Carlyle: the Bible, by grace

Sunday, October 31, 2021
    Reformation Day
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
    —Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It must have been a most blessed discovery, that of an old Latin Bible which he found in the Erfurt Library about this time. He had never seen the Book before. It taught him another lesson than that of fasts and vigils... Luther learned now that a man was saved not by singing masses, but by the infinite grace of God: a more credible hypothesis. He gradually got himself founded, as on the rock. No wonder he should venerate the Bible, which had brought this blessed help to him. He prized it as the Word of the Highest must be prized by such a man. He determined to hold by that, as through life and to death he firmly did.
    ... Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History, New York: Wiley, 1859, p. 116 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 7:24-27; Rom. 3:21-22; Eph. 2:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, ground me in your word. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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