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REALITY CHECK
What we see as we go through life always depends upon where we stand to look.Many a man who tries to talk as if he were standing on a mountain, showsby what he says that he is up to his eyes in the mud.

—Billy Sunday in a sermon, "Under the Sun," from
The Real Billy Sunday

DEEDS
I would go near thee—but I cannot press
Into thy presence—it helps not to presume.
Thy doors are deeds.

—George MacDonald in
3,000 Quotations from George MacDonald

WHEN YOU NEED PRAYER MOST
In times when you are sad and troubled, do not give up the good works ofprayer and penance which you have been in the habit of doing. For the devilwill try to persuade you to abandon them, and unsettle you. Rather, practicethem more than before, and you will see how quickly the Lord will come toyour aid.

—Theresa of Avila in
A Life of Prayer

A VALUABLE INTERFERENCE
Rather than let the world interrupt our time in prayer, how about interruptingthe world with prayer?

—Paul Williams in a sermon
(July 20, 1997)

TOO MANY WORDS
People don't want to hear any more words. In our mechanical age, all wordshave become alike. … To say "God is Love" is like saying, "Eat Wheaties."

—Thomas Merton in
The Spring of Contemplation

ONLY GOD'S INSTRUMENT
Your own efforts "did not bring it to pass," only God—but rejoice if Godfound a use for your efforts in His work.

Rejoice if you feel that what you did was "necessary," but remember, evenso, that you were simply the instrument by means of which He added one tinygrain to the Universe He has created for His own purposes.

—Dag Hammerskjold, a Christmas Eve reflection, quoted in
Dag Hammerskjold: The Man and His Faith

NOT A GAME
Seeking God with one's whole heart is no joke, especially if it might bethe only way to find him.

—Paul L. Holmer in
The Grammar of Faith

FAITH THAT'S WORTHWHILE
So many Americans watched as Cardinal Bernardin faced his mortality. … I think we were all edified by his acceptance of death as a friend andnot an enemy. Any religion that doesn't deal with death realistically isnot worth its salt.

—Archbishop Rembert Weakland in
New York Times Magazine (March 9, 1997)

TIME'S VALUE
Time does not last forever, and therefore I do not want to waste a singlemoment of it. If I make good use of it, I will actually have more of it.

—Ingrid Trobisch in
The Confident Woman

NO DEMOCRACY WITH GOD
For centuries people have blocked, frustrated, humiliated, and oppressedother people to "keep them in their place." Whites have done this wickednessto blacks, rich to poor, men to women. Victims of this oppression have rightlysought to be free.

But a great spiritual danger always accompanies the democratic spirit. Thedanger is that we may seek to rid our lives of not only human but also divinedominion. … The danger in a popular democracy is that we may try todemocratize God. If we don't like God's program, if "our eyes are opened"and we conclude that God isn't necessarily any better qualified than we are,we can simply vote him out and run for office ourselves.

—Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., in
Assurances of the Heart

THE SPIRIT OF CHIRST
I remember once hearing Bishop Whipple … utter these beautiful words:"For thirty years I have tried to see the face of Christ in those with whomI differed." When this spirit actuates us we shall be preserved at once froma narrow bigotry and an easy-going tolerance, from passionate vindictivenessand everything that would mar or injure our testimony for Him who came notto destroy men's lives, but to save them.

—W. H. Griffith Thomas, quoted in
Streams in the Desert

Copyright © 1997 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christianity Today magazine. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail cteditor@christianitytoday.com.

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September 1 1997, Vol. 41, No. 10