Thursday, January 31, 2008

EUROPEANS THINK ISLAM IS DANGEROUS

Sunday Express January 27,2008 says, "AN “overwhelming majority” of Europeans believe immigration from Islamic countries is a threat to their traditional way of life, a survey revealed last night.The poll, carried out across 21 countries, found “widespread anti-immigration sentiment”, but warned Europe’s Muslim population will treble in the next 17 years. It reported “a severe deficit of trust is found between the Western and Muslim communities”, with most people wanting less interaction with the Muslim world. Last night an MP warned it showed that political leaders in Britain who preach the benefits of unlimited immigration were dangerously out of touch with the public. The study, whose authors include the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, was commissioned for leaders at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. It reports “a growing fear among Europeans of a perceived Islamic threat to their cultural identities, driven in part by immigration from predominantly Muslim nations. And it concludes: “An overwhelming majority of the surveyed populations in Europe believe greater interaction between Islam and the West is a threat.” Backbench Tory MP David Davies told the Sunday Express: “I am not surprised by these findings. People are fed up with multiculturalism and being told they have to give up their way of life. Mr Davies, who serves on the Commons Home Affairs Committee, added: “People do get annoyed when they see millions spent on translating documents and legal aid being given to people fighting for the right to wear a head-to-toe covering at school. “A lot of people are very uncomfortable with the changes being caused by immigration and politicians have been too slow to wake up to that.” The report says people have little enthusiasm for greater understanding with Islam and attempts to improve relations have been “disappointing”. And with the EU Muslim population expected to reach 15 per cent by 2025 it predicts: “Any deterioration on the international front will be felt most severely in Europe.” But leading Muslim academic Haleh Afshar, of York University, blamed media “hysteria” for the findings. She said: “There is an absence of trust towards Muslims, but to my mind that is very much driven by an uninformed media. "

That is rich. We have an uninforming media. The BBC has not covered this. Our dhimmi journos would not publish the cartoons. Our governments do all they can to appease Muslims and tell us about their religion of peace. The report shows Joe Public is not so stupid after all.

No justice in Afghanistan

A young man, a student of journalism, is sentenced to death by an Islamic court for downloading a report from the internet. The sentence is then upheld by the country's rulers. This is Afghanistan – not in Taliban times but six years after "liberation" and under the democratic rule of the West's ally Hamid Karzai.

The Independent reports that "The fate of Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has led to domestic and international protests, and deepening concern about erosion of civil liberties in Afghanistan. He was accused of blasphemy after he downloaded a report from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed. Mr Kambaksh, 23, distributed the tract to fellow students and teachers at Balkh University with the aim, he said, of provoking a debate on the matter. But a complaint was made against him and he was arrested, tried by religious judges without – say his friends and family – being allowed legal representation and sentenced to death."

So one concludes liberation from the Taliban is not liberation from the repression that is the local religion. In this country there is not one church building though there are Christians, mainly expatriate. Any Afghan who converts does so at the cost of life in that land. Converts must flee or die. How can the West export democracy and hope it to flourish in the alien soil of Islam? Representative democracy is the child of the Judeao-Christian civilisation of the West. Freedom does not flourish where Islam prevails.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Czechoslovakia - christiansquoting.org.uk

.....a far away country....people of whom we know nothing.
Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) Radio broadcast 27.9.38, referring to Hitler's annexation of the Sudetenland

Cynicism - christiansquoting.org.uk

Cynics are further from realities than saints.--Lionel Curtis, "The Capital Question of China"

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.- Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969)

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin. -- H. L. Mencken

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.-- George Bernard Shaw

I'd rather be disappointed in some than cynical about all. - Bruce Thompson

Customer- christiansquoting.org.uk

Treat the customer as an appreciating asset. --Tom Peters, 1987

Where does it end?

BBC reports that "Australia apology to Aborigines The apology represents a break from previous policies The Australian government has announced it will issue its first formal apology to Aboriginal people when parliament resumes next month.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the apology would be the first item of business when the new legislature convened on 13 February. It is aimed at the "Stolen Generations" - Aboriginal children taken from their parents to be raised by white families. It was the "first, necessary step to move forward from the past", she said. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced plans to apologise after his victory in last year's general elections. The move is a highly symbolic one marking a definitive break from policies of previous administrations, correspondents say.
Ms Macklin said that the content of the apology had been determined after wide consultation with Aboriginal leaders. It would be made "on behalf of the Australian government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people", she said in a statement. "Once we establish this respect, the government can work with indigenous communities to improve services aimed at closing the 17-year life expectancy gap between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians," she said. Thousands of Aboriginal children were forcibly taken from their parents and given to white families or institutions to raise between 1915 and 1969.
The policy was aimed at forcing assimilation between Aboriginal and white communities. Indigenous campaigners have been seeking a billion-dollar nationwide compensation package for the policy. But the government has ruled this out, instead promising to fund improved education and health care facilities for Aboriginal communities. "

So should we apologise for sending the convicts? Will the Normans, Angles, Vikings, Saxons, Junes and Romans apologise for invading us?

The UK is being changed

BBC reports that, "When Labour came to power, the NHS spent around £1bn a year on maternity services, with one baby in eight delivered to a foreign-born mother. Ten years on, spending has risen to £1.6bn, with almost one baby in four delivered to a mother born overseas. While the number of babies born to British mothers has fallen by 44,000 a year since the mid-1990s, the figure for babies born to foreign mothers has risen by 64,000 - a 77% increase which has pushed the overall birth-rate to its highest level for 26 years. In central London, where six out of every 10 babies born has a foreign-born mother, senior consultants and health managers blame the lack of resources to deal with the pressures of migration for unacceptably poor standards. "

Western Europe is commiting demographic suicide and letting Islam increase. Free contraception and easy abortion are marks of a society which hates God and loves death.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Curiosity - christiansquoting.org.uk

Be not curious in unnecessary matters; for more things are shewed unto thee than men understand. ~Ecclesiasticus 3.23

Enquire not what boils in another's pot. - Thomas Fuller

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.--- Dr. Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, March 12, 1751.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. --Ellen Parr

Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life. - Linus Pauling (1901 -1994)

Christmas in Canterbury (2)

Zac has inherited this habit from his dad.
We gave Zac a Thomas sleeping bag

Elizabeth looking pretty was our cook while the rest of us went to church.
Father Christmas was exhausted after all that night work.
Tea time with Uncle Andrew, just after a cracker was pulledIn place of the traditional Christmas cake we has a gingerbread tree.

Cross- christiansquoting.org.uk

Men try to fix problems with duct tape. God did it with nails.

Think your life is tough? Try hanging from a cross!

What shall I say to the commendation of Christ and His Cross I bless the Lord He has made my prison a palace to me. And what am I that He should have dealt thus with me? I have looked greedy-like to such a lot as this, but still thought it was too high for me when I saw how vile I was.
Isabel Alison executed 26 January 1681

The cross means this: Jesus taking our place (huper) to satisfy the demands of God's justice and turning aside God's wrath. JAMES M. BOICE

The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. -- DIETRICH BONHOFFER

Now I saw in my dream, that the highway up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called Salvation. Up this way, therefore did burdened Christian run, but withoug great difficulty, because of the load on his back.
He ran thus till he came at a pace somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. -- Pilgrim's Progress

If I ask to be delivered from trial rather than for deliverance out of it, to the praise of His glory; if I forget that the way of the Cross leads to the Cross and not to a bank of flowers; if I regulate my life on these lines, or even unconsciously my thinking, so that I am surprised when the way is rough and think it strange, "Think it not strange, Count it all joy," then I know nothing of Calvary love. ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)

If monotony tries me, and I cannot stand drudgery; if stupid people fret me and the little ruffles set me on edge; if I make much of the trifles of life, then I know nothing of Calvary love.... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951)

Nails were not enough to hold God-and-man nailed and fastened on the Cross, had not love held Him there.... Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

The poets themselves said, that amor Deum gubernat, that love governed God. And, as Nazianzen well speaks, this love of God, this dulcis tyrannus, &emdash;this sweet tyrant,&emdash;did overcome him when he was upon the cross. There were no cords could have held him to the whipping-post but those of love; no nails have fastened him to the cross but those of love. - THOMAS GOODWIN

God is not only holy, but the source and pattern of holiness: He is the origin and the upholder of the moral order of the universe. He must be just. The Judge of all the earth must do right. Therefore it was impossible by the necessities of his own being that he should deal lightly with sin, and compromise the claims of holiness. If sin could be forgiven at all, it must be on the same basis which would vindicate the holy law of God, which is not a mere code, but the moral order of the whole creation. But such vindication must be supremely costly. Costly to whom? Not to the forgiven sinner, for there could be no price asked from him for his forgiveness; both because the cost is far beyond his reach, and because God loves to give and not to sell. Therefore God himself undertook to pay a cost, to offer a sacrifice, so tremendous that the gravity of his condemnation of sin should be absolutely beyond question even as he forgave it, while at the same the Love which impelled to pay the price would be the wonder of angels, and would call forth the worshiping gratitude of the redeemed sinner. On Calvary this price was paid by God: the Son giving himself, bearing our sin and its curse; the Father giving the Son, his only Son whom he loved. But it was paid by God become man, who not only took the place of the guilty man, but also was his representative...The divine Son, one of the three persons of the one God, he through whom, from the beginning of the creation, the Father has revealed himself to man (Jn 1:18), took man s nature upon him, and so became our representative. He offered himself as a sacrifice in our stead, bearing our sin in his own body on the tree. He suffered, not only awful physical anguish, but also the unthinkable spiritual horror of becoming identified with the sin to which he was infinitely opposed. He thereby came under the curse of sin, so that for a time even his perfect fellowship with his Father was broken. Thus God proclaimed his infinite abhorrence of sin by being willing himself to suffer all that, in place of the guilty ones, in order that he might justly forgive. Thus the love of God found its perfect fulfillment, because he did not hold back from even that uttermost sacrifice, in order that we might be saved from eternal death through what he endured. Thus it was possible for him to be just, and to justify the believer, because as Lawgiver and as Substitute for the rebel race of man, he himself had suffered the penalty of the broken law. H. E. GUILLEBAUD, Why the Cross?

Wonder not then that all the true followers of Christ, the saints of every age, have so gloried in the cross of Christ, have imputed such great things to it, have desired nothing so much as to be partakers of it, to live in constant union with it. It is because His sufferings, His death and cross, were the fulness of His victory over all the works of the devil. Not an evil in flesh and blood, not a misery of life, not a chain of death, not a power of hell and darkness, but were all baffled, broken, and overcome by the process of a suffering and dying Christ. Well, therefore, may the cross of Christ be the glory of Christians!
William Law (1686-1761), The Spirit of Love

There is not a word in the Bible which is extra cruem, which can be understood without reference to the cross. MARTIN LUTHER

Believe, then, believe and be ye saved: think it not hard, if ye get not your will nor your delights in this life; God will have you to rejoice in nothing but Himself. 'God forbid that ye should rejoice in any thing but the cross of Christ.- Samuel Rutherford, Letters IV. To LADY KENMURE, ANWOTH, Feb. 1, 1630

Ye contracted with Christ, I hope, when first ye began to follow Him, that ye would bear His cross. Fulfill your part of the contract with patience, and break not to Jesus Christ. Be honest, brother, in your bargaining with Him; for who knoweth better how to bring up children than our God? For (to lay aside His knowledge, of the which there is no finding out) He has been practiced in bringing up His heirs these five thousand years; and His bairns are all well brought up, and many of them are honest men now at home, up in their own house in heaven, and are entered heirs to their Father's inheritance. Now, the form of His bringing up was by chastisements, scourging, correcting, nurturing; and see if He maketh exception of any of His bairns; no, His eldest Son and His Heir, Jesus, is not excepted (Rev. 3.19; Heb. 12.7-8; 2.10). Suffer we must; ere we were born God decreed it, and it is easier to complain of His decree than to change it. Forward then, dear brother, and lose not your grips. - Samuel Rutherford, Letters , VIII. To JOHN KENNEDY, on his deliverance from shipwreck ANWOTH, Feb. 2, 1632

Howbeit Christ's green cross, newly laid upon me, be somewhat heavy, while I call to mind the many fair days sweet and comfortable to my soul and to the souls of many others, and how young ones in Christ are plucked from the breast, and the inheritance of God laid waste; yet that cross of Christ is accompanied with sweet refreshments, with the joy of the Holy Ghost, with faith that the Lord hears the sighing of a prisoner, with undoubted hope (as sure as my Lord liveth) after this night to see daylight, and Christ's sky to clear up again upon me, and His poor kirk; Samuel Rutherford, Letters , XII. To lady KENMURE, on the eve of his banishment to Aberdeen, EDINBURGH, July 28, 1636

He was never sweeter and kinder than He is now. My dear worthy Lady, I give it to your Ladyship, under my own hand, my heart as well as my hand welcome, welcome, sweet, sweet and glorious cross of Christ; welcome, sweet Jesus, with Thy light cross. Thou hast now gained and gotten all my love from me; keep what Thou hast gotten! - Samuel Rutherford, letters, XII. To lady KENMURE, on the eve of his banishment to Aberdeen, EDINBURGH, July 28, 1636

Some have written to me that I am possibly too joyful at the cross;but my joy overleapeth the cross, it is bounded and terminated upon Christ. I know that the sun will overcloud and eclipse, and that I shall again be put to walk in the shadow: but Christ must be welcome to come and go, as He thinketh meet. I hope, when a change comets, to cast anchor at midnight upon the Rock which He has taught me to know in this daylight; whither I may run, when I must say my lesson without book, and believe in the dark. I am sure it is sin to tarrow at Christ's good meat. and not to eat when He saith, 'Eat, O well-beloved, and drink abundantly.' If He bear me on His back, or carry me in His arms over this water, I hope for grace to set down my feet on dry ground, when the way is better. But this is slippery ground: my Lord thought good I should go by a hold, and lean on my Well-beloved's shoulder. It is good to be ever taking from Him..- Samuel Rutherford, Letters XXII. To MR HUGH MACKAIL, ABERDEEN

His cross is the sweetest burden that ever I bare; it is such a burden as wings are to a bird, or sails are to a ship, to carry me forward to my harbor.- Samuel Rutherford, Letters, XXIII. To JOHN EWART, ABERDEEN, March 13, 1637

I am fully agreed with my Lord. Christ has put the Father and me into each other's arms. Many a sweet bargain He made before, and He has made this among the rest. I reign as king over my crosses. I will not flatter a temptation, nor give the devil a good word: I defy hell's iron gates. God has passed over my quarreling of Him at my entry here, and now He feedeth and feasteth with me. Praise, praise with me; and let us exalt His name together.- Samuel Rutherford, Letters,XXIV. To WILLIAM LIVINGSTONE, ABERDEEN, March 13, 1637

I bless His glorious name, that my losses are my gain, my prison a palace, and my sadness joyfulness. At my first entry, my apprehensions so wrought upon my cross, that I became jealous of the love of Christ, as being by Him thrust out of the vineyard, and I was under great challenges, as ordinarily melted gold casteth forth a drossy scum, and Satan and our corruption form the first words that the heavy cross speaketh, and say, 'God is angry, He loveth you not.' But our apprehensions are not canonical, they indite lies of God and Christ's love. But since my spirit was settled, and the clay has fallen to the bottom of the well, I see better what Christ was doing. And now my Lord is returned with salvation under His wings. I see not how to be thankful, or how to get help to praise that Royal King, who raiseth up those that are bowed down. And, therefore, let no man scant at Christ's cross, or raise an ill report upon Him or it; for He beareth the sufferer and it both. - Samuel Rutherford, letters,XXV. To MR GEORGE GILLESPIE ABRDEEN, March 13, 1637

Christ triumphs in me, blessed be His Name. I have all things. I burden no man. I see that this earth and the fullness thereof is my Father's. Sweet, sweet is the Cross of my Lord. The blessing of God upon the Cross of my Lord Jesus! My enemies have contributed, beside their design, to make me blessed. This is my palace, not my prison ... I think this is all, to gain Christ. All other things are shadows, dreams, fancies, and nothing.
Samuel Rutherford, Letter to William Gordon

To believe Christ's cross to be a friend, as he himself is a friend, is also a special act of faith.... Samuel Rutherford, a letter [1640]

Christ beareth me good company. He has eased me, when I saw it not, lifting the cross off my shoulders, so that I think it to be but a feather, because underneath are everlasting arms. - Samulel Rutherford, Letters, ABERDEEN, Feb. 16, 1637

It is curious that people who are filled with horrified indignation whenever a cat kills a sparrow can hear that story of the killing of God told Sunday after Sunday and not experience any shock at all. --Dorothy Sayers

The sun refused to shine on the crucifixion. The light that rules the day, probably for the first and last time in history, was snuffed out like a candle when, according to every human calculation, it should have continued to shine. The reason was that the crowning crime of man, the killing of nature's Lord, could not pass without a protest from nature itself. --Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979) _The Seven Last Words_ [1935]

The crown of thorns is the condition of the crown of glory.--Fulton John Sheen (1895-1979)

The moon of Mahomet
Arose, and it shall set;
While, blazoned as on heaven's immortal noon,
The cross leads generations on.
Percy Bysshe Shelley. 1792-1822. Hellas. Line 221.
From my many years experience I can unhesitatingly say that the cross bears those who bear the cross.... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

Cromwell- christiansquoting.org.uk

During a great part of the eighteenth century most Tories hated him because he overthrew the monarchy, most Whigs because he overthrew Parliament. Since Carlyle wrote, all liberals have seen in him their champion, and all revolutionists have apotheosized the first great representatives of their school; while, on the other side, their opponents have hailed the dictator who put down anarchy. Unless the socialists or the anarchists finally prevail- and perhaps even then - his fame seems as secure as human reputation is likely to be in a changing world. -- W.C Abbott, Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell

The commonest charge against Cromwell is hypocrisy‚ and the commonest basis for that is defective chronology. ~ W.C Abbott in Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell had certainly this afflatus. One that I knew was at the battle of Dunbar, told me that Oliver was carried on with a Divine impulse; he did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk; his eyes sparkled with spirits. He obtain’d a great victory; but the action was said to be contrary to human prudence. The same fit of laughter seized Oliver Cromwell just before the battle of Naseby; as a kinsman of mine, and a great favourite of his, Colonel J. P. then present, testified. Cardinal Mazerine said, that he was a lucky fool. ~ John Aubrey in Miscellanies

To give the devil his due, he restored justice, as well distributive as comutative, almost to its ancient dignity and splendour; the judges without covetousness discharging their duties according to law and equity... His own court also was regulated according to a severe discipline; here no drunkard, nor whoremonger, nor any guilty of bribery, was to be found, without severe punishment. Trade began again to prosper; and in a word, gentle peace to flourish all over England. ~ George Bate, Physician to the Cromwellian Court

When he quitted the Parliament, his chief dependence was on the Army, which he endevoured by all means to keep in unity, and if he could not bring it to his sense, he, rather than suffer any division in it, went-over himself and carried his friends with him into that way which the army did choose, and that faster than any other person in it. ~ Sir John Berkley in Memoirs of Sir John Berkley

".... he thought secracy a virtue, and dissimulation no vice, and simmulation, that is in plain English, a lie, or perfiderousness to be tolerable fault in case of necessity. - Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae.. on Oliver Cromwell

He was of a sanguine complexion, naturally of such a vivacity, hilarity and alacrity as another man is when he hath drunken a cup too much. - Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae.. on Oliver Cromwell

He gart Kings ken they had a lith in their neck. - Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, in James Boswell, Tour of the Hebrides.

A devotee of law, he was forced to be often lawless; a civilian to the core, he had to maintain himself by the sword; with a passion to construct, his task was chiefly to destroy; the most scrupulous of men, he had to ride roughshod over his own scruples and those of others; the tenderest, he had continually to harden his heart; the most English of our greater figures, he spent his life in opposition to the majority of Englishmen; a realist, he was condemned to build that which could not last. -- John Buchan, Oliver Cromwell. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.

Sylla was the first of victors; but our own
The sagest of usurpers, Cromwell; he
Too swept off the senates while he hewed the throne
Down to a block - immortal rebel! See
What crimes it costs to be a moment free
And famous through all ages.
Lord Byron, Child Harold, canto iv.

I confess I have an interest in this Mr Cromwell; and indeed, if truth must be said, in him alone. The rest are historical, dead to me; but he is epic, still living. Hail to thee, thou strong one; hail across the longdrawn funeral-aisle and night of time! --Thomas Carlyle, Historical Sketches

Things will shortly happen which have been unheard of, and above all would open the eyes of those who live under Kings and other Sovereigns, and lead to great changes. Cromwell alone holds the direction of political and military affairs in his hands. He is one who is worth all the others put together, and, in effect, King. ~ John Dury as reorted by Hermann Mylius (27 September 1651)

His grandeur he deriv'd from heaven alone,
For he was great e'er fortune made him so
And wars like mists that rise against the sun
Made him but greater seem, not greater grow.
|No borrow'd bays his temple did adorn,
But to our Crown he did fresh jewels bring;
Nor was his virtue poison'd soon as born,
With the too early thoughts of being King.
John Dryden, Heroick Stanzas consecrated to his Highness Oliver.

Saw the superb funeral of the Protector:...but it was the joyfullest funeral that I ever saw, for there were none that cried, but dogs, which the souldiers hooted away with a barbarous noise; drinking and taking tobacco in the streets as they went. ~ John Evelyn in his Diary (22 November 1658)

This day (to the stupendous and inscrutable Judgements of God) were the Carcasses of that arch-rebell Cromwell and Bradshaw the judge who condemned his Majestie & Ireton, son-in-law to the Usurper, dragged outof their superbe tombs (in Westminster among the Kings), to Tyburn & hanged on the Gallows there from 9 in the morning til 6 at night, and then buried under that fatal and ignominious monument, in a deepe pitt: Thousands of people who (who had seen them in all their pride and pompous insults) being spectators: look back at November 22, 1658, & be astonish’d - And fear God & honour the King, but meddle not with those who are given to change. ~ John Evelyn in his Diary (30 January 1661)

That slovenly fellow which you see before us, who hath no ornament in his speech; I say that sloven, if we should ever come to have a breech with the King (which God forbid) in such case will be one of the greatest men of England. - John Hampden, Speaking to Lord Digby in the house of commons, overheard by Sir Richard Bulstrode.

We will cut off his (the king's) head with the crown on it.-- Oliver Cromwell, in W C Abbott, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, Camgridge, Mass., 1937-47, vol I, p.576.

Oliver Cromwell in 1654 was I think the first spokesman for an English government to assert that "liberty of conscience is a natural right", fundamental to the consitution of the Protectorate. - Christopher Hill, A Turbulent, Seditious and Factious People. Joihn Bunyan and his Church.OUP 1988

In a word, as he was guilty of many crimes against which Damnation is denounced, and for which hell-fire is prepared, so he had some good qualities which have caused the memory of some men in all Ages to be celebrated; and he will be look’d upon by posterity as a brave bad man. ~ Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon in A History of the Rebellion

A complex character such as that of Cromwell, is incapable of creation, except in times of great civil and religious excitement, and one cannot judge of the man without at the same time considering the contending elements by which he was surrounded. It is possible to take his character to pieces, and, selecting one or other of his qualities as a corner-stone, to build around it a monument which will show him as a patriot or a plotter, a Christian man or a hypocrite, a demon or a demi-god as the sculptor may choose. F.A Inderwick, The Interregnum, 1648-60. The Dictionary of Biographical Quotations.

"I am," said he, "as much for a government by consent as any man; but where shall we find that consent? Amongst the Prelatical, Presbeyterian, Independent, Anabaptist, or Leveling Parties?"... then he fell into the commendation of his own government, boasting of the protection and quiet which the people enjoyed under it, saying, that he was resolved to keep the nation from being imbrued in blood. I said that I was of the opinion too much blood had already been shed, unless there were a better account of it. "You do well," said he, "to charge us with the guilt of blood; but we think there is a good return for what hath been shed." ~ Edmund Ludlow Interview with Cromwell (August 1656)

His body was wel compact and strong, his stature under 6 foote ( I beleeve about two inches) his head so shaped, as you might see it a storehouse and shop both of vast tresury of natural parts. His temper exceeding fyery as I have known, but the flame of it kept downe, for the most part, or soon allayed with those moral endowments he had. He was naturally compassionate towards objects in distresse, even to an effeminate measure; though God had made him a heart, wherein was left little roume for any feare, but what was due to himselfe, of which there was a large proportion, yet did he exceed in tenderness towards suffrerers. A larger soule, I thinke, hath seldom dwelt in a house of clay than his was. - John Maidston, Letter to John Winthrop, 24 March 1659.( This by Cromwell's steward disproves the saying that no man is a hero to his valet)

Of late I have not given so free and full a power unto (Cromwell) as formerly I did, because I heard that he used his power so as in honour I could not avow him in it....for his expressions were sometimes against the nobility, that he hoped to live to see never a nobleman in England, and he loved such (and such) better than others because they did not love Lords. And he further expressed himself with contempt of the Assemberly of Divines...these he termed persecutors, and that they persecuted honester men than themselves. ~ Earl of Manchester, Letter to the House of Lord’s (December 1644)

So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious Arts of Peace,
But through adventrous war,
Urged his active star...
To ruine the great work of time,
And cast the kingdom oldInto another Mold...
Andrew Marvell in An horation Ode upon Cromwell's return from Ireland

Cromwell, -, who through a cloud,
Not of war only, but detractions rude,
Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,
To peace and truth thy glorious way has ploughed
And on the neck of crowned fortune proud
Has reared God's trophies, and his work pursued,
While Darwen stream with blood of Scots imbrued,
And Dunbar field resounds thy praises loud,
And Worcester's laureate wreath. Yet much remains
To conquer still; peace hath her victories
No less renowned than war: new foes arise,
Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains:
Help us to save free conscience from the paw
Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw.
John Milton, Sonnet XV1, To the Lord General Cromwell.

He has arrogated to himself despotic authority and the actual sovereignty of these realms under the mask of humility and the public service....Obdience and submission were never so manifest in England as at present,...their spirits are so crushed..yet...they dare not rebel and only murmur under their breath, though all live in hope of the fulfilment one day of the prophecies foretelling a change of rule ere long. ~ Lorenzo Paulucci, Venetian Secretary in England, to Giovanni Sagredo, Venetian Ambassador in France, (21 February 1654)

At dinner we talked much of Cromwell, all saying he was a brave fellow and did owe his crown he got to himself, as much as any man that ever got one. ~ Samuel Pepys, Diary, (8 February 1667)

The Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and of the Dominions thereunto belonging, shall be and reside in one person, and the people assembled in parliament; the style of which person shall be "The Lord Protector of the Commonwealth"... That Oliver Cromwell, Captain General of the forces of England, Scotland and Ireland, shall be, and is hereby declared to be, Lord Protector...for his life. ~ Decree by the Instrument of Government (16 December 1653)

He was a practical mystic, the most formidable and terrible of all combinations, uniting an aspiration derived from the celestial and supernatural with the energy of a mighty man of action; a great captain, but off the field seeming, like a thunderbolt, the agent of greater forces than himself ; no hypocrite, but a defender of the faith; the raiser and maintainer of the Empire of England. - Lord Rosebery, in W.C.Abbott, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell.

Cromwell was faced with churches who wanted an established national church still the old Roman model. The Presbyterians, who were the most powerful group, were emphatically for an established group. That to them was salvation. The Separatists disagreed with them, but the other groups wanted to command the establishment. Cromwell wanted not a church establishment, but a Christian establishment. He wanted England committed to a Christian faith, not to a church. That's what he worked for. He had to fight the churches. It was the churches that defeated Calvinism and most of all the Presbyterians. It's the great blot in Presbyterian history that they brought in Charles II, a thoroughly degenerate man, and believed he would keep his word to them that he would go along with their idea of an establishment. Of course, he broke his word to them and 2000 clergymen had to leave the Church of England. Over a course of time, the Presbyterians virtually died out in England. - RJ Rushdoony from the video series: God's Law and Society.

Lieutenant-General Cromwell...a member of the House of Commons, long famous for godliness and zeal to his country, of great note for his service in the House, accepted of a commission at the very beginning of this war, wherein he served his country faithfully, and it was observed God was with him, and he began to be renowned. ~ Joshua Sprigge in Anglia Rediviva (1647)

Whilst he Cromwell) was curious of his own words, (not putting forth too many lest they should betray his thoughts) he made others talk until he had, as it were, sifted them, and known their most intimate designs. - Sir William Waller, Recollections.

As to your own person the title of King would be of no advantage, because you have the full Kingly power in you already... I apprehend indeed, less envy and danger, and pomp, but not less power, and real opportunities of doing good in your being General than would be if you had assumed the title of King. ~ Bulstrode Whitelocke to Cromwell as reported in Whitelocke's Memorialls of English Affairs

He (Cromwell) would sometimes be very cheerful with us, and laying aside his greatness he would be exceeding familiar with us, and by way of diversion would make verses with us, and everyone must try his fancy. He commonly called for tobacco, pipes, and a candle, and would now and then take tobacco himself; then he would fall again to his serious and great business. -- Bulstrode Whitelocke, _Memorialls of English Affairs_, 1682

Christmas in Cambridge

Pretty Bethany...
..and Mum.

Criticism- christiansquoting.org.uk

If you feel Dog tired at night, it may be because you growled all day!

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

Does my quiet self-pity get to you or should I move up to incessant nagging?

Today I will gladly share my experience and advice, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so."

I am learning that criticism is not nearly as effective as sabotage.

Pick your friends but not to pieces.

All the honey a bee gathers during its lifetime doesn't sweeten its sting

Sharp acids corrode their own containers.... Albanian proverb

Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead.-Chinese Proverb

If you scatter thorns, don't go barefoot.-- Italian Proverb

A thick skin is a gift from God. Konrad Adenauer (1876-1976)

Critics are like eunuchs in a harem. They're there every night, they see it done every night, they see how it should be done every night, but they can't do it themselves. Brendan Behan--Quoted by Gyles Brandreth in *Theatrical Disasters*

It is well, when one is judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality.--Arnold Bennett

Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. Prov. 27:6

In all of history, we have found just one cure for error -- a partial antidote against making and repeating grand, foolish mistakes, a remedy against self-deception. That antidote is criticism." -David Brins

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent." - John Calvin (1509 &endash; 1564)

Unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment. It often means that you have aroused jealousy and envy. Remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog. --Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault. --Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) _Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [1605-1615]

Censure is often useful, praise is often deceitful ~ Winston Churchill 1874-1965

If anyone strives after humility and patience, he is a hypocrite. If he allow himself in the pleasures of this world, he is a glutton. If he seeks justice, he is impatient. If he seeks it not, he is a fool. If he would be prudent, he is stingy; if he would make others happy, he is dissolute. If he gives himself up to prayer, he is vainglorious. And this is the great loss of the Church that by means like these many are held back from goodness! Chrysostom, out of J.M. Neale, out of Spurgeon's Psalms, 31:11

It is better to correct your own faults than those of another.-- Democritus

Criticism is easy, art is difficult.- - Philippe Destouches

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art. - Benjamin Disraeli

To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves. -- Will Durant

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. ... Albert Einstein, (1875-1955)

The very Chateau Lafite of whine. Michael Elliot

If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: 'He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned. --Epictectus

In reality, the world have payed too great a compliment to critics, and have imagined them men of much greater profundity than they really are.
Henry Fielding (1707-1754) "Tom Jones," bk. 5, ch. 1, 1749.

Any fool can criticise, condemn and complain and most fools do. --Benjamin Franklin

If a friend tell thee a fault, imagine always that he telleth thee not the whole. --Thomas Fuller (I), _Introductio ad Prudentium_, 1731

I'm too rich to care what the critics say.~Mel Gibson

Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false, they can't hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and trouble. ~ William Gladstone.

If a donkey bray at you, don't bray at him. George Herbert

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.... Elbert Hubbard

Personalize your sympathies; depersonalize you antipathies. --W. R. Inge, _More Lay Thoughts of a Dean_, 1931

A man who tells me my play is very bad, is less my enemy than he who lets it die in silence. A man, whose business it is to be talked of, is much helped by being attacked. - Samuel Johnson, Quoted in Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

It is advantageous to an authour, that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck only at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends.. - Samuel Johnson, Quoted in Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

Nothing ... will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome. --Samuel Johnson Rasselas

You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables. -- Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson)

When the people criticised and answered his pamphlets, papers, &c. Why now, these fellows are only advertising my book (he would say); it is surely better a man should be abused than forgotten. --Piozzi: Anecdotes of Johnson

To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship. - Samuel Johnson: Rambler #59

To hear complaints is wearisome to the wretched and the happy alike.... Samuel Johnson

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.-- Franklin P. Jones

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Carl Gustav Jung

I saw the show under unfortunate circumstances: the curtain was up. -- George S. Kaufman

He has great tranquillity of heart who cares neither for the praises nor the fault-finding of men. He will easily be content and pacified, whose conscience is pure. You are not holier if you are praised, nor the more worthless if you are found fault with. What you are, that you are; neither by word can you be made greater than what you are in the sight of God. ... Thomas ý Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ [1418]

I saw this show under adverse circumstances - my seat was facing the stage. (On Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down.) John David Klein

The highest point to which a weak but experienced mind can rise is detecting the weakness of better men. -- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, _Aphorisms_, late 18thC

I have never found in a long experience of politics that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance. - Harold Macmillan (1894 &endash; 1986)

s that the aroma of sour grapes I smell wafting from your whine cellar? - Keith Martin

We need very strong ears to hear ourselves judged frankly, and because there are few who can endure frank criticism without being stung by it, those who venture to criticize us perform a remarkable act of friendship, for to undertake to wound or offend a man for his own good is to have a healthy love for him.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) Essays, bk. III, ch. 11 [1595]

He who dares not offend cannot be honest. -- Thomas Paine

Who can refute a sneer? --William Paley (1743-1805): Moral Philosophy. Vol. ii. Book v.Chap. 9.

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force. Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) Book review; in "The Algonquin Wits," ed. by Robert E. Drennan, 1968.

I don't mind anything that's written about me, as long as it's not true.- Dorothy Parker

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)"Pearls of Wisdom," ed. J. Agel and W. Glanze, 1987.

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult. --Plutarch

I don't pay much attention to critics. The world is divided into two kinds of people: those who can, andthose who criticize.--Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)_New Yorker_ [October 6, 1997], "Prompting the President"

I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment it will be behind me.
Max Reger (1873-1916) German composer Responding to a savage review of his music (1906) In Nicolas Slonimsky, Lexicon of Musical Invective (1953)

If you are not being criticized, you may not be doing much,- Donald Rumsfeld

Answer them [critics] with silence and indifference. It works better, Iassure you, than anger and argument...-Gioacchino Rossini (1792 - 1868) Italian opera composer

I must be cruel only to be kind.--William Shakespeare (1564-1616)_Hamlet_ [1600-1601], act iii, sc.iv, ln. 178

Although I cannot lay an egg, I am a very good judge of omelettes. -- G. B. Shaw

Remember, a statue has never been set up in honour of a critic. - Jean Sibelius (1865 &endash; 1957)

No matter how disastrously some policy has turned out, anyone who criticizes it can expect to hear: "But what would you replace it with?" When you put out a fire, what do you replace it with. -- Thomas Sowell

If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted and it is ugly, be satisfied, for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.--Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)_Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit_ Vol. 34 [1888]

Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing trivial actions -- which often are not real defects at all, but we construe them wrongly through our ignorance of their motives.... . Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Sacred cows make the best hamburger. --Mark Twain

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have. -- Leonardo da Vinci

Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember - the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you. --- Zig Ziglar

Cricket - christiansquoting.or.uk

Cricket is a game that owes much of its unique appeal to the fact that it should be played not only within its Laws but also within the Spirit of the Game. Any action which is seen to abuse this spirit causes injury to the game itself. - The Laws of Cricket

He didn't quite manage to get his leg over. ~ Jonathan Agnew (with Brian Johnston - after Ian Botham had spun around off balance and tried to step over the wicket unsuccessfully. (1991)

The batsman's Holding, the bowler's Willey.~ Brian 'Johnners' Johnston 1912-94 (commentating a cricket Test Match as Michael Holding faced bowler Peter Willey)

Ray Illingworth has just relieved himself at the pavilion end. ~ Brian Johnston 1912-94

THERE'S a breathless hush in the Close to-night -
Ten to make and the match to win -
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red, -
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

This is the word that year by year
While in her place the School is set
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"
Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938) Vitai Lampada

I'll be at your Board, when at leisure from cricket.-- The Earl of Sandwich's response, on being appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty on 11 June 1745.

I don't think I can take seriously any sport which takes less than three days to reach its conclusion. ~Tom Stoppard, in Guardian (24 Dec 1984)

T'finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath.
Frederick Sewards Trueman, when asked how he wanted to be remembered.

An aged Don was asked by a reporter how he thought he would fare against modern test bowlers. He replied that he would average in the fifties. The reporter reminded him that he had retired with a never surpassed test average of 99.4. "Yes" replied The Don, " But I am 72 now."
F S Trueman, BBC Radio 4, 26.2.2001

Here's a gift to take and treasure,
England's gift as well as mine,
Symbol of her clean-spent leisure,
Of her youth and strength a sign;
Gleams of sunlight on old meadows
O'er these varnished toys are cast,
And within that box's shadows
Stir the triumphs of the Past.

Still the ancient tale entrances,
Giving us in golden dower
ULYETT'S drives and IVO's glances,
JACKSON'S dash and THORNTON'S power;
Skill of LYTTELTONS and LACEYS,
Grit of SHREWSBURYS and GUNNS;
Pride of STUDDS and STEELS and GRACES
Piling up their English runs.

Take these simple toys as token
Of the champions that have been,
Stalwart in defence unbroken,
Hefty hitters, hitting clean;
And, when capped in Life's eleven,
May you stand as firm as they;
May you, little son of seven,
Play the game the English way.
John Tudor, TO A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD (With his first Cricket Set). _Punch_, April 23, 1919

Culture-christiansquoting.org.org

For the first time in our history the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.-- Carl Bernstein

In America only the successful writer is important, in France all writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in Australia you have to explain what a writer is. --Geoffrey Cottrell

The most difficult task facing us today is to persuade the person who is enjoying Christian culture and Christian standards that these do not survive of themselves... Godfrey Cowan

If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it. --S.I. Hayakawa

We breathe culture like we do air, often not even aware of it. We do not question the air we breathe, so culture is often imbibed without reflection. However, there are times we are only too aware of the culture that surrounds us. Indeed, Christians today, evangelicals in particular, are known more as soldiers in the culture wars fighting with legislation and occasional violence than as soldiers of Christ fighting with spiritual weapons.
The general pattern is clear. People generally are unreflective, not rigorous in their contemplation of the forces that work on their minds and hearts. Christians are little different.We breathe the culture until it slaps us in the face and then we give it a quick kick in the groin. Neither response flows from reflection. Critical reflection, however, is fruitful. -- Tremper Longman III, READING THE BIBLE POSTMODERNLY

Being born in the middle of the 20th century, Boomer's education and outlook have been strongly influenced by the towering presence of two revolutionary figures : Freud and Einstein. Despite many Boomers not having formally studied or even been aware of the work of either of these men, The Freudian and Einsteinian views of the world have been deeply embedded into the culture which has shaped their generation. Freud and Einstein, from their utterly different perspectives, have influenced Western popular culture by generating two powerful beliefs: the belief that all the answers to our psychological (and even spiritual) questions are within us: and the belief that everything (not just time and space, but knowledge and morality as well) is relative.
Hugh Mackay (1938-) Generations: Baby Boomers, their parents and their children. Ch.3. (1997)

The only bright feature of cultural relativism's triumph is that it has become establishment orthodoxy and will thus one day be derided, resisted and overthrown. -- Jonathan Meades, The Times Magazine, 22 April 2000

For a Westerner to trash Western culture is like criticizing our nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere on the grounds that it sometimes gets windy, and besides, Jupiter's is much prettier. You may not realize its advantages until you're trying to breathe liquid methane.--NEAL TOWN STEPHENSON

Creeds-christiansquoting.org.org

The Creeds . . . were formulated gradually, as a result of a series of desperate controversies -- which are now named, sometimes after the supposed leaders and representatives of a particular interpretation of the Christian religion, and sometimes after the particular interpretation itself. I need not now attempt to make precise these heresies, as they came to be called. It is necessary only to point out that in various ways all these heresies were simplifications. By means of them, the revelation of God to men was made -- or appeared to be made -- less scandalous. On the other hand, the various clauses of the Creed were not formulated as a new simplification, or as an alternative-ism. They were nothing more than emphatic statements of the Biblical scandal, statements which brought into sharp antagonism the new simplification and the old, Scriptural, many-sided, and vigorous truth.
E. C. Hoskyns (1884-1937), We Are the Pharisees

Either let our faith conform to our creed or make our creed conform to our faith. --C Hodge

Credulity -christiansquoting.org.org

The credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves.
Edmund Burke, "Letter to a Member of the National Assembly"

The nineteenth century decided to have no religious authority. The twentieth century seems disposed to have any religious authority.
G K Chesterton [Illustrated London News, April 26, 1924]

In truth, there are only two kinds of people; those who accept dogma and know it, and those who accept dogma and don't know it. --G K Chesterton

Our twentieth century, far from being notable for scientific scepticism, is one of the most credulous eras in all history. It is not that people believe in nothing - which would be bad enough - but that hey believe in anything - which is really terrible. Recoiling, as they do, from accepting the validity of miracles, and priding themselves on seeing the Incarnation as a transcendental con-trick, they will accept at its face value any proposition, however nonsensical, that is presented in scientific or sociological jargon - for instance, the existence of a population explosion, which has been so expertly and decisively demolished by Professor Colin Clark of Monash University. Could any mediaeval schoolman, I ask myself, sit through a universally applauded television series like Bronowski's Ascent of Man without a smile of derision at such infantile acceptance of unproven and unprovable assertions?
Malcom Muggeridge, Vintage Muggeridge, ed. Geoffrey Barlow, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985, pp. 74-75, "The Bible Today," from a lecture delivered on 7 October 1976

You believe easily that which you hope for earnestly.-- Terence

Creativity -christiansquoting.org.org

Each of us is born with two contradictory sets of instructions: a conservative tendency, made up of instincts for self-preservation, self-aggrandizement, and saving energy, and an expansive tendency made up of instincts for exploring, for enjoying novelty and risk -- the curiosity that leads to creativity belongs to this set. But whereas the first tendency requires little encouragement or support from outside to motivate behavior, the second can wilt if not cultivated. If too few opportunities for curiosity are available, if too many obstacles are put in the way of risk and exploration, the motivation to engage in creative behavior is easily extinguished.... Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention

Creation-christiansquoting.org.org

The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame
Their great Original proclaim.
Th'unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's powers display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty Hand.

Soon as the evening shades prevai
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth;
While all the stars that round her burn
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.

What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid the radiant orbs be found?
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine,
"The hand that made us is divine."
Joseph Addison, in The Spectator (London, England: August 23, 1712)

I sometimes think that God will ask us, 'That wonderful world of mine, why didn't you enjoy it more?--Ronald Blythe , "Out of the Valley"

When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

God created out of nothing--wonderful you say:yes to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners. --Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) _Journal_ [July 7, 1838]

Ever since the fall of Adam the world knows neither God nor his creation. It lives altogether outside of the glory of God. Oh, what thoughts man might have had about the fact that God is in all creatures, and so might have reflected on the power and the wisdom of God in even the smallest flowers! Of a truth, who can imagine how God creates, out of the parched soil, such a variety of flowers, such pretty colors, such sweet vernal grass, beyond anything that a painter or apothecary could make! Yet God can bring out of the ground such colors as green, yellow, red, blue, brown. Adam and those around him would have been elevated by all this to the praise of God, and they would have made use of all created things with thanksgiving. Now we enjoy all this to overflowing, yet without understanding, like cattle or other beasts trampling the most beautiful blossoms and lilies underfoot. -- Luther's Tabletalk from No.4201

Let us make now Man in our image, Man
In our similitude.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost. Book VII, 519 - 20
The higher the mountains, the more understandable is the glory of Him who made them and who holds them in His hand.-- Francis Schaeffer

Which beginning of time according to our chronology, fell upon the entrance of the night preceding the twenty third day of _Octob_. in the year of the Julian Calender, 710 [4004 B.C.].--Ussher, James (1581-1656)_The Annals of the World_ (1658) p. 1 On the Creation.

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker. --Voltaire

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars...
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery...
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.
Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass"

Cowardice- christiansquoting.org.org

There is nothing that makes more cowards and feeble men that public opinion.--Henry Ward Beecher_Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit_ [1887]

To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice. --Confucius, _Analects_, c. 500BC

Cowardice, alone of all the vices, is purely painful -- horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember; Hatred has its pleasures. -- _The Screwtape Letters_

Covenant - christiansquoting.org.org

IN The Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. In WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620-- William Bradford , The Mayflower Compact

Lord, I am no longer my own, but Yours. Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will. Let be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You. Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. So be it. Amen. J--John Wesley

Courage - christiansquoting.org.uk

Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it the moment when my sufferings are to end?
Marie Antoinette on the way to the guillotine 16 Oct 1793 "Women of Beauty and Heroism"Frank B. Goodrich

Courage is fear that has said its prayers. - Dorothy Bernard

Courage conquers more within
Than any foes without,
Never needs to boast or blame
Or raise his voice and shout.

Courage is a quietness--
Not martial music made--
Born of facing up to life
Even when afraid.
-Emily Sargent Councilman

A hero is no braver than any other man, but he is braver for five minutes longer.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity.... Horace, The Book of Positive Quotations

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. --Robert G. Ingersoll

Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other. --Boswell: Life of Johnson

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), The Screwtape Letters

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. -- Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968) Speech, South Africa, 1966.

Captain Smith:
General, how is it that you can keep so serene, stay so utterly insensible with the storm, the shells and bullets running about your head?
General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson: Captain Smith, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself with that, but to be always ready whenever it may overtake me. That's the way all men should live, then all men would be equally brave.(Dialogue from the film _Gods and Generals_ [2003], screenplay by Ronald F. Maxwell)

True will-power and courage are not on the battlefield, but in everyday conquests over our intertia, laziness, boredom. --Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)

Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgement that something else is more important than fear. --Ambrose Redmoon

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared. -- Eddie Rickenbacher

Who dares wins.- SAS motto

For courage mounteth with occasion.... William Shakespeare (King John)

I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people. -- George Bernard Shaw

The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battle fields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat.
Robert Louis Stevenson

When were the good and the brave ever in a majority? -- Henry Thoreau

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.-- Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

Courage is being scared to death -- and saddling up anyway. --John Wayne (1907-1979)

Controversy - christiansquoting.org.uk

Controversy is only dreaded by the advocates of error. -- Benjamin Rush

Conversation- christiansquoting.org.uk

You hunt in the morning (says he), and crowd to the public rooms at night, and call it diversion; when your heart knows it is perishing with poverty of pleasures, and your wits get blunted for want of some other mind to sharpen them upon. There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality),but exchange of ideas in conversation; and whoever has once experienced the full flow of London talk, when he retires to country friendships and rural sports, must either be contented to turn baby again and play with the rattle, or he will pine away like a great fish in a little pond, and die for want of his usual food. --Piozzi: Anecdotes of Johnson

Contentment - christiansquoting.org.uk

Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money. Unknown Author Aged 13

If you cannot get what you like, why not try to like what you get?

Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.... Spanish Proverb

The contented person is never poor-the discontented is never rich.

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.- Paul of Tarsus, Phil. 4:11-13

Content thyself to be obscurely good.
When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private station.-- Joseph Addison

The contented person is never poor-the discontented is never rich.The quantum of wantum remains constant. -Samuel Beckett

Gold can no more fill the spirit of a man, than grace his purse. A man may as well fill a bag with wisdom, as the soul with the world.-- Robert Bolton

Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is leading, with the thoughts he is thinking, with the deeds he is doing; when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is still, in spite of all, the child of God.... Phillips Brooks (1835-1893)

A little is as much as a lot, if it is enough. --Steve Brown

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. -- Jeremiah Burroughs

Contentment in every condition is a great art, a spiritual mystery. It is to be learned, and to be learned as a mystery.-- Jeremiah Burroughs

Bloom where you are planted.--- Nancy Reader Campion

Agur said, "Give me neither poverty nor riches"; and this will ever be the prayer of the wise. Our incomes should be like our shoes: if too small, they will gall and pinch us, but if too large, they will cause us to stumble and to trip. But wealth, after all, is a relative thing, since he that has little, and wants less, is richer than he that has much, but wants more. True contentment depends not upon what we have; a tub was large enough for Diogenes, but a world was too little for Alexander. --Caleb C. Colton

Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail. --John Donne.

Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress. --Thomas A. Edison

To the discontented man no chair is easy.-- Benjamin Franklin

Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor. --Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1749

How few are our real wants! and how easy it is to satisfy them! Our imaginary ones are boundless and insatiable.
Julius Charles Hare and Augustus William Hare, _Guesses At Truth_,1827

We shall never be content until man makes his own weather and keeps it to himself. - Jerome K. Jerome (1859 &endash; 1927)

The Fountain of Content must spring up in the mind; and ... he, who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to seek happiness by changing any thing, but his own dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.-- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #6

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. --- Helen Adams Keller

To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have. --Ken Keyes, Jr.

This is my motto: Contented with little, yet wishing for more.Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

Next to faith this is the highest art -- to be content with the calling in which God has placed you. I have not learned it yet. -- Martin Luther

It is right to be contented with what we have, never with what we are.-- Sir James Mackintosh

The only ultimate disaster that can befall us, I have come to realize, is to feel ourselves at home here on earth.--Malcolm Muggeridge

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better. -Florence Nightingale (1820 &endash; 1910)

A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.-- Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374)In "Dictionary of Quotations," by Bergen Evans, 1968.

Great wealth and content seldom live together. --Bob Phillips

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. --JOHN PIPER

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.--Pliny the Younger (61-112)

In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we eventually learn that here, in this life, all symphonies remain unfinished. KARL RAHNER

It is so important not to waste what is precious by spending all one's time and emotion on fretting or complaining over what one does not have.
Edith Schaeffer

If the Lord sets you to guard a lonely post in perfect stillness from all active work, you ought to be just as content as to be in the midst of the active warfare. It is no virtue to love the Master's work better than the Master's will. -Hannah Whitall Smith, (1832-1911), letter of 7/16/1886 [M.E. Dieter, ed. CHRISTIAN’S SECRET OF THE HOLY LIFE: UNPUBLISHED PERSONAL WRITINGS OF HANNAH WHITALL SMITH (Zondervan, 1994), p.253]

He is the richest who is content with the least. -Socrates

It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes and aspirations as the sparks fly upward, unless he has brutified his nature and quenched the spirit of immortality which is his portion. Robert Southey

He that deserves nothing should be content with anything. Spurgeon's Proverbs

If I am a son of God, nothing but God will satisfy my soul; no amount of comfort, no amount of ease, no amount of pleasure,will give me peace or rest. If I had the full cup of all the world's joys held up to me, and could drain it to the dregs, I should still remain thirsty if I had not God.... G. A. Studdert Kennedy, The Wicket Gate [1923]


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Consistency christiansquoting.org.uk

We need to learn to set our course by the stars and not by the lights of every passing ship. Omar Bradley

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead. -- Aldous Huxley

If you always do what you've always done, You'll always be what you've always been. --Josh McDowell

Consistency is the paste jewel that only cheap men cherish.--William Allen White

Conservative - christiansquoting.org.uk

A Conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A Reactionary is a somnambulist walking backward. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Conscience - christiansquoting.org.uk

Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.

A guilty conscience needs no accuser.

Conscious is when you are aware of something, and conscience is when you wish you weren't.

A well-beaten path does not always make the right road.

There is not pillow so soft as a clear conscience. --French Proverb

It is not given to human beings [...] to foresee or predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events. In one phase men seem to have been right, in another they seem to have been wrong. Then again, a few years later, when the perspective of time has lengthened, all stands in a different setting. There is a new proportion. There is another scale of values. History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes and kindle with pale gleams the glory of former days. What is the worth of all this? The only guide to a man is his conscience, the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and the sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honour. -Part of Winston Churchill's eulogy for Neville Chamberlain Their Finest Hour, Page 486

A good conscience is a continual Christmas. - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) _Poor Richard's Almanac [1733]_

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place. --- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

The inner voice is at once our greatest danger and an indispensable help.--Carl G. Jung (1875-1961)_The Development of Personality_ [1954]

Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?"
Expedience asks the question, "Is it political?"
Vanity asks, "Is it popular?"
But conscience asks the question, "Is it right?"
There comes a time when one must take a position that's neither safe, nor political, nor popular, but he must make it because his conscience tells him that it's right. -- Martin Luther King Jr.

Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason -- I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other -- my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen.
Martin Luther, at the Imperial Diet at Worms, 18 April 1521.

Conscience is the still small voice that can make you feel still smaller. -B. Phillips

A bad conscience embitters the sweetest comforts; a good conscience sweetens the bitterest crosses. --Wendell Phillips

To say of an act done, "My conscience is quite clear", sounds smug and satisfactory. It does not by any means follow that the speaker's conscience ought to be clear. It may simply show that [it] is sadly unenlightened. ... G. E. Reindorp

At times, although one is perfectly in the right, one's legs tremble; at other times, although one is completely in the wrong, birds sing in one's soul.
Vasily V. Rozanov Russian philosopher

Conscience is the voice of the soul; the passions are the voice of the body. --J. J. Rousseau

Conscience: The still small voice that makes you feel still smaller. --James A. Sanaker

A brave man hazards life, but not his conscience. --Schiller, _The Death of Wallenstein_, 1799

A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
Shakespeare, _Henry VIII_

A person may sometimes have a clear conscience simply because his head is empty. --Ralph W. Sockman, _How to Believe_, 1953

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it. --Germaine de Stael (1766-1817)


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Headcoverings

BBC reoprts,"Turkish MPs plan headscarf reform

There is strong public support for lifting the ban, polls suggest
Two major parties in Turkey say they will submit a joint plan to parliament to ease a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities.
The Islamist-rooted governing AK Party and the nationalist MHP say it is an issue of human rights and freedoms. The two parties have enough votes in parliament to overturn the constitutional ban on headscarves.
Headscarves were banned in schools and universities in 1980 after a coup by the pro-secular armed forces. This is a controversial matter in a mainly Muslim country whose secular elite - including the military - sees the scarf as a symbol of political Islam, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says. The move has been criticised by judges and university officials. MHP leader Devlet Bahceli said the joint plan would be submitted to parliament later on Tuesday. Chadors, veils and burkas will not be allowed - no-one will be allowed to use headscarves as political statements against the state
The proposed changes state that only traditional scarves will be permitted in universities, tied loosely under the chin. Headscarves that cover the neck, like those worn by many Turkish girls, will still be banned, as will the all-covering burka, or chador. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed that this reform will be restricted to universities. It will not apply to women civil servants, including teachers, who are still banned from covering their heads. "


I find it interesting that the Turks see headcovering as a political statement. My Muslim friend from Pakistan who does not cover her head, insists that strict Muslims must do so for religious reasons.

As Islam knows no secular sacred divide, no separation as it were of church and state, religion and politics, I canot see how the insistence on headcovering by Muslims in Western countries can be anything other than a statement of the superiority of Islam.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Conformity- christiansquoting.org.uk

Be different: conform.

Why can't you be a nonconformist like everyone else?

A well-beaten path does not always make the right road.

Xerox never comes up with anything original.

Resist your time--take a foothold outside it. --Lord Acton, MSS notes, Cambridge, late 19th century

The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.-- Robert Anthony

To get nowhere, follow the crowd. --Frank Baer

Who so would be a man, must be a nonconformist.-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803&endash;1882) "Self-Reliance," Essays, First Series (1841, repr. 1847).

If you see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it. S.I. Hayakawa

We must conform, to a certain extent, to the conventionalities of society, for they are the ripened results of a varied and long experience. --A. A. Hodge

Nonconformists travel as a rule in bunches. You rarely find a nonconformist who goes it alone. And woe to him inside a nonconformist clique who does not conform with nonconformity. - Eric Hoffer (1902 &endash; 1983)

It is no measureof health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.-- Krishnamurti

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay

Every society honours its live conformists and its dead troublemakers. --Mignon McLaughlin

How glorious it is, and also how painful, to be an exception.... Alfred de Musset

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. --Henry Thoreau (Walden)

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect. -Mark Twain

To disagree with three-fourths of the British public on all points is one of the first elements of sanity, one of the deepest consolations in all moments of spiritual doubt. ~ Oscar Wilde 1854-1900, lecture (1882)

Conflict- christiansquoting.org.uk

The conflict between good and evil is drama, but the conflict between good and good is tragedy.

At home, at work, or in school, we can show Jesus Christ to others by the way we handle conflict

I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and besides, the pig likes it. ---Cyrus Ching

I dogmatise and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinion and sentiments I find delight. --Dr. Samuel Johnson

When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling and peace has become sin. You must at the price of dearest peace lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy with all the fire of your faith. Abraham Kuyper

To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963)

Confidence- christiansquoting.org.uk

Religion is the possibility of the removal of every ground of confidence except confidence in God alone. --Karl Barth

I have great faith in fools - self confidence my friends call it. - Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849

Christmas in Canterbury

Sahara was given a large rabbit.
The rabbit was a sleeping bag.
We gave her some flashing trainers.
Elizabeth helps Sahara unwrap presents.
can you tough your nose with your tongue.
Christmas lunch with Uncle Andrew, Elizabeth's brother.

Father Christmas's pharmacy helpers

My staff are elves in plain clothes disguise.

Confession - christiansquoting.org.uk

While anyone can admit to themselves they were wrong, the true test is admission to someone else.

At the earlier Methodist class meetings, members were expected every week to answer some extremely personal questions, such as the following: Have you experienced any particular temptations during the past week? How did you react or respond to those temptations? Is there anything you are trying to keep secret, and, if so, what? At this point, the modern Christian swallows hard! We are often coated with a thick layer of reserve and modesty which covers "a multitude of sins" -- usually our own. Significantly, James 5:16-20, the original context of that phrase, is the passage which urges, "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. --Michael Griffiths, Cinderella with Amnesia

Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them. --Andrew V. Mason

More from John and Hayley's wedding

The father of the groom not the groom gave a speech to the evident delight of his son.
It was the Friday before Christmas but the wedding cake could not be confused with Christmas cake.
Friends from our church made up our table.
Davis and Lesley have been our friends for 2
5 years.