A John Calvin Eleventary

1. “We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.”

2. “There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence.”

3. “If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house, then in a field, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.”

4. “The Gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.”

5. “It would be the height of absurdity to label ignorance tempered by humility ‘faith’!”

6. “Men are undoubtedly more in danger from prosperity than from adversity. for when matters go smoothly, they flatter themselves, and are intoxicated by their success”

7. “There is no knowing that does not begin with knowing God.”

8. “However many blessings we expect from God, His infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.”

9. “Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments.”

10. “Without the fear of God, men do not even observe justice and charity among themselves.”

11. “In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.”

A Martin Luther Eleventary

1. “Hier stehe ich; Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!”

2. “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every part of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all battlefields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point”

3. “I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great Pope: Self. I more fear what is within me than anything that might come from without.”

4. “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.”

5. “For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel.”

6. “I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.”

7. “Music is the art of the prophets and the gift of God.”

8. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”

9. “You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.”

10. “There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage.”

11. “Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.”

Chalmers and the Solas

Thinking about the "Five Solas of the Reformation," during this Reformation anniversary week, I couldn't help but also think of the reformational way Thomas Chalmers has shaped my thinking about life, grace, mercy, the Scriptures, and the beauty of the faith that the magisterial reformers bequeathed to us.  

It struck me that like them, Chalmers' influence has also produced a list of "solas." This is my feeble attempt to somehow codify those "solas."

1. Only the Triune God is truly holy.
2. Only His holiness can offer grace.
3. Only His grace can bring forth faith.
4. Only faith bears the fruit of love.
5. Only love produces hope.
6. Only hope gives way to obedience.
7. Only obedience results in service.
8. Only service manifests mercy.
9. Only mercy makes for justice.
10. Only justice establishes peace.
11. And, only peace can flower into Christian culture.

Such a Deal!

Symbols of Hate

So, as long as we're banning symbols of intolerance, oppression, and hate, let's not forget the worst offenders of all.

Always Something New in London

Every year, I take a group of graduating seniors from Franklin Classical School to England. We usually visit London, Cambridge, Ely, Brighton, Chartwell, and Lewes. And of course, there are a host of must-see sights and sites in each of those places. In addition though, I always try to make sure each trip is unique--we try to see something new every time we go. So, this year some of the new things we'll see that we normally don't get a chance to see are:

1. St. Helen's, Bishopsgate
2. The old Daunt's, Marylebone
3. The new Foyle's, Charing Cross
4. Huckle the Barber, Shoreditch
5. Jamie's pop up Diner, Piccadilly
6. Abbey Road Studios
7. Barbecoa, St. Paul's
8. St. Giles, Tottenham Court
9. Persephone, Bloomsbury
10. Jo Malone, Covent Garden
11. Brill, Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell

Recent Gleanings from Milton

“The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.” 

"Long is the way and hard, that out of hell leads up to light."

“None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license.”

“Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt, surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled.”

“Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet, with charm of earliest birds.”

“Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows.”

“Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, if Truth be in the field, we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter.”

“Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.”

“The first and wisest of them all professed to know this only, that he nothing knew.”

“Heav'nly love shall outdo Hellish hate.”

“For liberty hath a sharp and double edge, fit only to be handled by just and virtuous men; to bad and dissolute, it becomes a mischief unwieldy in their own hands.”

Recent Gleanings from Chalmers

"If it be true that love cast out fear, it is just as true that fear keepeth out love."

"Unbelief is an intelligent turning away from the Word of God. It is not rooted in ignorance but in negligence."

"At the fall, men were not demoralized out of all virtue, rather we were desecrated of all godliness--and thus in our own flesh, bereft of all enduring good."

"There is nought more undeniable than the antipathy of fallen nature to the peculiar doctrines of the Gospel."

"The handwriting of ordinances that was against us, and contrary to us, has been taken out of the way, having been nailed to the cross of Christ; but the hand of Jesus, as the Lord our sanctifier, is ever on us: beautifying us with His salvation and spreading over our characters all the graces of holiness."

"The sacrament we hold to be not merely a privilege but a means of grace: a privilege to all for whom the Savior is our alone dependence for time and eternity; and a means of grace to all who, humbled at our distance and deficiency from the perfections of the sanctuary above, seek the instituted ordinances below, for the advancement of our meetness for the inheritance. Come--but come with a sincere purpose. Come in honesty. Come aware of the total renovation which your personal Christianity implies. Come free of all those superficial and meagre conceptions of it which are so current in the midst of this infidel world. Come resolved to be and to do all that the Master of our Assembly would have you be and do. Come and look to Him for the perfection of His own work upon your character, that in you He may see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."

"Though no longer under the economy of 'do-and-live,' still, Christians are under the economy of 'live-and-do.'"

"Whenever we bethinks ourselves of God having passed over the magnitude of our own provocations; whenever we dwell on the agony of that endurance laid on Christ for sinners; whenever we behold the cross of our atonement and we are solemnized into a reverence for the sacredness of His sacrifice; whenever we look onward to the glories of that inheritance which Christ hath purchased by His blood and the gates of which He hath unbarred for the welcome access of the guiltiest of us all; whenever we look upon Jesus--then it is that we lay hold of our blessed hope, our certain assurance. Therefore beloved, turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full upon His wondrous grace. Oh, consider Jesus."

"Let us not be over-sanguine nor over-melancholy of immediate results. Our perspective of time is only slowly synchronized to the clock of providence."

"Deliverance from condemnation is not the goal, but the starting post of the Christian race; and so instead of laboring to make good a remote and inaccessible station where forgiveness shall be awarded to him, he is sent forth with a full deed of amnesty in his hand, and lightened of all his fears; he goes forth upon his course rejoicing."

"Selectiveness in the decrees of God will not do. Mutilate the truth and you cripple it. Pare it down and you paralyze all its energies. The Spirit is grieved with the duplicity and disingenuousness of men, when they offer to divide God's testimony in accord with their own preferences and devices."

Essential Political Maxims

“The greatest political storm flutters only a fringe of humanity.” G.K. Chesterton

“Almost nothing is as important as almost everything in Washington is made to appear. And the importance of a Washington event is apt to be inversely proportional to the attention it receives.” George Will

“Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.” Eugene McCarthy

“All politics is actually based on the indifference of the majority.” John Reston

“Americans view politics with boredom and detachment. For most of us, politics is increasingly abstract, a spectator sport barely worth watching. Since the average voter “believes that politics will do little to improve his life or that of his community, he votes defensively, if at all.” E. J. Dionne

“The Constitution is not an instrument for government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government‑‑lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” Gouvenor Morris

“Liberty necessitates the diminutization of political ambition and concern. Liberty necessitates concentration on other matters than mere civil governance. Rather, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, freemen must think on these things.” Patrick Henry

“What frustrates many Americans about politics, I think, is that their hard-earned prosperity was supposed to produce widespread decency. It didn’t. And as a result, we’re mad.” James Q. Wilson

“Our national temper is sour, our attention span limited, our fuse short. We yearn childishly, for a cowboy in a white hat to ride into town. We are ripe for political disaster.” Simon Schama

“The voters think Washington is a whorehouse and every four years they get a chance to elect a new piano player. They would rather burn the whorehouse down.” Peggy Noonan

“We are perpetually being told that what is wanted is a strong man who will do things. What is really wanted is a strong man who will undo things; and that will be the real test of strength.” G.K. Chesterton

The Tangled Web

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Sir Walter Scott

“A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.” William Shenstone

“A lie which is a half truth is ever the blackest of lies.” Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Dishonesty is the raw material not of quacks only, but also in great part dupes.” Thomas Carlyle

“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.” Adolf Hitler

“O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.” William Shakespeare

“I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy.” Samuel Butler

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. Leonardo da Vinci

“I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.” Montaigne

“Who lies for you will lie against you.” John Locke

“There is nothing worse than words of kindness that lie.” Juvenal