Quotes for 31 Jan 17

Whatever man may stand, whatever he may do, to whatever he may apply his hand - in agriculture, in commerce, and in industry, or his mind, in the world of art, and science - he is, in whatsoever it may be, constantly standing before the face of God. He is employed in the service of his God. He has strictly to obey his God. And above all, he has to aim at the glory of his God. - Abraham Kuyper

When a man truly sees himself, he knows nobody can say anything about him that is too bad. ―D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.- Abraham Lincoln, 1809 - 1865

He was poor, that he might make us rich.
He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God.
He took our flesh, that he might give us His Spirit.
He lay in the manger, that we may lie in paradise.
He came down from heaven, that he might bring us to heaven....
That the ancient of Days should be born.
that he who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle....
that he who rules the stars should suck the breast;
that a virgin should conceive;
that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which himself made,
that the branch should bear the vine,
that the mother should be younger than the child she bare,
and the child in the womb bigger than the mother;
that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God
Christ taking flesh is a mystery we shall never fully understand till we come to heaven- Thomas Watson

I'm back!

It has been a  long time since I was active here but the arrival a new member has wakened me from my slumbers,or to be more accurate from my depression induced inactivity. Enjoy.

In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: “What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.- Tony Benn

A Nation ... is a group of persons united by a common error about their ancestry and a common dislike of their neighbours. - Karl Deutsch, Nationality and Its Alternatives, 1969

A city upon a hill

"We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. - John Winthrop on the Arbella, April 1630

I have now seeing Boston, Licolnshire, realised the irony of this. Neither Boston, Lincs nor Mass are set upon a literal hill.

Dawkins the theologian

Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology. - Terry Eagleton, review of The God Delusion

The lamps are going out

A friend came to see me on one of the evenings of the last week — he thinks it was on Monday, August 3rd. We were standing at a window of my room in the Foreign Office. It was getting dusk, and the lamps were being lit in the space below on which we were looking. My friend recalls that I remarked on this with the words: "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time." - Viscount Grey of Fallodon, "Twenty-Five Years 1892-1916" (New York, 1925)

The Elder

The Hebrew term used for the office of elder in the Old Testament is derived from the word meaning 'beard'.... The Aramaic term of elder means 'one with grey hair' ... The Greek word for the office ... means old(er) Man. - The Elder, Cornelius Van Dam.

So I am well qualified according to the etymology.- GJW