God has surrounded us with so many amazing tastes, and yet we Americans are barely scratching the surface. The Anglo streak in the American heritage has certainly put a tight squeeze on the breadth of our palates. American food is really so bland and tame we don’t even recognize it anymore. And we pass on our picky eating to the next generation. Pure criminality. But even the English know that for good food you have to leave the country. They like France, but the entire world awaits us. We have much to learn from the feastings of Asia and the Latin countries, especially that land of feasts–Italy.

-Doug Jones, Angels in the Architecture, 82

And, I might add, France. 🙂

Every new $900,000 summer house in the north woods or on the shore of Long Island has so many pipe railings, ramps, hob-tread metal spiral stairways, sheets of industrial plate glass, banks of tungsten-halogen lamps, and white cylindrical shapes, it looks like an insecticide refinery. I once saw the owners of such a place driven to the edge of sensory deprivation by the whiteness & lightness & leanness & cleanness & bareness & spareness of it all. They became desperate for an antidote, such as coziness & color. They tried to bury the obligatory white sofas under Thai-silk throw pillows of every rebellious, iridescent shade of magenta, pink, and tropical green imaginable. But the architect returned, as he always does, like the conscience of a Calvinist, and he lectured them and hectored them and chucked the shimmering little sweet things out.

– Tom Wolfe

Article temporarily removed. Will post later with more author information.

Pictures and Video coming soon!

[EDIT] Here are the promised videos:

• Part 1 (110 MB)
• Part 2 (13.4 MB)
• Part 3 (97.4 MB)

I am somewhat pleased when I occasionally hear of a brother’s being locked up by the police, for it does him good, and it does the people good also. It is a fine sight to see the minister of the gospel marched off by the servant of the law! It excites sympathy for him, and the next step is sympathy for his message. Many who felt no interest in him before are eager to hear him when he is ordered to leave off, and still more so when he is taken to the station. The vilest of mankind respect a man who gets into trouble in order to do them good, and if they see unfair opposition excited they grow quit zealous in the man’s defence.

Charles Spurgeon, Lectures To My Students, 264.

It looks like all the fuss the Intoleristas are making about Doug Wilson is creating a similar type of phenomena here in Moscow. 🙂

The true Christian is the only happy man, because he has sources of happiness entirely independent of his world. He has something which cannot be affected by sickness and by deaths, by private losses and by public calamities, the “peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” He has a hope laid up for him in heaven ; he has a treasure which moth and rust cannot corrupt ; he has a house which can never be taken down. His loving wife may die, and his heart feel rent in twain ; his darling children may be taken from him, and he may be left alone in this cold world ; his earthly plans may be crossed ; his health may fail: but all this time he has a portion which nothing can hurt. He has one Friend who never dies ; he has possessions beyond the grave, of which nothing can deprive him: his nether spring may fail, but his upper springs are never dry. This is real happiness.

J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 250.

The most miserable creature on earth is the man who has nothing to do. Work for the hands or work for the head is absolutely essential to human happiness. Without it the mind feeds upon itself, and the whole inward man becomes diseased. The machinery within will work, and without something to work upon, will often wear itself to pieces.

J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 239.

Here is the picture I took of the projector with all the names that we will need to know: PICTURE.
If you zoom in, you should be able to see all the names without any trouble.

I made a summary of the Latin Subjunctives learned so far, and how to recognize them. If you think it can benefit you, here it is: Latin Subjunctives Summary

Well, this was a great Sabbath! A wonderful sermon by Pastor Wilson, a party at the Courtney’s home, and beautiful concert!

I posted pics from the party, and a few from the concert. Thank you to Kathryn and the Courtney boarders for organizing the party. It was a lot of fun!

Click HERE for the pics.

Who ought to come to the table of the Lord?

Those who are displeased with themselves for their sins, and who nevertheless trust that these sins have been forgiven them and that their remaining weakness is covered by the passion and death of Christ, and who also desire more and more to strengthen their faith and improve their life. The impenitent and hypocrites, however, eat and drink judgment to themselves.

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, mock on, ‘Tis all in vain.
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.

And every sand becomes a Gem
Reglected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel’s paths they shine.

The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton’s Particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore,
Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.

-William Blake

Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body–which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, or beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, ch. 5

Ninety-nine per cent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

What difference is there between the Lord’s Supper and the papal Mass?

The Lord’s Supper testifies to us that we have complete forgiveness of all our sins through the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ which he himself has accomplished on the cross once for all; (and that through the Holy Spirit we are incorporated into Christ, who is now in heaven with his true body at the right hand of the Father and is there to be worshiped.) But the Mass teaches that the living and the dead do not have forgiveness of sins through the sufferings of Christ unless Christ is again offered for them daily by the priest (and that Christ is bodily under the form of bread and wine and is therefore to be worshiped in them). Therefore the Mass is fundamentally a complete denial of the once for all sacrifice and passion of Jesus Christ ( and as such an idolatry to be condemned).

For we dream neither of a faith devoid of good works nor of a justification that stands without them. This alone is of importance: having admitted that faith and good works must cleave together, we still lodge justification in faith, not in works. We have a ready explanation for doing this, provided we turn to Christ to whom our faith is directed an from who it receives its full strength.

Why, then, are we justified by faith? Because by faith we grasp Christ’s righteousness, by which alone we are reconciled to God. Yet you could not grasp this without at the same time grasping sanctification also. For he “is given unto us for righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption” [1 Cor. 1:30]. Therefore Christ justifies no one whom he does not at the same time sanctify. These benefits are joined together by an everlasting and indissoluble bond, so that those whom he illumines by his wisdom, he redeems; those whom he redeems, he justifies; those whom he justifies, he sanctifies.

John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book III, Ch. XVI

I know of people who had the habit of learning lists of synonyms by heart, so that any one of a set of words could be brought quickly to mind, and also, if they used one, and found they needed it again soon after, they could avoid the repetition by selecting another with the same meaning. This is a childish occupation, a mark of effort ill-spent, and not even particularly useful; it simply assembles a crown of words, out of which the speaker can snatch the nearest without any discrimination.

What we have to do is to acquire our stock with judgement, aiming at forceful oratory, not the patter of a street trader. And we shall achieve this by reading and hearing the best models. By taking this trouble, we shall learn not only the words for things but which words are best in each place.

– Quintilian, The Orator’s Education, Book 10, 257.

Then why does the Holy Spirit call baptism the water of rebirth and the washing away of sins?

God does not speak in this way except for a strong reason. Not only does he teach us by Baptism that just as the dirt of the body is taken away by water, so our sins are removed by the blood and Spirit of Christ; but more important still, by the divine pledge and sign he wishes to assure us that we are just as truly washed from our sins spiritually as our bodies are washed with water.

We are God’s: let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are God’s: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal. O, how much has that man profited who, having been taught that he is not his own, has taken away dominion and rule from his own reason that he may yield it to God!

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, CH. VII.1

Just a reminder: Euclid Recitations are 10:00 – 11:00 on Thursday’s. I was used to having mine later, and almost forgot.