“No benefit comes from a just man's prayer if he who asks for it finds more pleasure in sin than in virtue. For Samuel mourned over Saul when he sinned, but he was not able to obtain God's mercy, for his grief was not supported by the necessary change of life on the part of the sinner. Hence God put an end to the pointless grief of His servant, saying to him, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?' (I Sam. 16:1).” IfsMenLongEndsAbleChristianAsksPrayerSinPleasureGriefVirtueSeeingBenefitsMercyIsraelServantLife ChangingSinnerOrthodoxRejectedMournPointlessNecessary Change Author:Maximus the Confessor
“The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever more dangerous. Jesus had to work on the perilous confines of reason and religion; and a step to the right or left might place him within the grasp of the priests of the superstition, a bloodthirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.” MenWritingMeanHas BeensReasonMightJesusLeftNationsRaceStepsMankindDangerousSonOfficeIsraelConvincedLocalsPriestsSuperstitionsFoundingChurch And StateAbrahamSeparation Of Church And StateOur Founding FathersFounding Fathers ChristianJacobUs Founding FathersReformersFounding Fathers ReligionFounding Fathers ReligiousReligion GodIsaacFounding Fathers Anti ReligionChristianity From Founding FathersChristian FatherRemorseless Author:Thomas Jefferson