Quotations for August, 2018
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Prayer is the preface to the book of Christian living; the text of the new life sermon; the girding on of the armor for battle; the pilgrim’s preparation for his journey. It must be supplemented by action or it amounts to nothing.
... Arthur Stevens Phelps (1863-1948), included in Leaves of Gold, Evan S. Coslett & Clyde Francis Lytle, ed. [1948], Honesdale, Pa.: Coslett Publishing Company, 1938, p. 156 
(see the book; see also Jas. 4:8; Ex. 14:15; Ps. 43:3; Luke 18:10-14; more at Action, Battle, Book, Journey, Life, Pilgrim, Prayer, Sermon)
Thursday, August 2, 2018
A vocation to marriage is a vocation to glorify God in a particular state with its necessary rights and duties. It can only be combined with the vocation of a pioneer missionary of the classic type if matrimony is felt to be spiritually neutral, irrelevant to God’s calling. Marriage can be irrelevant only if we believe that the body, matter, is neutral, irrelevant, or evil. Man can not believe that and believe the Christian faith. God made matter, and was incarnate in it: the comparison of the relation of husband and wife to that between Christ and the Church naturally follows. But this conclusion is not always drawn, for orthodox Christians are often prone to speak and behave as if the Word... became not flesh but spirit.
... David M. Paton (1913-1992), Christian Missions and the Judgment of God, London: SCM Press, 1953, p. 45-46
(see the book; see also John 1:14; Isa. 7:14; Rom. 9:5; Gal. 4:4-5; Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 4:2-3; more at Belief, Call, Christ, Church, God, Husband and wife, Incarnation, Marriage, Mission, Spirit)
Friday, August 3, 2018
In this Body of Christ, Paul sees “the ecclesia of God.” Ecclesia is a Greek word with a splendid history. It was used in the old free commonwealths of Greece for the general assembly of all free citizens, by which their common life was governed. When political liberty went, the name still survived in the restricted municipal self-government which the Roman State allowed. It was taken over by the brotherhoods and guilds which in some measure superseded the old political associations. Among the Jews who spoke Greek, this word seemed the appropriate one to describe the commonwealth of Israel as ruled by God—the historical Theocracy. Our translation of it is “Church.” That word, however, has undergone such transformations of meaning that it is often doubtful in what sense it is being used. Perhaps for ecclesia we may use the word—simpler, more general, and certainly nearest to its original meaning—“commonwealth.” [Continued tomorrow]
... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 145
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; 11:22; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 1:13; 6:16; more at Body of Christ, Church, Historical, Meaning)
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Feast of John Vianney, Curè d’Ars, 1859
[Continued from yesterday]We have spoken throughout of the Divine Commonwealth. That phrase represents Paul’s “ecclesia of God.” It is a community of loving persons, who bear one another’s burdens, who seek to build up one another in love, who “have the same thoughts in relation to one another that they have in their communion with Christ.” It is all this because it is the living embodiment of Christ’s own Spirit. This is a high and mystical doctrine, but a doctrine which has no meaning apart from loving fellowship in real life. A company of people who celebrate a solemn sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, and all the time are moved by selfish passions—rivalry, competition, mutual contempt—is not for Paul a Church or Divine Commonwealth at all, no matter how lofty their faith or how deep their mystical experience; for all these things may “puff up;” love alone “builds up.”In the very act, therefore, of attaining its liberty to exist, the Divine Commonwealth has transcended the great divisions of men. In principle, it has transcended them all, and by seriously living out that which its association means, it is on the way to comprehending the whole race. Short of that its development can never stop. This is the revealing of the sons of God for which the whole creation is waiting.
... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 144-145
(see the book; see also 1 Cor. 8:1; Rom. 8:22; 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 1:10; 11:33; Phil. 2:5; more at Bearing, Burden, Church, Communion, Community, Contempt, Fellowship, God, Love, Mystic, People, Revelation, Sacrament, Selfish, Spirit)
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Feast of Oswald, King of Northumbria, Martyr, 642
If we consider the lives of Christians in their churches, we so often find that they make good sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, employers, and employees—they have many individual virtues; but they have no way of life other than that which has been imposed upon them by their environment. It is their sociological conditions, their social class, their neighbourhood, their national characteristics, rather than their Christian faith which determine their outlook and values: they are an overwhelming demonstration that it is the economic conditions and background of one’s life which determine what one is and what one will think. This is an intolerable condition, and so long as it persists we shall not be able to make any impact on the world, because it will be abundantly clear that it is the world which is making its impact upon us.
... Douglas Rhymes (1914-1996), “The Place of the Laity in the Parish”, in Layman’s Church, ed. John A. T. Robinson, London: Lutterworth Press, 1963, p. 30
(see the book; see also Matt. 13:22,57-58; Col. 1:21-23; 1 John 5:3-4; more at Church, Faith, Family, Life, Nation, Social, Thought, Virtue, World)
Monday, August 6, 2018
This is our great need, to be more like Christ, that His likeness may be seen in our lives; and this is just what is promised to us as we yield ourselves in full surrender to the working of His Spirit. Then, as we draw nearer to Christ, we shall be drawn nearer to His people; and in our search for unity with the members we shall be drawn closer to the Head.
... G. T. Manley (1872?-1961?), Christian Unity, London: Inter-Varsity Fellowship, 1945, p. 88
(see the book; see also Rom. 8:29; John 17:22-23; Rom. 13:14; 1 Cor. 15:47-49; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:22-24; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2; more at Christ, Christlikeness, Church, Holy Spirit, Need, Unity)
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Commemoration of John Mason Neale, Priest, Poet, 1866
The Church is the place where we learn not how self-sufficient we are, but where we learn what sin really is. The Church is the place where the Pharisee learns to say with the Publican: Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
... Sir Edwyn C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), We are the Pharisees, London: SPCK, 1960, p. 19
(see the book; see also Job 9:20; Ps. 106:6; Matt. 21:31-32; Luke 18:9-14; Rom. 14:10-12; more at Church, Mercy, Pharisaism, Self-righteousness, Sin, Sinner)
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Feast of Dominic, Priest, Founder of the Order of Preachers, 1221
To pass from estrangement from God to be a son of God is the basic fact of conversion. That altered relationship with God gives you an altered relationship with yourself—with your brother man, with nature, with the universe... You are no longer working against the grain of the universe—you’re working with it...You have been forgiven by God and now you can forgive yourself. All self hate, self-despising, self-rejection, drop away, and you accept yourself in God, respect yourself, and love yourself...You cease to move into yourself, away from others. You give up your attitude of antagonism... You begin to move toward others in love. God moved toward you in gracious outgoing love, and you move toward others in that same outgoing love.
... E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973), Conversion, New York: Abingdon Press, 1959, p. 131-132
(see the book; see also Isa. 9:2; Matt. 11:29-30; Luke 1:76-79; 2:30-32; John 8:12; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; 1 Pet. 2:9; more at Attitudes, Conversion, Forgiveness, God, Grace, Love, Nature, Self, Universe, Work)
Thursday, August 9, 2018
Feast of Mary Sumner, Founder of the Mothers’ Union, 1921
From thine, as then, the healing virtue goesInto our hearts—that is the Father’s plan.From heart to heart it sinks, it steals, it flows,From these that know thee still infecting those.Here is my heart—from thine, Lord, fill it up,That I may offer it as the holy cupOf thy communion to my every man.
... George MacDonald (1824-1905), Diary of an Old Soul, London: by the author, 1880, p. 113
(see the book; see also Luke 22:17-18; Ps. 116:13; John 4:13-14; 6:32-35; 7:37-39; 15:5; more at Communion, Heart, Virtue, Worship)
Friday, August 10, 2018
Feast of Lawrence, Deacon at Rome, Martyr, 258
For (Martin) Luther, the sola of Sola Scriptura was inseparably related to the Scriptures’ unique inerrancy. It was because popes could and did err and because councils could and did err that Luther came to realize the supremacy of Scripture. Luther did not despise church authority, nor did he repudiate church councils as having no value. His praise of the Council of Nicea is noteworthy. Luther and the Reformers did not mean by Sola Scriptura that the Bible is the only authority in the church. Rather, they meant that the Bible is the only infallible authority in the church.
... R. C. Sproul (1939-2017), “Sola Scriptura: Crucial To Evangelicalism”, in Foundation of Biblical Authority, ed. James Montgomery Boice, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978, p. 104
(see the book; see also Gal. 1:11-12; 1 Cor. 2:9-10; 15:1-8; Gal. 1:1; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; more at Bible, Church, Historical, Scripture)
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Feast of Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Order of Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253
Commemoration of John Henry Newman, Priest, Teacher, Tractarian, 1890
It is our great relief that God is not extreme to mark what is done amiss, that he looks at the motives, and accepts and blesses in spite of incidental errors.
... John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), Letters and Correspondence of John Henry Newman, v. I, London: Longmans, Green, 1903, p. 205
(see the book; see also Matt. 21:28-31; Ps. 34:18; 51:17; Isa. 57:15-18; Mic. 6:8; Matt. 6:5; 18:3; ; more at Blessing, Error, God, Intention)
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Ideological notions are strongest amongst people who have lost their traditional religious faith, and they provide a kind of pseudo-religion to take its place. Ideology may well be defined as religion-substitute. The fact that religious faith always expresses itself in the particular ideological forms current in any given period is no reason why we should confuse religion with ideology; and, even though it requires a penetrating and candid investigation to distinguish between the genuinely religious and the merely ideological elements in the outlook of a particular period or individual, this does not mean that religion itself is an aspect of ideology. The core of religious belief is not ideological, whatever may be said of the soft pulp in which it is often wrapped up.
... Alan Richardson (1905-1975), Christian Apologetics, London: SCM Press, 1947, p. 70
(see the book; see also John 18:36; Matt. 8:2-4; 16:20; 17:9; Mark 1:34,43-44; Luke 4:41; 5:14; John 7:17-18; 12:49; more at Apologetics, Confusion, Contention, Faith, Reason, Religion)
Monday, August 13, 2018
Feast of Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down & Connor, Priest, Teacher, 1667
Commemoration of Florence Nightingale, Social Reformer, 1910
Commemoration of Octavia Hill, Worker for the Poor, 1912
[From an old Jewish story] When Abraham sat at his tent door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travail, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age; he received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down; but observing that the old man ate and prayed not, nor begged a blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven. The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night, and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was. He replied, “I thrust him away, because he did not worship thee.” God answered him, “I have suffered him these hundred years, though he dishonoured me; and wouldst thou not endure him one night?”
... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), The Liberty of Prophesying [1647], in The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., v. VIII, London: C. & J Rivington, 1828, p. 232
(see the book; see also Jas. 5:10-11; Job 1:22; 13:15; Matt. 5:11-12; 23:34-37; Luke 13:34-35; Acts 7:52; Heb. 11:32-38; more at Attitudes, Bible, God, Perseverance, Worship)
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Commemoration of Maximilian Kolbe, Franciscan Friar, Priest, Martyr, 1941
I have but one passion—it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field, and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.
... Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760), quoted in Living Abundantly, Kirby Page, Farrar & Rinehart, Incorporated, 1944, p. 322
(see the book; see also Luke 24:46-48; Acts 4:18-20; 13:47; 1 Cor. 9:22; 12:3; 16:9; more at Christ, Evangelization, Home, Mission, Soul, World)
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Of the access for us, at any rate, to the spirit of life, us who were born in Christendom, and are in touch, conscious or unconscious, with Christianity, this is the true account. Questions over which the churches spend so much labour and time—questions about the Trinity, about the godhead of Christ, about the procession of the Holy Ghost—are not vital; what is vital is the doctrine of access to the spirit of life through Jesus.
... Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), (first printed in Fortnightly Review, 1887) Works of Matthew Arnold, v. IV, London: Macmillan, 1903, p. 210
(see the book; see also Heb. 10:19-22; John 14:6,16-17; 15:26; 16:13; 20:22; Rom. 8:26; more at Christ, Church, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Labor, Question, Spirit, Time, Trinity)
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Think [it] not hard if ye get not your will, nor your delights in this life; God will have you to rejoice in nothing but himself.
... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, Feb 1, 1630, p. 17
(see the book; see also Ex. 34:14; Deut. 5:7; Ps. 43:4; Rom. 7:21; Rev. 4:10-11; 22:3; more at God, Happiness, Joy, Life)
Friday, August 17, 2018
Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
... Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), in the introductory essay for The Works of Jonathan Edwards, A.M., v. I, London: William Ball., 1839, p. xviii
(see the book; see also Ps. 63:6; 119:147-148; Lam. 2:19; 1 Cor. 7:29-31; Rev. 10:6; more at Attitudes, Death, Life, Resolve)
Saturday, August 18, 2018
(Peter) Waldo, a business-man in Lyons, France, in about A.D. 1170 became intensely curious as to the content of the Scriptures. But he could not read Latin, and so the Scriptures were a closed book to him. However, he hired two money-minded priests, who, in violation of strict regulations, translated the Bible for him into Provençal, the language of southern France. The content of the Word of God made such an impression upon this earnest man that he gave up his business, took upon himself a vow of poverty, and dedicated himself to the simple preaching of the contents of God’s Word...The Latin of the Church only mystified its hearers [but] Waldo’s humble preaching edified the souls of men. His words were not spectacular but powerful, as he pleaded with them to repent. Much of his preaching and that of his followers consisted in reciting long passages of Scripture in the vernacular. Many of them could not afford an expensive handwritten copy of the Bible, and the ecclesiastical authorities could too easily rob them of such a book; but they could not erase the words which were treasured in the heart.
... Eugene A. Nida (1914-2011), God’s Word in Man’s Language, New York: Harper, 1952, p. 82-83
(see the book; see also Rom. 15:4; 4:23-24; 1 Cor. 10:9-11; 2 Cor. 3:3; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; more at Bible, Dedication, Heart, Poverty, Preach, Repentance, Scripture, Vow)
Sunday, August 19, 2018
The love of Christ both wounds and heals, it fascinates and frightens, it kills and makes alive, it draws and repulses, it sobers and enraptures. There can be nothing more terrible or wonderful than to be stricken with love for Christ so deeply that the whole being goes out in a pained adoration of His person, an adoration that disturbs and disconcerts while it purges and satisfies and relaxes the deep inner heart.
... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), That Incredible Christian, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1964, p. 129-130
(see the book; see also Luke 23:34; Acts 9:16; 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Eph. 3:16-19; more at Christ, Heart, Jesus, Life, Love, Satisfaction)
Monday, August 20, 2018
Feast of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Teacher, 1153
Commemoration of William & Catherine Booth, Founders of the Salvation Army, 1912 & 1890
Faith is not an opinion, but a certitude. “The substance of things hoped for,” says the Apostle—not the phantasies of empty conjecture. You hear the substance. You may not dispute on the faith as you please; you may not wander here and there through the wastes of opinion, the byways of error. By the name, “substance,” something certain and fixed is placed before you; you are enclosed between boundaries, you are restrained within unchanging limits.
... Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), iv.9, Treatise on the Errors of Abeilard [1139], in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, James Hastings, New York: Scribners, 1908, p. 16, article on Abeilard
(see the book; see also Heb. 11:1; 2 Cor. 4:18; Gal. 5:6; Eph. 2:8-9; Heb. 10:22; 11:13; 1 Pet. 1:7; 2 Pet. 1:1; more at Certainty, Dispute, Emptiness, Faith)
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
If every call to Christ and His righteousness is a call to suffering, the converse is equally true—every call to suffering is a call to Christ, a promotion, an invitation to come up higher.
... Charles H. Brent (1862-1929), The Consolations of the Cross, London: Longmans, Green, 1904, p. 55
(see the book; see also 1 Pet. 5:10; Ps. 30:5; Acts 20:23; Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Pet. 1:6-7; more at Affliction, Call, Christ, Righteousness, Suffer, Weakness)
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
“Books,” said St. Augustine after his conversion, “could not teach me charity.” We still keep on thinking they can. We do not realize ... the utter distinctness of God and the things of God. Psychology of religion can not teach us prayer, and ethics cannot teach us love. Only Christ can do that, and He teaches by the direct method, in and among the circumstances of life. He does not mind about our being comfortable. He wants us to be strong, able to tackle life and be Christians, be apostles in life, so we must be trained by the ups and downs, the rough and tumble of life. Team games are compulsory in the school of Divine Love; there is no getting into a corner with a nice, spiritual book.
... Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), The Light of Christ, New York: Longmans, Green, 1949, p. 53
(see the book; see also Matt. 12:9-15; Eccl. 12:12; Matt. 7:22-23; 21:28-32; Luke 13:14-17; 14:3-6; 2 Cor. 8:1-5; 2 Tim. 2:19; more at Charity, Life, Obedience, Religion, Teach)
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Commemoration of Rose of Lima, Contemplative, 1617
It was no exceptional thing for Jesus to withdraw Himself “into the wilderness to pray.”He was never for one moment of any day out of touch with God... He was speaking and listening to the Father all day long; and yet He, who was in such constant touch with God, felt the need, as well as the joy, of more prolonged and more quiet communion with Him... Most of the reasons that drive us to pray for strength and forgiveness could never have driven Him; and yet He needed prayer.
... G. H. Knight (1835-1917), In the Secret of His Presence, Rock Island, Ill.: Augustana Book Concern, 1934, p. 42-43
(see the book; see also Luke 5:16; Matt. 6:6; 14:23; Mark 1:35-36; 6:46; Luke 6:12; John 6:15; 10:28; more at Communion, Father, God, Jesus, Listening, Prayer, Strength)
Friday, August 24, 2018
Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle
We are separated from one another by an unbridgeable gulf of otherness and strangeness which resists all our attempts to overcome it by means of natural association or emotional or spiritual union. There is no way from one person to another. However loving and sympathetic we try to be, however sound our psychology, however frank and open our behaviour, we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other man, for there are no direct relationships, not even between soul and soul. Christ stands between us, and we can only get into touch with our neighbours through Him.
... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship, Simon and Schuster, 1959, p. 98
(see the book; see also Gal. 3:28; John 17:20-21; Eph. 2:13-22; 4:15-16; more at Christ, Love, Neighbor, People, Social, Soul)
Saturday, August 25, 2018
There is a false self-distrust which denies the worth of its own talent. It is not humility—it is petty pride, withholding its simple gifts from the hands of Christ because they are not more pretentious. There are men who would endow colleges, they say, if they were millionaires. They would help in the work of Bible study if they were as gifted as Henry Drummond. They would strive to lead their associates into the Christian life if they had the gifts of Dwight L. Moody. But they are not ready to give what they have and do what they can and be as it has pleased God to make them, in His service—and that is their condemnation.
... Charles Reynolds Brown (1862-1950), “The Unrealized Possibilities in Life”, in Homeletic Review, V. LXIII, Jan. to June, 1912, New York Funk & Wagnalls, 1912, p. 397
(see the book; see also Mark 12:41-44; Luke 11:39-41; 1 Cor. 12:11; more at Gifts, Humility, Obedience, Pride, Self, Service, Talent)
Sunday, August 26, 2018
O the depth of the evil of sin! If ever you will see how great and horrid an evil sin is, measure it in your thoughts, either by the infinite holiness and excellency of God, who is wrong’d by it; or by the infinite sufferings of Christ, who died to satisfy for it; and then you will have deeper apprehensions of the evil of sin.
... John Flavel (1628-1691), Serm. XIV from The Fountain of Life [1671], in The Whole Works of the Reverend Mr. John Flavel, v. I, Paisley: A. Weir and A. McLean, 1770, p. 199
(see the book; see also Lev. 20:26; Song of Solomon 2:15; Ps. 99:9; John 3:20; Rom. 7:13; Heb. 12:1; 1 Pet. 1:10-11; 4:1; 1 John 3:6; more at Christ, Death, Evil, God, Holiness, Sin, Suffer)
Monday, August 27, 2018
Feast of Monica, Mother of Augustine of Hippo, 387
You will tell me that I am always saying the same thing. It is true, for this is the best and easiest method I know; and as I use no other, I advise all the world to it. We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him; and when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure.
... Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, New York, Revell, 1895, Ninth Letter, p. 37
(see the book; see also Matt. 6:19-21; Isa. 33:6; Luke 12:32-34; 2 Cor. 4:18; Col. 3:1-3; Heb. 3:12; more at God, Heart, Knowing God, Love, Thought, Treasure)
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, Teacher, 430
None can become fit for the future life, who hath not practiced himself for it now.
... St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Expositions on the Book of Psalms, v. VI, Oxford: Parker, 1857, Ps. CXLVIII, p. 415-416
(see the book; see also Ps. 148:2-5; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23; John 3:16-18; 4:35-36; 6:27; 17:3; more at Future, Life, Obedience, Regeneration)
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
If you were to rise early every morning, as an instance of self-denial, as a method of renouncing indulgence, as a means of redeeming your time, and fitting your spirit for prayer, you would find mighty advantages from it. This method, though it seem such a small circumstance of life, would in all probability be a means of great piety. It would keep it constantly in your head, that softness and idleness were to be avoided, that self-denial was a part of Christianity... It would teach you to exercise power over yourself, and make you able by degrees to renounce other pleasures and tempers that war against the soul.
... William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life [1728], London: Methuen, 1899, p. 239-240
(see the book; see also Tit. 2:11-14; Matt. 10:37-38; 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23-26; Col. 1:24; 2 Tim. 3:12; more at Prayer, Renunciation, Self-control, Soul, Weakness)
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Those who talk of reading the Bible “as literature” sometimes mean, I think, reading it without attending to the main thing it is about; like reading Burke with no interest in politics, or reading the Aeneid with no interest in Rome... But there is a saner sense in which the Bible—since it is, after all, literature—cannot properly be read except as literature, and the different parts of it as the different sorts of literature they are. Most emphatically, the Psalms must be read as poems—as lyrics, with all the licenses and all the formalities, the hyperboles, the emotional rather than logical connections, which are proper to lyric poetry... Otherwise we shall miss what is in them and think we see what is not.
... C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), Reflections on the Psalms, Edinburgh: James Thin, 1958; G. Bles, 1958, p. 3
(see the book; see also Ps. 134; 1:1-3; 22:1; 26:8-10; 42:1-2; 46; 51:1-3,7,10; 72:1-8; 85:8; 119:1-8; 121; 136; more at Bible, Thought, Understanding)
Friday, August 31, 2018
Feast of Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, Missionary, 651
Commemoration of Cuthburga, Founding Abbess of Wimborne, c.725
Commemoration of John Bunyan, Spiritual Writer, 1688
Afflictions make the heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing and profound, and so, more able to hold, to contain, and beat more.
... John Bunyan (1628-1688), “Of the Resurrection of the Dead”, in The Whole Works of John Bunyan, v. II, London: Blackie, 1862, p. 102
(see the book; see also 2 Cor. 4:16-17; Ps. 30:5; 119:71; Rom. 8:18; 1 Cor. 3:8; 1 Pet. 1:6; more at Affliction, Heart, Knowledge, Weakness)
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