A Voice from the Past - Chesterton

For definitions are very dreadful things: they do the two things that most men, especially comfortable men, cannot endure. They fight; and they fight fair.

G. K. Chesterton,  1874-1936, Utopia of Usurers, V. The Church and the Servile State (Gutenberg Press, produced by Mike Pullen, 2000).

How important is it to define what we are discussing? Can it help keep the discussion fair?

A Voice from the Past - Watson

The causa, the inward impellant motive or ground of justification, is the free grace of God: ‘being justified freely by his grace.’ Ambrose expounds this, as ‘not of the grace wrought within us, but the free grace of God.’ The first wheel that sets all the rest running is the love and favour of God; as a king freely pardons a delinquent. Justification is a mercy spun out of the bowels of free grace. God does not justify us because we are worthy, but by justifying us makes us worthy.

Thomas Watson, 1620-1686, A Body of Divinity, 6. The Application of Redemption, 3. Justification, (p. 164)

Why is it important that salvation should be by grace even though we are not worthy? How should this affect our lives?

A Voice from the Past - Thomas a Kempis

It is not in the nature of man to bear the cross, to love the cross, to keep under the body and to bring it into subjection, to fly from honours, to bear reproaches meekly, to despise self and desire to be despised, to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world. If thou lookest to thyself, thou wilt of thyself be able to do none of this; but if thou trustest in the Lord, endurance shall be given thee from heaven, and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thy command. Yea, thou shalt not even fear thine adversary the devil, if thou be armed with faith and signed with the Cross of Christ.

Thomas a Kempis, 1389-1472, The Imitation of Christ, The Second Book, Chapter XII, 9 (Project Gutenberg, 1999).

Why is trust in God essential in dealing with bad times? What about good times?

A Voice from the Past - Spurgeon

When He is absent from us, He is still thinking of us, and in the black darkness He has a window through which He looks upon us. When the sun sets in one part of the earth, it rises in another place beyond our visible horizon. Likewise, Jesus, our Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2), is pouring light upon His people in a different way, when to our understanding He seems to have set in darkness.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1834-1892, Joy in Christ's Presence, (Whittaker House, 1997, p.77)

Is God truly with us even though we may feel He has deserted us? What is the cause of this feeling?

A Voice from the Past - Bernard

Love is an affection of the soul, not a contract: it cannot rise from a mere agreement, nor is it so to be gained. It is spontaneous in its origin and impulse; and true love is its own satisfaction. It has its reward; but that reward is the object beloved. For whatever you seem to love, if it is on account of something else, what you do really love is that something else, not the apparent object of desire. St. Paul did not preach the Gospel that he might earn his bread; he ate that he might be strengthened for his ministry. What he loved was not bread, but the Gospel. True love does not demand a reward, but it deserves one. Surely no one offers to pay for love; yet some recompense is due to one who loves, and if his love endures he will doubtless receive it.

Bernard of Clarivaux, 1091-1153, Loving God, Chapter VII (Calvin College Ethereal Library).

Is there a reward for loving? Does that make it mercenary?

A Voice from the Past - William of Ockham

The Holy Spirit through blessed John the evangelist makes a terrible threat against those who add anything to or take anything from divine scripture when he says in the last chapter of Revelations, "If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues which are in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book." We clearly gather from all these that nothing should be added to sacred scripture nor anything removed from it. To decide by way of teaching, therefore, which assertion should be considered catholic, which heretical, chiefly pertains to theologians, the experts on divine scripture.
You see that I have set out opposing assertions in response to your question and I have touched on quite strong arguments in support of each position. Therefore consider now which seems the more probable to you.

William of Ockham, 1300-1349, Dialogus, Vol. 1, Book 1, Chapter 2, (translated by John Kilcullen and John Scott, 2003, Wikiquotes).

How easy is it to add to or take away from Scripture? How do we avoid this?

A Voice from the Past - Dorothy Sayers

Now, we may call that doctrine exhilarating or we  may call it devastating; we may call it revelation or we may call it rubbish; but if we call it dull, then words have no meaning at all. That God should play the tyrant over man is a dismal story of unrelieved oppression; that man should play the tyrant over man is the usual dreary record of human futility; but that man should play the tyrant over God and find Him a better man than himself is an astonishing drama indeed.

Dorthy Sayers, 1893-1957, The Greatest Drama Ever Staged, (Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World, edited by Rodrick Jellema, William B. Eerdmans  Publishing, 1969, pp. 16,17)

Is the Christian teaching really dull? How has it come to be considered so? How do we avoid this?

A Voice from the Past - Zwingli

Real petitioners call to God in spirit and truly, without great ado before men.

Huldrich Zwingli, 1483-1531, Sixty Seven Articles of Zwingli,  About Prayer, XLIV (Selected Works of Huldrich Zwingli, edited by Samuel Macauley Jackson, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1901,  The Online Library of Liberty, p.94)

Is this the right goal? How can it be achieved?

A Voice from the Past- Thomas a Kempis

"My Son, be not curious, nor trouble thyself with vain cares. What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.(John 21:12) For what is it to thee whether a man be this or that, or say or do thus or thus? Thou
hast no need to answer for others, but thou must give an answer for thyself. Why therefore dost thou entangle thyself? Behold, I know all men, and I behold all things which are done under the sun; and I know how it standeth with each one, what he thinketh, what he willeth, and to what end his thoughts reach. All things therefore are to be committed to Me; watch thou thyself in godly peace, and leave him who is unquiet to be unquiet as he will. Whatsoever he shall do or say, shall come unto him, for he cannot deceive Me.

Thomas a Kempis, 1389-1471, The Imitation of Christ, Book III, Chapter XXIV (translated by Rev, William Benham, Project Gutenburg, 1999).

Should we avoid too close an inquiry into other people's business? Is there a limit to this?

A Voice from the Past - Chesterton

But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution. If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, or that they have since become bad purposes,or that they are purposes which  are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity, that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion.

G. K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, The Drift from Domesticity, (Dodo Press, 1929, p.18).

Is this true? How can we learn to make a judgment on things based on understanding them?

A Voice from the Past - Francis Bacon

For the former, it is certain heresies and schisms [divisions] are of all others the greatest scandals; yea, more than corruption of manners [hypocrisy]. For as in the natural body a wound or solution [dissolution] of continuity is worse than a corrupt humor [infection], so in the spiritual. So that nothing does so much keep men out of the church, and drive me out of the church, as breach of unity. [brackets mine]

Francis Bacon, 1561-1626, The Essays, 3. Of Unity in Religion (Penguin Books, 1985, p. 67)

Is there any truth in the idea that divisions in the Christian church drive people away? What, if anything, can be done about it?

A Voice from the Past - Lewis

If a man can't be comfortable and unguarded, can't take his ease and 'be himself ' in his own house, where can he? That is, I confess, the trouble. The answer is an alarming one. There is nowhere this  side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse's neck. It will never be lawful to simply 'be ourselves' until 'ourselves' have become  sons of God.

C. S. Lewis, 1898-1963, The Sermon and the Lunch, God in the Dock, Part III, 3 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1970, p. 286).

Should Christians be themselves? Should we in some ways avoid being ourselves? What is the distinction?

A Voice from the Past - Chrysostom

For He espoused her as a wife, He loves her as a daughter, He provides for her as a handmaid, He guards her as a virgin, He fences her round like a garden, and cherishes her like a member: as a head He provides for her, as a root He causes her to grow, as a shepherd He feeds her, as a bridegroom He weds her, as a propitiation He pardons her, as a sheep He is sacrificed, as a bridegroom he preserves her in beauty, as a husband He provides for her support.

John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD, Eutropius, and the Vanity of Riches, Homily II, 15 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Philip Schaff, Hendrickson Publishers, 2012, pp. 262, 263)

What does it mean that the church is the bride of Christ? How does that help us to understand our relationship with God?

A Voice from the Past - Spurgeon

Dogs, and even swine, are more likely to eturn home than wandering sheep. But now, beloved, though we have wandered, we have returned and still do return to our Shepherd. Like Noah's dove, we have found no rest anywhere outside the ark; and therefore we return to Him, and He graciously pulls us in to Himself. If we wander at any time, we bless God that there is something sacred within us that will not let us rest, and that there is a far more powerful Something above us that draws us back.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1834-1892, Joy in Christ's Presence, The Sin Bearer, (Whittaker House, 1997, p. 199)

How does God act to pull us back to Himself? What are the implications of this for our life?

A Voice from the Past - Bernard

So then in the beginning man loves God, not for God's sake, but for his own. It is something for him to know how little he can do by himself and how much by God's help, and in that knowledge to order himself rightly towards God, his sure support. But when tribulations, recurring again and again, constrain him to turn to God for unfailing help, would not even a heart as hard as iron, as cold as marble, be softened by the goodness of such a Savior, so that he would love God not altogether
selfishly, but because He is God? Let frequent troubles drive us to frequent supplications; and surely, tasting, we must see how gracious the Lord is (Ps. 34.8).

Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153, Loving God, Chapter IX (from Christian Classics Etheral Library, made available by Paul Halsall).

Should we come to love God for Himself and not just what He has done for us? How do we go about doing this?

A Voice from the Past - Thomas a-Kempis

It is good for us that we sometimes have sorrows and adversities, for they often make a man lay to heart that he is only a stranger and sojourner, and may not put his trust in any worldly thing.

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, First Book, Chapter XII (translated by Rev. William Bentham, 1999, from Project Gutenberg).

Is this indeed a benefit of adversity for the believer? How does this come about?

A Voice from the Past - Thomas Watson

We aim at God’s glory when we are content to be outshined by others in gifts and esteem, so that his glory may be increased. A man that has God in his heart, and God’s glory in his eye, desires that God should be exalted; and if this be effected, let who will be the instrument, he rejoices.

Thomas Watson, 1620-1684, A Body of Divinity, 2: Introduction, 1: Man's Chief End (p. 16)

What is the right attitude toward good work done by others? How do we cultivate this attitude?

A Voice from the Past - Patrick

For there is no other God, nor ever was before, nor shall be hereafter, but God the Father, unbegotten and without beginning, in whom all things began, whose are all things, as we have been taught; and his son Jesus Christ, who manifestly always existed with the Father, before the beginning of time in the spirit with the Father, indescribably begotten before all things, and all things visible and invisible were made by him. He was made man, conquered death and was received into Heaven, to the Father who gave him all power over every name in Heaven and on Earth and in Hell, so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God, in whom we believe. And we look to his imminent coming again, the judge of the living and the dead, who will render to each according to his deeds. And he poured out his Holy Spirit on us in abundance, the gift and pledge of immortality, which makes the believers and the obedient into sons of God and co-heirs of Christ who is revealed, and we worship one God in the Trinity of holy name.

Patrick, 390-460 AD, Confession, 4, (Christian Classics Ethereal Library, p.2)

What are the distinctions of the various members of the Trinity? What are the similarities? What implication does this have for our life?

A Voice from the Past - Lewis

(from his abysmal majesty Screwtape, on how to tempt humans)

The first and most obvious advantage is that you thus induce him to enthrone at the centre of his life a good, solid resounding  lie. I don't mean merely that his statement is false in fact, that he is no more equal to everyone he meets in kindness, honesty, and good sense than in height or waist-measurement. I mean that he does not believe it himself. No man who says I'm as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did.

C. S. Lewis, 1898-1963, The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape Proposes a Toast (Harper Collins Publishers, 1996, p.198).

Is there a distorted view of equality? How do we avoid it and keep a right view of equality?

A Voice from the Past - Chrysostom

The cross is the impregnable wall, the invulnerable shield, the safeguard of the rich, the resource of the poor, the defense of those who are exposed to snares, the armor of those who are attacked, the means of suppressing passion, and of acquiring virtue, the wonderful and marvelous sign.

John Chrysostom, 347-407 AD, Against Marcionists and Manichaeans, 2 (translated by Rev. W. R. W. Stephens, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Philip Schaff, Henderson Publishers, 2012, First Series, Vol. 9, p. 204).

What are the implications of the cross? How do we make them real in our life?