
時間對害怕的人太快,對傷心的人太長,對喜樂的人太短,但對那愛的人,時間乃是永恆。
-- Henry van Dyke
Time is too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too
short for those who rejoice, but for those who love -- time is eternity.
所有無神論學理的道德淪喪常常為不相干的個人理由所蒙蔽。我們看見許多聲音響亮的世俗主義者,都是善良,守法的人,我們看見他們為不公義的事發義怒,常從事行善的工作。所以我們就做結論說,「這個生活正確的人,不可能錯。」說他們的哲學,領導人有好行為,與基督教同樣有效,我們所沒有看見的是,他們並未依照他們的哲理行事,他們行事乃是受習或情感的引導,受他們仍然視之為當然的傳承下來,但其源頭的信仰已經被其否定的基督徒倫理所引導。他們的兒女接受的傳承就會更少了。
... Joy Davidman (1915-1960), Smoke on the Mountain [1955]
The essential amorality of all atheist doctrines is often hidden from us
by an irrelevant personal argument. We see that many articulate
secularists are well-meaning and law-abiding men; we see them go into
righteous indignation over injustice and often devote their lives to
good works. So we conclude that "he can't be wrong whose life is in the
right"--that their philosophies are just as good guides to action as
Christianity. What we don't see is that they are not acting on their
philosophies. They are acting, out of habit or sentiment, on an
inherited Christian ethic which they still take for granted though they
have rejected the creed from which it sprang. Their children will
inherit some what less of it.
人啊,你在自身之內尋找你的慘境醫治之道,乃是枉然。你的一切覺悟,只引領你知道,在你自己裡面。是找不到真實與良善的。哲學家向你應許這些,但卻不能兌現他們的應許。......你主要的惡疾是驕傲,使你與上帝斷絕。是情慾,將你綁在地上。它們至少使這些惡疾之一猖獗。若是它們讓上帝成為你的目標。只是讓你的思想驕傲。它們使你想到,你曾與祂相像,你的性情曾與祂相似。那些把握到這項假裝之虛妄的人,又將你投入另一個深淵。讓你相信你的性情與田間的野獸一樣,使你去到情慾中去追求,你就落入禽獸的命運之中。
... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662
It is in vain, O men, that you seek within yourselves the cure for your
miseries. All your insight only leads you to the knowledge that it is
not in yourselves that you will discover the true and the good. The
philosophers promised them to you, and have not been able to keep their
promises... Your principal maladies are pride, which cuts you off from
God, and sensuality, which binds you to the earth; and they have done
nothing but foster at least one of these maladies. If they have given
you God for your object, it has only been to pander to your pride; they
have made you think that you were like Him and resembled Him by your
nature. And those who have grasped the vanity of such a pretension have
cast you down into the other abyss by making you believe that your
nature was like that of the beasts of the field, and have led you to
seek your good in lust, which is the lot of animals.
那還未寬恕仇敵的人,沒有嘗到人生最崇高的享受。
-- Johann K. Lavater
He who has not forgiven an enemy has not yet tasted one of the most
sublime enjoyments of life.
當人傾聽他裡面試探者的聲音之時,他就會傾向於行他人所行的,而在試探猛烈之時不去抵擋。但是,只要看一看上帝的律法,聽一聽基督的聖言,他那天生的是非感就會回來,他就被提拔,淨化,成為聖潔。
... Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893)
When a man listens to the voice of the tempter within him, he is
inclined to do as others do, not to resist when temptation seems great.
But when he looks into the laws of God, and hears the words of Christ,
his natural sense of right and wrong is restored to him, and he becomes
elevated, purified, and sanctified.