Give me the unadorned Christ.
The Logos; undiluted and pure.
For nothing else can quench my sin; the weakness I see
looking back in the mirror every day.
Give me my King; who reigns over the church
for his glory, her benefit, and through whom will the nations learn to bow in subjection.
Give me the word;
for he teaches, admonishes, loves,
and shows how to pray and is our praise.
Give me my beloved; for he died and lives for me
though it was me, the whore, who made death necessary.
Give me nothing else
than the resurrected Jesus;
for anything less is but my unbelief.
“Sin by its very nature is more often quiet and secretive than loud and public. For every overt episode of rage, there are dozens of jealousies, manipulations, white lies, and malicious thoughts, none of which immediately register on the conscience. And, according to Scripture, the greatest sin of all is even more covert: I do not love the Lord my God with my whole mind and heart. If our failure to consistently worship the true God is the key feature of sin, we are sinners all.”
― Edward T. Welch, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave (2001)
“It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot (1869)
"Upon the whole I conclude, that the Presbyterian Government is of divine institution. Their Articles of Faith taught by the Scripture, and believed by the Catholic Church. Their worship pure and perfect in all essentials. And their spirit and practice [is] at least as becoming the gospel as that of their neighbours" - Thomas Rhind, A Defense of the Church-Government, Faith, Worship, and Spirit, of the Presbyterians (1820)
“The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than itself?”
― Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection (1815)
“Theology masters the man; the man is never to master the theology.”
― Carl R. Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom (2015)
“He was so far from being able to carry out such threats that one might conclude that the author of this document was utterly mad. Indeed, the man in the cave had entered a separate reality, one that was deeply connected to the mythic chords of Muslim identity and in fact gestured to anyone whose culture was threatened by modernity and impurity and the loss of tradition. By declaring war on the United States from a cave in Afghanistan, bin Laden assumed the role of an uncorrupted, indomitable primitive standing against the awesome power of the secular, scientific, technological Goliath; he was fighting modernity itself.”
― Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower (2006)
“You can’t always understand something just because you did it.”
― Stephen King, Roadwork (1981)
“Probably it is true enough that the great majority are rarely capable of thinking independently, that on most questions they accept views which they find ready-made, and that they will be equally content if born or coaxed into one set of beliefs or another. In any society freedom of thought will probably be of direct significance only for a small minority. But this does not mean that anyone is competent, or ought to have power, to select those to whom this freedom is to be reserved. It certainly does not justify the presumption of any group of people to claim the right to determine what people ought to think or believe.”
― Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944)
“Words and actions are transient things, and being once past, are nothing; but the effect of them on an immortal soul may be endless.”
― Richard Baxter, Dying Thoughts (1683)
“Psychopaths don't act like Hannibal Lecter or Norman Bates. They come off like Hugh Grant, in his most adorable role.”
― Dave Cullen, Columbine (2009)
“The longer you went without speaking, the harder it gets to break the silence.”
― Stephen King, The Long Walk (1978)
''Suppose it be true that devotion to a creed is a sign of narrowness or intolerance, suppose the Church ought to be founded upon devotion to the ideal of Jesus or upon the desire to put His spirit into operation in the world, and not at all upon a confession of faith with regard to His redeeming work. Even if all this were true, even if a creedal Church were an undesirable thing, it would still remain true that as a matter of fact many (indeed in spirit really all) evangelical churches are creedal churches, and that if a man does not accept their
creed he has no right to a place in their teaching ministry''
- J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (1922)
“Christ had a Church in the world before there was either Apostle, or Prophet, or Evangelist, or Pastor, or Teacher, and He will have His Church around Him through eternal ages, after all His saints are gathered and perfected, and when oracles, ordinances and ministry shall have fulfilled their work.”
― James Henley Thornwell, The Collected Writings of James Henley Thornwell (1871)
“The basic duties of the husband were to provide for the welfare of his wife and children, to protect his household from any who would harm it, and to rule over his family and servants with a firm but just hand.. 'Above all, the husband was supposed to rule. He alone was master of his house, the one on whom all domestic discipline and order finally depended.' However, the wife 'was no maid or common servant of her husband,' but the husband was 'father of the house,' and his wife 'mother of the house'—'a position of high authority and equal respect.''
― Zachary M. Garris, Honor Thy Fathers: Recovering the Anti-Feminist Theology of the Reformers (2024)
TO THE PÆDAGOGUS.
Teacher, to Thee a chaplet I present,
Woven of words culled from the spotless mead,
Where Thou dost feed Thy flocks; like to the bee,
That skilful worker, which from many a flower
Gathers its treasures, that she may convey
A luscious offering to the master’s hand.
Though but the least, I am Thy servant still,
(Seemly is praise to Thee for Thy behests).
O King, great Giver of good gifts to men,
Lord of the good, Father, of all the Maker,
Who heaven and heaven’s adornment, by Thy word
Divine fitly disposed, alone didst make;
Who broughtest forth the sunshine and the day;
Who didst appoint their courses to the stars,
And how the earth and sea their place should keep;
And when the seasons, in their circling course,
Winter and summer, spring and autumn, each
Should come, according to well-ordered plan;
Out of a confused heap who didst create
This ordered sphere, and from the shapeless mass
Of matter didst the universe adorn;—
Grant to me life, and be that life well spent,
Thy grace enjoying; let me act and speak
In all things as Thy Holy Scriptures teach;
Thee and Thy co-eternal Word, All-wise,
From Thee proceeding, ever may I praise;
Give me nor poverty nor wealth, but what is meet,
Father, in life, and then life’s happy close.
(Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor, 198 AD)
