Seven marks of spiritual health [in] our righteousness
toward others: (1) Christians work to glorify God in doing
good. (2) God's children cannot but naturally love one another.
(3) A compassionate heart, even toward enemies, is a Christian
heart. (4) Impartial reproving, a character of God's people.
(5) Admirable resisting of temptation. (6) A Christian bearing
of reproof an argument of much of Christ Jesus. (7) God's
people willing to lose all for God's glory.-Roger Williams (1603?-1683), Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health [1652], Westminster Press, 1951, p. 81-89

f the appetite alone hath sinned, let it alone fast, and
it sufficeth. But if the other members also have sinned, why
should they not fast, too? ... Let the eye fast from strange
sights and from every wantonness, so that that which roamed in
freedom in fault-doing may, abundantly humbled, be checked by
penitence. Let the ear, blameably eager to listen, fast from
tales and rumours, and from whatsoever is of idle import, and
tendeth least to salvation. Let the tongue fast from slanders
and murmurings, and from useless, vain, and scurrilous words,
and sometimes also, in the seriousness of silence, even from
things which may seem of essential import. Let the hand abstain
from ... all toils which are not imperatively necessary. But
also let the soul herself abstain from all evils and from
acting out her own will. For without such abstinence the other
things find no favour with the Lord.-Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Selections from His Letters,Meditations, Sermons, Hymns and Other Writngs, tr. Horatio Grimley, CUP Archive, n.d., p. 208-209

The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. - Bertrand Russell, 1872 - 1970

Leaness of body and soul may go together. -John Owen

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth
will bring their splendor into it.-Revelation 21:23,24 (NIV)

My windows open to the autumn night,
In vain I watched for sleep to visit me:
How should sleep dull mine ears, and dim my sight,
Who saw the stars, and listened to the sea?

Ah, how the City of our God is fair!
If, without sea, and starless though it be,
For joy of the majestic beauty there,
Men shall not miss the stars, nor mourn the sea.
Lionel P. Johnson (1867-1902), Poems, London: Elkin Mathews, 1895, p. 77

I know no light but Yours, Lord.- RMA

Though a thermosceptic I strong on recycling, especially of quotes- GJW


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