Chadwick: apathy and unbelief

Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Meditation:
    When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
    —Mark 2:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Is it not plain that all spiritual apathy comes not from over-trust but from unbelief, either doubting that sin is present death, or else that holiness is life and that Jesus has a gift to bestow, not in heaven, but promptly, which is better to gain than all the world? Therefore salvation is linked with faith, which earns nothing but elicits all, like the touch that evokes electricity, but which no man supposes to have made it.
    ... G. A. Chadwick (1840-1923), The Gospel According to St. Mark, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1891, p. 48-49 (see the book)
    See also Mark 2:1-12; Matt. 8:6-13; 9:2-7,20-22; Luke 5:18-26; 7:44-50; 9:24-25; Rom. 3:22-24
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, my belief is so weak. Send Your spirit to strengthen me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hammarskjold: light shows our darkness

Tuesday, March 17, 2026
    Feast of Patrick, Bishop of Armagh, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c.460
Meditation:
    Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
    —Genesis 4:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We can reach the point where it becomes possible for us to recognize and understand Original Sin, that dark counter-center of evil in our nature—that is to say, though it is not our nature, it is of it—that something within us which rejoices when disaster befalls the very cause we are trying to serve, or misfortune overtakes even those we love.
    Life in God is not an escape from this, but the way to gain full insight concerning it. It is not our depravity which forces a fictitious religious explanation upon us, but the experience of religious reality which forces the “Night Side” out into the light.
    It is when we stand in the righteous all-seeing light of love that we can dare to look at, admit, and consciously suffer under this something in us which wills disaster, misfortune, defeat to everything outside the sphere of our narrowest self interest.
    ... Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961), Markings, tr. Leif Sjöberg & W. H. Auden, (q.v.), New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964 (post.), p. 149 (see the book)
    See also Gen. 4:9; 37:32; Ps. 10:13-14; Pr. 28:13; John 8:44; Rom. 3:23
Quiet time reflection:
    Too easily, Lord, I excuse my own sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Dryden: patience

Monday, March 16, 2026
Meditation:
    And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
    —1 Thessalonians 5:14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The fortitude of a Christian consists in patience,... not in enterprises which the poets call heroic, and which are commonly the effects of interest, pride, and worldly honor.
    ... John Dryden (1631-1700), The Poetical Works of John Dryden, v. II, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909, p. 288 (see the book)
    See also 1 Thess. 5:14; John 15:19; Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 4:2; 5:1-2; Col. 3:12-13; 1 Tim. 6:10-11; 1 John 2:15-17
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me patience against the world’s seductive forces. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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