Callista Quotes

“If, on the other hand,” continued Cæcilius, not noticing her interruption, “if all your thoughts go one way; if you have needs, desires, aims, aspirations, all of which demand an Object, and imply, by their very existence, that such an Object does exist also; and if nothing here does satisfy them, and if there be a message which professes to come from that Object, of whom you already have the presentiment, and to teach you about Him, and to bring the remedy you crave; and if those who try that remedy say with one voice that the remedy answers; are you not bound, {221} Callista, at least to look that way, to inquire into what you hear about it, and to ask for His help, if He be, to enable you to believe in Him?”
― John Henry Newman, Callista

“The number of Thine own complete,
Sum up and make an end;
Sift clean the chaff, and house the wheat—
And then, O Lord, descend. “Descend, and solve by that descent,
This mystery of life;
Where good and ill, together blent,
Wage an undying strife. “For rivers twain are gushing still,
And pour a mingled flood;
Good in the very depths of ill—
Ill in the heart of good. “The last are first, the first are last,
As angel eyes behold;
These from the sheepcote sternly cast,
Those welcomed to the fold. “No Christian home, no pastor’s eye,
No preacher’s vocal zeal,
Moved Thy dear martyr to defy
The prison and the wheel. “Forth from the heathen ranks she stepped
The forfeit throne to claim
Of Christian souls who had not kept
Their birthright and their name. “Grace formed her out of sinful dust;
She knelt a soul defiled;
She rose in all the faith and trust
And sweetness of a child. “And in the freshness of that love
She preached by word and deed,
The mysteries of the world above—
Her new-found glorious creed. “And running, in a little hour,
Of life the course complete,
She reached the throne of endless power,
And sits at Jesus’ feet. “Her spirit there, her body here,
Make one the earth and sky;
We use her name, we touch her bier,
We know her God is nigh.”
― John Henry Newman, Callista: Historical Novel - A Tale of the Third Century

“O wisdom of the world! and strength of the world! what are you when matched beside the foolishness and the weakness of the Christian? You are great in resources, manifold in methods, hopeful in prospects; but one thing you have not—and that is peace.”
― John Henry Newman, Callista: Historical Novel - A Tale of the Third Century

“If Jucundus will listen to me,” said Aristo, “I could satisfy him that the Christians are actually falling off. They once were numerous in this very place; now there are hardly any. They have been declining for these fifty years; the danger from them is past. Do you want to know how to revive them? Put out an imperial edict, forbid them, denounce them.”
― John Henry Newman, Callista: Historical Novel - A Tale of the Third Century