You all are probably starting to think I have never had a smart thought in my entire life. But I cannot get enough of quotes and lyrics. Maybe one day I will become wiser than the Puritians and pastors, but as of now, I will resort to quoting those wiser than myself. I read something from J.C. Ryle's Holiness today and thought that you all may enjoy it.
“A right view of sin is the best antidote to that sensuous, ceremonial, formal kind of Christianity, which has swept over England like a flood in that last twenty-five years, and carried away so many before it. I can well believe that there is much that is attractive in this system of religion, to a certain order of minds, so long as the conscience is not fully enlightened. But when that wonderful part of our constitution called conscience is really awake and alive, I find it hard to believe that a sensuous ceremonial Christianity will thoroughly satisfy us. A little child is easily quieted and amused with gaudy toys, and dolls, and rattles, so long as it is not hungry; but once let it feel the cravings of nature within, and we know that nothing will satisfy it but food. Just so it is with man in the matter of his soul. Music, and flowers, and candles, and incense, and banners, man-made ceremonies of a semi-Romish character, may do well enough for him under certain conditions. But once let him “awake and arise from the dead”, and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn trifling, and a waste of time. Once let him see his sin, and he must see his Savior. He feels stricken with a deadly disease, and nothing will satisfy him but the great Physician. He hungers and thirsts, and he must have nothing less than the bread of life.”
P.S. I'm joyfully taking a break from the computer for a while, but will be back some time in May. I am probably going to journal. The purpose is, A. I need to read. I have really great books, but with my free time I have gotten on the computer too much. I desperately need time to just solely read. B. It has become too big of a thing for me. I need to just get away for a while..:)
“A right view of sin is the best antidote to that sensuous, ceremonial, formal kind of Christianity, which has swept over England like a flood in that last twenty-five years, and carried away so many before it. I can well believe that there is much that is attractive in this system of religion, to a certain order of minds, so long as the conscience is not fully enlightened. But when that wonderful part of our constitution called conscience is really awake and alive, I find it hard to believe that a sensuous ceremonial Christianity will thoroughly satisfy us. A little child is easily quieted and amused with gaudy toys, and dolls, and rattles, so long as it is not hungry; but once let it feel the cravings of nature within, and we know that nothing will satisfy it but food. Just so it is with man in the matter of his soul. Music, and flowers, and candles, and incense, and banners, man-made ceremonies of a semi-Romish character, may do well enough for him under certain conditions. But once let him “awake and arise from the dead”, and he will not rest content with these things. They will seem to him mere solemn trifling, and a waste of time. Once let him see his sin, and he must see his Savior. He feels stricken with a deadly disease, and nothing will satisfy him but the great Physician. He hungers and thirsts, and he must have nothing less than the bread of life.”
P.S. I'm joyfully taking a break from the computer for a while, but will be back some time in May. I am probably going to journal. The purpose is, A. I need to read. I have really great books, but with my free time I have gotten on the computer too much. I desperately need time to just solely read. B. It has become too big of a thing for me. I need to just get away for a while..:)
