Uncloistered

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  “She gazed ahead through a long reach of future days strung together like pearls in a rosary, every one like the others, and all smooth and flawless and innocent, and her heart went up in thankfulness. Outside was the fervid summer afternoon; the air was filled with the sounds of the busy harvest of men and birds and bees; there were halloos, metallic clatterings, sweet calls, and long hummings. Louisa sat, prayerfully numbering her days, like an uncloistered nun.” A New England Nun By Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930)

With Whom We Have To Deal

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“Even though modern man may spurn the unsophisticated idols of ancient times, he still has his mental images of how he would like to think of God or whatever he decides to put in his place . . . The way in which Paul set about making the truth known in Athens gives us the kind of points with which pagans can still be challenged today. They still must face the person of Christ and the evidence of the resurrection. They may not capitulate when we say, ‘the Bible says . . .“ but they still have to reckon with the witness the Apostles recorded in their writings, of which they were so convinced that they were prepared to submit to cruel deaths rather than deny its truth. Everyone must some day face death and whatever lies beyond, even though they live as though this present earthly life will go on for ever. And then they will discover that ‘It is no unknown God but a risen Christ with whom we have to deal.”

Prior, Kenneth. The Gospel in a Pagan Society. Downers Grove: Intervarsity, 1975.

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