Laity

“ And yet this was the usual Christianity of both ecclesiastics and laity: a dead faith, a mere outward form of godliness, the letter without the spirit. Little did the baptism of children signify without conversion on arriving at maturity, little also did communionship with the church avail, by which the laity only received passively the gifts of salvation: each individual ought to establish the priesthood of the Lamb in his own heart. ”

“ In the early ages the laity suffered martyrdom with the clergy. In our own day, the laity should share the labor of the clergy. We are not summoned to bear witness to God in one mighty confession of faith sealed with our blood; but we are bound to show our fidelity to him by lives of unremitting devotion, to lighten the burdens weighing on the priesthood, to do our utmost to leave them leisure for the direction of souls, and for those works of supererogation which are the very heart and pulses of a life consecrated to God. ”

“ So far as spiritual position and privileges go, the laity are on the very same level as the clergy, for laity and clergy alike have immediate access to God through faith, and both are obliged to do what lies in them to further the advance of the kingdom of God among their fellow-men. All believing laymen “are worthy to appear before God, to pray for others, to teach each other mutually the things that are of God ... ”

“ Here too the laity carry their censures too far; for there are very few or none of the clergy whose lives, if compared with those of the laity, can be called profligate; but such, indeed, is the perfect purity of our religion, such is the innocence and virtue which it exacts to entitle us to its glorious rewards and to screen us from its dreadful punishments, that he must be a very good man indeed who lives up to it. ”

“ Old and young, clergy and laity, we are always exhorting each other to imitate them. And is it not right? We feel the deep truth of the principle I have lately seen so beautifully expressed by a Catholic writer that I learned it by heart at the time. ‘Nations,’ he says, ‘live by traditions, more even than individuals. ”

“ If these things seem but a light matter to you, we will add yet greater things. Ye are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy race, ye are a peculiar people chosen into the lot of God, ye are priests and ministers of God, nay, ye are called the very Church of God, as though the laity were not to be called churchmen. Ye, being preferred to the laity, sing psalms and hymns in the chancel, and, serving the altar and living by the altar, make the true body of Christ, wherein God Himself has honoured you not only above the laity, but even a little higher than the angels. ”

“ The laity, it is generally understood among us, are to come to church and perhaps to communion, are to accept the ministries of religion at marriages and funerals, and are to subscribe a little money to religious objects; but they may leave it to the clergy, as a matter of course, to carry on {113} the business of religion—that is, worship and doctrine, for discipline has been dropped out—and confine themselves to a certain amount of irresponsible criticism of the sermons of the clergy and their proceedings generally. ”

“ The distinction between clergy and laity was ever becoming more and more clearly marked and in the higher church offices there grew up a spiritual aristocracy alongside of the secular aristocracy. The priesthood arrogated a position high above the laity just as the soul is higher than the body. ”

“ There are no laity in the theocracy of grace. All are priests. And they who have heard the call of Divine compassion, and feel themselves sheltered in the covenant of love, are commanded to say "Come," or for ever bear the reproach of being unfaithful servants. ”

“ Without doubt there is a strong temptation today, bearing upon clergy and laity alike, to address their religious energies too exclusively to those tasks whereby human life may be made more abundant and wholesome materially.... ”

“ Shall we I say as People who have been Blessed with so great Priviledges, and high Favours, forsake the Holy Commandment of Loving God the Truth above all, and turn to worship for covetous ends, the worst Idol that ever the Devil set up in the World.
Sure those wicked Men above-mentioned will rise up in Judgment against us; for had they been so highly favoured in all respects, as Friends as a People have been, who knows but they might have been as great Saints as any in the Church of Christ at this Day ”

“ And should they come to receive the pure Truth, in the Love of it; as, blessed be the Lord, many of us have, and in that sweet Love, which is constraining, come under a concern and necessity, to go and visit their Brethren, of their own colour, and Country, and Language, and preach the Gospel of eternal Salvation unto them, from Sin and Captivity, both of Body and Soul, this would be a glorious work indeed, and well worth our Friends pains, charge and time, that they might spend about it ”

“ Hunger and thirst patiently, be not weary, neither doubt, stand still and cease from thy own Working, and in due time thou shalt enter into the Rest, and thy Eves shall behold thy Salvation, whose Testimonies are sure and righteous altogether; let them be as a Seal upon thy Arm and as Jewels about thy Neck, that others may see what the Lord hath done for your Souls; confess him before Men, yea before his greatest Enemies, fear not what they can do unto you, greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the World, for he will cloath you with Humility, and the Power of his Meekness ”

“ I charge you all in the presence of the Lord God, to abide with God, in what he hath communicated to you, and run not from the Witness of the Eternal Spirit, that hath Sealed you up in Measure, in the Power of his Love thou dost run out to speak further than thou Witnesseth; art a filthy Drunkard that lavisheth out thy self without the fear of the Lord, and so spends and wastes upon thy Lusts, and the plagues and Vengeance of the Lord is thy Portion, thou filthy Drunkard. For no Drunkard or Lustful Person shall inherit the Kingdom of God. ”

“ Who dare gainsay my Progressive Christian doctrines?
I do love sincere and zealously pious people! There is nothing that can adorn the human temple, and make it beautiful, even to the blessed image of God, except genuine piety; but this kind of piety is not the same kind that is taught in fashionable and bigoted sectarian churches,—it is the piety which causes the disciple to return to truth, nature, God, and Christ. ”

“ What then should a Man do, O Father, to lead his Life well, seeing there is nothing here true? Be pious and religious, O my Son, for he that doth so, is the best and highest Philosopher; and without Philosophy it is impossible ever to attain to the height and exactness of Piety or Religion. And •et this, O Son, be the End of Religion and Piety whereunto thou art once arrived, thou shalt both live well and die blessedly, and this only, O Son, is the Way to the Truth which our Progenitors travelled in ”

“ Is not this very applicable to Men-Stealers and Receivers.
But my dear Friends, as to my own part, if the Lord have stirred you up against me, let him accept of an offering; but if it be only Men, I don't fear in the least; but my dearest God, whom I serve with pure Love, fervently, will deliver me, and in his own Blessed time establish me in my Inheritance with Saints in Light. O that the Lord my God would be pleased to raise up some Worthies, that be Valiant for the Truth, upon Earth, and bring them forth into open view, in Sight of all Men, for his Name sake, which is the Truth. ”

“ Piety, to be sound, must rest in the bosom of truth, and the more you agitate and stir it, the more brilliant it becomes, because it is a precious jewel; but, if that piety is simply a cloak, or make-believe, and you stir it, it will be like unto filth, the more agitated the more it will stink. ”

“ To Christ do I owe it that once worshipping the dumb idols of Roman superstition, I now bow down to the only living God—' 'Away with him to the tormentors!' came from an hundred voices—'to Christ do I owe it, O Prefect, that my heart is not now as thine, or his who sits beside thee, or as that of these, hungering and thirsting—never after righteousness—but for the blood of the innocent. ”

“ And piety is a knowledge of the proper reverence and worship due to the Gods. Moreover they sacrifice to the Gods, and keep themselves pure; for they avoid all offences having reference to the Gods, and the Gods admire them; for they are holy and just in all that concerns the Deity; and the wise men are the only priests; for they consider the matters relating to sacrifices, and the erection of temples, and purifications, and all other things which peculiarly concern the Gods. ”

“ I understood that in sanctity the degrees are many, that each soul is free to respond to the advances of our Lord, to do little or much for His sake, in a word, to choose between the sacrifices that He asks. Then, as in the days of my childhood, I exclaimed: “My God, I choose all! I do not wish to be a saint by halves; the thought of suffering for Thee does not frighten me, one thing only do I fear—my own will; take Thou my will, for I choose all that Thou willest.”
HIST. D’UNE AME, CH. I
My Father took me for a pleasant tour during which I began to know a little of the world. ”

“ What sacred perturbation, what emotion fraught with distracted love might one not feel at the thought of the Deity being ever there in the depths of that man’s eyes, speaking with his voice and emanating from his hand each time that he raised it to bless! Could one imagine the exorbitant absoluteness of that sovereign who was infallible, who disposed of the totality of authority in this world and of salvation in the next! ”

“ You see the one thing to be aimed at is not to adore a created thing more than the Creator, nor to give the worship of latreia except to Him alone. By worship, consequently, He always understands the worship of latreia. For, again, He says: ‘Thou shalt not have strange gods other than Me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor any similitude. Thou shalt not adore them, and thou shalt not serve them, for I am the Lord thy God.’ And again, ‘Overthrow their altars, and break down their statues; burn their groves with fire, and break their idols in pieces. ”

“ Not in the odious disguise of Levitie, Schism, Heresie, Noveltie, Crueltie and Disloyaltie, which some mens practices have put upon it.
Let her see thy sacred and saving Truths as Thine; that she may believe, love and obey them as Thine, cleared from all rust and drosse of humane mixtures.
That in the glasse of thy Truth Shee may see thee in those Mercies which thou hast offered to us in thy Son Jesus Christ, our onely Saviour, and serve thee in all those holy Duties, which most agree with his holy Doctrine, and most imitable example. ”

“ For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; [7] 2 That their hearts may be comforted, being knit together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. [8]
4 And this I say, lest any man should deceive you with enticing words. ”

“ I have heard the dropping of their tears In heaven these eighteen hundred years." "O Lord and Master, not ones the guilt, We build but as our fathers built; Behold thine images, how they stand, Sovereign and sole, through all our land." Then Christ sought out an artisan, A low-browed, stunted, haggard man, And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin Pushed from her faintly want and sin. ”

“ What a great Strait these tender hearted mourning Souls must needs be in, think ye, betwixt Love and Duty; they love you dearly for the Truth sake, and yet think it their Duty absolutely in the Fear and Love of God, to testifie against the Sin, and you for continuing in it. ”

“ Be these Christians, and Ministers too, that encourage and plead for these Things? It must be all a Lie, and that is of the Devil, for when he speaketh a Lie, it is of himself. Joh. viii. 44. I do believe in my Soul, if Christ was here in that very Body, he would say as much to some Quakers as he said to the Scribes and Pharisees in the eighth of John; if he the Devil be a Murtherer and a Liar, what are our Slave-Merchants? Is there a greater Lie in the World? ”

“ Many has said, they do not see it so great an Evil or Sin, that is, Negroe-Keeping; who so Blind as them that will not see; but them that are willing to see, I think it my duty to inform them what I can by Word and Writing, and then leave it to the Lord.
There has been that has reflected on me, as if I wanted a Party, and to see what Numbers I could get on my side; the living Lord God Almighty is Witness for me, that I desire no Party, no Number but what is on the Lords side, and his Party, which hold the Blessed Truth in righteousness and holiness of Life, indeed and in Truth. ”

“ If you walk in the Light as he, God is Light, and Light is God; you shall have fellowship one with another in God the Light, and the Blood, the Life, the Light the Truth, shall cleanse from all Sin, all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit. ”

“ O MY God, I firmly believe that Thou art one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; I believe that Thy divine Son became man, and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these, and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because Thou hast revealed them, Who canst neither deceive nor be deceived. ”

“ Though we are far from each other in this evil world, yet I hope that our Lord Jesus Christ will make us pure from sin, and worthy of his kingdom, where we shall see each other with that light which shall not end, in the joy of the holy angels. Ah, my friends, how great are our mercies and we how unworthy, but especially I!—unworthy of the gift of the gospel of God, which I have received, that I might make it known to lost souls around me. ”

“ Give us, O Lord, a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy name; for Thou never ceasest to govern those whom Thou foundest upon the solidity of Thy love. Who livest and reignest one God, world without end. Amen.
Indulgence of 300 days, once a day. — Leo XIII, Jan. 16, 1886.
Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Lord, have mercy on us. ”