Black graphic with a portrait of John Calvin (1509–1564) beside a quote from the Institutes of Christian Religion: “… whatever the pious man can do, he is bound to do for his brethren, not consulting his own interest in any other way than by striving earnestly for the common edification of the Church.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Calvin on self-denial: the pious man’s only permitted self-interest is striving for others’ edification—kindness, almsgiving, long-suffering, seeking the neighbor’s good. One notices “edification of the church” gets invoked for activities Calvin wouldn’t recognise as self-denial.

Please point to this position in Pilkington’s work.

‘Cept Pilkington also believed in a savior from the curse, not just being cut off.

Black graphic with a portrait of James Pilkington (1520–1576) beside a quote from Exposition Upon the Prophet Aggeus: “Salomon saith, ‘He that hideth up his corn shall be cursed among the people, but blessing shall be on them that sell it.’ God grant the richer sort pitiful hearts to open their barns and purse to the relief of the poor, that they may escape God’s plague and man’s curse!“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Pilkington on Proverbs 11:26: hoarders get cursed, sellers get blessed. Not collectivism—private property stays intact. Cornering markets during famine simply attracts God’s plague and popular fury. Blaming the hungry for coveting is the modern substitute. #puritan #proverbs #bible

Black graphic with a portrait of Martin Luther (1483–1546) beside a quote from Fourth Sunday in Advent: “Indeed, we further add, in the event of one working you harm or injury, you are to put the best construction upon his act, excusing it in the spirit of that holy martyr who, when all his possessions were taken from him, said, ‘Truly, they can never take Christ from me.’ Say you likewise: ‘His act injures not my faith; why not excuse him? why not submit, and accommodate myself to him?’“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Luther on Philippians 4: even someone actively harming you deserves charitable interpretation. A martyr stripped of everything noted they couldn’t take Christ. Therefore: this injures not my faith—why not excuse it? Current spiritual leadership models something rather different.
#lcms #lutheran

Black graphic with a portrait of Jeremiah Burroughs (1599–1646) beside a quote from An Exposition of the Prophesy of Hosea: “Josephus … reports this of Herod … sent this money into Egypt to buy Corn, which Corn he distributed unto the Poor, and he appointed Bakers to provide bread for such as were sick … This was that wicked Herod, and yet in time of public calamity thus merciful was he to the poor. Surely God must needs have a controversy with Israel then, with Christians then that have received so much mercy from the Lord if they shall be unmerciful in times of common calamity.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Burroughs: God’s controversy with Israel was absence of hesed—merciful love. His illustration: even wicked Herod melted his gold to feed the poor in famine. If that’s Herod’s standard, what is God’s controversy with unmerciful Christians in times of calamity?
#bible #christian #puritan

Black graphic with a portrait of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) beside a quote from Separating the Precious from the Vile: “You all know that there are businesses where it is not possible for a young man to be honest in the shop, where, if he spoke the downright truth, he would be discharged. … Why it would not stamp an hour if it were not for the professing Christians who practice it. They have not the moral courage to say once for all, ‘We will have nothing to do with these things.’“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Spurgeon: some businesses can’t run if employees tell the truth. Professing Christians keep the whole operation going anyway, lacking courage to say we want nothing to do with this. Pastoral warnings about workplace complicity remain rare.
#christian #tencommandments

Black graphic with a portrait of Niels Hemmingsen (1513–1600) beside a quote from The First Sunday After Trinity: “The third fault for which the Glutton was damned, was the disdaining of Lazarus, which thing sufficiently betrayed that he had not faith. For whereas is true faith, there can be no cruelties towards the poor and needy.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Hemmingsen: the rich man’s third fault was disdaining Lazarus—proof he had no faith. Where true faith exists, cruelty toward the poor cannot. You only walk past a starving person because you disdain them. Worth examining.
#lutheran #lcms #biblestudy #faith #truefaith #neighbor

Horrific article, claiming the pope’s position is in favor of illegal immigration and not in favor of controlled immigration

< Meanwhile I’ve been working to undermine idea that Calvin, Spurgeon, Luther were somehow a source of affirmation for m aga Protestants. >

Black graphic with a portrait of Charles Elliott (1792–1869) beside a quote from The Bible and Slavery: “A slave is a person divested of the ownership of himself, and conveyed, with all his powers of body and mind, to the proprietorship of another.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Charles Elliott’s definition of slavery: a person stripped of ownership of themselves—body, mind, all capacities—transferred to another’s proprietorship. He doesn’t embellish. The question is whether tolerance for that erasure has outlasted the institution.
#christian #antislavery #sbts

The idea of insanity, having recently appeared, provides moral absolution to those who appreciated his ‘16 comments on Mexicans and ’20 comments on “eating dogs”.

Black graphic with a Byzantine mosaic portrait of John Chrysostom (349–407) beside a quote from Homily XIII: “Do but consider; which of the two among all men is reckoned disgraceful, to beg of the rich or the poor. Every one, I suppose, sees it at once:– of the poor. Now this, if you mark it, is what the rich do; for they durst not apply to those who are richer than themselves: whereas those who beg do so of the wealthy: for one beggar asks not alms of another, but of a rich man; but the rich man tears the poor in pieces.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Chrysostom: everyone finds begging disgraceful. But the rich beg too—just from those poorer than themselves. They dare not approach the wealthier. Instead they extract from the poor. His word for this isn’t “investment.” It’s tearing to pieces.

How can you do less tearing?
#christian #churchfathers

Gross self-interest, even by lofty non-profits, will be the bane of us all. No moral problems years ago, just less ROI

Black graphic with a portrait of Albert Barnes (1798–1870) beside a quote from Barnes’ New Testament Notes: “[The early believers’] union, their benevolence, their liberality in supplying the wants of the needy, was a means of opening the hearts of the people, and of winning them to the Saviour.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Albert Barnes on Acts 4: the early church grew because resurrection preaching produced radical generosity—no needy among them. Unity and liberality opened hearts. Today we’re told doctrine and compassion are separate tracks. Barnes didn’t get that memo.
#presbyterian #biblestudy #generosity

Tony Perkins says he’s fed up with “the lack of decorum.”

Black graphic with a Byzantine icon portrait of Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444) beside a quote from Sermon CXII: “Thou beheldest the man suffering incurable misery, and a prey to intolerable griefs: for two maladies at once possessed him, each worse than the other, the cruel pain of his ulcers, and the want of the necessaries of life. The very beasts soothed Lazarus, because he was in pain; ‘the dogs licked his sores’ but thou wast more hard-hearted than the beasts.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Cyril to the rich man: you saw Lazarus—his ulcers, his hunger. The dogs showed more compassion than you did. Modern preachers love the doctrine of hell. Jesus’ two clearest teachings on it share one presenting sin: you walked past the suffering.
#christian #lazarus #biblical #churchfathers

Black graphic with a quote from James Balmford (b. 1556), from A short dialogue concerning the plagues infection Published to preserue bloud, through the blessing of God: “Again, if that argument be good, then these be as good: Many have had the plague sores and were sick, and yet died not; therefore the plague is not in it owne nature mortall. Many run upon the mouth of a canon, and escape, therefore canon shot is not murdering.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Balmford— #Presbyterian, 16thc —countered plague misinformation. His target: survivors prove it isn’t dangerous. He replied: some survive cannon fire; this doesn’t make cannons decorative. The church should address lethal stupidity. Apparently controversial. #christian #values #publichealth

Black graphic with a portrait of Leonard Woolsey Bacon (1830–1907) beside a quote from The Sabbath Question: “Let a systematic part of your Sabbath service be the doing of works of mercy. ‘Pure religious worship, and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction, and to keep yourselves unspotted from the world.’ Pre-eminently is the Lord’s Day the day for the deacons and deaconesses of the church to be busy on their official errands to the poor.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Leonard Bacon: mercy isn’t occasional inspiration—it’s Sabbath infrastructure. Deacons and deaconesses on official errands to the poor, on the Lord’s Day itself. James 1:27 wasn’t decorative. Bacon took it structurally.
#biblical #christian #makedisciples #sabbath

Black graphic with a portrait of John Calvin (1509–1564) beside a quote from The 35th Sermon of John Calvin upon Deuteronomie: “When we be at our ease, we think no more upon our human wretchedness; but rather we imagine that we be exempted, and that we be no more of the common sort. And that causeth us to forget ourselves, so that we have no compassion of our neighbors, nor of anything that they endure.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Calvin: comfort breeds a quiet arrogance. We begin to imagine ourselves exempt from common human wretchedness. That self-forgetting kills compassion—we stop noticing what our neighbors endure, let alone caring about it.
#calvinism #christian #pulpitsky #reformedtheology

Black graphic with an image of the title page of The Gospel of the Typical Servitude, a sermon preached in Greenfield, Ohio, by Samuel Crothers (1783–1856), Pastor of the Presbyterian Church. Beside it is a quote: “He instructs them by his word and spirit, and clothes them with his righteousness and feeds them with the bread of life, and protects them from all their enemies. Hence the disciples loved to call Jesus master. They gloried in the title, servants of Jesus Christ. They would not have exchanged it for that of Caesar. It humbled them, and cheered them and kept alive in their hearts a sense of their obligations to the Saviour who had done so great things for them.“​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Samuel Crothers: both enslavers and Jesus are called “Master.” But consider what Jesus gave those who called him that. Slavery didn’t merely oppress bodies—it poisoned a sacred word, turning a term of divine tenderness into something people now flinch to say.
#presbyterian #antislavery #jesus

Ah, that’s the kind of info I’m looking for, both in personal devotional learning and “this project”. I could google, but what is special about Gifford Lectures?

I stumbled across these authors in mulitple ways, many of the less-famous ones from various wikipedia lists.

Hi, thanks for the encouragement. I’m thinking about how I approach the second half of these quotes I’ve collected. May I ask what you find inspiring about Bruce?

Samuel Annesley (c.1620–1696) Alt: Black background quote graphic with portrait of Puritan preacher Samuel Annesley. He urges Christians not to hoard wealth but to use their lawful liberty generously, providing what is necessary for the poor.

Samuel Annesley: you have liberty with your money, but two boundaries limit it. Don’t hoard so obsessively you deny yourself reasonable comfort. And don’t withhold from the poor what is necessary to them. Both are failures. Spend on yourself fittingly; give to the poor necessarily.
#puritans

Alexander Balmain Bruce (1831–1899) Alt: Black background quote graphic with portrait of Scottish theologian Alexander Balmain Bruce. He states that Christ’s teaching implies universal human dignity: all people should be free and men and women share equal moral standing.

Free Church minister A.B. Bruce wrote before 1900: no insurmountable distinctions of race, class, or sex — all are one in Christ (Gal 3:28). Two world wars followed. Did the words change anything? Perhaps that’s the point: Christ still values all. How do we act as if this were true?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

William Swan Plumer (1802–1880) Alt: Black background quote graphic with portrait of Presbyterian theologian William Swan Plumer. He states that Scripture repeatedly commands believers to help the poor, noting that many biblical passages affirm this duty.

Q: Who radicalized you?
A: The Concordance

#christian #HolyTrouble #values #bible #presbyterian

Cornelius Henry Edgar (1811–1884) Alt: Black background quote graphic with book title image The Curse of Canaan Rightly Interpreted. Edgar argues that while the gospel can save people in slavery, it cannot fully develop human life under bondage as it can in freedom.

Cornelius Henry Edgar, Dutch #Reformed: yes, the gospel saves the enslaved. But no—full human development as God intends cannot flourish under bondage as under freedom. These are not equivalent conditions. Some current church leaders appear to have forgotten this distinction entirely.
#christian

Black background quote graphic featuring a painted portrait of William Adams (1706–1789), an English Anglican minister. The quote from Perseverance in Well-Doing criticizes people who endlessly accumulate wealth without using it, while others in poverty and distress lack even basic relief.

William Adams: some hoard endlessly—no plan to spend, no real desire for what wealth buys. Meanwhile others cry out for basic necessities with no relief. We celebrate the accumulators. We leave their worshippers unbothered.
#anglican #riches #bible

Black background quote graphic featuring George Henry Gerberding (1847–1927), author of The Lutheran Pastor. The quote argues that widespread sin in society shapes many prisoners’ circumstances, yet Christians must not excuse sin but show compassion and help sinners escape its grip.

Gerberding: society breeds the sins it then imprisons, obligating compassion rather than indifference. Too often, affirming the gravity of crime becomes cover for increasing prisoner suffering. “There but for the grace of God go I” is not a sentiment. It is an instruction.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
#lcms

Black background quote graphic featuring a portrait of Silas Durand (1833–1918) on the left. The text cites The Trial of Job and quotes Durand warning that false teachers claim to help the poor but offer only empty words that mock and disappoint those suffering in poverty and distress.

Silas Durand: Job’s friends mocked his misery with theology. The Good Samaritan said nothing—he acted. False teachers pose as neighbors to the poor, but empty words only deepen the wound. People already know they need help. Lecture less. Do more.

#baptist #bookofjjob #Christian