"You have put salt in our mouths that we may thirst for you"

"Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, "Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head." In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all. The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers; the other says to its God, "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.""

"This is what comes, he says, of giving one's heart to anything but God. All human beings pass away. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only Beloved who will never pass away."

"Thou hast made us for thyself,"

"The cause, not the suffering, makes a genuine martyr"

"God who does ntot deprive us of sanity, nor permit another to do so:"

"The divine scriptures then are in the habit of making something like children's toys out of things that occur in creation, by which to entice our sickly gaze abd get us step by step to seek as best we can the things that are above and forsake the things that are below.""The more cleansed we are from the swelling of pride, the more we are filled with love; and is not whoever is filled with love filled with God?"

"O Lord my God, my one hope, hearken to me, lest through weariness I be unwilling to seek Thee, "but that I may always ardently seek Thy face." Do Thou give strength to seek, who hast made me find Thee, and hast given the hope of finding Thee more and more. My strength and my infirmity are in Thy sight: preserve the one, and heal the other. My knowledge and my ignorance are in Thy sight; where Thou hast opened to me, receive me as I enter; where Thou hast closed, open to me as I knock. May I remember Thee, understand Thee, love Thee. Increase these things in me, until Thou renewest me wholly."

"since no man is wicked by nature but is wicked only by some defect, a man who lives according to God owes it to wicked men that his hatred be perfect, so that, neither hating the man because of his corruption nor loving the corruption because of the man, he should hate the sin but love the sinner."

"There is no reason to doubt that the contrary dispostions which have developed among these good and bad angels are due, not to different nautres and origins, for God the Author and Creator of all substances has created them both, but to the dissimilar chioces and desires of these angels themselves. Some, remaining faithful to God, the common good of all, have lived in the enjoyment of His eternity, truth, and love, while others, preferring the enjoyment of their own power, as though they were their own good, departed from the higher good and common blessedness for all and turned to goods of their own choosing. Preferring the pomp of pride to this sublimity of eternity, the craftiness of vanity to the certanty of truth, and the turmoil of dissenion to the union of love, they became proud, deceitful and envious. Since the happiness of all angels consists in union with God, it follows that their unhappiness must be found in the very contrary, that is, in not adhering to God. The question: "Why are the good angels happy?" the right answer is: "because they adhere to God." To the Question: "Why are others unhappy?" the answer is: "Because they do not adhere to God." In fact, there is no other good which can make any rational or intellectual creature happy except God."

"But now, by a greater and more wonderful grace of the Saviour, the punishment of sin serves the purposes of sanctity. In the beginning, the first man was warned:"If you sin, you shall die"; now, the martyr is admonished; "Die that you may not sin" The first man was told: "If you transgress, you shall die the death"; now, the martyr is remninded: "If you refuse death, you transgress the commandment." What before was to be feared, if a man were to keep himself from sin, is now to be faced, if he is not to sin. Thus, by the indeffable mercy of God, the penalty of sin is transformed into the panoply of virtue and the punishment of the sinner into the testing of a saint. This does not mean that death, which before was an evil, has now become something good. But it means that God has rewarded faith with so much grace that death, which seems to be the enemy of life, becomes an ally that helps man enter into life."

"It breaks the heart of any good man to hear this, for, even if he be brave enough to bear, or vigilant enough to beware of the ruses of faithless friends, he, must suffer greatly just the same when he discovers how treacherous they are. And it makes no difference whether they were genuine friends who have tunrned traitors, or traitorous men who had been trading on pretended affection all along." 

"But who is the bishop who is called a bishop and is not one? He who rejoices in that honor rather than the salvation of God's flock, who in that high office seeks his own ends, not those of Jesus Christ. He is called a bishop but is not a bishop; the name is of no use to him, but no one calls him anything else." 

"This, then, in this world, is the life of virtue. When God commands, man obeys; when the soul commands, the body obeys; when reason rules, our passions, even when they fight back, must be conquered or resisted; man must beg God's grace to win merit and the remission of his sins and must thank God for the blessing he receives.

"And what will make the second death so hard to bear is that there will be no death to end it."

"I mean the sparrow husband doesn't say. "I will feed my children, so that when I grow old they may feed me." No such thoughts as that; he loves them freely, feeds them freely for nothing; he shows the affection of a parent, he doesn't expect any reward."

"The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave,"

"The Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on her course."

"In the 1790s some Anglican theologians calculated that the papacy as an institution assumed full power over the church in 538 CE under Pope Vigilius. If the beast was to rule 1,260 years, then his demise would come in 1798. As it turns out, that was the date Napoloen's chief of staff, Louis Alexandre Berthier, invaded the Vatican, banished Pope Pius VI from office, imprisoned him, and established the Roman Republic. This was the "mortal wound" that Revelation predicted the beast would receive (Revelation 13:3)."

"Millions of Christians believe God has called people to be good stewards of all he has given. The wholesale destruction of natural habitats, the reckless ravaging of resources, the poisoning of the planet—none of that can be sanctioned by the God who looked at his creation and "called it good". Among the evangelicals, such views are taking hold and growing."

Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good.

"Give me such love for God and men, as will blot out all hatred and bitterness"

"The servants of God are those who are hated by the world"

"So many suffered that the murderous axe was dulled, and the executioners grew weary"

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

"Love all God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light.... If you love everyhing you will perceive the divine mystery in all things;"

“Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. Keep your thoughts free from hate, and you need have no fear from those who hate you.”

“The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible, " "In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:6)"

"Furthermore, in the counsels of divine justice, there seems to be a quota of iniquity that God permits before He punishes a people either in a minor way or by obliteration."

"As children of the light of truth, flee from division and false teaching, where the shepherd is there follow like sheep"

"The infidel scoff, that the threatened judgment was so long in coming, it would not come at all, had by frequent repetition come to be a "proverb" with them. This skeptical habit contemporary prophets testify to."

"Our walls glitter with gold.. yet Christ is dying at our doors in the person of his poor"

"Can a man believe in Christ and not be hated by the devil? Can he
make a profession of this Christ, and that sweetly and
convincingly, and the children of Satan hold their tongue? Can
darkness agree with Iight? or the devil endure that Christ Jesus
should be honoured both by faith and a heavenly conversation,
and let that soul alone at quiet? Did you never read that the
dragon persecuteth the woman (RV 12:13); and that Christ saith,
"ln the world ye shall have tribulation" (JN 16:33)?"

"In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart."

"You say that you are my judge; I do not know if you are; but take good heed not to judge me ill, because you would put yourself in great peril."

“It is a press, certainly, but a press from which shall flow in inexhaustible streamsThrough it, God will spread His Word. A spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknown to shine amongst men.”

“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing!”

"If thy heart be as my heart, give me thy hand"

"I believe that in the end truth will conquer"

"If we are guided by divine scripture, we shall not err, for he who speaks in it is the Holy Spirit"

"Lords and chieftains
to his side he summoned swift to hasten
their tryst keeping, true to Mordred,
faithful in falsehood, foes of Arthur,
lovers of treason, lightly purchased
followers of fortune, and freebooters"

"Dear she loved him
with love unyielding, lady ruthless,
fair as fay-woman and fell-minded
in the world walking for the woe of men."

"Treason trod there trumpets sounding
in power and pride. Princess faithless
on shore their shields shameless marshalled,
their king betraying, Christ forsaking,
to heathen might their hope turning."

"People say, 'We want another Pentecost.' I don't believe them for a minute. Pentecost in the New Testament is tied in with persecution, poverty (and) prison! The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecution. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity."

"When I was in the prison, I always remembered Daniel 12, talking about suffering on earth, receiving the reward in heaven. I wanted my life to be like the shining star for God(Daniel 12:3)."

"No matter what you may do to me, it will not stop me from sharing the message of salvation in this viilage"

"I know the for sure that the more they persecute me, the more I will be rewarded by God, so I am not afraid to die. Actually they are not our enemies. In the end, the one that forces people to persecute me is satan."

"I cannot stay home without sharing the gospel; my heart would go out. That is why even until today I am still an evangelsit. Please pray for my health. Pray for my heart so that I can share the gospel with even more people than ever before."

"I am not afraid because I have God with me and I pray to God, 'Lord, let me die serving you.'":

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."

"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."

"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

"It is the kind messenger to take you from sin and sorrow, and to guide you to your Father's house."

"It's impossiobel to love God without loving the Cross; and a heart that delights in the Cross finds the most bitter things sweet"

"I am a poor old woman who knows nothing, who cannot read. But in the Church I see Paradise painted, and Hell where the damned broil"

"We’re reminded, then, that we have much in common with the second-century church. Therefore there is much cause for hope. That weak, fledgling, persecuted church not only survived, but eventually spread across the empire and the entire world.

That didn’t happen because the early Christians abandoned these distinctives. It happened for precisely the opposite reason: they stayed faithful to them.

If we in the modern church remain faithful to them, we can share in the same hope."

[Testimony is borne to these things in writing by Papias, an ancient man, who was a hearer of John and a friend of Polycarp, in the fourth of his books;]

"As the elders who saw John the disciple of the Lord remembered that they had heard from him how the Lord taught in regard to those times, and said]: The days will come in which vines shall grow, having each ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true twig ten thousand shoots, and in every one of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give five-and-twenty metretes of wine. And when any one of the saints shall lay hold of a cluster, another shall cry out, 'I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me.' In like manner, [He said] that a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear would have ten thousand grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds of clear, pure, fine flour; and that apples, and seeds, and grass would produce in similar proportions; and that all animals, feeding then only on the productions of the earth, would become peaceable and harmonious, and be in perfect subjection to man."

"Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face."

"I have believed in the Son of God... For he alone is the end of slavation, and the basis of immortal life; for he is a refuge to the tempest tossed, a solace to the afflicted, a shelter to the despairing!"

"Jesus now has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross"

"A martyrdom is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the Will of God, not lost it but found it, for he has found freedom in submission to God.  The martyr no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of martyrdom."

"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God"

"Where there remains one darkened soul without the light of God I'll fight!"

"Man, please thy Maker, and be merry,
And give not for this world a cherry."