In This Issue: From the DirectorThe object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. G. K. Chesterton If you had never existed before, how would you organize your life today? Born anew, what will you do differently? For my part, I believe I will organize my life in order to better know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and fellowship in his suffering, to become like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead. If you would like to read more of G.K. Chesterton’s works, see Orthodoxy, Heretics, or any of several other books. Several are available in mp3 audio narration format.
Harry Plantinga
Featured ClassicTreasury of Sacred Song: English Lyrical Poetry of Four Centuries Yet if my aim ... to present poetry for poetry's sake, has not here altogether been missed through my own want of taste or discernment, may it not be hoped that the final end and object of all the Fine Arts, and Poetry as the queen of them—permanent pleasure, elevation and enlightenment of the soul—to return to the word, edification in the highest sense—will be secured more effectually and more enduringly, through the subtle, yet powerful aid of melody in words, and beauty in form? Read this classic at the CCEL What's NewThe Christian's Great Interest by William Guthrie (1620-1665) The Second great mark of a gracious state, and true saving interest in Jesus Christ, is the new creature: 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' ... This new creature is called 'the new man,' which doth hold out the extent of it. It is not simply a new tongue, or new hand, but 'a new man.' There is a principle of new life and motion put into the man, which is the new heart; which new principle of life sendeth forth acts of life, or of 'conformity to the image of him who created it;' so that the party is renewed in some measure every way. Read this classic at the CCEL Classic ReflectionsClassic Reflections for the New Year: Augustine on Psalm 90: 'Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: and from age even unto age Thou art' (v. 2). Thou therefore who art for ever, and before we were, and before the world was, hast become our refuge ever since we turned to Thee. ... But he very rightly does not say, Thou wast from ages, and unto ages Thou shalt be: but puts the verb in the present, intimating that the substance of God is altogether immutable. It is not, He was, and Shall be, but only Is. Whence the expression, I Am that I Am; and, I Am 'hath sent me unto you;' (Exod. iii. 14.) and, 'Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.' (Ps. cii. 26, 27.) Behold then the eternity that is our refuge, that we may fly thither from the mutability of time, there to remain for evermore. Read this classic at the CCEL
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The CCEL Times 4.1 (January 2, 2009)
Submitted by bdv4 on Thu, 2008-12-18 13:15.
