Our hearts will put us in mind of God's eye being upon us every now and then involuntarily. He will revive us."--HOS. We have received with the utmost gratification the letters of your Fraternity, which have reached us somewhat late by the hands of Donatus and Quodvultdeus, our most reverend brethren and fellow-bishops, and also Victor the deacon with Agilegius the notary. Even in its most rudimental form, invisible to any other ken, it is still open to His eyes, and He determines all its subsequent development, recording in His book the days to come, i.e. Letter Xliii a Consolatory Letter to the Parents of Geoffrey. He then that has no care to keep peace refuses to bear the fruit of the Spirit. ", 2. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. [2105] And these without all controversy we take to be humble. Since then, the Lord has begun to save you, your confidence must be that He who began this good work will continue to operate in your soul. The former are made and fulfilled by its glorious Originator; the latter are enjoined and obligatory on man. lvii. Former President Barack Obama's Faith. 6. Our relation toward such a God should be 1. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration St. The brilliant searchlight sweeping the broad ocean and revealing even the smallest craft on its surface is but a faint type of the Eternal Light from which no sinner can hide his sin. 17, 18).2. He then that has no care to keep peace refuses to bear the fruit of the Spirit. In a declaration of faith, you take something based on Gods Word and promises and say it out loud or in your heart to yourself, so it registers firmly in your mind, enters deep into your spirit, moves from just something you know in your head, to something you believe with all your heart even if you cant see it with your physical eyes, even if what you are going through is the complete opposite of what you are saying. He may be an uncommonly thoughtful person, and little of what is done within his soul may escape his notice; nay, we will make the extreme supposition that he arrests every thought as it rises, and looks at it; that he analyzes every sentiment as it swells his heart; that he scrutinizes every purpose as it determines his will; even if he should have such a thorough and profound self-knowledge as this, God knows him equally profoundly and equally thoroughly. St. Hilary of Poitiers is one of the greatest, yet least studied, of the Fathers of the Western Church. Said Milton, speaking of his travels abroad when a young man: "I again take God to witness that in all places where so many things are considered lawful, I lived sound and untouched from all profligacy and vice, having this thought perpetually with me, that though I might escape the eyes of men, I certainly could not the eyes of God."4. Forasmuch as each man is a part of the human race, and human nature is something social, and hath for a great and natural good, the power also of friendship; on this account God willed to create all men out of one, in order that they might be held in their society not only by likeness of kind, but also by bond of kindred. Ps. From the just we learn justice; from the charitable we catch an infection of charity; from the generous we receive the instinct of generosity. Though the transgressor is ignorant of much of his sin, because, at the time of its commission, he sins blindly as well as wilfully, and unreflectingly as well as freely; and though the transgressor has forgotten much of that small amount of sin, of which he was conscious, and by which he was pained, at the time of its perpetration; though, on the side of man, the powers of self-inspection and memory have accomplished so little towards this preservation of man's sin, yet God knows it all, and remembers it all. Differently to be admonished are those that are at variance and those that are at peace. 18 " Ep., cxxx. If God makes your son His son also, what do you lose or what does he himself lose? 12), while the devil was exulting against us;--then God, in His loving-kindness, not willing man made in His own image to perish, said, Whom shall I send, and who will go?' He must be prepared for the Kingdom that has been prepared for him Saint Bernard of ClairvauxSome Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of ClairvauxThat the Ruler Should be Always Chief in Action. 1, 2. But in almost every case the dazzling rays of a searchlight frustrated the attempt, and the fugitives' vessel was captured by the Americans. The friends of God are glad in the sure hope of being more and more consciously under His eye. Gregory to Dominicus, Bishop of Carthage [1454] . You can speak to the mountain and it will give way (Mark 11:23). We have received with the utmost gratification the letters of your Fraternity, which have reached us somewhat late by the hands of Donatus and Quodvultdeus, our most reverend brethren and fellow-bishops, and also Victor the deacon with Agilegius the notary. For whereas man sinned, and is fallen, and by his fall all things are in confusion: death prevailed from Adam to Moses (cf. In my trouble I will call upon the Lord, and complain unto my God; so shall He hear my voice out of His holy temple, and my complaint shall come before Him; it shall enter even into His ears.--Ps. The separate, personal thinking of God toward every one of us. For if God's exhaustive knowledge of the human heart waken dread in one of its aspects, it starts infinite hope in another. S. Thomas, On the Beatific Vision, I., xii. (1)He knows our actions, ways, words, thoughts. Now, in this condition of things, God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. Take heed unto me and hear me; how I mourn in my prayer and am vexed.--Psalm iv. For that voice more readily penetrates the hearer's heart, which the speaker's life Leo the GreatWritings of Leo the GreatHow those that are at Variance and those that are at Peace are to be Admonished. The worst has been seen, and that too by the holiest of beings, and yet eternal glory is offered to us! Justice, in this reference, is out of the question. "I dwell with him that is of a humble and contrite heart, to revive the heart of the contrite ones."--ISA. Our hearts will put us in mind of God's eye being upon us every now and then involuntarily. 2. The Lord will perfect that which concerns you there. G. T. Shedd, D. D.)God's presenceArchbishop Temple. 1, 2. Rom. If you look at it, you will see that there is in its bowels a full description of a true Christian. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. God has made us so. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. iii. 7-12). When David said the Lord will perfect all that concerns him, he meant that the Lord will fulfill His purpose for our . xlix. He is in (1)Heaven. 7 ad 3m II. G. T. Shedd, D. D.)God's presenceArchbishop Temple. )God all-seeing:In the mythology of the heathen, Momus, the god of fault-finding, is represented as blaming Vulcan, because in the human form, which he had made of clay, he had not placed a window in the breast, by which whatever was done or thought there might easily be brought to light. Before the Searcher of hearts all mankind must appeal to mere and sovereign mercy. 23, 24). (4)In the dark as well as the light.3. 15. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me: Thy right hand shall save me."--PS. 1. 18 " Ep., cxxx. Hence Paul Leo the GreatWritings of Leo the GreatSense in Which, and End for which all Things were Delivered to the Incarnate Son. Rom. Before the Searcher of hearts all mankind must appeal to mere and sovereign mercy. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration St. 7. 1, 2. 19-22). Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius John Edgar McFadyenIntroduction to the Old Testament. There is, therefore, nothing wrong in our forgetting that we are in the presence of God any more than there is anything foolish in our forgetting that we need air to breathe or light to see by, or that if we fall we may hurt ourselves: just in the same way as we very often, and quite rightly, forget that we are in the company of men who will take notice of our faults. That of a prayerful seeking of the Divine guidance (ver. The faith of that Centurion He on this account chiefly praised, and said St. We do not agree with Momus, neither are we of his mind who desired to have a window in his breast that all men might see his heart. Nor did God create these each by himself, and join them together as alien by birth: but He created the one St. English Revised Version (ERV) How priceless the blood of Calvary, in which the saints have "washed their robes and made them white"! )PeopleDavid, PsalmistPlacesJerusalemTopicsAbandon, Accomplish, Age, Chief, Complete, Concerneth, Concerns, David, Endures, Endureth, Eternal, Everlasting, Fall, Forever, Forsake, Fulfil, Fulfill, Hands, Kindness, Love, Loving, Lovingkindness, Loving-kindness, Mercy, Musician, O, Perfect, Psalm, Purpose, Steadfast, WorksOutline1. And this will generally be just when we are tempted to do wrong, or perhaps just when we are actually beginning to do it: some secret sin of which no one knows or dreams perhaps, some self-indulgence, which we dare not deny that God condemns. xlix. Nay, more, this process of self-inspection may go on indefinitely, and the man grow more and more thoughtful, and obtain an everlastingly augmenting knowledge of what he is and what he does, so that it shall seem to him that he is penetrating so deeply into those dim and shadowy regions of consciousness where the external life takes its very first start, and then he may be sure that God understands the thought that is afar off, and deep down, and that at this lowest range and plane in his experience he besets him behind and before. Forasmuch as each man is a part of the human race, and human nature is something social, and hath for a great and natural good, the power also of friendship; on this account God willed to create all men out of one, in order that they might be held in their society not only by likeness of kind, but also by bond of kindred. Before the Searcher of hearts all mankind must appeal to mere and sovereign mercy. (ver. 2. 23, 24). "Forsake not the work of Thine own hands." He does it because it is the good pleasure of His will to do it.