Whately: personal holiness

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
    Commemoration of Brigid, Abbess of Kildare, c.525
Meditation:
    The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
    He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
    —Luke 10:17-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    (Continued from yesterday)
    [We look for a time when Christians] will consider and practically remember, that all Christians are “called [to be] Saints,” and endued with the Holy Spirit of God; not indeed to inspire them with a new revelation, or to confer any miraculous gifts, (which do not either prove, or make, the possessor the more acceptable in God’s sight,) but to enable them to purify their own hearts and lives. The wicked Balaam was a prophet; and the traitor Judas worked miracles. These extraordinary powers, therefore, are neither any proof of superior personal holiness, nor any substitute for it in God’s sight. Nor is the absence of these miraculous gifts in ourselves, any argument that a less degree of Christian virtue will suffice for our salvation, than was required of the Apostles.
    ... Richard Whately (1787-1863), A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State [1829], Philadelphia: Lindsay & Blakiston, 1857, p. 159-160 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the sign of Your presence is written within me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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