Jacob Moore > Recent Status Updates

Forgot how lovely this all reads. I can only imagine what it is like in Italian.

"So vicious is avarice's nature, so ill bent
she never stuffs her ravenous will enough.
but after feeding hungers all the more.
Many a living soul takes her to wife.
and many shall, until the Greyhound comes,
he who will make her die in misery." (I.97-102)

The third chapter on John is really, really good.

I am not emotionally ready for this at all.

Pentecost is itself no more repeatable than is the crucifixion, or the empty tomb, or the ascension. To assume that it was would be tantamount to producing a 'pentecostal' form of the medieval mass, repeating what is unrepeatable and consequently diminishing; if not actually denying, its true significance.

Baxter used to picture the miser and the man who lived only to make gold in the middle of hell; and they imagined Mammon pouring melted gold down his throat. "There," say the mocking devils, "that is what you wanted, you have got it now; drink, drink, drink!" and the molten gold is poured down.

What are your doubts this morning? Whatever they may be, they can find a kind & fond solution here, by looking at Christ on the cross. You have come here, perhaps, doubting God's mercy; look to Christ upon the cross, and can you doubt it then? If God were not full of mercy, and plenteous in his compassion, would he have given his Son to bleed & die?

When Jesus announces his departure from the disciples but assures them that 'I will come back to you', he is speaking neither about his resurrection reappearance, nor about his anticipated final return, but about his 'coming' in the gift of the Spirit. So complete is the union between Jesus & the Paraclete that the coming of the latter is the coming of Jesus himself in the Spirit.

God never yet rejected a sinner that sought salvation by Jesus. Such a thing never happened... Come, the crumb is under the table; though thou be but a dog come & pick it up; it is a privilege even for the dog to take it; and mercy that is great to thee, is but a crumb for that gives it freely -- come and take it. Christ will not reject thee.

The Spirit of God is the executive of the powerful presence of God in the governing of the created order. (21)

Excited to re-read this wonderful book!

The minister should ask of God the Spirit that he may be filled with his influence as a comforter; that when he ascends his pulpit on the Sabbath, his poor hard-working people, who have been toiling,fretting with care & anxiety all the week may say, "Here comes our minister; he is sure to have his mouth filled with good things; as soon as he opens his lips he will utter some great & glorious promise from God's Word."

"Alas, close to the bounds of night
Orpheus backwards turned his sight
And, looking, lost & killed her there.
For you I sing this sad affair,
Whoever seek the upward way
To lift your mind into the day;
For who gives in & turns his eye
Back to darkness from the sky,
Loses while he looks below
All that up with him may go."

Book 3 is wonderful on divine simplicity and privation.

It is the loss of your first love that makes you seek the comfort of your bodies instead of the prosperity of your souls.

God would have thee saved. He hath set hand posts everywhere in nature & in providence, pointing thee the way to the city of refuge, & if thou art but wise thou need not miss thy way; it is but thy willful ignorance & thy neglect that shall cause thee to run on in the way of error, for God hath made the way straight before thee & given thee every encouragement to run therein.

And all this chain of things
In earth & sea & sky
One ruler holds in hand:
If Love relaxed the reins
All things that now keep peace
Would wage continual war
...
Love, too, holds peoples joined
By sacred bond of treaty,
And weaves the holy knot
Of marriage's true love.
Love promulgates the laws
For friendship's faithful bond.
O happy men
If Love who rules the sky
Could rule your hearts as well!

Say not "Our Father," & then look upon thy brethren with a sneer or a frown. I beseech thee, live like a brother, & act like a brother. Help the needy; cheer the sick; comfort the faint-hearted; go about doing good; minister unto the suffering people of God ... & let the world take knowledge of thee, that thou art when on thy feet what thou art on thy knees -- that thou art a brother... like the Master himself.

"In your true belief about the world's government - that it is subject to divine reason & not the haphazards of chance - there lies our greatest hope of rekindling your health.. Still, as it is not yet time for stronger medicine.. I will try to lessen this particular fog little by little by applying gentle remedies of only medium strength."

Lovely line from Lady Philosophy.

But oh! How sweet it is to think that the bed of grace is never shorter than a man can stretch himself upon it; nor the covering of the Almighty love ever shorter than it may cover us. We never need be afraid. If our troubles should become as high as mountains, God's grace would become like Noah's flood; it would go twenty cubits higher till the mountains were covered.

To be human means not only to have human form & powers; it means also to have a human context & to be humanly connected. The navel, no less than speech & the upright posture, is a mark of our being.

Christ is wonderful, even in his death. Perhaps this is the greatest wonder of all, that he who is "Death of death and hell's destruction" should for awhile endure the bonds of death.

Human nature itself lies on the operating table, ready for alteration, for eugenic & neuropsychic "enhancement," for wholesale redesign. In leading laboratories, academic & industrial, new creators are confidently amassing their powers & quietly honing their skills ... For anyone who cares about preserving our humanity, the time has come to pay attention. (4)

Christ loved you before you loved him. He loved you when there was nothing good in you. He loved you though you insulted him, though you despised him & rebelled against him. He has loved you right on, & never ceased to love you. He has loved you in your sins & loved you out of them. His loving heart was still eternally the same, and he shed his heart's blood to prove his love to you.

The smiting of the heart is more painful to a good man than the rough blows of the fist.

Worms, ye are nothing, but ye have devoured princes; worms ye are nothing, but ye have devoured the roots of cedars, and laid them level with the earth... If ye have done this yourselves, what can not we do? Your strength lies in your mouths; our strength lies in ours too. We will use our mouths in prayer, and in constant adoration, and we shall conquer yet, for God is with us, and victory is sure.

The bread of tears in Psalm 80 turns out to be identical to the bread of angels of Psalm 78, for it is when we visit the house of bread & find there the bread of angels, as it is now cooked in ashes, that we weep in repentance, so that our tears produce Christ in our hearts... The bread of tears is indispensable food, for it is none other than the real presence of Christ.

I'm standing over the body of a brother. I'm weeping. Is that his blood or mine? What have we done?

Bonaventure reminds us that cruciformity -- being pierced by the love of God -- is the heart of biblical teaching. Only if we feel the nails of the cross will we also join Christ in his resurrection life. When we embark on divine reading with honesty & integrity, it will yield pain. But surely we rejoice when we remind ourselves that cruciformity means suffering ... with Christ himself.

Man! Thou wouldst not keep a horse that did not work for thee. Would you keep a servant in your house who insulted you? Would you spread bread upon his table, and find livery for his back, if instead of doing your will & good pleasure he would be his own master, & would run counter to you? Certainly you would not. And yet here is God feeding you, and you are rebelling against him.

Paradoxically, it is when we make our home within the temporal flow of words that we find our home within the eternal God who is beyond all words.

Now, soul, gather up these three, & dost thou want more help than they can afford? What! Dost thou need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Dost thou want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays in the Son, & more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring hither thine empty pitcher! Sure this well will fill it.