[quote author="Martin (Enkidu) Shields"][quote author="Gordon Cheng"]there was an old Goon show in which Bluebottle knew the time, because a nice man had written down on a piece of paper for him. Whenever he wanted to know the time, he pulled the piece of paper out and looked at it.

“But how do you know when to pull it out?” (Eccles)
Bluebottle:"I wait until the right time of day and take it out then”
Eccles: “And how do you know when that time is?”
Bluebottle: “I’ve got it written on a piece of paper!”

Actually (for the sake of accuracy) you’ve mixed up Eccles and Bluebottle: it was Eccles who had the time written down on a piece of paper. Here’s the entire exchange:

Bluebottle:
What time is it Eccles?

Eccles:
Err, just a minute. I, I’ve got it written down ‘ere on a piece of paper. A nice man wrote the time down for me this morning.

Bluebottle:
Ooooh, then why do you carry it around with you Eccles?

Eccles:
Well, umm, if a anybody asks me the ti-ime, I ca-can show it to dem.

Bluebottle:
Wait a minute Eccles, my good man…

Eccles:
What is it fellow?

Bluebottle:
It’s writted on this bit of paper, what is eight o’clock, is writted.

Eccles:
I know that my good fellow. That’s right, um, when I asked the fella to write it down, it was eight o’clock.

Bluebottle:
Well then. Supposing when somebody asks you the time, it isn’t eight o’clock?

Eccles:
Ah, den I don’t show it to dem.

Bluebottle:
Ooohhh…

Eccles:
[Smacks lips] Yeah.

Bluebottle:
Well how do you know when it’s eight o’clock?

Eccles:
I’ve got it written down on a piece of paper!

Bluebottle:
Oh, I wish I could afford a piece of paper with the time written on.

Now that’s not off-topic, is it?

Moriarty-Cheng: Ah Enkers-Seagoon. I see you fell for my little ploy. I knew that by a simple transposition of Eccles and Bluebottle, I would force your finely honed yet pedantic mind to google for a more accurate rendering of the text. I am obliged.

Whenever we place a higher priority on solving our problems than pursuing God, we are immoral....We must call God good even when we suffer - because he is! And, when things are going well, we must call him good for reasons that go beyond our immediate blessings. Otherwise, when we hurt, we will speak harshly against God, and we will continue to do whatever it takes to satisfy our souls. We will be more troubled by our discomfort than by our unholiness.

Finding God, Larry Crabb, p38

In 2 Chron 20:12 King Jehoshaphat prayed

...We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.

What a great prayer!

Assurance isn’t assurance of our faith. Assurance is assurance of God’s faithfulness.

Mark Short
2006

Andrew,

That’s brilliant. Thanks to Mark Short and to you for sharing it.

cheers
Angela

[quote author="Angela Crittle"]Andrew,

That’s brilliant. Thanks to Mark Short and to you for sharing it.

cheers
Angela

Hi Angela,

Unless he reads this thread, he doesn’t know :P

cheers,
Andrew

Geesche Jacobsen, from “Doctor guilty of illegal abortion”, Sydney Morning Herald, August 23, here :

...the jury had to decide if the baby was alive - an issue the medical expert witnesses in the trial could not agree on.

The ambulance officer, John Hando, who pulled the blue-coloured baby out of the toilet bowl initially thought it was dead, but later described seeing the boy take some gasping breaths in hospital and hearing the midwife say “it’s alive”.

But some medical experts said it was possible the gasping was a mere reflex - not enough to qualify as a sign of life.

Pediatrician Dr Vanessa Sarkozy also noted an apex beat of the baby’s heart. Experts disputed whether this was a muscle reflex or a sign of life.

The baby, which had turned pink in colour by then, was not given resuscitation because doctors believed he had no chance to survive. He did not move.

Gordon,

This is enormously distressing. I’m agog that the doctors did not offer resuscitation, even as a last resort! Would this have happened 50 years ago when Australia still lived with the Christian view of the sanctity of life?

God is good, merciful and just. We can trust in Him even when others in positions of trust fail us.

Your quote is a current example of what is being discussed on the topic titled Monergism. I encourage others to check it out.

Angela

A friend of mine says that the “reduced” section of Koorong and the Reference section are the best two sections. The reduced section has the best books - ie the ones that are actually decent but noone buys; and the reference section… because it’s the solid reading bit.

-Andrew Beeston

Well said!

-Gordon Cheng

“There are two parts of Iustification, the one is a free acquitall of our sinnes through the sufferings of Christ, and especially his death by faith imputed and reckoned unto us, as if we had suffered all that he suffered in our persons, bodies and soules. The other is, that being freed from sinne, we haue also the righteousnesse and obedience that Christ gaue vnto his holy father in the dayes of his flesh, by faith imputed and reckoned unto us, as if wee had done it in our owne person, bodies and soules.”

-Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603) commenting on Romans 4:6. From his posthumously published book A Confutation of the Rhemist’s* Translation, Glosses, and Annotations on the New Testament, so Farre as they Containe Manifest Impieties, Heresies, Idolatries, Superstitions, Prophanesses, Treasons, Slanders, Absurdities, Falsehoods and other Evils. p 341.

*The Rhemist translation of the New Testament came out in 1582.

Oh, and they spelt funny in those days.

A couple of my favourites:
Mary Pettibone Poole
The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is.

Dorothy L. Sayers
I always have a quotation for everything—it saves original thinking.

There is a fine Reformation tradition of full and frank exchange of views encapsulated in this quote:

As for the Trent Councell* as unsavoury salt, we esteeme our feet more fitter to tread it, then our pen to answer it

-Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603), Confutation of the Rhemist Testament p 356.

*The Council of Trent met in the mid 16th Century to anathematize anyone who believed in justification by faith alone, among other things.

We bought our daughter and son in law David Crystal’s As they say in zanzibar, which is a voluminous collection of proverbs.

I like this one I discovered in loco:

The email of the species is more deadly than the mail.

Reminds me of my daughter who, when aged about 4, said “there’s female and there’s e-mail”. How true it is.

Because all men be sinners and offenders against GOD, and breakers of his law and commandments, therefore can no man by his own acts, works, & deeds (seem they never so good) be justified, and made righteous before GOD: but every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness or justification, to be received at GOD’S own hands, that is to say, the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses, in such things as he hath offended.

- Homily on the Salvation of Mankind , The First book of Homilies, 1547.

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

-Luther’s Works, Weimar Edition. Briefwechsel [Correspondence], vol. 3, pp. 81f.)