Two young men of like intent met Mr. Haynes, of Vermont, and said with mock sad faces, “Have you heard the news? the Devil is dead.” Quick came the answer, “Oh, poor, fatherless children! what will become of you?”
– from The Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle
“If you are ignorant of Lora Delane Porter’s books that is your affair. Perhaps you are more to be pitied than censured. Nature probably gave you the wrong shape of forehead. Mrs. Porter herself would have put it down to some atavistic tendency or pre-natal influence. She put most things down to that. She blamed nearly all the defects of the modern world, from weak intellects to in-growing toe-nails, on long-dead ladies and gentlemen who, safe in the family vault, imagined that they had established their alibi. She subpoenaed grandfathers and even great-grandfathers to give evidence to show that the reason Twentieth-Century Willie squinted or had to spend his winters in Arizona was their own shocking health ‘way back in the days beyond recall.”
– P.G. Wodehouse in Their Mutual Child
Here is how I’m doing on my Q1 (Jan-Mar 2011) reading goals. Books with a strikethrough are completed and books in bold are at least started.
“The holy men and women of both Testaments of the Bible provide the necessary examples of the good life”
– Bruce Gordon in Calvin on John Calvin’s teaching on Christianity living
“Though [the historical mode of theology] has done some good by revitalizing interest in the Reformed heritage, some have found deficiencies in the theology emerging from this movement. The main issue is sola Scriptura. The Reformed tradition consists, not in merely repeating previous Reformed traditions, but, as with Calvin, in using the Scriptures to criticize tradition. The history-oriented theologians tend to be uncritical of traditions and critical of the contemporary church. But their arguments are often based on their preferences rather than biblical principle and therefore fail to persuade. The Reformed community, in my judgment, needs to return to an explicitly exegetical model of theology, following the example of John Murray. The exegetical approach is also (perhaps paradoxically) the most contemporary approach, for it applies Scripture directly to our lives today. This question is, of course, one of emphasis. We should never ignore our past. But my view is that the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of a historical emphasis.”
– John Frame in Machen’s Warrior Children
“the psalm-book of all French Protestants has been that of Marot and Beza. This French version of the psalms is of special interest to all thoughtful students of the history of Protestantism, because it was the first metrical translation of the psalms ever sung and used by the people; and it was without doubt one of the most powerful influences that assisted in the religious awakening of the Reformation.”
– from The Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle
All the cider made by the New England elders did not tend to gloom, and they were celebrated for their fine cider. The best cider in Massachusetts–that which brought the highest price–was known as the Arminian cider, because the minister who furnished it to the market was suspected of having Arminian tendencies.
– from The Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle
A very telling compliment to the cider of one of the first New England ministers is thus recorded: “Mr. Whiting had a score of appill-trees from which he made delicious cyder. And it hath been said yt an Indyan once coming to hys house and Mistress Whiting giving him a drink of ye cyder, he did sett down ye pot and smaking his lips say yt Adam and Eve were rightlie damned for eating ye appills in ye garden of Eden, they should have made them into cyder.”
– also from The Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle
one honest soul did not hesitate to thank the Lord in the pulpit for the “many barrels of cider vouchsafed to us this year.”
– also from The Sabbath in Puritan New England by Alice Morse Earle
“I’m going out to win the future right now!” – Tabatha Sharkley @ The Onion
