B-2 PAST WITNESSES
- John Bunyan - Richard Girnt Butler -
"Trials are always accompanied by the grace to bear them. When the Lord engages us in a battle, he makes sure that we shall have the means to be victorious." —Cécile Bruyère, 28 November 1890, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 97.
"Isn't suffering the law of life since the first sin? Have you ever seen anyone escape it?
So the happy ones are not those who do not suffer, for then there would be none in this world, but those who know how to suffer. … You must take your courage in both hands and turn to our Lord , from whom will come your help. I assure you that I have experienced this very forcefully since the death of our great abbot.
One must bear everything, and be no longer borne up by anyone; and I can state firmly to you that with that burden I am perfectly content, as long as I do not look at things from the point of view of self-love and as long as, in the depths of my heart, I throw myself upon Jesus, who alone possess within himself beauty, goodness, truth, and all that could ever captivate us. … Believe me: do not be afraid to suffer in this world." —Cécile Bruyère, Letter 17 February 1877, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 96.
So the happy ones are not those who do not suffer, for then there would be none in this world, but those who know how to suffer. … You must take your courage in both hands and turn to our Lord , from whom will come your help. I assure you that I have experienced this very forcefully since the death of our great abbot.
One must bear everything, and be no longer borne up by anyone; and I can state firmly to you that with that burden I am perfectly content, as long as I do not look at things from the point of view of self-love and as long as, in the depths of my heart, I throw myself upon Jesus, who alone possess within himself beauty, goodness, truth, and all that could ever captivate us. … Believe me: do not be afraid to suffer in this world." —Cécile Bruyère, Letter 17 February 1877, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 96.
"Allow me to suggest to you a strange idea: why has the Lord not left us a portrait of himself? Tradition, I know, has passed down to us an adequate general picture of the features of the Lord; but, why, after all, did he not come in the era of photography? Quite simple: everyone would have believed naively that this portrait of the Lord was the Lord himself.
No: where is the likeness of the Lord to be found? In souls. What is the true portrait of the Lord? It is yourselves.
Another question: why is Holy Scripture, which is a continuous story from the “in principio” of Genesis to “Veni, Domine Jesu” which ends the Apocalypse, why is Scripture interrupted from the time of the Apostles until the last days? The reason is the same: it is up to the saints to write that story of our Lord Jesus Christ. ---Cécile Bruyère, Retreat, 1899, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 83.
No: where is the likeness of the Lord to be found? In souls. What is the true portrait of the Lord? It is yourselves.
Another question: why is Holy Scripture, which is a continuous story from the “in principio” of Genesis to “Veni, Domine Jesu” which ends the Apocalypse, why is Scripture interrupted from the time of the Apostles until the last days? The reason is the same: it is up to the saints to write that story of our Lord Jesus Christ. ---Cécile Bruyère, Retreat, 1899, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 83.
"You say that both time and strength are limited. Yes, certainly, when one calculates. But if we let the Lord act, if we take everything he sends, if we abandon ourselves in pure faith, if we bow our heads and say, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” I believe that he solves all the problems himself.
It was hard for me to believe that. Common sense told me that there are only sixty minutes in an hour, but he for whom a thousand years are as one day has proved to me hundreds of times that he is the Lord of time as of everything else." —Cécile Bruyère, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 67.
It was hard for me to believe that. Common sense told me that there are only sixty minutes in an hour, but he for whom a thousand years are as one day has proved to me hundreds of times that he is the Lord of time as of everything else." —Cécile Bruyère, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 67.
"Don't be surprised at being constantly and strangely buffeted. You will be tossed back and forth between God and the devil, but it is this action of the winnowing-fan that will purify your nature and free it from the chaff. Note that the grain that is being winnowed does not move of itself but is being shaken by another.
Let yourself be thrown about, but do not, yourself, move; far from helping the operation, you hinder it. Remain perseveringly calm. You must not always manage to unite yourself with our Lord, but you must always seek after it – without struggling, however.
Do the best you can, work more by prayer and by example than by words; but if you then have failures, do not be too distressed about it; our Lord has plenty himself. —Cécile Bruyère, 17 Febuary 1887, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 96-97.
Let yourself be thrown about, but do not, yourself, move; far from helping the operation, you hinder it. Remain perseveringly calm. You must not always manage to unite yourself with our Lord, but you must always seek after it – without struggling, however.
Do the best you can, work more by prayer and by example than by words; but if you then have failures, do not be too distressed about it; our Lord has plenty himself. —Cécile Bruyère, 17 Febuary 1887, quoted in Sister Mary David Totah OSB, The Spirit of Solesmes, 96-97.
john bunyan
John Bunyan was an English writer and Puritan preacher. He was baptised 30th November 1628 and lived until 31st August 1688. He is best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons. He became interested in religion after his marriage, attending first the parish church and then joining the Bedford Meeting, a nonconformist group in St John's church Bedford, and later became a preacher. After the restoration of the monarchy, when the freedom of nonconformists was curtailed, Bunyan was arrested and spent the next twelve years in prison because he refused to give up preaching. During this time, he wrote a spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and began work on his most famous book, The Pilgrim's Progress.
Russell Moore, Karen Swallow Prior Spark Outrage for Saying They Don’t Enjoy ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’
Some Christians are reacting with indignation after Dr. Russell Moore and Dr. Karen Swallow Prior said that they do not enjoy “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” a 17th century Christian allegory written by Puritan preacher John Bunyan. The work is one of the bestselling books of all time, at one point coming in second only to the Bible.
“I have written extensively of my admiration for Bunyan in two books,” said Prior, pushing back on the controversy in a Thursday post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “So you can listen to a very clipped clip that’s circulating, or you can read the books. (Yeah, we know what the click-baiters will choose.)”
(Jessica Lea/Church Leaders 8/25/23)
Read More>>>>>
Some Christians are reacting with indignation after Dr. Russell Moore and Dr. Karen Swallow Prior said that they do not enjoy “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” a 17th century Christian allegory written by Puritan preacher John Bunyan. The work is one of the bestselling books of all time, at one point coming in second only to the Bible.
“I have written extensively of my admiration for Bunyan in two books,” said Prior, pushing back on the controversy in a Thursday post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “So you can listen to a very clipped clip that’s circulating, or you can read the books. (Yeah, we know what the click-baiters will choose.)”
(Jessica Lea/Church Leaders 8/25/23)
Read More>>>>>
John Bunyan
“[I]t is evident that saints neither can nor dare adventure to plead their cause. Alas! the Judge is the almighty and eternal God; the law broken is the holy and perfect rule of God, in itself a consuming fire. The sin is so odious, and a thing so abominable, that it is enough to make all the angels blush to hear it but so much as once mentioned in so holy a place as that is where this great God doth sit to judge. This sin now hangs about the neck of him that hath committed it; yea, it covereth him as doth a mantle. The adversary is bold, cunning, and audacious, and can word a thousand of us into an utter silence in less than half a quarter of an hour. What, then, should the sinner, if he could come there, do at this bar to plead? Nothing; nothing for his own advantage. But now comes in his mercy-he has an Advocate to plead his cause-”If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
— - John Bunyan (1628-1688), “The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, Explained,” The Practical Works of John Bunyan, Vol. IV, p. 251
— - John Bunyan (1628-1688), “The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, Explained,” The Practical Works of John Bunyan, Vol. IV, p. 251
John Bunyan
“Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.”
― John Bunyan
“Though there is not always grace where there is the fear of hell, yet, to be sure, there is no grace where there is no fear of God.” ― John Bunyan
“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”
― John Bunyan
“He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.” -John Bunyan
"If my life is fruitless, it doesn’t matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn’t matter who criticizes me." – John Bunyan
“I will stay in prison till the moss grows on my eye lids rather than disobey God.” -John Bunyan
― John Bunyan
“Though there is not always grace where there is the fear of hell, yet, to be sure, there is no grace where there is no fear of God.” ― John Bunyan
“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”
― John Bunyan
“He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day.” -John Bunyan
"If my life is fruitless, it doesn’t matter who praises me, and if my life is fruitful, it doesn’t matter who criticizes me." – John Bunyan
“I will stay in prison till the moss grows on my eye lids rather than disobey God.” -John Bunyan
Richard Girnt butler
Richard Girnt Butler (1918-2004) was an American engineer and white supremacist. After dedicating himself to the Christian Identity movement, a racialist offshoot of British Israelism, Butler founded the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations and would become the "spiritual godfather" to the white supremacist movement, in which he was "a leading figure". He has been described as a "notorious racist".
"We will fight under one banner—the banner of Jesus Christ who is the Fuhrer … of the white people." - Richard Girnt Butler; 1918-2004, Protestant Pastor & Founder, Church of Jesus Christ Christian and Aryan Nations
"The white race is at war. Jesus Christ says you have to either be for it or against it. The war is directed at every white man, woman, and child in America. There is going to be the greatest ethnic cleansing that ever existed. We are saying that one day there will be no more Jews—ever!" - Richard Girnt Butler; 1918-2004, Protestant Pastor & Founder, Church of Jesus Christ Christian and Aryan Nations