Powell: the fountainhead

Sunday, August 6, 2017
Meditation:
    We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
    —1 Corinthians 2:12-14
Quotation:
    I read in Shakespeare of the majesty of the moral law, in Victor Hugo of the sacredness of childhood, in Tennyson the ugliness of hypocrisy, in George Eliot the supremacy of duty, in Dickens the divinity of kindness, and in Ruskin the dignity of service. Irving teaches me the lesson of cheerfulness, Hawthorne shows me the hatefulness of sin, Longfellow gives me the soft, tranquil music of hope. Lowell makes us feel that we must give ourselves to our fellow men. Whittier sings to me of divine Fatherhood and human brotherhood. These are Christian lessons: who inspired them? Who put it into the heart of Martin Luther to nail those theses on the church door of Wittenberg? Who stirred and fired the soul of Savonarola? Who thrilled and electrified the soul of John Wesley? Jesus Christ is back of these all.
    ... Lyman Pierson Powell (1866-1946), quoted in International Journal of Religious Education, v. 21, April, 1945, p. 27
    See also 1 Cor. 2:12-14; John 1:1; Rom. 2:14-15; Col. 1:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I know you to be the Lord of all goodness. Strengthen my faith, and open my eyes to Your presence around me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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