember that the Lord, to whom I had drawn near in humble and child-like faith, has suffered and died for me, and that He will look on me in love and compassion.~ Mozart

The Father loves his chosen even as he loves Jesus. Wonder of wonders! Unspeakable grace!- C.H. Spurgeon Quotes@chsquotes

Quotes 23 May

A pastor’s occupation is conscience-binding. And he should only bind the conscience of his hearers with the Word of God. It is not his political opinions, calculations, or best guesses that call into existence the things that are not and then give order to this glorious new creation. - Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p.(150)

If you want an outwardly engaged church, you must continually emphasise the fact that the church’s upward engagement, not its outward engagement, is ultimate. (159)
- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p.

In the fourth grade, when a cruel teacher humiliated
me in front of the class for something I hadn't
done, I learned I was a fool to expect this world
to give me a fair shake.  It was a hard lesson for
I wanted to believe everyone was like my dad--good,
fair and just.
When that same teacher, three weeks later, made fun
of the little girl in the next aisle because she
wet her panties in class, I knew from then on
not to expect justice or kindness from the world.
It's not that I don't get upset when I'm cheated,
slandered, ignored, misunderstood or used--and then
cast out.  But at least I know what to expect.
When a kid stops whining, "But it isn't fair," and
realises this is an unjust world, he has matured.
--Jamie Buckingham (1932-1992)
      _The Truth Will Set You Free_ [1988], Chapter 9

Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfil God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.- Catechism of the Catholic Church

Quotes 22 May

One sign that you identify more with your ideological tribe than you do with Jesus is that you cannot hear what’s good when it comes from another tribe. - Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p.(182)

To be out of the hospital, to be out of the lunatic
asylum, to be out of prison, to be out of hell--do
we ever glorify God for these things?
     --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 26 [1880]

An enlightened man is grateful to God for temporal
blessings; but he is much more grateful to God for
spiritual blessings, for temporal blessings do not
last long; they are soon gone.
Temporal blessings are not definite marks of divine
favour, since God gives them to the unworthy, and to
the wicked, as well as to the righteous.

     --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 38 [1892]

The significance in giving thanks is that you know
that God can work out His plan--regardless of the
evil intentions or actions of others.  Nothing can
thwart His purpose for you.  Giving thanks positions
you to receive the fullest extent of His blessings.
     --Charles F. Stanley (1932-    )
      _In Touch_ [March 1990]

Quotes 21 May

Here is what’s crucial for American Christians to recognise. True justice doesn’t start with our rights. It starts with God’s righteousness and his understanding of what’s right. We do justice by doing what’s right, which includes respecting people’s rights. First right, then rights. The order is crucial. What God says is right is the root; rights are the flower.- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (216–17)

I do not think it at all probable aeronautics ever come into play as a serious modification of transport and communication.- H G Wells, Anticipations p. 32 (Written two years before the Wrights flew.)

It has been said that one of the greatest dangers of civilisation is that man's conquest in the  realms of science have outstripped his moral progress. It is the greatest task which lies ahead of us all in the Labour and Socialist movement to see to it that the citizen's sense of obligation to the community keeps pace with the changes effected in the structure of society. We need to stress duties as well as rights. - Clement Attlee, speech to the 47th annual Labour Party conference in Scarborough 19 May 1948

Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass,
But still remember what the Lord hath done.
     --William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
      _King Henry VI_, Part II [1590-1591]; Act II, Scene I

Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God,
and value it next to a good conscience; for health
is the second blessing that we mortals are capable
of; a blessing that money cannot buy.
     --Izaak Walton (1593-1683)
_The Compleat Angler_ [1653-1655], Chapter 21

Quotes 19 May 18

Imagine an airport security metal detector that doesn’t screen for metal but for religion standing at the entrance of the public square. The machine beeps anytime someone walks through it with a supernatural big-G God hiding inside one of their convictions, but it fails to pick up self-manufactured or socially constructed little-g gods. Into this public square the secularist, the materialist, the Darwinist, the consumerist, the elitist, the chauvinist, and, frankly, the fascist can all enter carrying their gods with them like whittled wooden figures in their pockets. Not so for the Christians or Jews or Muslims. Should they enter and make a claim on behalf of their big-G God, the siren will sound like a firetruck. What this means is that the public square is inevitably slanted toward the secularist and materialist. Public conversation is ideologically rigged. - Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p.35

It doesn’t matter whether people acknowledge the Bible as their book. The relevance of the Bible to politics depends entirely on the reality of God and the judgment of God. If either God or his judgment is not real, the Bible has no relevance whatsoever. But if God and his judgment are real, the Bible is eternally relevant. Does that mean Christians should impose the whole Bible on fellow Christians and non-Christians alike? Well, we don’t have the right to impose anything on anyone. But God does. The better question is, what commands does God impose on which people and how and when? Yes, he means to impose some things on everyone right now through governments. That’s why he gives authority to governments in the first place. Other things he imposes right now on children through parents. And still other things he imposes right now only on members of churches. In short, God assigns different jurisdictions to different institutions. Our task, then, is to pay close attention to what jurisdictions God has established for governments, for parents, and for churches, and only recommend those commands that he has authorized for each. And he will ultimately judge everyone accordingly.- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (81–82)

Quotes 18 May 2018

The local church should be a model political community for the world. It’s the most political of assemblies since it represents the One with final judgement over presidents and prime ministers. Together we confront, condemn, and call nations with the light of our King’s words and the saltiness of our lives.-  - Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p.14

Just as our hearts are battlegrounds of gods, so the public square is a battleground of gods, the turf of our religious wars. Either we ask the state to play saviour, or, to say the same thing a different way, we demand it plays servant to our gods. Sometimes our gods agree with one another; sometimes they don’t. And that’s when the fighting starts in the public square. . . . A nation’s public square is where a citizenry wages war on behalf of their gods.- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (28)

The holy battle rages on, even if we deny it. Our gods determine our morality, and they determine our politics—unavoidably. They are not always consistent with one another. They are not always apparent to us. But they are always there, determining our political postures and positions. There is no such thing as a spiritually neutral politics.- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (29)

Quotes 17 May 2018

The secular approach to race and ethnicity either insists that everyone should conform to one objective cultural norm (perhaps the more common conservative error?), or insists that everyone is different and that we cannot understand one another (perhaps the more common progressive error?). The Christian path affirms both our common humanity and our created differences. It requires colour-blindness with respect to our oneness in Adam and (if believers) in Christ (Gal. 3:28). It requires colour-consciousness with respect to our different experiences, histories, and cultural traditions, as well as the unique ways different people can glorify God (1 Cor. 12:13–14; Rev. 7:9).- Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p. (221)

It seems that there is money in atheism as well as religion. I recall the late, great Christopher Hitchens agreeing to debate with me in London. It eventually didn't go ahead. Why? Because of money. The church that asked us wanted to know our price – mine was a return train ticket from Scotland. His? Two first class plane tickets from New York and $50,000 (later reduced to $25,000 when his agent discovered that the church was 'a charity'). It seems that 'the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil' – including atheism.- David Robertson Mon 14 May 2018 https://www.christiantoday.com/article/an-open-letter-to-richard-dawkins-what-have-you-got-to-lose-by-debating-gods-existence-with-me-this-weekend/129143.htm

Quotes 16 may 2018

Each day Satan still pleads in opposition to Christ; he still tries to. name that uncertain in Heaven which is really fixed and assured. But his present efforts are as futile as the former attempts - he is trying impossible.
 The comfort is not such, however, that, because of Christ's intersession by word and deed,, we can rest upon it as we rest our heads upon a pillow. Moments of tension, crises -  these remain in the world. Crises we know require sifting.
 When the winds of Satan blow against the ark, threatening to crush it sides, God's winds, we know also blow and quickly impel the vessel beyond the treachery of cliff and mountain. His love lifts the ark above danger -  we know that, and it is certain -  but it is blowing hard just the same!
 In our day the breakers of Satan's jealousy and hate blow against the church, the tiny vessel which is the church; and again we know that God will cause his winds to blow it beyond the crags and rocks. But again -; the fact is that it is blowing hard;there is a bad storm! Intercession and intervention point unerringly to the judgement, to a crisis.
 As for Simon! And as for us? What must Simon; do what shall we do?
 Simon does not know just yet. He needs a Mediator who prays for him, first and afterwards opens his eyes to see the nature of this spiritual conflict. Not until later will Simon understand.
 And we lord are no better. Afterwards not until afterwards shall we understand.
 However, since we know, since we are sure that Christ must still present his cross in heaven daily, as he intercedes for us, therefore each day is oppressive for us. We may very well count our days, for He who intercedes for us ascribes great importance to them .Intercession is inconceivable without a process as segregation. It introduces the principal of segregation into the world.... All our thinking finally rests in the prayer of Jesus.-  K Schilder, Christ in his suffering, Page 264

Church and state are distinct God-given institutions, and they must remain separate. But every church is political all the way down and all the way through. And every government is a deeply religious battleground of gods. No one separates their politics and religion—not the Christian, not the agnostic, not the secular progressive. - Jonathan Leeman, How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age (Thomas Nelson, 2018)p.13

Quotes 15 May 18

Rather than give us a life of ease, God interrupts our lives with grace to show us what we need most: himself . Desiring God@desiringGod

“Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state, force them to attend schools where the higher aspirations of humanity are crushed out, and where the mind is filled with the materialism of the day, and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist.” - J. Gresham Machen

You are free to abandon your wife when Jesus abandons his.— @JohnPiper

There is no loneliness to the believer.  He may be
misunderstood, slandered, disliked, persecuted; but
near him is the presence of a sympathizing Father,
shaping, guiding, influencing every step in the path
through life towards a definite and blessed end.
     --Basil Wilberforce (1841-1916)
      (In Marion Parker's _Thoughts Of The Great:
       A Scrapbook of Quotations_ [1960])

Difficulty, hardship, and pain strengthen your faith
and deepen your message.  You understand more
and you're more effective in what you have to say to
others because of how God has worked in your life.
He equips you to comfort others.
     --Charles F. Stanley (1932-    )
      _Everyday Inspiration_ [2015], "December 12"

Quotes 14 May 18 IM John Hughes 14 May 1932

Cwm Rhondda John Hughes, 1907. Hughes wrote this tune in Tonteg (near Pontypridd), Wales, to commemorate a music festival held in nearby Capel Rhondda, Hopkinstown. It was first performed November 1 that year to Welsh words by Ann Griffiths; in the early days it was simply known as Rhondda, but within a year he changed the name to Cwm Rhondda.

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,

[or Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer…]

Pilgrim through this barren land.

I am weak, but Thou art mighty;

Hold me with Thy powerful hand.

Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,

Feed me till I want no more;

Feed me till I want no more.

Feed me with the heavenly manna,

In this barren wilderness;

Be my sword, and shield, and banner—

Be my robe of righteousness.

Fight and conquer, fight and conquer

All my foes by sovereign grace,

All my foes by sovereign grace.*

Open now the crystal fountain,

Whence the healing stream doth flow;

Let the fire and cloudy pillar

Lead me all my journey through.

Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,

Be Thou still my strength and shield;

Be Thou still my strength and shield.

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,

Wondrous are Thy works of old;

Thou deliver’st Thine from thralldom,

Who for naught themselves had sold:

Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer,

Sin, and Satan and the grave,

Sin, and Satan and the grave.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,

Bid my anxious fears subside;

Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,

Land me safe on Canaan’s side.

Songs of praises, songs of praises,

I will ever give to Thee;

I will ever give to Thee.

Musing on my habitation,

Musing on my heav’nly home,

Fills my soul with holy longings:

Come, my Jesus, quickly come;

Vanity is all I see;

Lord, I long to be with Thee!

Lord, I long to be with Thee!

William Williams,  (Bristol, England: 1745) (Arglwydd, arwain trwy’r anialwch). Translated from Welsh to English by Peter Williams, Hymns on Various Subjects (Carmarthen, Wales: 1771)

 

Quotes 12 May 18 HB - Florence Nightingale 1820

Life is a hard fight, a struggle, a wrestling with the principle of evil, hand to hand, foot to foot. Every inch of the way is disputed. The night is given us to take breath, to pray, to drink deep at the fountain of power. The day, to use the strength which has been given us, to go forth to work with it till the evening. --Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better. -Florence Nightingale (1820 &endash; 1910)

Why is there not national like individual progression? Does it not seem as if the greatest amount of progress would be secured by the *same* nation continuing to carry its own on, and profiting by its own experience? It cannot be a law that all nations shall fall after a certain number of years. God does not work in that sort of way: they must have broken some law of nature which has caused them to fall. But are all nations to sink in that way? As if national soil, like the soil of the earth, must lie fallow after a certain number of crops. And will England turn into Picts again, after a certain number of harvest years, as Egypt has turned into Arabs? Or will a nation find out at last the laws of God by which she may make a steady progression? -- Florence Nightingale, 1850

Quotes 11 May 18 HB Salvadore Dali 11 May 1904

 The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents. -- Salvador Dali

I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said "I will be so brief I have already finished," and he sat down. Edward O. Wilson, 1995

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it. - Salvadore Dali

Quotes 10 May 18

Marx was instead a prophet – but not one from God. Rather he was the atheist prophet whose doctrines have led to more deaths than any other ideology in the world.- David Robertson https://theweeflea.com/2018/05/07/should-christians-celebrate-the-birthday-of-karl-marx/

“I don't have to tell you it goes without saying there are some things
better left unsaid. I think that speaks for itself. The less said
about it the better.”
-- George Carlin

To think all you say, is but candor;
To say all you think, would be slander.
--William Allingham (1824—1899)
_Blackberries Picked Off Many Bushes_ [1884]

Should you happen to notice that another person
is extremely tall or overweight, eats too much or
declines convivial drinks, has red hair or goes
about in a wheelchair, ought to get married or
ought not to be pregnant — see if you can refrain
from bringing these astonishing observations to
that person's attention.
--Judith Martin "Miss Manners" (b. 1938)
Quoted in William Safire & Leonard Safir
_Words of Wisdom: More Good Advice_ [1989].

Quotes 9 May 18 HB Dante Alighieri 9 May 1265

Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and still your eyes are on the ground. Dante Alighieri

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality.-- attributed to Dante

Here lamentation, groans, and wailings deep
Reverberated through the starless air,
So that it made me at the beginning weep.
Uncouth tongues, horrible shriekings of despair,
Shrill and faint voices, cries of pain and rage,
And, with it all, smiting of hands, were there,
Making a tumult, nothing could assuage,
To swirl in the air that knows not day or night,
Like sand within the whirlwind's eddying cage."Dante, THE DIVINE COMEDY, translation by Lawrence Binyon, Copyright 1947 Viking Press Inferno, Canto III, Lines 22-30

What more impiety can he avow
Whose heart rebelleth at God's judgment dread?
Dante, THE DIVINE COMEDY, translation by Lawrence Binyon, Copyright 1947 Viking Press Inferno, Canto XX, Lines 7-30

Predestination! how remote and dim
Thy root lies hidden from the intellect
Which only glimpses the First Cause Supreme!
And you, ye mortals, keep your judgment checked,
Since we, who see God, have not therefore skill
To know yet all the number of the elect."

Dante, THE DIVINE COMEDY, translation by Lawrence Binyon, Copyright 1947 Viking Press Paradiso, Canto XX, Lines 130-135 

Quotes 8 May 18

"When God is about to do a great work, He pours out a spirit of supplication."
-Jonathan Edwards.

No oppressor can rage against us unless the Lord permits; why do we then fear? He who gives our foe permission to annoy us in measure, holds the other end of his chain and will keep him within bounds.- C .H. Spurgeon Quotes@chsquotes

To avoid criticism--do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
     --Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)
      (In R. Scott Frothingham's _The Words
       And Wisdom Of Elbert Hubbard_ [2013],
      "Quotable Quotes")

Quotes 7 May 18

No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome
by putting them off till tomorrow.  It is only when
they are behind us and done, that we begin to find
that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards,
and that the remembrance of unwelcome duties
unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant.
Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there
is a smile on their faces as they leave us.  Undone,
they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility,
and hindering our communion with God.
If there be lying before you any bit of work from
which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at
once.  The only way to get rid of it is to do it.
--Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910)

Slavery was eliminated very slowly, only after generations of gradual change of heart, and the agent which got rid of it was the Christian Church. As long as the old world was pagan, slavery was taken as a matter of course; but after gradual conversion, slavery began to disappear -Hilaire Belloc @bellocquotes

"Before man had any other calling, he was called to be a husband…. First man must choose his love, and then he must love his choice…. The man and wife are partners, like two oars in a boat." — Henry Smith

Batter a thorn in the flesh than pride in the heart. - David Gibson, sermon IPC Ealing, 6 May 2018

Little grows on the mountain tops, plenty in the valleys. - David Gibson, sermon IPC Ealing, 6 May 2018

Quotes 5 May 18 HB Karl Marx 5 May 1818

The English Established Church... will more readily pardon an attack on 38 of its 39 articles than on 1/39 of its income. -- Karl Marx, _Capital_

Religion is the sign of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. -- Karl Marx

From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need. --Karl Marx

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it. -- Karl Marx Theses on Feuerbach

We know that violent measures against religion are nonsense; but this is an opinion: as socialism grows, religion will disappear. Its disappearance must be done by social development, in which education must play a part. -- Chicago Tribune Interview with Karl Marx

Quotes 4 May 18 HB Thomas Henry Huxley 4 May 1825

A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. -Thomas Henry Huxley

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.- Thomas H. Huxley

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.-- Thomas Henry Huxley

Veracity is the heart of morality.-- Thomas Henry Huxley

The great end of life is not knowledge, but action. What men need is as much knowledge as they can organize for action; give them more and it may become injurious. Some men are heavy and stupid from undigested learning.- Thomas Henry Huxley

Quotes 3 May 18

“Equality as an aim in itself through government action is doomed not merely to defeat but to totalitarianism.” - Fhe Archbishop of Canterbury, Trinity Institute symposium ‘Creating the Common Good’.

We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. --Konrad Adenauer (1876-1976)

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. -- Honore de Balzac

Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.--Descartes

Equality of opportunity and equality of result are entirely alien to each other. Men are entitled to equal rights - but to equal rights to unequal things.- Charles James Fox 

Quotes 2 May 18 On this day 2 May 1507 Martin Luther was ordained priest

It is pleasing to God whenever thou rejoicest or laughest from the bottom of thy heart. --Martin Luther (1483-1546)

"It's true that a good diet is the best medicine when it suits the individual, but to live medically is to live wretchedly." Then he related some examples of deceased persons who starved themselves to death on the advice of their physicians. "I eat what I like and will die when God wills it."
Luther's Tabletalk from No.3801

He had a rose in his hand and marveled at it. "A glorious work of art by God," he said. "If a man had the capacity to make just one rose he would be given an empire! But the countless gifts of God are esteemed as nothing because they're always present. We see that God gives children to all men, the fruit of their bodies resembling the parents. A peasant is said to have three and four sons who look so much like him that they're easily mistaken for one another. All of these gifts are despised because they're always present. Luther's Tabletalk from No.4593

'When Luther's puppy [n. 116, Luther's dog Tölpel is mentioned again and again in the Table Talk.] happened to be at the table, looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes, he [Martin Luther] said, "Oh, if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.
Luther's Works, Volume 54, Table Talk (Philadelphia: 1967), pp. 37, 38. May 18, 1532

For some years now I have read through the Bible twice every year. If you picture the Bible to be a mighty tree and every word a little branch, I have shaken every one of these branches because I wanted to know what it was and what it meant. --Luther's Tabletalk No.1877