“Even in the life of a Christian, faith rises and falls like the tides of an invisible sea. It's there, even when he can't see it or feel it, if he wants it to be there. You realize, I think, that it is more valuable, more mysterious, altogether more immense than anything you can learn or decide upon It will keep you free - not free to do anything you please, but free to be formed by something larger than your own intellect or the intellects around you.” IfsThinkingWantFeelsChristianFallRealizingSeaPleaseValuableIntellectInvisibleMysteriousTidesImmenseChristian FaithRise And FallDecide Upon Author:Flannery O'Connor
“He who has mastery over his incensive power has mastery also over the demons. But anyone who is a slave to it is a stranger to the ways of the Saviour, for as the Saviour enjoined us: 'Learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart: and you will find rest for your souls' (Mt. 11:29). Now if a man abstains from food and drink, but becomes incensed to wrath because of evil thoughts, he is like a ship sailing the open sea with a demon for a pilot.” IfsMenWayHeartSoulChristianEvilSeaDrinkSlaveHumbleStrangerShipsYour SoulGentleDemonOrthodoxPilotsMasterySailingWrathSaviourFood And DrinkEvil Thoughts Author:Evagrius Ponticus
“How many of our virtues originate in the fear of Death & that while we flatter ourselves that we are melting in Christian Sensibility over the sorrows of our human Brethren and Sisteren, we are in fact, tho' perhaps unconsciously, moved at the prospect of our own End for who sincerely pities Sea-sickness, Toothache, or a fit of the Gout in a lusty Good-liver of 50?” HumansEndsFactsChristianVirtueSeaFitSorrowMovedPitySicknessSensibilitySincerelyFear Of DeathMeltingLiverBrethrenToothacheGout Book:Collected Letters: 1820-1825 Source: Collected Letters: 1820-1825
“Nothing but Christian faith gives to the furthest future the solidity and definiteness which it must have if it is to be a breakwater for us against the fluctuating sea of present cares and thoughts.” IfsGivingCareChristianSeaChristian FaithSolidity Book:Sermons preached in Manchester Source: Sermons preached in Manchester
“The most beautiful conception of immortality of which I know, and certainly one that by contrast shows the utter vulgarity of Christian ideas, is set forth in Pindar's second Olympian: after three or six lives in which a man has lived with strict justice and perfect integrity, he passes beyond the tower of Cronus to the fair realm that cannot be reached by land or sea, where gentle breezes from a placid ocean blow forever on the fields of asphodel. For a description, see Pindar. If the beauty of great poetry can commend a religion, here you have it.” IfsKnowsMenIdeasShowsChristianBeautifulThreeJusticePerfectForeverSeaLandFieldsIntegrityOceanSixFairsBlowGentleImmortalityRealmsDescriptionConceptionContrastTowersStrictBreezeVulgarityGreat PoetOlympianGreat PoetryPlacid Author:Revilo P. Oliver
“Think of the majesty of that moment in this dying world's history, when Jesus Christ declared that to the Christian death was only a sleep. Outside of that small dwelling in Capernaum, a great race of men rushed and toiled as they harassed continents and seas; mighty events marshaled themselves into annals and pageants. What was inside? In one inconspicuous chamber of a now forgotten house, man's Redeemer, unobserved, martyred man's final enemy. There Immanuel subdued death forever.” ThinkingMenWorldMomentsChristianHouseJesusChristSleepRaceEnemyForeverSeaDyingEventsJesus ChristFinalsForgottenThat MomentContinentsChamberMajestyDwellingRedeemerPageantMartyredGreat Race Author:Charles Seymour Robinson
“Prosperity too often has the same effect on a Christian that a calm at sea has on a Dutch mariner; who frequently, it is said, in those circumstances, ties up the rudder, gets drunk, and goes to sleep.” SaidChristianSleepSeaEffectsCircumstancesCalmProsperityDrunkTiesDutchMarinersRudders Author:William Cornelius Van Horne