Messages

  • The spirit shall order them to teach

    “In the general service of the church of God, the aged men, and aged women in the truth, are to be teachers of good things, as the Lord shall order them with his spirit, to teach and instruct, exhort, admonish, reprove, rebuke, with the holy spirit; for the least member hath an office, and every believer in the light, (which is the life in Christ,) is a member of Christ’s church, and grafted into him; and so he is the holy head of the church, and they are heirs of his order, and of his government, of the increase of which there is no end, in his eternal power and spirit.”

  • I expect to pass through this world but once

    “I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

  • Even to gray hairs will I carry you

    “‘I have made, and I will bear, and even to gray hairs will I carry you.’

    Precious promise! Forever trust in it. Dismiss all anxious fears, all quailings of the fleshly mind in contemplating your transit to another state. He who gave you your being, and appointed your place and condition in this life, will not fail to be near you when you pass through the valley of the shadow of death.”

  • How to overcome death

    “We must overcome death by finding God in it. And by the same token, we shall find the divine established in our innermost hearts, in the last stronghold which might have seemed able to withstand him.”

  • What I most regretted were my silences

    “In becoming forcibly and essentially aware of my mortality, and of what I wished and wanted for my life, however short it might be, priorities and omissions became strongly etched in a merciless light and what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid?” 

  • Penn: Turning from time to eternity

    “The truest end of life is to know the life that never ends. He that makes this his care, will find it his crown at last. And he that lives to live ever, never fears dying: nor can the means be terrible to him that heartily believes the end.

    For though death be a dark passage, it leads to immortality, and that’s recompense enough for suffering of it. And yet faith lights us, even through the grave, being the evidence of things not seen.

    And this is the comfort of the good, that the grave cannot hold them, and that they live as soon as they die. For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity. Death, then, being the way and condition of life, we cannot love to live, if we cannot bear to die.”

  • Neither death nor life, angels nor demons

    “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

  • What is retirement for?

    “Six and one-half years into retirement, I ask: what is retirement for? The signposts around me are inadequate and the expectations ill- defined at best. The advice available is of the kind that says, ‘Start saving early so you’ll have enough money for what you want.’ ‘Watch your health so you’ll be able to do what you want.’ ‘Here are the 20 best places to live if you want to play golf, or fish, or enjoy the weather.’ ‘Do this or do that so you can leave to your heirs what you have worked so hard to accumulate.’ ‘Don’t be a burden to your children or interfere in their lives.’ ‘Get a hobby.’ ‘Volunteer.’ None of these seemed to come close to answering the question that opened for me: ‘What is retirement for?'”

  • Transmuting loneliness into solitude

    “The most effective workshop for learning how to hallow one’s diminishments is the faithful practice of contemplative prayer…. Loneliness, which is a negative experience, can be transmuted into solitude, which is a positive blessing. Loneliness of itself debilitates. Solitude builds up, affords a conscious setting in which significant growth in the life of the Spirit can take place. Solitude is a gift of time without accompanying distraction, an opportunity to keep company with one’s own soul. It is where the Holy Spirit can help one harness one’s own cross in such a way that it can be carried without too great strain. It is what St. Paul called, ‘the life which is hid with Christ in God.'”

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