The great question

“The great question with every man’s conscience, is, or should be, “what is truth?”  Not, have any of the scribes or rulers of the peoples believed it?  Every man’s eternal all, as well as his present comfort, depends upon what answer he is able to give to the question Pilate of old [John xviii. 38] proposed to Christ, without waiting for a reply. Such a question can only be satisfactorily answered, by an impartial appeal to the Oracles of truth–the alone standard of Divine truth. To these we appeal.–Whatever in this discourse is contrary to them, let it be expunged; what corresponds with them, may the God of truth bless, to those to whom he has given an ear to discern, and a heart to receive it.”

–Alexander Campbell, Preface to The Substance of a Sermon… (Steubenville: Printed by James Wilson, 1816, [4].

This is the closing paragraph to his Preface.

Campbell’s ‘Sermon on the Law’ is available here to read or download.

The present popular exhibition of christianity

“We have to regret that so much appears necessary to be said, in an argumentative way, to the professed Christians of this age, on such a topic.*  But this is easily accounted for on certain principles. For, in truth, the present popular exhibition of christianity is a compound of Judaism, Heathen Philosophy, and Christianity; which, like the materials in Nebuchadnezzar’s, image, do not well cement together.”

–Alexander Campbell, Preface to The Substance of a Sermon… (Steubenville: Printed by James Wilson, 1816, [3].

*The topic under consideration is the phrase “the law” as used by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8.3 and in “similar portions of the sacred scriptures” (ibid, 5).

Campbell’s ‘Sermon on the Law’ is available here to read or download.

The world of books, on a flyaway, by Clarence Day

I found this recently, in typescript, on a fly-away.  It has this attribution: “Clarence Day, one of the founders of the Yale University Press, in his the Story of the Yale University Press Told by a Friend.”

and

this at the bottom of the page: “Some years ago I was assigned to write a paper on university presses for a social history class and ran across this. I think it’s great and have it framed on my desk, an incentive to stick to the job when there are times I’d rather go water the hedge.”

Those preliminaries aside, here is Clarence Day:

—–

“The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall, nations perish, civilizations grow old and die out, and after an era new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men’s hearts of the heart of men centuries dead.”

—–

Spectator sport…voyeurism…armchair psychology

On a pleasant spring afternoon, this guest browsed in my study while I looked for something to give him to read on the plane. His browsing soon became perusing, and he looked at the books on my bookshelves with an intensity of purpose that was not unfamiliar. It is a spectator sort to look at someone else’s books, if not an act of voyeurism or armchair psychology.

–Henry Petroski, The Book on the Bookshelf. New York: Vintage, 1999, p. 6.

Yes, indeed.

Avoid foppery and gaudiness

James DeForest Murch, in his Christian Minister’s Manual (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1937) has this instruction, among others, p. 13:

—–

Neatness and plainness of dress do much to proclaim the man. Avoid foppery and gaudiness, trinkets and jewelry, and anything else which would attract undue attention to the wearer.

—–

Facts and historians

“Study the historian before you begin to study the facts.”

–Edward Hallett Carr

McKenzie observes–for the Christian–a consequence of historical analysis

“The serious study of history is always teaching us either humility or pride. We can’t study the past for long without encountering individuals who did or said or believed things that we now hold to be immoral, even evil. And when that happens, our hearts and minds will lead us down one of two paths: towards self-exaltation–“God, I thank you that I am not like other people”–or toward a deeper awareness of our need for grace–“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Robert Tracy McKenzie, A Little Book for New Historians: Why and How to Study History. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019, p. 99.

Another from St. Hereticus

In the chapter bearing the title Poetic Potpourri of a Priestly Peripatetic, he has this under the heading ‘A Theological Mother Goose’:

The Augustinian Blues

Ba, ba, black sheep,

Have you any will?

Yes, sir, no sir,

I can’t tell.

 

Won by my Master,

I’m in the church.

While the massa damnata

Is left in the lurch.

Robert McAfee Brown, ed. The Collect’d Writings of St. Hereticus. Including manuscripts that have not previously appear’d in print to which are annex’d two appendices on theological gamesmanship & one on researchmanship. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964), 113.

One more from St. Hereticus

In the chapter bearing the title Poetic Potpourri of a Priestly Peripatetic, he has this under the heading ‘A Revised Hymnary’:

Faith of Our Fathers, Wholly Faith

1. LIBERAL VERSION:

Faith of our fathers, once so great.

We must revise or be out of date,

We must distinguish kerygma from myth,

Or they won’t be worth bothering with.

CHORUS:

Faith of our fathers we accept

(Save for the parts that we reject).

 

2. ORTHODOX VERSION:

Faith of our fathers, keep it intact!

They wrote it down precisely exact.

Change no expression, no phrases delete,

Their propositions cannot be beat.

CHORUS:

Faith of our fathers, keep it pure,

Relevance is a sinful lure.

 

3. AMERICAN VERSION:

Faith of our founding fathers! We

Now can express with clarity:

“God’s on our side, he’ll hear every plea

If we’ll expand our economy.”

CHORUS:

Faith of our founding fathers! There

Is nothing quite like laissez-faire.

Robert McAfee Brown, ed. The Collect’d Writings of St. Hereticus. Including manuscripts that have not previously appear’d in print to which are annex’d two appendices on theological gamesmanship & one on researchmanship. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964), 115-116.

Poetic Potpourri of a Priestly Peripatetic, from St. Hereticus

In the chapter bearing the title above, he has this under the heading:

Extra Ecclesiam (Nostram) Nulla Salus

“We worship God in different way,”

A layman says, intent to please;

“It matters not what forms we use,

So long as are on our knees.”

A haughty cleric makes reply

In unctious words which go like this:

“You worship Him in your way,

I’ll worship Him in His.”

Robert McAfee Brown, ed. The Collect’d Writings of St. Hereticus. Including manuscripts that have not previously appear’d in print to which are annex’d two appendices on theological gamesmanship & one on researchmanship. (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964), 108-109.