From his address, "The Duty of the Christian Business Man" And then seek the Church - oh, yes, the Church. Do you think, my friends, you who stand outside the Church, and blame her for her inconsistencies, and tell of her shortcomings, and point out the corruptions that are in her history, all that are in her present life to-day - do you really believe that there is an earnest man in the Church that does not know the Church's weaknesses and faults just as well as you do? Do you believe that there is one of us living in the life and heart of the Church who don't think with all his conscience, who don't in every day in deep distress and sorrow know how the Church fails of the great life of the Master, how far she is from being what God meant she should be, what she shall be some day? But all the more I will put my life into that Church, all the more I will drink the strength that she can give to me and make what humble contribution to her I can bring of the earne...

Sermon Excerpt: I don’t know or remember how many of us are the firstborn children in our families, but being the firstborn is not that big of a deal in our time. In our post-Freudian age, usually people bring up the idea of being firstborn because they want to talk about the psychology of a firstborn person; otherwise it’s just a curiosity. In comparison with the ages past, we are a strange lot. It used to be that being the firstborn was a very big deal, indeed. The firstborn would inherit the family estate, if there was one. He was certainly saddled with the responsibility of keeping the family going should something happen to the parents, of assuming the family farm or business, and being the protector of his sisters, to be sure they were treated well and married well. In a royal family, it was the firstborn who would inherit the crown. Being firstborn had a lot to do with a person’s life. Well, however people may think of being firstborn in the world today, we Chr...

Over the past few years, there has been some confusion in our area about our church's location. There has been a Reformed Episcopal Church mission on Signal Mountain, which uses the name St. Andrew's. We have decided that we will change our name to St. George's Anglican Church in order to deal with the problem. Our new website will be officially on-line Thursday evening, but you can already find it here: www.stgeorgechattanooga.org .

John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, leads the assault at Blenheim Let us now consider the disciples reaction to all of this. The Gospel says, “Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.” The truth of Jesus’ resurrection finally hit them and the celebration began. I was moved by these words of Charles Simeon, while preparing this sermon: “Gladness is opposed to grief; they had seen the saddest sight that was ever exhibited in the world; - a sight that made the sun to blush, and hide his head beneath the sable mantle of midnight; - a sight that wrung their hearts with unutterable anguish; - but the cause of their grief was removed; - their Lord, who had been torn from them by the cruel hands of lawless rabble, was now restored to them; - he had been dead, but he was now alive again.” Having seen the worst sight of all, they now beheld the best and most wonderful sight of all: the incarnate Son of God risen from the dead! Here was the very focus of the joy of...

Last Supper - Durer The night of the Passover from its very beginning was a night of both fear and comfort. It was a night of fear, because it was a night of the judgment of God. The angel of death went throughout all of Egypt to destroy the first-born of every creature. As Cecil B. DeMille depicts the night in his movie, The Ten Commandments , the whole land would have echoed with screams of terror and sorrow that night. But, in the house of all those, Jew or Gentile, that had obeyed Moses and placed the blood of the lamb upon the posts and lintels of their doorways, there was comfort. The comfort was not just that the angel of death would pass them. The comfort was that the day of deliverance had finally come. This was God’s last stroke upon Pharoah which would make him let His people go. It was a feast of comfort that 400 years of slavery under Egypt ’s yoke had come to an end. The day of redemption had finally dawned for God’s people. How much more was the nigh...

Entrance to Ridley Hall, Cambridge - busy with some work that day! X. christian service. This chapter reproduces a written Address prepared for a public occasion. It has been left on purpose nearly as it originally stood. C hristian Service, in its full idea, is a phrase practically coextensive with Christian life; and Christian life is, in the intention of the Gospel, nothing less, nothing narrower, than the whole life of the Christian; morning, noon, and night; alone, in private, in society, in public; at all times and in all places. From one point of view, and that a most important point, he not only is a servant of the Lord, but he is a servant of the Lord in such a way, under such conditions, that the whole action of his life falls under the description of service. As he always exists, as a Christian, in and by his Master, so he always exists for his Master. He has, in the reality of the matter, no dissociated and independent interest. Not only in preaching and teachin...

The local Reformed Episcopal Church, on Signal Mtn., has put up a very attractive sign on the highway that has our church's name on it. We are on good "speaking terms" and hope to have this cause of confusion resolved in a friendly and biblical manner in the near future.

My bishop just sent this to me. Worth the read. It's on Ingrid Schlueter's blog, "Slice of Laodicea" (see my links). She's a great lady. Read the article here .

The New Jerusalem, and the Angel with the Key to the Pit by Albrecht Dürer Image: http://biblia.com/heaven/heav-durer.htm Today we celebrate the mid-point in Lent, which we call Refreshment Sunday. In England , it is commonly called Mothering Sunday, and that can be traced back to the Epistle reading for the day, wherein the apostle Paul speaks of Jerusalem as the mother of us all (Galatians iv.26). What does he mean by that? The passage as a whole is a bit difficult because Paul changes his symbols or metaphors a few times. We can understand it, but we have to keep our thinking caps on as we read it. The first thing we have to do is remember what the rest of the epistle has been about. Paul is trying to help the Galatians Christians to understand that their faith is based upon God’s gracious saving act on our behalf in His Son, Jesus Christ, and is not dependent upon keeping the old Jewish laws which pertained to the covenant under Moses. That was an issue in that ...

Bishop Handley Carr Glyn Moule (1841-1920) The following is found in Bishop Moule's Thoughts on Union with Christ , and has been a mainstay of my life for decades: A MORNING “ACT OF FAITH.” I believe on the Name of the Son of God . Therefore I am in Him , having Redemption through His Blood, and Life by His Spirit. And He is in me , and all fulness is in Him. To Him I belong, by purchase, conquest, and self-surrender. To me He belongs, for all my hourly need. There is no cloud between my Lord and me. There is no difficulty, inward or outward, which He is not ready to meet in me to-day. The Lord is my Keeper. Amen.