Monday, September 21, 2026

Tillotson: what would Abraham do?

Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
    They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.”
    —John 8:37-40 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Because they were prejudiced against the meanness of our Saviour’s birth and condition, and had upon false grounds (though, as they thought, upon the infallibility of tradition, and of Scripture interpreted by tradition) entertained quite other notions of the Messiah from what he was really to be; because they were proud, and thought themselves too wise to learn of him: and because his doctrine of humility, and self-denial, did thwart their interest, and bring down their authority and credit among the people; therefore they set themselves against him with all their might, opposing his doctrine, and blasting his reputation and persecuting him to the death; and all this while did bear up themselves with a conceit of the antiquity and privileges of their church, and their profound knowledge in the laws of God, and a great external show of piety and devotion, and an arrogant presence and usurpation of being the only church and people of God in the world.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. IV, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon LXXXII, p. 524-525 (see the book)
    See also John 8:37-40; 5:39-40; 16:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, prevent me from using You to my own ends.
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Sunday, September 20, 2026

Allshorn: shallow comfort

Monday, September 21, 2026
    Feast of Matthew, Apostle & Evangelist
Meditation:
    On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
    —John 7:37-38 (ESV)
Quotation:
    We religious leaders need to look very much more deeply. We can so easily have talks with people, and they can say we have helped, write us grateful letters, even stand steady for a time till the juice we have put into them has run out; but, we may have brought them no hunger for God (because that hunger is no ache in our own heart) nor [brought them] anywhere near to the end of self.
    ... Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), The Notebooks of Florence Allshorn, London: SCM Press, 1957, p. 23 (see the book)
    See also John 7:37-38; Ps. 42:1-2; 63:1-2; 84:1-2; 143:6-7; Isa. 26:8-9; 44:3; 59:21; John 4:14; 6:51; Gal. 5:22
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead me to point others to the Living Bread and the Living Water.
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