1902
To the best comes the time when their very good is evil spoken of. It takes goodness to understand goodness. The pure in heart see God, and only such can recognize the life of God when manifested in the saints. Few trials are more keen than the misrepresentation of goodness. An evil motive imputed to a saintly deed is as the sting of a serpent. The clouds of defamation lower at some time over every saintly heart. The life of the saint is hidden and cannot be understood by the worldling. "Sitting still" is the only possibility. Time exerts a remedial influence, and such remedy that it cannot exert the One to whom the saints are dead will. He will bring out our goodness as the light and our righteousness as the noonday. — Episcopal Recorder.
Showing posts with label saints. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saints. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2008
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Ready With His Excuse
1905
Clerk Justified Mean Trick by Scriptural Quotation
A certain tailor of very strict principles was in the habit of excusing the faults of his assistants only if they could justify themselves by Scripture. One day a woman entered his shop and asked to see some material, but refused to buy it because it was too cheap. After showing her some other goods, the assistant brought back the same material, this time asking a higher price, whereupon the customer bought it. Afterward, the proprietor, who had witnessed the transaction, reproved his assistant severely. The latter, remembering the rules of the establishment, replied "Oh, it's according to Scripture all right. She was a stranger and I took her in." — Harper's Weekly.
The Raven in Folklore
R. Boswell Smith, an Englishman, has recently made an exhaustive study of the place of the raven in folklore, in religious legends and in literature. It is a curious commentary on the people of some Christian nations that they should hold the raven in abhorrence when the legends, and in some cases the authentic histories of the church, tell them that the bird which they shun was the companion of a dozen or so saints and martyrs who gained rather than lost in sanctity from the companionship.
Clerk Justified Mean Trick by Scriptural Quotation
A certain tailor of very strict principles was in the habit of excusing the faults of his assistants only if they could justify themselves by Scripture. One day a woman entered his shop and asked to see some material, but refused to buy it because it was too cheap. After showing her some other goods, the assistant brought back the same material, this time asking a higher price, whereupon the customer bought it. Afterward, the proprietor, who had witnessed the transaction, reproved his assistant severely. The latter, remembering the rules of the establishment, replied "Oh, it's according to Scripture all right. She was a stranger and I took her in." — Harper's Weekly.
The Raven in Folklore
R. Boswell Smith, an Englishman, has recently made an exhaustive study of the place of the raven in folklore, in religious legends and in literature. It is a curious commentary on the people of some Christian nations that they should hold the raven in abhorrence when the legends, and in some cases the authentic histories of the church, tell them that the bird which they shun was the companion of a dozen or so saints and martyrs who gained rather than lost in sanctity from the companionship.
Friday, May 18, 2007
For the Contribution Box at Greek Church
1910
A Convenient Arrangement for Giving Early and Often in Use in a Greek Church.
A custom among attendants of the Greek church at Trebizond explains the use of certain tokens which have been presented to the American Numismatic society.
According to the Journal of the society sometimes several collections are made during the service in these churches. Even should there be but one, the visitor may desire to make a special contribution at the shrine or picture of some of the saints whose intercession he desires to secure, or he may wish to purchase a candle for use in some of the ceremonials in public or private devotions.
On entering the church, therefore, he exchanges a certain sum of money with the deacon at the gate for an equivalent amount of these tokens. He is thus able to respond to the calls for the various offerings during the service or to deposit his gift at the shrine of the saint by using one or more of these tokens as he may be disposed, yet without any heavy demand on his purse. These church tokens are sometimes of brass and sometimes of paper.
A Convenient Arrangement for Giving Early and Often in Use in a Greek Church.
A custom among attendants of the Greek church at Trebizond explains the use of certain tokens which have been presented to the American Numismatic society.
According to the Journal of the society sometimes several collections are made during the service in these churches. Even should there be but one, the visitor may desire to make a special contribution at the shrine or picture of some of the saints whose intercession he desires to secure, or he may wish to purchase a candle for use in some of the ceremonials in public or private devotions.
On entering the church, therefore, he exchanges a certain sum of money with the deacon at the gate for an equivalent amount of these tokens. He is thus able to respond to the calls for the various offerings during the service or to deposit his gift at the shrine of the saint by using one or more of these tokens as he may be disposed, yet without any heavy demand on his purse. These church tokens are sometimes of brass and sometimes of paper.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
In Memory of One Who Passed Away – "Sleeping in Jesus"
1878
IN MEMORY OF C. D. DOMBAUGH.
On Jan. 17th, C. D. Domhaugh, who from boyhood has been loved, was laid to rest in the presence of a large concourse of sorrowing friends. On Tuesday afternoon a bright winged angel visited his chamber and whispered "Gentle spirit, come away." Like one falling into a gentle sleep he passed away from earth, at an age when life's hopes are brightest and its promises seem on the verge of fulfillment, the silver cord was loosed and the golden bowl was broken. He sleeps in Jesus.
He has gone to the mansions above
To join with the glorified there;
His spirit is bathing in oceans of love,
Now free from all sorrow and care.
He's sleeping in Jesus, he rests with the blest,
His home is beyond the blue sky
Where saints of all ages will ever find rest,
And heart treasures never will die.
Brief was his stay with his friends here below,
Ere the spirit wing spread for the flight,
And the love kindled flame in his heart shed a glow
On the tomb and its shivering night.
He has gone from earth's toil, gone from its cares,
Where angels their melodies raise;
Gone to that land where the saints' fervent prayers,
Shall turn into rapturous praise.
—Daily Star, Marion, Ohio, Jan. 18, 1878, p. 1.
IN MEMORY OF C. D. DOMBAUGH.
On Jan. 17th, C. D. Domhaugh, who from boyhood has been loved, was laid to rest in the presence of a large concourse of sorrowing friends. On Tuesday afternoon a bright winged angel visited his chamber and whispered "Gentle spirit, come away." Like one falling into a gentle sleep he passed away from earth, at an age when life's hopes are brightest and its promises seem on the verge of fulfillment, the silver cord was loosed and the golden bowl was broken. He sleeps in Jesus.
He has gone to the mansions above
To join with the glorified there;
His spirit is bathing in oceans of love,
Now free from all sorrow and care.
He's sleeping in Jesus, he rests with the blest,
His home is beyond the blue sky
Where saints of all ages will ever find rest,
And heart treasures never will die.
Brief was his stay with his friends here below,
Ere the spirit wing spread for the flight,
And the love kindled flame in his heart shed a glow
On the tomb and its shivering night.
He has gone from earth's toil, gone from its cares,
Where angels their melodies raise;
Gone to that land where the saints' fervent prayers,
Shall turn into rapturous praise.
—Daily Star, Marion, Ohio, Jan. 18, 1878, p. 1.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Walking in the Light
1874
Thomas à Kempis, shut in the monastery of St. Agnes, in the fifteenth century, began his immortal treatise on the Imitation of Christ with the sentence, "He that keepeth my words shall not walk in darkness, saith the Lord." And according to his faith was it unto him. In the superstitious darkness of that day, leading an obscure life, celebrated for his skill and diligence in copying pious books, à Kempis did not walk in darkness. His devout book shows that he walked in light, and the Father which is in secret set the candle upon a candlestick, so that the light of the German monk's meditations has enlightened the hearts of men in every nation of Christendom even unto this day.
It was in Bedford jail, working hard with his hands to keep his family from starving, with no hope of release, and with impaired health that John Bunyan, the tinker-preacher, drew that noble portrait of the brave, invincible Christian, who kept heart in the Shadow of Death and overthrew Apollyon; and that other one of Faithful, who cheerfully laid down his life in Vanity Fair; and that of brave Hopeful, whose head never sank beneath the waters of the River of Death. In Bedford jail he had that vision of the Delectable Mountains, and of the Giant Great-heart. No circumstances can darken the soul of him who walks in the light.
But there are Christians who ingeniously devise ways of keeping themselves in darkness. We speak of the Dark Ages as though they were indeed of the past; but the Dark Ages always continue, and there are plenty of pious Protestant people who build medieval cloisters for their souls. Hardly a week passes that we do not get a letter from some one who has looked himself in a more hopeless jail than Bunyan's at Bedford, and barred the door with hard texts about unpardonable sins, and hard sayings about the hopelessness of those whose day of grace is gone forever. They have not chosen the Giant Great-heart for their guide, but have taken tie Giant Despair for their keeper. About texts of Scripture there may be mistakes. About the fatherhood of God there can be none. Men who penetrated ancient labyrinths unwound a thread as they went in, that they might have a guide for their wandering feet when they wished to come out. He who tries to understand the intricacies of theological speculation, or to penetrate to the meaning of the dark sayings of Scripture, needs to keep fast hold to the thread of God's fatherhood and tender mercy. If he does not let that go, he will not lose himself in darkness. The first two words of the Lord's Prayer are a torch put into every man's hand to light him through every dark valley.
But there are people with whom this owlish love of darkness is a disease. Drive away one brood of doubts from them and there straightway comes another. Now there is but one remedy for this. Had à Kempis sat idle in his cloister, studying only his own mental exercises, he might have lost himself in a midnight of hopeless darkness. The illuminating of beautiful manuscripts of good books was wholesome employment. Had Bunyan been idle he might easily have brooded on the wretched condition of his family and the dark problems of theology until that jail would have become a very Doubting Castle to his soul. Making tagged laces to save his family from starvation and preaching the Gospel to his fellow-prisoners were fountains of spiritual health to him.
A man's own soul is a dark place. One's motives and thoughts find experiences are a labyrinth never yet explored to the end. An experience that springs from a physical condition not easily separable from one that comes of a spiritual exercise. It is better not to live much there. The course of man's life is from within, outward. He is the healthy man who sees not himself but his work. It is not necessary that one should understand physiology that one may learn which muscles to use in walking. Some men would have their eyes turned round that they might look within, but God pointed all of man's senses outward. Luther, and Bunyan, and Wesley at the critical period of their lives abode in darkness for months or years, not because God willed it, but because they set themselves to study themselves; they lay in wait for their own sins like a cat watching for mice; but when they arose and went forth to do for others the light shone all about them. If a man will darken the windows of his house and refuse to walk abroad he must not imagine that the sun does not shine.
There is a very theological little Sunday-school lullaby that enjoins on a child to "cast his deadly doing down." The doing of a Pharisee is no doubt deadly — rather his Pharisaism is deadly, not his "doing." There is nothing healthier than doing. Let a man called into the vineyard wait for no experiences, but go to work. It is he who hears Christ's words and does them whose house is planted on a rock. The deadliest thing in the universe is idleness and stagnation. — Beecher in Christian Union.
Thomas à Kempis, shut in the monastery of St. Agnes, in the fifteenth century, began his immortal treatise on the Imitation of Christ with the sentence, "He that keepeth my words shall not walk in darkness, saith the Lord." And according to his faith was it unto him. In the superstitious darkness of that day, leading an obscure life, celebrated for his skill and diligence in copying pious books, à Kempis did not walk in darkness. His devout book shows that he walked in light, and the Father which is in secret set the candle upon a candlestick, so that the light of the German monk's meditations has enlightened the hearts of men in every nation of Christendom even unto this day.
It was in Bedford jail, working hard with his hands to keep his family from starving, with no hope of release, and with impaired health that John Bunyan, the tinker-preacher, drew that noble portrait of the brave, invincible Christian, who kept heart in the Shadow of Death and overthrew Apollyon; and that other one of Faithful, who cheerfully laid down his life in Vanity Fair; and that of brave Hopeful, whose head never sank beneath the waters of the River of Death. In Bedford jail he had that vision of the Delectable Mountains, and of the Giant Great-heart. No circumstances can darken the soul of him who walks in the light.
But there are Christians who ingeniously devise ways of keeping themselves in darkness. We speak of the Dark Ages as though they were indeed of the past; but the Dark Ages always continue, and there are plenty of pious Protestant people who build medieval cloisters for their souls. Hardly a week passes that we do not get a letter from some one who has looked himself in a more hopeless jail than Bunyan's at Bedford, and barred the door with hard texts about unpardonable sins, and hard sayings about the hopelessness of those whose day of grace is gone forever. They have not chosen the Giant Great-heart for their guide, but have taken tie Giant Despair for their keeper. About texts of Scripture there may be mistakes. About the fatherhood of God there can be none. Men who penetrated ancient labyrinths unwound a thread as they went in, that they might have a guide for their wandering feet when they wished to come out. He who tries to understand the intricacies of theological speculation, or to penetrate to the meaning of the dark sayings of Scripture, needs to keep fast hold to the thread of God's fatherhood and tender mercy. If he does not let that go, he will not lose himself in darkness. The first two words of the Lord's Prayer are a torch put into every man's hand to light him through every dark valley.
But there are people with whom this owlish love of darkness is a disease. Drive away one brood of doubts from them and there straightway comes another. Now there is but one remedy for this. Had à Kempis sat idle in his cloister, studying only his own mental exercises, he might have lost himself in a midnight of hopeless darkness. The illuminating of beautiful manuscripts of good books was wholesome employment. Had Bunyan been idle he might easily have brooded on the wretched condition of his family and the dark problems of theology until that jail would have become a very Doubting Castle to his soul. Making tagged laces to save his family from starvation and preaching the Gospel to his fellow-prisoners were fountains of spiritual health to him.
A man's own soul is a dark place. One's motives and thoughts find experiences are a labyrinth never yet explored to the end. An experience that springs from a physical condition not easily separable from one that comes of a spiritual exercise. It is better not to live much there. The course of man's life is from within, outward. He is the healthy man who sees not himself but his work. It is not necessary that one should understand physiology that one may learn which muscles to use in walking. Some men would have their eyes turned round that they might look within, but God pointed all of man's senses outward. Luther, and Bunyan, and Wesley at the critical period of their lives abode in darkness for months or years, not because God willed it, but because they set themselves to study themselves; they lay in wait for their own sins like a cat watching for mice; but when they arose and went forth to do for others the light shone all about them. If a man will darken the windows of his house and refuse to walk abroad he must not imagine that the sun does not shine.
There is a very theological little Sunday-school lullaby that enjoins on a child to "cast his deadly doing down." The doing of a Pharisee is no doubt deadly — rather his Pharisaism is deadly, not his "doing." There is nothing healthier than doing. Let a man called into the vineyard wait for no experiences, but go to work. It is he who hears Christ's words and does them whose house is planted on a rock. The deadliest thing in the universe is idleness and stagnation. — Beecher in Christian Union.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Whittlings — Sentence Sermons & Bits of Wit
1917
By Rev. L. R. Akers
The sure sign of the little man is the big head.
Some people think obscurity is synonymous with profundity.
The modern church prefers a live wire to an inflated tire.
"Talk is cheap," we have heard, but it all depends upon who talks.
Oftentimes a cheerful hello! Is the best dispeller of a tearful woe.
Six-syllabled words are too often the exhaust of a one-cylinder man.
The newest thing in some churches would be a sermon on the old gospel.
To keep from being a "dead one" while alive is a full-grown man's job.
Continual straining after the new is often an effective way of emptying the pew.
There's no use to look like a saint on Sunday if you go out and act like a sinner on Monday.
The D. D. degree may loom large on earth, but the S. S. degree (Seeker of Souls) is the only one recognized in the University of the Skies.
By Rev. L. R. Akers
The sure sign of the little man is the big head.
Some people think obscurity is synonymous with profundity.
The modern church prefers a live wire to an inflated tire.
"Talk is cheap," we have heard, but it all depends upon who talks.
Oftentimes a cheerful hello! Is the best dispeller of a tearful woe.
Six-syllabled words are too often the exhaust of a one-cylinder man.
The newest thing in some churches would be a sermon on the old gospel.
To keep from being a "dead one" while alive is a full-grown man's job.
Continual straining after the new is often an effective way of emptying the pew.
There's no use to look like a saint on Sunday if you go out and act like a sinner on Monday.
The D. D. degree may loom large on earth, but the S. S. degree (Seeker of Souls) is the only one recognized in the University of the Skies.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Novena Honoring St. Therese of Lisieux Opens at St. Peter's
Lowell, MA, 1934
Novena Opens at St. Peter's
A novena in honor of the Little Flower opened last night at St. Peter's church with a large congregation. The services, which will continue each night until Oct. 3, consisted of the rosary, a sermon by Very Rev. Daniel J. Keleher, Ph. D., V. F., pastor, novena prayers, the litany of the Little Flower and benediction. After the services, the congregation venerated the relic of the Little Flower individually.
Dr. Keleher's sermon was an inspiring and encouraging talk on the happiness of heaven and the efficacy of the intercession of the Little Flower. Briefly describing her life, the preacher said that the Little Flower was born in 1873 and died in 1897, and that, during her short life, particularly in the years spent with the Carmelite Sisters, her outstanding virtue was implicit obedience to the will of God; the distinguishing trait of her character being to beg the privilege of using her heaven to obtain favors for God's people on earth. Dr. Keleher struck an encouraging note when he reminded his congregation of the mercy of God and the constant hope for heavenly beatitude in spite of human failings. The pastor closed his sermon with an appeal for continued devotion, expressing the belief that the Little Flower is pleased with homage and will continue to intercede for her people.
Dr. Keleher and his assistants are anticipating continued interest through the remainder of the novena. Services are held nightly at 7:30 o'clock, except on Sunday when they are held at 6:30 o'clock.
—The Lowell Sun, Lowell, MA, Sept. 26, 1934, page 7, probably second section.
Tone of Book on Saint Denounced
LISIEUX, Normandy (UP) — Father J. I. Lane, of Liverpool, has voiced his protest of the "smirking statues" of Saint Therese; the excessive use of endearing terms, such as "Little Flower," applied to the Saint; and of illuminated mottoes on cheap colored glass.
Father Lane expresses his objections in a handbook for pilgrims to Lisieux. He pleads for a dignified attitude toward the little girl "who understood that love meant sacrifice and not passing emotion." He does not mince his words and he singles out for particular condemnation an American biography of Saint Therese in which, he says, she is called "Little Flower" as many as 460 times. Thus the "whole tone of the book is cloying," he says.
—San Mateo Times, San Mateo, CA, Dec. 18, 1934, page 2-A.
Novena Opens at St. Peter's
A novena in honor of the Little Flower opened last night at St. Peter's church with a large congregation. The services, which will continue each night until Oct. 3, consisted of the rosary, a sermon by Very Rev. Daniel J. Keleher, Ph. D., V. F., pastor, novena prayers, the litany of the Little Flower and benediction. After the services, the congregation venerated the relic of the Little Flower individually.
Dr. Keleher's sermon was an inspiring and encouraging talk on the happiness of heaven and the efficacy of the intercession of the Little Flower. Briefly describing her life, the preacher said that the Little Flower was born in 1873 and died in 1897, and that, during her short life, particularly in the years spent with the Carmelite Sisters, her outstanding virtue was implicit obedience to the will of God; the distinguishing trait of her character being to beg the privilege of using her heaven to obtain favors for God's people on earth. Dr. Keleher struck an encouraging note when he reminded his congregation of the mercy of God and the constant hope for heavenly beatitude in spite of human failings. The pastor closed his sermon with an appeal for continued devotion, expressing the belief that the Little Flower is pleased with homage and will continue to intercede for her people.
Dr. Keleher and his assistants are anticipating continued interest through the remainder of the novena. Services are held nightly at 7:30 o'clock, except on Sunday when they are held at 6:30 o'clock.
—The Lowell Sun, Lowell, MA, Sept. 26, 1934, page 7, probably second section.
Tone of Book on Saint Denounced
LISIEUX, Normandy (UP) — Father J. I. Lane, of Liverpool, has voiced his protest of the "smirking statues" of Saint Therese; the excessive use of endearing terms, such as "Little Flower," applied to the Saint; and of illuminated mottoes on cheap colored glass.
Father Lane expresses his objections in a handbook for pilgrims to Lisieux. He pleads for a dignified attitude toward the little girl "who understood that love meant sacrifice and not passing emotion." He does not mince his words and he singles out for particular condemnation an American biography of Saint Therese in which, he says, she is called "Little Flower" as many as 460 times. Thus the "whole tone of the book is cloying," he says.
—San Mateo Times, San Mateo, CA, Dec. 18, 1934, page 2-A.
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