FAIR SUNSHINE

I t has pleased the Almighty of late to visit our little flock with a season of sore trial. The adversary has been permitted to cast a heavy shadow over us, and many among our number find themselves bowed down by sickness. Furthermore, we find a spirit of laziness among the youth of our teen class, as the world and its guile seek to draw away their hearts. One dear soul hath been pulled away by her mother to hear Mass, wandering from what she has learned from the Gospel. Yet, this past Lord’s Day, even after the children’s assembly, two young teens stood as a testament to His grace. One hath walked with us these four years, enduring many sore trials and tempests within his own house; yet, he speaks with a wisdom and a graciousness that can only be wrought by God's divine hand. With him is a younger lad, who stoutly declares his desire to remain apart from joining his mother’s church, professing that he finds no bread for his soul there. Truly, the Lord knows how to gather His own...

This preliminary survey gave me a prospect of the difficulties that await. The journey alone is a most wearying cross to bear, even without the labors of preaching. While traversing a lonely stretch of road, with nothing but the scenery of trees and valleys for company, I asked myself, ' can this be done? ' only to be met by that sterner demand of the conscience, ' do I want it to remain undone? ' The scarcity of people in each of the location was owing to the lateness of the hour; during the afternoon, the populace is occupied at their work, their studies, or in their homes. I thus conclude that morning is the season best suited for my visits. Yet, this in itself presents a new trial for me, for I have long found the early hours a heavy burden to my natural disposition, and the flesh is ever heavy to rise in the morning. Indeed, my own habits are set in a different mold, as I am accustomed to pursue my studies late into the night and onto the very break of the dawn. ...

Luke 17:20-30 E ven as the people of our Lord's day were taught to expect a militant Messiah who would but break their earthly oppression and restore the nation of Israel (Acts 1:6) , so the people of this present age are fed a God who is distant—who dwells only in the lifeless product of weekly mass, traditions, repeating routines, conferences and non-experiential preachings. He is made a mere subject of knowledge, confined to the intellect of man rather than made manifest in the reality of His kingdom advancing in the Holy Spirit's power (Acts 1:8). Our blessed Lord appeared in His first advent not as a king of might and splendor, but as a suffering servant, a man of sorrows, a social reject and an outcast well associated with grief. He must first suffer many things and eventually be rejected by His very people, so as to die for sin. So contrary was this to the self-serving expectations of men. He came unto His own, but because He clothed Himself in humility rather tha...

O ur text for the beloved saints this day was drawn from the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, specifically the first ten verses. Here, we were brought to consider how impossible a thing it is, from a mere human standpoint, to forgive a brother without harboring the least resentment in the soul. When we reached the fourth verse, we felt the weight of that most difficult command: that even should a brother trespass against us seven times in a single day, we  must  forgive him. Luke 17:1-10 Repeated offenses within a single day! Could we truly cast the memory of a grievous wrong aside in the span of one year, much less one day? The bitterness of a wounded spirit too often lingers; it festers within the natural mind—that fallen nature which seeks its own justice—and haunts the conscience of even the most devout believer should the breach be deep and lasting. How much more is this trespass enlarged when the offense involves those closest to us! When the hurt involves our...

I t is our firm conviction that to carry the Word of Life outside the sanctuary walls—proclaiming it under the open heavens where every ear may hear—is a work that greatly edifies the redeemed and honors the Great Commandment of our Blessed Savior. Yet, we are aware of those who favor the rigid formalities of church tradition. There will be many "what abouts" that arise when we step out of the accepted line.  One professing Christian even warned me of that part of Scripture: “Why cast your precious pearls before swine?”  But I was a swine. And it was only when God, in His infinite mercy, moved His people to cast their pearls before such as I, that I was plucked from the mire and saved. It is therefore to meet these very anxieties that I will endeavor to show how the Spirit may move in the open air without abandoning the order of the Church that I have prepared these pages. Firstly, There be many arguments put forth both against house churches on the one hand, and the f...

W e have two texts set before us this Lord’s Day. The first, found in the opening thirteen verses of the sixteenth chapter of Saint Luke, is a word intended for the sheepfold alone. The second, found in the verses that follow—from the nineteenth to the thirty-first—is a message directed both to the sheep within the fold and to the public gathered without.  Luke 16:1-13 The Parable of the Deceitful Steward The first was given to the sheepfold as a solemn reminder that the Christian religion is a practical thing. It is not enough to offer God our worship in the spirit; we must show the reality of that worship in a tangible way to those who bear His image. In like manner, God did not merely declare His love from the heavens; He demonstrated that love toward us by the giving of His own Son. It is in this very act of giving—of pouring ourselves out for the sake of others—that we truly mirror the Lord Jesus, making His grace wonderful and visible to a world unfamiliar to such kindness....