Quotes 8 Nov

"Trump puts America and its people first. This is why people love him and this is why he will remain in charge for so long. There is not a single thing wrong with him and people need to open their eyes." When he boasts that he has a "bigger red button" than Kim Jung Un does, he so transcends the mealy-mouthed rhetoric of the past, thereby forcing a new recognition of American power".- Henry Kissinger on President Trump

The instruments whom the Lord employs in political matters are usually such as are incapable of better employment.- John Newton@john__newton

HB Albert Camus 7 Nov 1913

All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football - Albert Camus

A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.~ Albert Camus

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf's a flower. - Albert Camus

He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hopes for the human condition is a fool.- Albert Camus

Life is absurd.~ Albert Camus

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. -- Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1955)

More and more, when faced with the world of men, the only reaction is one of individualism. Man alone is an end unto himself. Everything one tries to do for the common good ends in failure.~ Albert Camus, in Notebooks 1935-1942 (1962), March 1940 entry

Quotes 4 Nov

I have heard others express similar thoughts. But though I consider their point, I can’t seem to either agree or understand.
The Bible teaches a willing generosity of one’s own resources and money. Marxist Socialism teaches an unwilling taking of other people’s resources and money.-Joshua D Jones

“While struggling with a lot of things personally — temptations, sins and lifestyle choices — I realized I wasn’t living according to what I was calling myself: a follower of Christ. I was getting by, but I hadn’t decided to fully commit myself to Jesus Christ and start living according to his way. Walking alongside a spiritual mentor, I’ve been able to discover the truth and saving power of Christ in a whole new way. This new life has given me a peace in my heart I’d never experienced before. I don’t have to understand everything in life, and there are so many things I don’t, but I know God is in control of it all. My job is to do the best I can and leave the rest in his hands.” Siya Kolisi, Springboks Captain

Do not be in a hurry to change your trials, dear
friends.  We have heard of some who have repined
that they had no children, and, like Rachel, their
cry was, "Give me children, or else I die."
Ere long they have had children who proved to be far
worse than none.  Better no son than an Absalom.
     --Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 17 [1871]

Quotes 2 Nov

Grace is favor shown to people who do not deserve any favor at all. We deserve nothing but Hell!
If you think you deserve Heaven--then you are not a Christian. - - D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

Take heed that you overlook not the many precious mercies which the people of God enjoy amidst all their trouble. It is a pity that our tears on account of our troubles should so blind our eyes that we should not see our mercies. - John Flavel@FlavelJohn

Quotes 1 Nov

All things obey money.
     --Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
      _Adagia_ [1500]

The tragedy of sin is that it affects man in his highest faculties.
Sin causes us to become fools and behave in an irrational manner.
Modern man, far from being ruled by reason, is ruled by lust and passion.- D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

The ultimate test of our spirituality, is the measure of our amazement at the grace of God.- - D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

HB John Keats 1795 31 Oct

A thing of beauty is a joy forever;
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.
John Keats 1795-1821 Endymion. Book i.

There was an awful rainbow once in heaven:
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an angel's wings.
John Keats 1795-1821 Lamia. Part ii.

Then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun.
John Keats

HB John Adams 30 Oct 1735

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery of party, faction, and division of society.-- John Adams

I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.- John Adams

I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman. ~John Adams to his wife, Abigail Adams.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. --John Adams

Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.--John Adams

HB James Boswell 29 Oct 1740

We have no right to make people happy against their will. - James Boswell quoted in James Pope-Hennesy, Sins of the Fathers 

We never have a long continuation of agreeable life. It is frequently interrupted, and a company who have been very happy together must have the pain of parting. After every enjoyment comes weariness or disgust. We never have a large lawn of agreeable life. It is cut to pieces with sunk fences, even where it is smoothest. -- James Boswell , letter, June 1774

Quotes 28 Oct

To be a Christian, it will cost a man his love of ease!- J.C. Ryle

He who counts the stars and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting His own children! He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made, or the only saint He ever loved!- C H Spurgeon

The measure of a man's real character is what he
would do if he knew he would never be found out.
     --Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)

Quotes 26 Oct

A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing. A cheap Christianity, without a cross
--will prove in the end to be a useless Christianity, without a crown.- J C Ryle

"An Australian home-owner came home one day to find that his house had collapsed; all that was left was a pile of dust and rubble. It transpired that, unbeknown to him, white ants has been eating away at the foundations and supporting timbers of the house for years. Everything had continued to look normal on the outside, but internally the house was being gradually consumed, until one day it crashed to the ground destroyed by the tiny insects.
This is an illustration of what has been happening both within Western civilisation and within the professing church for a long time. The Judeo-Christian heritage and foundations of Western society have been subjected to such undermining under the influence of secularism, materialism, and multi-culturalism. At the same time many ‘ants’ have been at work within the church, calling in question teachings and practices that had been taken for granted for many generations." —David J. Randall, 'A Sad Departure'

Look to the cross, and hate your sin--for sin nailed your Well-Beloved to the accursed tree!- C H Spurgeon

Quotes Oct 25

Death is the last and best physician. It cures all diseases and sins--the aching head and the unbelieving heart. Sin was the midwife which brought death into the world--and death shall be the grave to bury sin! O the privilege of a believer!- Thomas Watson
That preaching is sadly defective, which dwells exclusively on the mercies of God and the joys of Heaven--yet never sets forth the terrors of the Lord and the miseries of Hell. - J C Ryle

Without contest, the supreme sinfulness of sinners is the most disregarded reality — the world over. The fall of man is quite possibly the most forgotten, under appreciated, and misunderstood event in history. —
@BurkParsons

The terrors of God are the effects of guilt.
     --Stephen Charnoch (1628-1680)

Quotes Oct 24

Sin forsaken--is one of the best evidences of sin forgiven.- J C Ryle

A sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that wallows in it.—William Gurnall

We rob the gospel of its power if we leave out its
threatenings of punishment.
     --C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Lectures To My Students_ [1860]

Quotes 23 Oct

There is more evil in a drop of sin--than in a sea of affliction!- Thomas Watson

Our Lord has . .many weak children in His family, many dull pupils in His school,
many raw soldiers in His army, many lame sheep in His flock.
Yet He bears with them all, and casts none away.
Happy is that Christian who has learned to do likewise with his brethren.- J C Ryle

Surely there are in everyone's life certain
connections, twists and turns which pass
awhile under the category of Chance, but
at the last, well examined, prove to be
the very Hand of God
     --Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)
      _Religio Medici_ [1643]

Quotes 22 Oct

I expect perpetual conflicts and struggles in this life. I expect only a cross, while on this side of eternity.- George Whitefield

What fools are they who, for a drop of pleasure, drink a sea of wrath!-  Thomas Watson

One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the quiet
confidence that God is in control . . . without the
need to understand why He does what He does.
     --Charles R. Swindoll (1934-    )
      (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection
       of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Maturity")

There is no such thing as 'chance', 'luck', or 'accident' in the Christian journey through this world. All is arranged and appointed by God, who works all things together for the believer's eternal good.- J C Ryle

Quotes 21 Oct

I expect perpetual conflicts and struggles in this life. I expect only a cross, while on this side of eternity.- George Whitefield

What fools are they who, for a drop of pleasure, drink a sea of wrath!-  Thomas Watson

One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the quiet
confidence that God is in control . . . without the
need to understand why He does what He does.
     --Charles R. Swindoll (1934-    )
      (In Martin H. Manser's _The Westminster Collection
       of Christian Quotations_ [2001], "Maturity")

Quotes 19 Oct

Great works are performed not by strength but
by perseverance.
     --Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
      _Rasselas: Prince of Abyssinia_ [1759],
       Chapter 13

No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed.
No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is
confined.  No Niagara is ever turned into light and
power until it is tunneled.  No life ever grows
great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
One of the widest gaps in human experience is the
gap between what we say we want to be and our
willingness to discipline ourselves to get there.
--Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969)
      _Living Under Tension_ [1941]

The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with
which our souls can be satisfied. . . . Fathers
and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the
company of earthly friends are but shadows, but
enjoyment of God is the substance.
These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun.
These are but streams, but God is the fountain.
These are but drops, but God is the ocean.
--Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
_The Christian Pilgrim_ [1733]

Quotes 18 Oct

He who will be angry and not sin, must not be angry at nothing but sin.-John Trapp
(1601-1669)

Prosperity may cause us to rise in the world--but affliction is needful to raise us above the world!- John Newton

Well spake the soldier who being asked what he would
do if he became too weak to cling to Christ,
answered, "Then I will pray Him to cling to me."
     --Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
      _The Face of the Deep_ [1892], Chapter 16

Profanity is the use of strong words by weak people
     --William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
      _Thoughts Of A Christian Optimist_ [1968]

Quotes 1 Oct

The special mark of the modern world is not that it is sceptical, but that it is dogmatic without knowing it.- Chesterton

People do their country more service by pleading for it in prayer--than by finding fault with things they have no power to alter!- John Newton

Better be pruned to grow, than cut up to burn! - John Trapp (1601-1669)

Quotes 30 Sep

Pleasure, profit and preferment are the worldling's trinity!- John Trapp (1601-1669)

To see Him as He is, and to be like Him! This is worth dying for--and worth living for!- John Newton

I long for the death of Hefner's hedonistic, misogynistic, philosophy. It was from the pit of hell; that is where it belongs and that, ultimately, is where it will return. It was a fragmented, broken and perverted anti-human (and especially anti-woman) way of thinking. May God grant the Church the ability to proclaim and live a view of humanity which is the antithesis of Hefner's - holistic, healthy and beautifully holy. For Christ's sake. And ours.- David Robertson

HB Confucius 28 Sep 551 BC

An angry man is full of poison. -- Confucius

A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is committing another mistake. Confucius

When a student asked of Confucius:"What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed by kindness?" The Master replied:"With what, then, will you recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice and recompense kindness with kindness"
Act with kindness, but do not expect gratitude. --Confucius (551-479 BC)

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. Confucius

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Confucius

To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice. --Confucius, _Analects_, c. 500BC

The greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising up every time we fall. - Confucius

Quotes 27 Sep

... there are no atheists. There are only people who know, and don't know, which God the serve. - Jordan B Peterson,12 Rules for Life, p225

 Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he
never shows to anybody.
     --Mark Twain (1835-1910)
_Following the Equator_ [1897], Chapter 66

"This world is all the hell that a true Christian is to ever endure, and it is all the heaven that unbelievers shall ever enjoy."
—Jonathan Edwards

HB T .S. Eliot 26 Sep 1888

Success is relative: it's what we can make of the mess we have made of things. -T. S. Eliot

It is not enough to understand what we ought to be, unless we know what we are; and we do not understand what we are, unless we know what we ought to be. Thomas Stearns Eliot

Give, Sympathise, Control - T S Eliot, The Wasteland

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot Little Gidding V, Four Quartets. (1943)

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T. S. Eliot, 'The Hollow Men'

The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down. T.S. Eliot

If you find examples of humanism which are anti-religious, or at least in opposition to the religious faith of the place and time, then such humanism is purely destructive, for it has never found anything to replace what it has destroyed. -- T. S. Eliot, "Humanism of Irving Babbit," _Selected Essays_, 1917-1928

Humor is also a way of saying something serious. T. S. Eliot

HB William Faulkner 25 Sep 1897

The past is never dead. It's not even past. William Faulkner:_Requiem For A Nun_.

Only vegetables are happy.-William Faulkner

Quoes 24 Sep HB F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896

All things come to him who mates. F. Scott Fitzgerald

First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Quotes 23 Sep

“The purpose of those who argue for cultural diversity is to impose ideological uniformity.”― Dr Theodore Dalrymple

I was old for so long that me sexual desires were what defined my humanity. But as a Christian, I learned the giving ourselves to God completely and rusting Him with our same sex desires is precious in His eyes.It helps us see He is our greatest treasure and what we are really longing for. The goal of our lives isn't to fulfil our culture's expectations and worship our own desires but o follow Jesus and worship God. I have given up a portion of myself. But in return I found my whole humanity, - David Bennett, A War of Loves, p204

With some of the Corinthian Christians, Paul was celebrating the moral empowering of he Holy Spirit in heterosexual tears, with other of the Corinthians, today's homosexuals are called to prove, live out, and celebrate he moral empowering of he Holy Spirit in homosexual arms. - J I Packer on 1 Cor 6:9-11.

Quotes 21 Sep

Many Christians estimate difficulties in the light of their own resources, and thus attempt little and often fail in the little they attempt. All of God's giants have been weak men who did great things for God, because they reckoned on His power and presence with them.- Hudson Taylor

‘Come, Holy Spirit, come, we can do nothing without thee; but if we have thy wind, we spread our sail, and speed onward towards glory’. - Spurgeon.

The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.-Timothy Keller@timkellernyc

Quotes 20 Sep

Historically, he church has more often tan not dealt with moral issues like homosexuality by focusing on sin management than emphasising Chris's transforming grave through the Holy Sprit. - David Bennett, A War of Loves, p114

Christ is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.-Hudson Taylor

The one principle of hell is--I am my own.  I am my
own king and my own subject.
     --George MacDonald (1824-1905)
      _Unspoken Sermons_, Series Three [1891]

Quotes Sep 19

I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realise the Lord is able to carry out His will--and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions, He must give me His grace; -Hudson Taylor
Tomorrow, if all literature was to be destroyed and it was left to me to retain one work only, I should save Job.—Victor Hugo,

“We cannot help it if the truth offends people, but we must always make sure that it is the truth that is offending them and not us.” - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Quotes 18 Sep

Depend on it! God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply!-Hudson Taylor

Be not any wise terrified by your adversaries; the king of the church has them all in a chain: be kind to them, pray for them; but fear them not.- George Whitefield@WhitefieldG

“What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted.”- Oliver Cromwell

Quotes 17 Sep

Depend on it! God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply!-Hudson Taylor

Bae not any wise terrified by your adversaries; the king of the church has them all in a chain: be kind to them, pray for them; but fear them not.- George Whitefield@WhitefieldG

“What is all our histories, but God showing himself, shaking and trampling on everything that he has not planted.”- Oliver Cromwell

Quotes 16 Sep

The greatest joy of the believer in this world is to enjoy the presence of Christ - not seen or heard, but still real - the real presence of the unseen Saviour. It is this that makes secret prayer and sermons and sacraments sweet - we meet Jesus in them.- Robert Murray M'Cheyne@NearToGod

"The grace of God runs in the dried up river beds of his creation" Ferguson quoting Bavinck

The happiest of human fates is to find something to love; but the second happiest fate is certainly to find something to fight.- G. K. Chesterton@GKCdaily

IM Arthur Wellesley 13 Sep 1852

Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.-- The Duke of Wellington, when referred to as Irish
Educate men without religion and you make of them but clever devils. --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)

Publish and be damned. (when being blackmailed) --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)

Sparrowhawks, Ma'am. --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852) (attrib. remark to Q. Victoria on how to remove birds from the newly built Crystal Palace)

I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they frighten me.--Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)(attrib.)

[of the British army, 1831] Ours is composed of the scum of the earth. --Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)

I always say that, next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.--Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852)

Quotes Sep 13 HB Dante Alighieri 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

HB Herbert Henry Asquith 12 Sep 1852

[The War Office kept three sets of figures:] one to mislead the public, another to mislead the Cabinet, and the third to mislead itself. Herbert Henry Asquith (1852 - 1928)

Youth would be an ideal state if it came a little later in life. - Herbert Henry Asquith (1852 - 1928)

There is no more striking illustration of the immobility of British institutions than the House of Commons. - H. H. Asquith

Quotes Sep 11

I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving: having, from the earliest
time almost that I can remember, been forming plans of a better life. I
have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the
time of doing is short. O GOD, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my
resolutions, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Samuel Johnson

While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round
stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of
the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true
of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been
surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its
benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it.
The fault is not in Christianity, but in men's hearts, which have been
hardened by materialism and intellectualism.
Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)


Who is there that ever receives a gift and tries to make bargains about it?
Let us, then, return thanks for what He has bestowed on us. Who can tell
whether, if we had had a larger share of ability or stronger health, we
should not have possessed them to our destruction. Alphonsus Liguori

Crosses release us from this world and by doing so bind us to God.
Charles de Foucauld

Thanks people, that confirms my worst fears re my creeping senility. These
days I walk into a room full of people and the only name I can remember is
Alzheimer. pavlov@hotmail.com

(first posted 2 Jan 1999)

Quotes Sep 10

There is nothing in this world which death cannot take from us. But if you have Christ, you have the only imperishable portion! Oh may the Holy Spirit give you a firm hold of Jesus!- Robert Murray M'Cheyne@NearToGod

To trust God is to obey him in whatever he says and to submit to his will in whatever he sends.- Tim Keller Wisdom@DailyKeller

“My confidence in the future rests in my confidence in the God who controls history.” —
@RCSproul

Quotes Sep 9 HB Leo Tolstoy 1828

What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness.--Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

The more is given the less people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.-Leo Tolstoy,"Help for the Starving, Part II" January, 1892

Would reason ever have proved to me that I must love my neighbour instead of strangling him? I was told that in my childhood and I believed it gladly, for they told me what was already in my soul. But who discovered it? Not reason. Reason discovered the struggle for existence, and the law demanding that I should strangle all who hinder the satisfaction of my desires. That is the deduction of reason. But loving one's neighbour reason could never discover, because it's unreasonable.-- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

It is by those who have suffered that the world has been advanced. Leo Tolstoy
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold. -- Leo Tolstoy

The creation and sale of most art today is pure prostitution. The comparison is true in every detail. Real art can only rarely be created even by a real artist; like a child in a mother's womb, it is the ripened fruit of his prior life. False art, though, can be ceaselessly produced by craftsmen, according to the dictates of a market. Like a faithful wife who loves her husband, real art does not need any excess decoration; like a prostitute, false art demands to be decorated. True art comes out of an artist's urgent need to express the feelings that have formed inside him, just as a mother needs to give birth to her baby. False art answers only to profit. Real art brings new feelings into our life, as a woman brings a new person into the world. False art corrupts; it makes a person dissipated, distracts him, weakens his spiritual power. Everyone must understand this, in order that they shun the terrible proliferation of this dirty, dissipated type of art which is, on its face, prostitution.--Leo Tolstoy, "A Calendar of Wisdom"

The problem of the meaning of life is intractable, but life's purpose becomes very simple when we ask ourselves what we should do. -Tolstoy

HB Queen Elizabeth I, 7 Sep 1533

I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.-Queen Elizabeth I Speech to her armies shortly before the sea battle in the English that defeated the Armada, 1588

I have known many persons who turned their gold into smoke, but you are the first to turn smoke into gold. - Queen Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603), to Sir Water Raleigh

I plucke up the goodlie greene herbes of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, chawe them by musing, and laie them up at length in the hie seate of memorie by gathering them together; that I, having tasted the sweetenes, l may the lesse perceave the bitternes of this miserable life. ~Elizabeth I 1533-1603 - written in copy of the Epistles of St Paul, ( c.August 1576 )

Sep 6 Quotes

The devil's snare does not catch you, unless
you are first caught by the devil's bait.
     --Saint Ambrose (c. 340-397)

...the authority of government does not derive from the consent of the governed or a social contract. ; it derives from he one who 'requires' justice. - Jonathan Leman, Political Church, p196

Lot had the paradise, such as it was, but Abram had the promise. - Mathew Henry on Gen 13:14-15.

]Sep 5 Quotes

The way of sin is downhill; a man cannot stop himself when he will. - Mathew Henry on Gen 3:6

Politics refers to (1) the institutional activity of governance (2) over an entire population (3) backed by the power of coercion. which in varying degrees will be regarded as legitimate. - Quentin Skinner, he Foundations of Modern Political Thought, p.352

'Anything on which your heart relies and defends, I say, that really is your God.'(Luther). By his definition, everybody has a god - something that they worship, sorting that justifies the, something that claims the first fruits of their income, and the commands all their obedience. - Jonathan Leeman, Political Church, p78

Quotes Sep 4

A shepherd will carry a sheep on his shoulders. He encounters many rocks and thorns and streams on the way, but the sheep feels no difficulty; it is carried above all. So it is with every soul that yields itself to Christ - the only difficulty is to remain on His shoulders.- Robert Murray M'Cheyne@NearToGod

A survey of 64,000 people in 65 nations found that 70% of people are content with their lives. Africa is the place where people are happiest (83%), while people in Western Europe are the least happy , with 11% saying they are unhappy or very unhappy. In Africa 75% expect life to get beer, compared with 26% in Europe. - Patrick Dixon, The Future of Almost Everything, p.280
·
Global sea levels are rising at an alarmingly fast rate — 6.7 inches in the last century alone and going higher. Surface temperatures are setting new heat records about each year. The ice sheets continue to decline, glaciers are in retreat globally, and our oceans are more acidic than ever. We could go on…which is a whole other problem.
The majority of scientists are in agreement that human contributions to the greenhouse effect are the root cause. Essentially, gases in the atmosphere – such as methane and CO2 – trap heat and block it from escaping our planet.
So what happens next? More droughts and heat waves, which can have devastating effects on the poorest countries and communities. Hurricanes will intensify and occur more frequently. Sea levels could rise up to four feet by 2100 – and that’s a conservative estimate among experts.- Earth Day website

Quotes Sep 3

"The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else."— Oswald Chambers

Kenneth Watt warned around 1970 about a pending Ice Age in a speech. “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years,” he declared. “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”

Seasons vary, circumstances change, feelings fluctuate, friendships cool, friends die--but Christ is ever the same!- Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

Quotes 2 Sep

Prayer is the pulse of the renewed soul--and the constancy of its beat is the test and measure of the spiritual life!- Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

Sen. Gaylord Nelson wrote in Look around 1970 that, “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”

“The carnal mind will always instinctively and automatically mobilize every possible reason it can possibly conceive for not praying at a particular time. For example, you are too busy; your mind is too preoccupied; your heart is not inclined toward prayer......later on you will have more time, your mind will be more calm and collected, and you will be able to pray in a more devotional frame of mind. Before we know it, the entire day is gone, and we have not had a single quiet hour alone with Christ.” - O. Hallesby

Quotes 31 Aug

"Many are the fiery darts of the wicked one; but our shield is one. The shield of faith not only quenches fiery darts, but it breaks arrows of steel."- Charles Spurgeon

Harrison Brown,around 1970 a scientist at the National Academy of Sciences, published a chart in Scientific American that looked at metal reserves and estimated the humanity would totally run out of copper shortly after 2000. Lead, zinc, tin, gold, and silver would be gone before 1990.

Christ took your cup of grief, your cup of the curse, pressed it to His lips, drank it to its dregs--then filled it with His sweet, pardoning, sympathising love, and gave it back for you to drink, and to drink forever!-Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)

Quotes 30 Aug

Christ is not sweet--until sin is made bitter to us!- -John Flavel, (1628-1691)

Ecologist Kenneth Watt declared,around 1970 “By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.'”

Out of Christ's condemnation--flows our justification!
Out of His agony--comes our victory!
Out of His pain--comes our ease!
Out of His stripes--comes our healing!
Out of His gall and vinegar--comes our honey!
Out of His curse--comes our blessing!
Out of His crown of thorns--comes our crown of glory!
Out of His death--comes our life!
O what a melting consideration is this!-John Flavel, (1628-1691)

Quotes 29 Aug

Europe is not based on a common language, culture and values... Europe is a result of plans. It is, in fact, a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure; only the scale of the final damage done is in doubt.- - Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

Paul Ehrlich warned in the May 1970 issue of Audubon that DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons “may have substantially reduced the life expectancy of people born since 1945.” Ehrlich warned that Americans born since 1946…now had a life expectancy of only 49 years, and he predicted that if current patterns continued this expectancy would reach 42 years by 1980, when it might level out. (Note: According to the most recent CDC report, life expectancy in the US is 78.8 years).

Jesus is the fountain, ocean, and centre of all delights and joys!-John Flavel, (1628-1691)

Quotes Aug 28

“The best and wisest thing in the world is to work as if it all depended upon you, and then trust in God, knowing that it all depends upon him.”- Spurgeon

Paul Ehrlich chimed in, predicting in 1970 that “air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” Ehrlich sketched a scenario in which 200,000 Americans would die in 1973 during “smog disasters” in New York and Los Angeles.

The servants of the Lord are to sing his praises in this life to the world's end; and in the next life, world without end.—John Boys

Quotes Aug 27

I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society, from a give-it-to-me to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

Barry Commoner predicted around 1970 that decaying organic pollutants would use up all of the oxygen in America’s rivers, causing freshwater fish to suffocate.

Never until the nineteenth century was it supposed that the Church or Temple was a sort of side-show that nothing to do with the State.-G. K. Chesterton@GKCdaily

Quotes Aug 26

A husband is head of his wife. He should not love to lead as much as he should lead to love.- Gavin Peacock@GPeacock8

When you hear of a notorious sinner, instead of thinking you do well to be angry, beg of Jesus Christ to convert, and make him a monument of his free grace; you cannot imagine..how much you will increase day by day in the spirit of love and meekness towards all mankind!- George Whitefield@WhitefieldG

Ecologist Kenneth Watt told Time around 1970 that, “At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”

Quotes 24 Aug

"David no sooner escaped from one trial than he fell into another, no sooner emerged from one season of despondency and alarm than he was again brought into the lowest depths and all God's waves and billows rolled over him." —CH Spurgeon

We want a society where people are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. This is what we mean by a moral society; not a society where the state is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the state.- Margaret Thatcher
@MrsMThatcher

In January 1970, Life reported, “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”

Quotes 23 Aug

Eternal God, to whom all power & empire appertain, grant ... that those whom thou has appointed rulers & governors over us may so discharge their duty & office that the glory of thy most holy name may be advanced~ Prayers on the Psalms (@BannerofTruth), ed. by David B. Calhoun

"[T]o read the New Testament at any point is an exercise that drives us back into the Old Testament. We cannot be genuine New Testament readers and believers without knowing, probing and understanding the Old.....[W]ithout the Old Testament we do not know Jesus properly. The Old Testament lays down the ground rules, and the ground interpretation, and is the perfect lens through which to view the One who has come to be our Saviour." Alec Motyer

Peter Gunter, a North Texas State University professor, wrote in 1970, “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”

Quotes 22 Aug

“It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” declared Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for Earth Day, in the Spring 1970 issue of The Living Wilderness.

Most outcomes of modern education are uneducated men. Our education is uneducation; its whole tendency is to unteach people the traditions of their fathers. - G. K. Chesterton
@GKCdaily

Mary had chosen that good part which would not be taken from her (Luke 10:42). Everything else can be taken from you - money, friends etc. But if you have embraced the Lamb of God, you have that good part which shall never be taken from you.- Robert Murray M'Cheyn@NearToGod

Quotes 21 Aug

·Ehrlich sketched out his most alarmist scenario for the 1970 Earth Day issue of The Progressive, assuring readers that between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the “Great Die-Off.”

God abhors them worst who adore themselves most.— William Secker

Within the gates of the new Jerusalem there is nothing but praise. Be sure that if you do not love to praise God here, you will not love it hereafter. If you are not redeemed now, you will not sing the song of the redeemed then.- Robert Murray M'Cheyne@NearToGod
·

Quotes 20 Aug

It is our duty not to confine our petitions to our own nation, but to pray that all those nations, who now sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, may have the glorious gospel shine out upon them, as well as upon us.- George Whitefield@WhitefieldG

“The fashion in the European Union when the people vote the wrong way from the way that the elites want to go, is to make the peasants vote again and again until they get it right.”-John BoltonU.S. National Security Adviser, Former Ambassador to the United Nations,August 2019
·
“Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich confidently declared in the April 1970 issue of Mademoiselle. “The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”

Quotes 19 Aug

The greatest issue before our country is whether Britain is to remain a free, independent, nation-state. Or whether we are to be dissolved in a federal Europe. There are no half measures, no third ways – and no second chances.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

"In the world of political correctness there is no presumption of innocence, but only a hunger for targets"- Roger Scruton Quotes@Scruton_Quotes

“Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born,” wrote Paul Ehrlich in a 1969 essay titled “Eco-Catastrophe! “By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”

Quotes 17 Aug

Freedom will destroy itself if it is not exercised within some sort of moral framework, some body of shared beliefs, some spiritual heritage transmitted through the Church, the family, and the school.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

The normalization of immorality:
1. Desensitize: make immorality more palatable and visible, convincing the culture it is good.
2. Demonize: make those who oppose immorality appear to be intolerant, bigots.
3. Demand: make everyone not only accept but celebrate immorality.Gavin Peacock@GPeacock8

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

Harvard biologist George Wald estimated around 1970 that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”

Quotes 16 Aug

“Tell me, do you glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ? Would you willingly and gladly spend all your days in singing the praise of this Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you?”Martyn Lloyd-Jones@D_M_LloydJones

Liberalism today, in rejecting its Christian roots, is cut off from all limits, all common sense, from a living tradition. It is careening down ever more febrile paths of identity politics, rejecting the Christian universalism from which it sprang. It is harming people in the process. Sociologists have established beyond reasonable doubt that religious belief and practice lead to the greatest human happiness.There is, however, only one reason that counts for believing in Christianity: it’s true. Come on in, the water’s fine.-Greg Sheridan, https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/the-west-cannot-survive-without-a-re-energised-belief-in-christianity/

“The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead."- C. S. Lewis
@CSLewisDaily

Quotes Aug 14

My grand point in preaching is to break the
hard heart, and to heal the broken one.
     --John Newton (1725-1807)

Crowns of roses fade--crowns of thorns endure.
Calvaries and crucifixions take deepest hold
of humanity.
The triumphs of might are transient--they pass and
are forgotten.  The sufferings of right are graven
deepest on the chronicle of nations.
--Abram Joseph Ryan (1838-1886)
      _A Land Without Ruins_ (poem)

The best definition of wisdom I have found is from
the Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman.
He wrote: "Wisdom is the skill of living.  It is a practical
     knowledge that helps one know how to act
     and how to speak in different situations.
     Wisdom entails the ability to avoid problems,
     and the skill to handle them when they present
     themselves.Wisdom includes the ability to interpret other
     people's speech and writing in order to react
     correctly to what they are saying to us."
A simpler definition of wisdom is this: "doing the
right thing without a precedent."
The believer who can respond to an unexpected
situation in the same way Christ would is someone
who has biblical wisdom, who has the mind of Christ.
--David Jeremiah (1941-    )

Quotes 12 Aug

May we sit at the foot of the cross and there learn . . .what sin has done, what justice has done, what love has done. - JOHN NEWTON - 1725-1807

...once you start down the road of equality of outcome as the measure of justice, rather than equality under the law, you start dividing humans into groups, and one of the most obvious ways to do so is race. So, having spent years denying that there is any objective reality to racial classifications, liberals start sifting people into racial categories with an obsessiveness that puts South African policemen under the old régime to shame.- T Dalrymple  https://theodoredalrymple.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/more-victimised-than-thou/

She couldn't read clock time very well, but she
knew when the hands were closed in prayer
at the top of the face she was through for
the day.
     --Toni Morrison (1931-2019)
      _Beloved_ [1987], Part II

Quotes 10 Aug

Can we wish, if it were possible, to walk in a path strewed with flowers when His path was strewed with thorns? JOHN NEWTON - 1725-1807

Do not turn away, through cowardice, from despair.
Go through it. . . . Pass beyond.
On the other side of the tunnel you will find light.
--Andre Gide (1869-1951)
      _Journals_ [1928]

The great mischief of most men is that they
procrastinate.  It is not that they resolve to
be damned, but that they resolve to be
saved tomorrow.
     --C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 10 [1864]

Quotes 9 Aug

When a wise man speaks, there is something in everything he says that is very distinguishable from the talk of a little child. How much more is the speech of God in his written word to be distinguished from the wisest of men.- Jonathan Edwards@Edwards_SDG

Many today find the idea of an angry God to be distasteful, even though modern people agree widely that to be passionate for justice does entail rightful anger.- Timothy Keller@timkellernyc

Delay is the devil's great net.  All men mean to
repent.  Alas!  they will repent one day that
they did not repent at once.
     --C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892)
      _Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_, Volume 14 [1868]

Quotes 8 Aug

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 - 1725-1807

"While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered authority." - AW Tozer
@TozerAW

Idleness tempts the devil to tempt. —Thomas Watson

Quoes 7 Aug

Our sea may sometimes be stormy but we have an infallible Pilot, and shall infallibly gain our port.- JOHN NEWTON - 1725-1807

Now that life is almost at an end for us, the light
into which we shall enter at our death begins to
shine and to show us what are realities and
what are not.
     --Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916)

In baptism we have God's own covenant ingraven is it were in our own bodies.
—John Calvin

Quotes 6 Aug

We can trust God in the darkness because we're not in the dark about God.
- Os Guiness

... social conservatives, who take a different view on things like divorce, homosexuality and the secularisation of gender are excluded from BBC discussion programmes and their points are not taken up. - Robin Aiken, https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/02/the-bbc-is-failing-in-its-obligation-to-be-fair/?fbclid=IwAR0ezTxtOJOEwaYdRF4CGqmuSytfhPDvEchW1dVZpWhMvyFUkGNF8FNuUfU

How unspeakably wonderful it is to know that all our concerns are held in those hands which bled for us!- JOHN NEWTON - 1725-1807

Quotes Aug 5

We can trust God in the darkness because we're not in the dark about God.
- Os Guiness

... social conservatives, who take a different view on things like divorce, homosexuality and the secularisation of gender are excluded from BBC discussion programmes and their points are not taken up. - Robin Aiken, https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/08/02/the-bbc-is-failing-in-its-obligation-to-be-fair/?fbclid=IwAR0ezTxtOJOEwaYdRF4CGqmuSytfhPDvEchW1dVZpWhMvyFUkGNF8FNuUfU

The more vile we are in our own eyes the more precious Christ will be to us. - JOHN NEWTON - 1725-1807

Quotes 2 Aug

Every one who comes to Christ must embark on a journey through the wilderness of this world. Some have a long journey and others have a short journey. Either way, Christ prays that at the end of the journey, you may be with Him (John 17:24).- Robert Murray M'Cheyne@NearToGod

"The human will does not obtain grace by freedom but obtains freedom by grace." -John Calvin, Inst. 2:3:13

"People have a lack of sense of the depth of human life. We’re in a post-religious world where people are hungry for the transcendental. Though they don't know how to describe it, it's what they're missing"- Roger Scruton
@Scruton_Quotes

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

Quotes Aug 1

Grant me never to lose sight of
  the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
  the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
  the exceeding glory of Christ,
  the exceeding beauty of holiness,
  the exceeding wonder of grace.
#valleyofvision

If you empty the world of purpose, make it one of brute fact alone, you empty it (for many people, at any rate ) of reason for gratitude, and a sense of gratitude is necessary for both happiness and decency. For what can soon, and all too easily, replace gratitude is a sense of entitlement. Without gratitude it is hard to appreciate, or be satisfied with what you have: and life will become an existential shopping spree that no product satisfies.
- Theodore Dalrymple, Not with a Bang but a Whimper, p.259

"The text which has been taken as a kind of motto-text of the Presbyterian churches is well chosen, with the emblem of the burning bush and the words of Exodus 3:2 about the bush which Moses saw: ‘𝘕𝘦𝘤 𝘛𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳’ – ‘Yet it was not consumed.’ This has been the story not only of the church but also of the Bible. It has been forbidden, it has been burned – sometimes literally but it has never been consumed." —David J. Randall, 'A Sad Departure'

Quotes Jul 31

Measure your growth in grace by your sensitiveness
to sin. --Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
      _Disciples Indeed_ [1955]

The thinness of the new atheism is evident in its approach to our civilisation, which until recently was religious to the core. o regret religion, is in fact, to regret our civilisation and its monuments, its achievements and its legacy. - Theodore Dalrymple, Not with a Bang but a Whimper, p.259

Contentment lies not in the things he hath but in the mind that values them.- Joseph Hall, Characters of Virtues and Vices.

Quotes Jul 30

If my heart is right with God, every human being is
my neighbour.--Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

I like my government like feminists like their men: weak and only able to perform basic functions.- Rescued Goddaughter@XianCorleone

Faith saith sense is a liar. - Samuel Rutherford, Tryal of Faith, P. 157

Quotes 29 Jul

An Islamic regime must be serious in every field.There are n jokes in Islam. There is no humour i Islam. There is no fun in Islam. - Ayatollah Khomenmi

"As for Islamophobia, I deplore the invention of this word and all it has meant by way of silencing one side to a much-needed debate. It belongs to the new politics, based in 'the art of taking offence', among people who could not care less whether real offence has been given"- Roger Scruton Quotes@Scruton_Quotes

Adam was created to be the friend and companion
of God; he was to have dominion over all the life
in the air and earth and sea.
But one thing he was not to have dominion over,
and that was himself.
--Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

Quotes 27 Jul

The old Puritan idea that the devil tempts men had
this remarkable effect: it produced the man of iron
who fought; the modern idea of blaming his heredity
or his circumstances produces the man who
succumbs at once.
     --Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
      _Disciples Indeed_ [1955]

There are only two kinds of people in the end:
those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and
those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will
be done."
All that are in Hell, choose it.  Without that
self-choice there could be no Hell.
--C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
_The Great Divorce_ [1946]

Quotes 26 Jul

Apologies for the interruption. This is mow my second week enjoying the blessing of the NHS as an inpatient.

Sufferings are but as little chips of the cross.- JOSEPH CHURCH

Never make the blunder of trying to forecast 

the way God is going to answer your prayer. 

     --Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

Quotes Jul 18

Our bad things will turn out for good. Our good things can never really be lost. And the best things are yet to come. -Jonathan Edwards

To regret religion, is in fact, to regret our civilisation and its monuments, its achievements and its legacy. - Theodore Dalrymple, Not with a Bang but a Whimper, p.259

Quotes 17 Jul

God is always giving you better than you deserve and always withholding exactly what you deserve - no matter what your circumstances in this life.
- Gavin Peacock@GPeacock8

There is one aspect in the change of moral values brought about by the advancement of collectivism which at the present time provides special food for thought. It is the virtues that hare held less or less in esteem and which consequently became rarer are precisely those which the British people justly prided themselves and in which they were generally agreed to excel. The virtues possessed by the British people to a higher degree than most other people ... were Independence and self reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility ... non interference with one's neighbour and tolerance of the different and queer, respect for custom and tradition and a healthy suspicion of power and authority. - Friedrich A von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, 1944

Quotes 16 Jul IM C T Studd 16 Jul 1931

God has called me to go, and I will go. I will blaze the trail, though my grave may only become a stepping stone that younger men may follow. - C. T. Studd Leaving his wife and four daughters in England, he sailed, contrary to medical advice, for the heart of Africa in 1910, where he continued to work until his death in 1931.

If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him, - C. T. Studd

Quote 15 Jul

"Senior version of Jesus Loves Me"
Here is a new version just for us who have white hair or no hair at all. For us over middle age (or even those almost there) and all you others, check out this newest version of Jesus Loves Me.

JESUS LOVES ME
Jesus loves me, this I know,
Though my hair is white as snow
Though my sight is growing dim,
Still He bids me trust in Him.
(CHORUS)
YES, JESUS LOVES ME.. YES, JESUS LOVES ME..
YES, JESUS LOVES ME FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.
Though my steps are oh, so slow,
With my hand in His I'll go
On through life, let come what may,
He'll be there to lead the way.
(CHORUS)

When the nights are dark and long,
In my heart He puts a song.
Telling me in words so clear,
"Have no fear, for I am near."
(CHORUS)

When my work on earth is done,
And life's victories have been won.
He will take me home above,
Then I'll understand His love.
(CHORUS)

I love Jesus, does He know?
Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus loves to hear me say,
That I love Him every day.
(CHORUS)

Quotes 13 Jul

The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.- Margaret Thatcher @MrsMThatcher

I am made of extremes. - Samuel Rutherford, letter to David Dickson

There can be no more acceptable sacrifice to God than a tyrant - Seneca

Quotes 12 Jul

In 1950 'total recorded crime' in England and Wales stood at 461350 incidents; fifty years later in 2001, that number had risen to 5,525,024  - greater than eleven-fold increase. - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,260

In 1803 the United States simply bought control of the entire Louisiana Territory form France.....At the stroke of a pen; and the handing over of $15 million, the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the USA ...Henry Adams wrote, 'Never did the United States get so much for so little.' - -Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography, p. 70

Quotes 11 Jul

A report can be accurate and still deeply unfair whether by selection or omission. 'Fake news' is not so much about factual inaccuracy as about ideological bias;- Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,251

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.  - Aleister Crowley, Book of the Law

Why do you think your values would work in a culture you don't understand. - The Chinese Ambassador to the UK quoted in Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography, p.51

Quotes 10 Jul

.. the government, by subsidising what were once considered irregular unions has actually encouraged and promoted them, turning itself in the process into a surrogate father on a vast scale.  - Theodore Dalrymple, Litter, p.112

Prayer is not intended to produce a change in God, but in us. - Robert Dabney, Systematic Theology.

The man in the skiff at the stern of a man of mar, does not pull the ship to himself, in hauling at the line, but pulls the skiff to the ship. The line is prayer. Prayer does not draw God down to us, but draws us up to God, and thus establishes the connection. - Tin Shenton,quoting Rowland Hill in Rowland Hill, The second Whitefield, p.137

Quotes Jul 9

... it seems to me, an atheist, obvious that nowadays it requires more courage, at least in intellectual circles, openly to await a religious faith than to deny the existence of God.  - Theodore Dalrymple, Litter, p.101

'I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.'- Thomas Nagel, The Last Word, Oxford University Press, 1997, P. 130

Unless God had raised you up for this very thing , you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils, but if God be for you who can be against you. Go in the name of God and in the power of his might. - John Wesley to Wilberforce, February 1791.

Quotes Jul 8

... welfare dependency is unjust to those who pay for it, and disastrous for those who wind up trapped in it. - - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.22

"The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit ... The great sin ... the dictatorship of pride ... Pride always means enmity."-  CS Lewis

God permits some to suffer most, that they might
experience the deepest joy.
     --William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
      _Thoughts Of A Christian Optimist_ [1968]

The mind is like the stomach.  It is not how much you
put into it that counts, but how much it digests.
     --Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945)

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.- G K Chesterton

Quotes Jul 6

Dissatisfaction is the permanent state of being, at least of civilised mankind. - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.228

If you look at the world, you'll be distressed.
If you look within, you'll be depressed.
But if you look at Christ, you'll be at rest!
     --Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983)
      (In Rick Warren's
      _The Purpose Driven Life_ [2002], Chapter 25)

The contempt which the liberal left in Britain holds for the likes of Urban and Trump, is because with men are offering a challenge to an international liberal elite that sincerely believes in the rightness of its cause and the inevitability of its triumph. - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,244

Quotes Jul 5

It is in the nature of plebiscitary regimes that a plebiscites are held until the population gets the answer right according to the leader or to the right thinking elite, whereafter there is no further plebiscire, at least on that subject. - - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.110

The first thing to do with theology is to turn it into praise. J Packer

rp

Satan wastes no ammunition on those who are dead 

in trespasses and sins. 

     --Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983) 

Quotes Jul 4

The two poles of contemporary British child rearing are neglect and overindulgence. -  - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.220

What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils, for it is folly, vice and madness, without tuition or restraint. - Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

Christian democracy protects us form migration, defends the borders, supports the traditional family model of one man one woman, considers the protection of our Christian cultures a natural thing. - Viktor Orban, Prime minister of Hungary quoted in Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,243

Quotes 3 July

Let me endeavour to lead you out of yourself: let me invite you to look unto Jesus.- John Newton@john__newton

The fact that so many successful politicians are
such shameless liars is not only a reflection on
them, it is also a reflection on us.
When the people want the impossible, only liars
can satisfy. --Thomas Sowell (1930-    ) _Townhall.com_ [May 22, 2012],
"Big Lies In Politic
t
And can there be worse sickness, than to know
That we are never well, nor can be so?
John Donne, The First Anniversary

It isn't information people need, it's something to live for. - - Theodore Dalrymple, Second Opinion

Roman Empire: “You Christians are too exclusive. You threaten the social order because you won’t honour all deities.”
Modern West: “You Christians are too exclusive. You threaten the social order because you won’t honour all identities.”—@TimKellerNYC

Quotes 2 July

 It’s not how immigrants feel that matters, but how they behave. No one has any idea how British the Polish, Brazilian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other immigrants (of whom there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions in total) feel, but nobody cares, because none of them is intent upon the destruction of British institutions. This is not true of some unknown and probably unknowable—but possibly not negligible—proportion of Muslims, no matter which part of the Islamic world they come from. - Theodore Dalrymple,  https://theodoredalrymple.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/islamic-terrorism-in-the-west-dalrymple-qa/

European history shows that, first, there's nothing necessarily benevolent about programmes of European integration; second, desire to achieve utopian plans often poses a grave threat to freedom; and third, European unity has been tried before - the outcome was far from happy.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

"Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord tonight!"- John Bradford was burned to death with John Leaf at Smithfield, London.1 July 1555

Let me endeavour to lead you out of yourself: let me invite you to look unto Jesus.- John Newton@john__newton

The fact that so many successful politicians are
such shameless liars is not only a reflection on
them, it is also a reflection on us.
When the people want the impossible, only liars
can satisfy. --Thomas Sowell (1930-    ) _Townhall.com_ [May 22, 2012],
"Big Lies In Politics"

Quotes 1 July

“It is with a strange feeling that those of us who came from the Soviet Union look upon the West of today...[W]e contemplate the West from what will be your future, or look back seventy years, to see our past suddenly repeating itself. And what we see is always the same: adults deferring to the opinion of children; the younger generation carried away by shallow worthless ideas; professors scared of being unfashionable; journalists refusing to take responsibility for the words they squander so profusely; universal sympathy for revolutionary extremists; people with serious objections unable or unwilling to voice them; the majority passively obsessed by a feeling of doomed; feeble governments; societies whose defensive reactions have become paralysed; spiritual confusion leading to political upheaval. What will happen as a result of all this lies ahead of us. But the time is near, and from bitter memory we can easily predict what these events will be.” -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ‘Warning to the West’ (Macmillan, 1986), 129-130.

When religious tears (as in New England) are applied to public office, the site is deprived of a wealth of gifts in the unconverted world. -  - Mostyn Roberts, The Subversive Puritan, Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience, p. 205

The language of protest, pronouncement and proclamation has almost completely replaced the language of persuasion. - Os Guinness, The Case for Civility, p. 137

Quotes 29 Jun

This is the ugly fact we have to face. The basic reason why prayer is hard is because the sinful, selfish heart does not want to pray. Prayer is in no sense technically difficult. It’s the easiest thing in the world: you just talk to God. The difficult thing is not the doing of it, but the desiring of it. In our fallen nature we do not have within us the desire that we should have for fellowship with the living God. This is the fundamental problem, and the reason why prayerlessness cannot be tackled as an isolated issue, unrelated to the rest of our Christian lives. To find prayer hard is normal, but to give up on prayer indicates a deep spiritual problem. There needs to be change at the level of the heart, coming from a deepening understanding of the gospel and a growing desire for fellowship with God in Christ." —Andrew Randall, 'Following Jesus'

"If we are not willing to confront, how can we report to the Lord Jesus Christ that we love our neighbour as ourselves?" Dr. Francis Schaeffer, Our Battle for Humanness, Moody Monthly, 1983

A wise man will let down the bucket of his tongue into the well of his reason before he pour forth words. —William Jenkyn

'For he is justly numbered among the hypocrites who turns the ministry of spiritual direction into an opportunity for domination.' Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule

Quotes 28 June

""[N]ever underestimate how much you encourage others just by being there, or discourage them by being absent. You need the help and support of your brothers and sisters in Christ, and they need yours. The Bible makes many commands about how we should love one another, serve one another, encourage one another, comfort one another and so on. You cannot obey those commands unless you are meeting with your fellow Christians week by week." —Andrew Randall, 'Following Jesus'

"Under our present circumstances Satan makes his attacks under
subterfuges and disguises.  The victim of his wiles proudly imagines
that the artful sophistries by which he evades truth, stifles
conscience, and justifies himself in his opposition to God, are the
product of his own superior wisdom and insight.  He regards the idea
of the existence of such a being as Satan as a weak superstition, and
the suggestion that he may be unconsciously acting under his
influence and control with contemptuous incredulity."
                -- John L. Nevius D.D. (1896)

‘It’s misleading to say God accepts us the way we are. Rather he accepts us DESPITE the way we are. He receives us only in Christ ... Nor does he mean to leave us the way he found us, but to transform us into the likeness of his Son.’ - Sinclair Ferguson, “The Whole Christ” p.154

Quotes Jun 27

In the presence of a great common foe, I have little time to be attacking my brethren who stand with me in defense of the Word of God.- J. Gresham Machen
@jg_machen

To cure the British disease with socialism was like trying to cure leukaemia with leeches- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

'The decay of the church is never the fault of the world. Inward spiritual decline always precedes outward collapse' Sinclair B. Ferguson 'In the Year of our Lord' (Reformation Trust)

Quotes Jun 25

Perhaps one of the reasons that contemporary secularists not simply reflect religion but hate it is that they know that, while they can easily rise to the levels of hatred that religion has sometimes promoted, they will always find it difficult to rise to the levels of love that it has also encouraged. - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.107

The favoured tactic of the modern day pharisees s to disparage their opponents rather than engaging with their argument. So anyone who opposes abortion is a 'bigot', a term which ends debate. A special lexicon has been developed comprising a short list of words which are used to vilify social conservatives; it includes racist, homophobe, misogynist and Islamophobe. By deploying these terms it is possible to undermine the credentials of anyone making a counter argument and then denying them opportunities to justify their position. - - - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,208

Jefferson was concerned to resist anything that to him looked like tyranny over the human mind.; his goal was freedom from religion.  - Mostyn Roberts, The Subversive Puritan, Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience, p. 205

Quotes 24 Jun

"Don't pity me for my blindness, for the first face I ever see will be the face of my Lord Jesus." - Fanny Crosby

I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it. - Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

State interference in the church, Williams concluded, will lead to the church becoming a wilderness. - Mostyn Roberts, The Subversive Puritan, Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience, p. 203 (But Williams joined no church in Rhode Island so the church was for him an uncultivated wilderness)

Quotes 24 Jun

God’s normal way of strengthening His ministers and making them fruitful is through suffering.-Andrew Randall,#Catalyst2019 https://blogofdan.co.uk/?p=24716

(Putin) may ... ask God:'Why didn't you put some mountains in Ukraine?' - Tim Marsahll, Prisoners of Geography, p.ix

To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.- Margaret Thatcher@MrsMThatcher

Quotes 22 Jun

Three things it will cost you to know God: 1) It will cost you your pride; 2) It will cost you your ease; 3) It will cost you your everything.-Andrew Randall,#Catalyst2019 https://blogofdan.co.uk/?p=24716

"If I feel myself disinclined to pray, then is the time when I need to pray more than ever."- Charles Spurgeon

It is easier to give good advice than to take it. - La Rochefoucauld

Quotes 21 Jun

“Without prayer a minister is of no use to the church, nor of any advantage to mankind.” (Charles Bridges)

Knowing God is a team sport.  A whole-hearted commitment to the local church is not an optional extra.-Andrew Randall, #Catalyst2019 https://blogofdan.co.uk/?p=24716

. In its simplest form, the doctrine of providence is Jesus loves you and knows what He is doing.- Kevin De Young, #Catalyst2019 https://blogofdan.co.uk/?p=24716

Quotes 20 Jun

“The early church did not fear martyrdom nearly as much as it feared false teaching.” Sinclair Ferguson #Catalyst2019

... the ultimate answer the poem of he multicultural society s the melting pot, not the solution preferred by bureaucrats and their intellectual allies, the sale bowl (which perhaps one day in Europe at any rate will turn not the stir fry).- - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.38

The idea that all cultures are of equal worth - which is how multiculturalism cane to be interpreted in Britain - is pernicious and wrong. The example of female genital mutilation shows why. - - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,199

Quotes 19 Jun

'Are there apostles in the church today? Of course there are apostles in the church today. But they're all in the church triumphant.' Sinclair Ferguson

The family, with all its undoubted miseries, (as well, of course, as joys) has long been the object of hate 0f ambitious intellectuals, for the family stands between the state, to be directed by intellectuals, and total power. -  - Theodore Dalrymple,, Spoilt Rotten, p.36

It is perhaps not unfair to say that to this day, evangelicals, so deeply influenced by the Schaeffers and their many proteges, still produces better art critics than artists. - - Andy Crouch, Culture making, p. 87

Quotes 18 Jun

Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of it sorrow, it empties today of its strength - Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from my Notebook

The only way to change culture is to create more of it.- Andy Crouch, Culture making, p. 67

Name dropping is the self important person's low budget advertising business. - Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Reading for Preaching, p.14

The NHS. Nearest thing we have to a national religion.- David Drew@NHSwhistleblowr

Quotes 17 Jun

Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances
which we know to be desperate.
     --G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
      _Heretics_ [1905]

"Nothing, so it seems to me," said the stranger, "is
more beautiful than the love that has weathered the
storms of life. . . .
"The love of the young for the young, that is the
beginning of life.  But the love of the old for the
old, that is the beginning of--of things longer."
--Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927)
      _The Passing of the Third Floor Back_ [1908]

The essence of childhood is innocence. The essence of youth is awareness. The essence of adulthood is responsibility. - Andy Crouch, Culture Making, p.9

Quotes 15 Jun

“The foetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being and it is a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a foetus in the womb before it has come to light.” - John Calvin

The multicultural ideal of a patchwork quilt of different ethnic groups living side by side, each respecting the other's differences, is a utopian fantasy that can all too easily degenerate into a system of ethnic Bantustans with no trust - and sometimes outright hostility - between them. - - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,206

Just because you lop off your dick and then wear a dress doesn't make you a f***ing woman. I've asked my doctor to give me long wears and liver spots and I'm going to wear a brown coat but that won't turn me into a f***ing cocker spaniel. - Germaine Greer on Newsnight, 23 Oct 2015

Quotes 14 Jun

"Much as I would love to go along with the fashionable "born gay" consensus (it would be very politically convenient), I can't. The evidence does not support the idea that sexuality is a fixed biological given."
(Peter Tatchell, UK leading gay rights activist, Guardian 28th June 2006)

... custom is the lat resort of the scoundrel. - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.35

Fools favor fleeting pleasure; the wise seek virtue.
     --William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
      _Thoughts Of A Christian Optimist_ [1968]

Overall between 1997 and 2011 a total of 2.2 million people arrived and settled in the UK. -- - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,108

Quotes 13 Jun

.. in the years between 2005 and 2015, of the 4275 guests invited on the talk abut the EU, only 132 - amounting to 3.2% - supported the UK leaving the EU. - Tim Shipman, All Out War: The Full Story go How Brexit Sank Britain's Political Class

"Racist" is a politically weaponised term abuse designed to smear the opposition and close down the debate - for who can prove themselves innocent? - - Robin Aitken, The Noble Liar, p,103

All that is necessary for untruth to become orthodoxy is for men to be afraid to utter what they think odd the truth. - Theodore Dalrymple, Anything Goes, p.6

Quotes 11 Jun

The church is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe religious enclave but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God's kingship.- Lesslie Newbigin@LesslieNewbigin

“The church did not begin that day, and it is incorrect to call the Day of Pentecost ‘the birthday of the church’. For the church as the people of God goes back at least 4,000 years to Abraham. What happened at Pentecost was that the remnants of God’s people became the Spirit-filled body of Christ.” John Stott

 Brexit is a function of the European political classes' failure to persuade ordinary people of the desirability, or even the plausibility, of the project—even though they have had nearly fifty years to do so.- Carl Trueman, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/06/brexit-did-not-cause-brexit

I have often repented of speech but hardly ever of silence. —C.S. Lewis

Quotes Jun 12

We have a saying, When you are persecuted, thank God that you have not been thrown into prison. If you have been thrown into prison, thank God that you have not been beaten. If you have been beaten, thank God that you have not been killed. And if you have been killed, thank God that you are with Him in heaven. - A convert from Islam quoted in David Garrison, A Wind in the House of Islam p.155

Many of the world's most attractive temptations are
like some television commercials: frequently
deceptive, and frightfully costly.
     --William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
      _Thoughts Of A Christian Optimist_ [1968]

I may be on the devil's hit list, but I'm on Jesus'
mailing list!
     --"Eulis 'Sonny' Dewey" (Robert Duvall)
       (In the film _The Apostle_ [1997], written
        and directed by Robert Duvall)

Quotes Jun 10

There is nothing more bitter and fearful than death, and yet to die 'in the Lord' (Rev. 14:13), is sweet and blessed to the children of God, for then they rest from their labours.- Samuel Rutherford@SR_SDG

The Wise Men were truly Wise Men.  Unlike most men,
they stopped to ask for directions.
     --George E. Franke
      (In Cal and Rose Samra's
      _More Holy Humor_ [1997])

"It is possible to tolerate a little elevation, when a man takes a drink or two too much after working hard and when he is feeling low. This must be called a frolic. But to sit day and night, pouring it in and pouring it out again, is piggish... all food is a matter of freedom, even a modest drink for one's pleasure. If you do not wish to conduct yourself this way, if you are going to go beyond this and be a born pig and guzzle beer and wine, then, if this cannot be stopped by the rulers, you must know that you cannot be saved. For God will not admit such piggish drinkers into the kingdom of heaven [cf. Gal. 5:19-21]... If you are tired and downhearted, take a drink; but this does not mean being a pig and doing nothing but gorging and swilling... You should be moderate and sober; this means that we should not be drunken, though we may be exhilarated."
— Martin Luther, Sermon on Soberness and Moderation (May 18, 1539)

Quote Jun 8

...the way God's sovereign will unfolds for us is through our knowledge of , and submission too, his revealed will.-  Sinclair Ferguson, Maturity,88

A document alleged to have come into the possession of a Field Director of the American Security Council in the 1960s ...Revolution by Stealth listed the objectives of atheistic communism that could be achieved without any resort to arms. Some of these were as follow:
   Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
   Eliminate all laws governing obscenity bu calling them 'censorship' and 'a violation of free speech and free press'.
   Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
   Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.
   Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as 'normal, natural and healthy'. -  Sinclair Ferguson, Maturity,p105

A prosperous condition is not always a safe one. A person is usually better in adversity than in prosperity. —THOMAS WATSON

Quotes Jun 7th

God's centre is everywhere, his circumference nowhere.—Thomas Watson

You that are believers must never expect any pleasure in sin; for you can neither commit it without regret, nor reflect upon it without shame and confusion: expect no better consequents of sin than the woundings of conscience and the dismal cloudings of the face of God. - John Flavel

Lord, put me into thy service when and where thou pleasest. In thy hand all my qualities will be put to their appropriate end.- Robert M. McCheyne@McCheyneQuotes

What a deal of sorrow and after-complaining might
this small labour prevent!  How many miles travel,
besides the vexation, may a traveller save by
inquiring of the way!
     --Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
      (In Isaac David Thomas' _The Golden Treasury Of

Quotes Jun 6

It is axiomatic then that we cannot enjoy a high degree of assurance if we persist in living at a low level of obedience. - Sinclair Ferguson, Maturity,p73

The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics. - Kepler cited in Morris Kline, Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty, - quoted in THE SOUL OF SCIENCE by PEARCEY & THAXTON, p.126

There is little ethical difference in principle between private counterfeiting and government money supply expansion, though there is some difference politically. - E Calvin Beisner, Prosperity and Poverty p. 135

As some to church repair,
Not for the doctrine, but the music there.
     --Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
      _An Essay On Criticism_ [1711]; Part II, Line 142

God has made thee to love Him, and not to understand Him.
     --Voltaire (1694-1778)
      _La Henriade_ [1723], "Canto VII"

Quotes Jun 5th

In the 'General Scholium" Newton writes: The most beautiful system of sun, planets and comets could only proceed from the council and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being. - quoted in - THE SOUL OF SCIENCE by PEARCEY & THAXTON, p.91

Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving. His origin, his growth, his hopes and fears and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collations of jatos. - Bertrand Russell, A Free Man's Worship, - quoted in THE SOUL OF SCIENCE by PEARCEY & THAXTON, p.117

Everything we find difficult we describe as a 'problem'. But difficulties we need to overcome are nt necessarily problems we need to solve. -  Sinclair Ferguson, Maturity,p.57

Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. - E Calvin Beisner, Prosperity and Poverty p. 132

The ruling passion, be it what it will,
The ruling passion conquers reason still.
     --Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
      _Moral Essays_ [1731-1735], Epistle III