Caird: Christianity, the precondition for democracy

Saturday, February 13, 2010
Meditation:
    “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the LORD.
    —Zechariah 8:16-17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When we turn from the microcosm of man to see the same qualities writ large in the character of the state, we find that democratic government has flourished only where Protestant Christianity has been strong. (The democracies of Greece were not truly democratic, for they were founded on slave labour.) This may be an historical accident, but it looks rather as though democracy imperatively requires conditions which only Christianity can supply: a conviction that every person is of infinite worth, that man is not his own master, that duties are more important than rights, and that spiritual well-being is of more account than material comfort and security.
    ... G. B. Caird (1917-1984), The Truth of the Gospel, London: Oxford University Press, 1950, p. 51-52 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may You establish justice in all lands. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Blake: the mind the gift of Jesus

Friday, February 12, 2010
Meditation:
    Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
    —James 1:17 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Remember: he who despises and mocks a mental gift in another, calling it pride, and selfishness, and sin, mocks Jesus, the giver of every mental gift, which always appear to the ignorance-loving hypocrite as sins. But that which is a sin in the sight of cruel men, is not so in the sight of our kind God. Let every Christian, as much as in him lies, engage himself openly and publicly before all the world in some mental pursuit for the building up of [the Kingdom].
    ... William Blake (1757-1827), Poems of William Blake, ed. William Butler Yeats, London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1893, p. 203 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may I never scorn Your gifts. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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MacDonald: the rights of man

Thursday, February 11, 2010
Meditation:
    When they hurled their insults at [Christ], he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
    —1 Peter 2:23-25 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lest it should be possible that any unchildlike soul might, in arrogance and ignorance, think to stand upon his rights against God, and demand of Him this or that after the will of the flesh, I will lay before such a possible one some of the things to which he has a right... He has a claim to be compelled to repent; to be hedged in on every side; to have one after another of the strong, sharp-toothed sheep-dogs of the Great Shepherd sent after him, to thwart him in any desire, foil him in any plan, frustrate him of any hope, until he come to see at length that nothing will ease his pain, nothing make life a thing worth having, but the presence of the living God within him.
    ... George MacDonald (1824-1905), “The Voice of Job”, in Unspoken Sermons, Second Series, London: Longmans, Green, 1886, p. 193-194 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Despite my efforts, Lord, I cannot escape Your grace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Allen: learning about the Sacraments

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
    Commemoration of Scholastica, Abbess of Plombariola, c.543
Meditation:
    It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
    —Ephesians 4:11-13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I have a profound belief in the power of the Sacraments. I believe that in a Divine way the use of them teaches the teachable their inward meaning... and therefore I think that we need be in no hurry to attempt to teach new converts all that we think we know about them.
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder It, London: World Dominion Press, 1949, reprint, Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1997, ch. IX.ii, p. 149 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit feeds Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: first obedience, then peace

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Meditation:
    If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
        O Lord, who could stand?
    But with you there is forgiveness;
        therefore you are feared.
    —Psalm 130:3-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    See in the meantime that your faith bringeth forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition upon Psalm CXXX [1668], in Works of John Owen, v. VI, New York: R. Carter & Bros., 1851, p. 563 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Keep my footsteps in the right path, Lord, that I may receive Your peace. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Erasmus: a better monument

Monday, February 8, 2010
Meditation:
    Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.”
    —2 Corinthians 8:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Rich men now-a-days will have their monuments in churches... But if I were a priest or a bishop, I would put it into the heads of those thick-skulled courtiers or merchants, that if they would atone for their sins to Almighty God, they should privately bestow their liberality upon the relief of the poor.
    ... Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), The Colloquies of Erasmus, v. I, tr. N. Bailey & ed. E. Johnson, London: Reeves & Turner, 1878, p. 190 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I acknowledge that all I have is as a stewardship for You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cate: a future religion or now?

Sunday, February 7, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.”
    —Matthew 7:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    In the “dynamic” religion that we are being promised for tomorrow, no ascetic discipline or special humbleness will any longer be required. It will be a hot-water bottle kind of piety with none of that gritty old morality it in. It will be a brand of faith that has been synthetized, vitaminized, homogenized, and capsulized, and it will be as ready-made for effortless consumption as that magically bleached, cottony, crustless, already sliced white bread which is the symbol of the modern American’s massive superiority over the pagan bushwhacker.
    ... Curtis Cate (1924-2006), “God and Success”, in The Atlantic Monthly, January/June 1957, p. 76 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, send Your Spirit to guard and defend Your church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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