Classic & Contemporary Excerpts from November 21, 1986

It’s Hard To Hear

Miniature tape players are no doubt traffic hazards, and they certainly feed the hedonism that is the fate of America in the late 20th century. But perhaps their greatest danger is to call into existence still one more competitor to the voice of God.

—Mark Noll, “The Walkman Cometh,” in The Reformed Journal (July 1986)

No More Fugues

The idea that one would build a chair or write a fugue for the sake of making the best chair or music one can is foreign to our culture, even our religious culture. When we ask “Will it fly?” we mean “Will it sell, will it catch on?” If we are being idealistic, we may translate that into “Does it have a message?” Either way, it is taken for granted that the work must have some purpose outside itself.…

Which is why hardly anyone writes fugues anymore. Last year we celebrated Bach’s 300th birthday and loaded him with all sorts of meretricious accolades—all because he was one of us and an aesthetic feather in the cap of the Protestant church. Yet Bach … certainly could not make it at all today in the Amy Grant market. What kind of “message” does a fugue have, after all, except the precision and balance of its own form?

—Virginia Stem Owens, “On Eating Words” in The Reformed Journal (June 1986)

Separation From God

What gnashing is not a comfort, what gnawing of the worm is not a tickling, what torment is not a marriage bed to this damnation, to be secluded eternally, eternally, eternally from the sight of God?

—John Donne in Sermons (No. 76)

Created By Love

The beasts of the field say: “Love made me.” The birds of the air say: “Love made me.” The creatures that swim in the rivers and the sea say: “Love made me.” Only man, his back turned to the sun, does not say “Love made me.” But when he turns round in the light of Christ, then he too knows in his heart “Love made me” and he cries out with every living creature, “Love made me! My Father in heaven loves me.”

—Michael Sellers in The Word of God and the Wisdom of Man

Rot Begets Rot

I have no potency to influence for good in the “things that are touched” [Hag. 2:12–14], but am capable of influencing for evil.… This is a strange principle—rot will encourage rot, but one ripe piece of fruit will not allay rottenness in another. Surely righteousness has the power to make righteous, if it be found in strong enough proportions; but in Israel it was not so. God was not satisfied with their carelessness regarding His house and made their work profitless.

—Jim Elliot in The Journals of Jim Elliot

What Good Is Pain?

Sometimes it is spiritual pain which makes us aware that we need a transfusion. Just as physical pain is a marvel for the human body, an early warning system, so is spiritual pain.… We are all part of this battered, bleeding bride, struggling to regain beauty and purity. And there is nothing, nothing but a transfusing love, which will make any difference at all.

We need our pain warnings before we can turn to love. Yet if we watch television or read magazines, we often come across a different attitude toward pain: avoid it, deaden it. But when we take a pill, when we kill the pain, we don’t heed its warning.

—Madeleine L’Engle in A Stone for a Pillow

Making Life Worthwhile

Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account.

—Malcolm Muggeridge, quoted by David Boehi in Worldwide Challenge (JulylAug. 1986)

Whatever Happened To Sacrifice?

Sacrifice is a word a power-hungry church just doesn’t understand. A church that cares about power—the power of a large membership, power in the world, political power, television power or persuasive opinion power—doesn’t know the principle of sacrifice. [Far too many Christians have neglected and even repudiated the example of Jesus Christ, who eschewed coercion in favor of quiet persuasion and whose] method of acting was his willingness to die for those who would not die.… [When Christianity seeks to] arrogate power to enforce its righteous principles upon the whole world, it is in no way dying. This is in no way sacrifice.

—Walter Wangerin, Jr., quoted by Bruce Buursma in the Chicago Tribune (Aug. 8, 1986)

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