A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.  If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household?  (Matthew 10:24-25)

Mon. 8.  We set out early in the morning and, the next evening, came to London.  Wednesday, 10th, I visited one that was in violent pain and consumed away with pining sickness, but, in everything, giving thanks and greatly rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.  From her, we went to another, dangerously ill of the smallpox, but desiring neither life nor ease, but only the holy will of God.  If these are unbelievers (as some of the still brethren have lately told them), I am content to be an unbeliever all my days.

Thur. 11.  I visited a poor woman who, lying ill between her two sick children, without either physic or food convenient for her, was mightily praising God, her Savior, and testifying, as often as she could speak, her desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.

John Wesley (1703-1791), journal entries for September 8, 10, and 11, 1740.

He was definitely an unbeliever:

I can, indeed, hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for, if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother, and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished.  And this is a damnable doctrine.

**

A being so powerful and so full of knowledge as a God who could create the universe is, to our finite minds, omnipotent and omniscient, and it revolts our understanding to suppose that his benevolence is not unbounded, for what advantage can there be in the sufferings of millions of lower animals throughout almost endless time.

**

A man who has no assured and no present belief in the existence of a personal God or a future existence with retribution and rewards can have, for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem, to him, the best ones.  A dog acts in this manner, but he does so blindly.  A man, on the other hand, looks forwards and backwards and compares his various feelings, desires, and recollections.  He then finds, in accordance with the verdict of the wisest men, that the highest satisfaction is derived from following certain impulses, namely, the social instincts.  If he acts for the good of others, he will receive the approbation of his fellow men and gain the love of those with whom he lives; and this latter gain undoubtedly is the highest pleasure on this earth.  By degrees, it will be more intolerable to him to obey his sensuous passions rather than his highest impulses which, when rendered habitual, may be almost called instincts.  His reason may, occasionally, tell him to act in opposition to the opinion of others, whose approbation he will then not receive; but, he will still have the solid satisfaction of knowing that he has followed his innermost judge or conscience.

From: Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution by Gertrude Himmelfarb (London: Chatto & Windus, 1959), pp. 318-319.  These are direct quotations from Darwin’s writings.

He encourages himself from the consolatory consideration that God, when He sees His own people sore pressed, comes forward seasonably to afford them succor, even as Paul, on this subject, says, “Be not over-careful, the Lord is at hand, let your moderation be known to all men” (Philippians 4:5).  The concluding sentence of the verse is to this effect: that God never forsakes nor disappoints His people in their necessity because He is true to His promises and, in them, assures us that the welfare of His people will always be the object of His care.  That, therefore, we may be fully persuaded that the hand of God is always ready to repulse the assaults of our enemies, let us retain a settled belief of the truth that He does not, in vain, promise, in His word, to be the guardian of our welfare.

From: Commentary on the Book of Psalms by John Calvin.  Comment on Psalm 119:151.

Here is: 1. David’s inexpressible love to the word of God: O how I love thy law!  He protests his affection to the word of God with a holy vehemency; he found love to it in his heart which, considering the corruption of his nature and the temptations of the world, he could not but wonder at, and at that grace which had wrought it in him.  He not only loved the promises, but loved the law, and delighted in it after the inner man.  2.  An unexceptionable evidence of this.  What we love, we love to think of; by this, it appeared that David loved the word of God that it was his meditation.  He not only read the book of the law, but digested what he read in his thoughts, and was delivered into it as into a mould: it was his meditation not only in the night, when he was silent and solitary, and had nothing else to do, but in the day, when he was full of business and company; nay, and all the day; some good thoughts were interwoven with his common thoughts, so full was he of the word of God.

From: Commentary on the Whole Bible by Matthew Henry.  Comment on Psalm 119:97.

Fifthly, the principle of retribution is an integral part of the rule of God.  Those who fight against God will find God fighting against them.  The net they hid for me will entangle them; they will fall into the pit they dug for me (verses 7-8).  One would not expect to find profound theology in the operas  [actually, operettas] of Gilbert and Sullivan but, amid the buffoonery of The Mikado, there is a terrifying depth to the words “My object all sublime I shall achieve in time, To let the punishment fit the crime.”  We do well to realize this – and, it may be added, to apply it to the wickedness of our own hearts.

From: The Message of Psalms 1-72: Songs for the People of God by Michael Wilcock; The Bible Speaks Today series (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001), p. 123.

One thing, alone, almost led him astray because of his passion for books.  He could have manuscripts copied for his own use at special government rates.  He deliberated on the justice of this, and decided on the better choice, judging it more expedient to keep integrity, which would forbid it, than to use the power by which it was an allowed perquisite.

This is a small matter.  But “he who is faithful in little is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10-22).  The word which proceeds from the mouth of your truth will never be empty (cf. Isaiah 55:11): “If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will give you the true?  And, if you have not been faithful with someone else’s property, who will give you your own?” (Luke 16:11-12).

That was the character of the man who then attached himself to me and used to debate with me, hesitant what manner of life ought to be adopted.

From: Confessions by Augustine; translated from the Latin by Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 1992 [1991]), p. 103.  Translating Confessions 6.10.16.

Posted in memory of Henry Chadwick (June 23, 1920 – June 17, 2008), one of the best patristics scholars of the second half of the 20th century.  His translation of this famous spiritual autobiography is a very elegant piece of work, and one of my favorite translations.  Having just discovered that Chadwick died last year, just six days before his 88th birthday, I thought I would post this excerpt in his honor.  (Another favorite translation of this work is R. S. Pine-Coffin’s, from 1961.)

Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore, my soul keeps them.  The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.  I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments.  Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name.  Keep steady my steps, according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.  Redeem me from man’s oppression, that I may keep your precepts.  Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.  My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.  (Psalm 119:129-136)

“Hear me for your mercy-sake,” is our best plea.  He who will not ask such blessings as pardon, and justifying righteousness, and eternal life, must perish for the want of them.  Alas! that so many should make so fearful a choice.  The psalmist warns against sin.  Keep up holy reverence of the glory and majesty of God.  You have a great deal to say to your hearts, they may be spoken with, let it not be unsaid.  Examine them by serious self-reflection; let your thoughts fasten upon that which is good, and keep close to it.  Consider your ways and, before you turn to sleep at night, examine your consciences with respect to what you have done in the day; particularly, what you have done amiss, that you may repent of it.  When you are awake in the night, meditate upon God, and the things that belong to your peace.  Upon a sick-bed, particularly, we should consider our ways.  Be still.  When you have asked conscience a question, be serious, be silent, and wait for an answer.  Open not the mouth to excuse sin.  All confidence only: therefore, after commanding the sacrifices of righteousness, the psalmist says, “Put your trust in the Lord.”  In singing these verses, we must preach to ourselves the doctrine of the provoking nature of sin, the lying vanity of the world, and the unspeakable happiness of God’s people; and we must press upon ourselves the duties of fearing God, conversing with our own hearts, and offering spiritual sacrifices; and, in praying over these verses, we must beg of God grace thus to think and thus to do.

From: Matthew Henry: Daily Readings, edited by Randall J. Pederson (Fearn: Christian Heritage, 2009).  This is the meditation for November 6, which is an adaptation of Henry’s comments on Psalm 4:1-5.

Charles Rosenbury Erdman (1866-1960).  Presbyterian clergyman and educator.  Born in Fayetteville, New York, the son of premillennialist leader William Jacob Erdman, Charles Erdman was raised in a New School Presbyterian environment.  After graduating from Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, Erdman served churches in Overbrook and Germantown, Pennsylvania.  In 1906, he assumed the chair of practical theology at Princeton Seminary, which he held until his retirement in 1936.  He pastored First Presbyterian Church, in Princeton, from 1924 to 1934.

In 1925, at the height of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy in the Presbyterian Church USA, Erdman won election as moderator of the general assembly.  Though a self-described fundamentalist, he believed that the unified evangelical mission of the church was more important than precise doctrinal agreement.  At a crucial moment in the general assembly, when fundamentalists were apparently succeeding in forcing liberal Presbyterians into doctrinal conformity, Erdman referred the issue to a committee and so broke the momentum of the fundamentalist exclusivists.  Erdman was, also, a major voice for inclusivism in an extended feud among Princeton faculty that led to the reorganization of the seminary and the exodus of some faculty to form Westminster Theological Seminary [in Philadelphia]  in 1929.  He, also, sat on the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions from 1906 to 1942 and was president of the board from 1926 to 1940.  Erdman wrote more than thirty books, most of which were biblical commentaries, and contributed to The Fundamentals [1910-1915].  He numbered Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, and Billy Sunday among his friends.

From: Dictionary of the Presbyterian and Reformed Tradition in America, D. G. Hart, general editor (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p. 92.  The article was written by B. J. Longfield.

Erdman was no relation to William B. Eerdmans, of the well-known publishing company of that name.