What makes enemies (like terrorists) bold

Our dastardly enemy has held us contempt . . . Is the enemy confident of his valor and contemptuous of our cowardice? No, indeed; he has too often been beaten, too often driven from his camp . . . The truth is that our communal life is poisoned by political discord and party strife, and it was that which raised his hopes of destroying us, seeing, as he did . . . each party's loathing of the representative magistracies of the other.

How is it to end? Will the time ever come when we can have a . . . united country?
--Livy, circa A.D. 15

When bad things happen to good people

And what is trouble but that very influence that brings you nearer to the heart of God than prayers or hymns? I think sorrows usually bring us closer to God than joys do. but sorrows, to be of use, must be borne, as Christ's were, victoriously, carrying with them imtimations and sacred prophecies to the heart of hope. This is not only so we will not be overcome by them, but also so we will be strengthened and ennobled and enlarged by them.
--Henry Ward Beecher

More Livy

True moderation in the defence of political liberties is indeed a difficult thing: pretending to want fair shares for all, every man raises himself by depressing his neighbor; our anxiety to avoid oppression leads us to practice it ourselves; the injustice we repel, we visit in turn upon others, as if there were no choice except either to do it or suffer it.
--Livy

The third option would be equal protection under the law, guaranteed private property rights, abolition of class privileges in the organization of government, limited government powers, and trial by a jury of peers.

On Shared Danger

Shared danger is the strongest of bonds; it will keep men united in spite of mutual dislike and suspicion.
--Livy

Not so the Democrats! The shared danger of terrorism is the means by which they DIVIDE in hope of regaining popularity and power.

Why? Because their goal is to destroy everything we consider "American."

Why? In the mocking irony of their name, Democrats hate democracy. They do not trust the American people, the voters.

Why? Because their professional politicians are Communists in everything but name only. And Communists hate the American way of life. They seek the destruction of America as the crucial action in establishing their global, Marxist-Leninist tyranny. We are in their way, especially Madame Mao Clinton.

Strong words, but not libelous.

Truth.

On Liberty

In such circumstances, ... they would, no doubt, have set sail on the stormy sea of democratic politics, swayed by the gusts of popular eloquence and quarreling for power with the governing class of a city which did not even belong to them, before any real sense of community had had time to grow. That sense--the only true patriotism--comes slowly and springs from the heart: it is founded upon respect for the family and love of the soil.
--Livy, History of Rome, Book II

Should we interpret this as a criticism of multi-culturalism? Certainly it criticizes the idea that a nation can last as a mixed bag of cultures opposed to one another in many points.

But the idea that culture gels over a long stretch of time gives me hope that the stage of multi-culturalism is at work in producing a unified culture much as the 19th century melting pot produced the American ideals of the 20th century.

We will emerge stronger and more rich in our national life after the assimilation of foreign strains as we did from the very beginning when Dutch and German colonies were assimiliated into the English colonies.

One exception: the religion of Islam, which hates whatever is not of itself and declares perpetual war on all cultures accordingly.

Conquering sin

No one will ever conquer his evil as long as he only shudderingly recoils from it. He has to be broken down into the penitential mood before he will secure the victory over his sin.
--Alexander Maclaren

A "Call"

In addition to the first call by which we are brought out of nature's darkness into God's marvelous light, there does come to the Christian, when the Spirit of God works mightily with him, another call by which he is brought into greater familiarity with the Lord Jesus, taught more of conformity to Him in His sufferings, and made to be more fully a partaker of the height and depth and breadth and length of that love which passes all understanding.

To be saved and not to know it is a small privilege, but to be saved and to know it, nay, to know Him who is the resurrection and the life and to sit with Him and sup with Him and to feel that His shadow yields a great delight and that His fruit is sweet to one's taste--this is a way of living which angels might almost envy the favored humans who possess it.
--Charles Spurgeon

Peter at the fire

What follows zeal without knowledge? A slackening of the zeal, following afar off . . .

If you are far from Jesus, you get cold, and then you want to warm yourself, and you begin doing it at the world's fires . . .

Are you among the number of those who are neglecting prayer in order to do more work for God? Do less work and pray more . . .

It would be a blessed thing for the church of God if for a little while she attempted to do less and worshipped more.
--George Campbell Morgan

Grace came to Peter's House

Andrew followed Jesus, and having become a disciple, he desired to lead others to be disciples, too. He began, as we all ought to begin, with those nearest to him by ties of relationship--"He first findeth his own brother Simon." Beloved friend, if you are yourself saved, you should cast about you and inquire, "To what house may I become a messenger of salvation?"
--Charles Spurgeon

God's Love

Now, our brother who opened the meeting the meeting with prayer referred to the difference between human and divine love. that is the very trouble with us. We are all the time measuring God's love by ours.

. . . I have the idea that our mothers are to blame for a good deal of that, becuase of their teaching during their children's youth. They tell them that the Lord loves them when they are good children; when they are bad children the Lord does not love them. That is false teaching. God loves them all the same, just the same as you love your children.
--Dwight Moody

And now, a serious thought (on capital punishment)

It is strange that in Harry's world, which is contemporary England, which is a mix of Continental liberalism and liberty, that the good guys thirst to kill for personal revenge when capital punishment, that is, execution, is deemed inhumane and cruel. Capital punishment is not revenge, but justice, as determined by a deliberate proceeding that considers the crimes, thinks about what was done and why, and comes to a conclusion as to what would constitute justice.

They think themselves much more cultured than we Americans because they believe themselves beyond the practice of execution of criminals, even ones who have violated, tortured, mutilated, and murdered. So they put the criminals in prison for the remainder of the criminal's life, then dream of killing the criminal personally. Not as the result of a deliberate proceeding, in which evidence is presented and guilt determined. Not as a collaboration of several judges or a jury panel. Not allowing the criminal the right of appeal and review to ensure that the sentence was properly determined and fits the offenses. But as a personal decision.

In their despising of capital punishment, they have become vigilantes. For shame. And they sneer at us?!

Harry Potter

I finished reading the book at 2:17 am this morning.

What a twisting and turning. But I have some radical thoughts on what took place:

1. Draco Malfoy is a sycophant--someone who sucks up to others and appropriates authority for his pathetic boasting. He has nothing of his own--no real strength. Of course he was incapable of murdering Dumbledore. He was a toy Voldemort was using to punish Lucius Malfoy.

2. Snape is really a good guy. Naturally, he told Dumbledore what Draco would try to do, and Dumbledore told him to let Draco try. It is in Dumbledore's character to let Draco attempt the assasination in the hope that Draco would realize he doesn't have murder in him and reform--cross over from the Dark to the good side. Remember what Snape said to Dumbledore that Hagrid overheard, "You take too much for granted."

3. Dumbledore ordered Snape to do what Draco couldn't--that is, when Draco had his chance and his nerve failed, Snape should do it. That's why Snape entered the Unbreakable Vow. But he had second thoughts, which is why he told Dumbledore, as overheard by Hagrid, that he had changed his mind and didn't want to do it anymore.

4. But Snape went through with it. The hatred on his face when he murdered Dumbledore was not hatred for Dumbledore, but hatred for what he was doing. Remember that Dumbledore, as overheard by Hagrid, told Snape he had agreed to it and that was that. What seemed like Dumbledore pleading for his life, which was out of character for him since he had just faced down the others without a means of stopping them, was actually Dumbledore pleading for Snape to go through with it. He could hardly have ordered Snape to do it in front of Draco and the others. He had to make it seem like he was pleading for life.

5. The key to this is in Book 5: Order of the Phoenix. When Harry fell for Voldemort's scheme and went to the Ministry of Magic, but tipped Snape off obliquely, that is, in language only someone in the Order could figure out what was meant, Snape contacted the Order and sent them after Harry and the others. If Snape was really with Voldemort, he would have claimed he was unable to understand Harry's statement, with his usual sneer, and no one would have suspected that he caught the meaning and declined to do anything. Then Harry and his five friends, fighting a dozen Death Eaters, would have been overcome and died.

Plus, Snape saved Harry as he fled Hogwarts. We have only his word that Voldemort said to save Harry for Voldemort to kill.

6. Dumbledore stupified Harry not to protect him, but to keep Harry from fighting to save him. Dumbledore wanted to die.

7. Why did Dumbledore die? He was old and tired, but that would be no reason for Dumbledore. He was the only one who could take on Voldemort one-on=one (excepting that Harry somehow has to be equal to Voldemort in order to stop him.) No, he had a reason, which we can only guess at and hoep Book 7 will enlighten us (and that we won't have to wait more than a year for the last book of the series.) Could it have been to restore Harry's protection--Dumbledore died to save him? It seems far-fetched. Anybody have another idea?

We know this much: Harry has to face Voldemort and end his career of evil/murder/crime/torture forever. Harry has been through six books and has earned that right in the readers' minds. The author cannot deny us that satisfaction, although how she will set it up and accomplish it remain as mysterious as ever.

I thought that Dumbledore would die before the end, but I had believed Voldemort would kill him, and somehow that would clear the way for Harry to stand before Voldemort equal in power, much as Dumbledore would. After all, the continuous comments about Harry's mediocre powers come from his enemies: Snape, Draco Malfoy, Voldemort. No one really knows what Harry can really do, except in Defense Against Dark Arts, because Harry is lazy and doesn't try in his other subjects. Harry's father was an exceptional wizard, and we finally learn that his mother had exceptional talent in other fields. The only thing Harry lacked to be equally as good was nurturing as a child.

Dumbledore's career is as much a mystery as ever. I thought that after he died, Fawkes would attach himself to Harry. But Fawkes left Hogwarts, which opens the question of just why he became Dumbledore's pet in the first place. I had wondered how Phoenix's passed from one owner to another at the owner's death, since Phoenix's have eternal life. Perhaps that will be a sequel (prequel?) after the series is completed. The author will issue supplementary books such as a biography of Dumbledore.

Finally, a note on Kreacher. Poor Harry, like Robert E. Lee and other Southerners, he found himself, through inheritance, the unwilling owner of a slave. Lee was already at work freeing his slaves when the war intervened. It is my fervent wish that when the battle with Voldemort is completed, and the Dark side is vanquished for good, that one of Harry's first acts is to give Kreacher clothes. After all, if he needs a servant, Harry has Dobby, who would help him as a free choice, and Harry would pay Dobby for it.

Character

As she would be infinitely foolish who would build her character without thinking of the natural forces that will try its strength [like hurricanes!], so is he cursed with insanity who builds his character without thinking of the fire with which God will try every man's work.

[E.g.] God will go through our money to see if it has been honestly obtained. He will search our reputation, and our hypocrisy will not be able to conceal the reality of the case from His all-seeing eye. He will examine our title-deeds . . . .
--Joseph Parker

(Four posts at once to make up for the dearth this last week. My apologies.)

God's love

Holy love, crystalline love, goes down and down into human necessity, and it is not afraid of the taint. Sumbeams can move among sewage and catch no defilement.

The breadth of love is determined by its height. Lov love is always very confined and exclusive. Lofty love is liberal and expansive.

The love of God is as broad as the race, and nowhere is there a single man in any climate, or of any color; in a congested city, in tropical jungle, or in a lonely frontier line where a pioneer has built a primitive home--nowhere is there a single man, woman, or child who is orphaned of a place in the eternal Father's heart.
--John Henry Jowett

On the method of the enemy

For since their strength lies not in their own dogmas (beliefs), they hunt for it in our weak points. And therefore they apply themselves to our, shall I say, "misfortunes" or "failings," like flies to wounds.
--Gregory of Nazianzus

No One Can Know . . .

. . . things such as life, death, sickness, health, affluence, poverty, loss of limbs, of wives, chidren or possessions. In all these it is impossible to discern between the righteous and the unrighteous before the last judgment. . . . It is because of [man's] foolish desires that he is compared with the senseless beasts and that he ends up becoming like them.

--Evagrius of Pontus, Commentary on Ecclesiastes

Big Brother watches

Now our sin captures us by lying to us, by blinding our consciences. You cannot hear the shouts of the people on the bank warning you of your danger when you are in the midst of the rapids, and so our sin deafens us to the still small voice of conscience.

But nothing so surely reveals to us the true moral character of any of our actions, be they right or wrong, as bringing them under Christ's eye, and thinking to ourselves, "Dare I do that if He stand there beside me and see it?"
--Alexander Maclaren

Capax imperii nisi imperasset

"An admirable emperor if he only had never reigned."

What a historian said about one of the rulers of the ancient world.

--from a sermon of Alexander McClaren

What happened to Jimmy Carter? the "best ex-president we ever had." In these last few years, his attempts at diplomacy--like the North Korean nuclear weapon fiasco--have reminded us all why his presidency was such a failure: his naive trust of Communists. He certified as valid demonstrable election fraud in Venezuala, and his criticism of the U.S. in recent years exposed him as one whose mind is overthrown by the Marxist worldview of today's Democratic party. Does he crave their approval that badly?

He should have stuck to building houses.

An admirable president if only he had never governed.

Thought on the Fourth of July

If God, desiring to establish on this continent a Christian nation, devoted to Him, so as to put it to His purposes in the ensuing centuries, called forth devout English-speaking people of the world, brought them across the ocean, settled them in this country, and inspired them to cross the continent--

If God, to establish the United States of America, a free nation of free people, dedicated to a society given to Christian ideals, to honor His name, gave the land to the people of the world that He brought to the nation,

who is anyone to complain, including those who preceded the European immigrants?

(BTW: everyone on this continent is an immigrant or a descendant of an immigrant. Ouch! the truth hurts.)

Christian mission

. . . instead of installing hot and cold water, shower baths, tiled floors and electric lights in the pig pen, our business is to deliver the prodigal from the fellowship of the swine and bring him to his Father's house . . .

Some of these fellows . . . are preaching politics and reformaton, and already quite a few have exhausted the Bible and are now reviewing books on a Sunday night--they make me sick. Let you and me stick to the proclamation of the blessed old Gospel.

--James McGinlay

Pride

The moment a man says, "I will never leave Thee nor forsake Thee, O Christ, though everyone else shall," that man already has passed a little way out of communion with his Lord. The trembling soul in the church who says, "I walk fearfully, I am afraid lest I should grieve Him, I am afraid lest there should grow distance between me and my Lord," I need not watch over . . .

: You are not quite so watchful as you were, and you excuse your lack of watchfulness by saying that there is no necessity for that carefulness and narrowness which characterize some people.

There is great need for narrowness when you are walking amid precipices.
--George Campbell Morgan

Wishful thinking

We are often wishing that God would do some great thing in the world, and we look abroad for instruments which we think would be peculiarly fit, and think of places where the work might suitably begin; it might be quite as well if we asked the Lord to make use of us, and if we were believingly to hope that even our feeble instrumentality might poduce great results . . . Our Lord can make your dwelling the center of mercy for the whole region, a little sun sacttering light in all directions, a spiritual dispensary distributing health to the multitudes around.
Charles Spurgeon