Bulletin 2.9.25

Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: “Please, sir, I want some more.”

The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupefied astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder; the boys with fear.

“What!” said the master at length, in a faint voice.

'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more.”

The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle… 

– Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1837-1839)

And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity: that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.

- Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death (1849)

Faith consists not in doing something but in receiving something. To say that we are justified by faith is just another way of saying that we are justified not in slightest measure by ourselves, but simply and solely by the One in whom our faith is reposed…faith means receiving something, not doing something or even being something…At bottom, faith is in one sense a very simple thing; it simply means that, abandoning the vain effort of earning one's way into God's presence, we accept the gift of salvation which Christ offers so full and free.

- J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith? (1925)

It is an item of faith that we are children of God; there is plenty of evidence in us against it. The faith that surmounts this evidence and that is able to warm itself at the fire of God's love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of holiness. . . . We are not saved by the love we exercise, but by the love we trust.

- Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (1979, p. 213)

Psalm 145.8-13 (A Responsive Reading) 

Reader: The LORD is gracious and merciful; 

Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

People: The LORD is good to all, 

Reader: And His mercies are over all His works.

All Your works shall give thanks to You, O LORD, 

People: And Your godly ones shall bless You.

Reader: They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom 

And talk of Your power;

People: To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts 

Reader: And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 

ALL: And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

(Prayer)