“HOSEA”— HOSEA 1 AND 3 [Preached thirty times from 1/9/44 at Bondgate, Darlington to 11/24/02 at Shiney Row] The story of Hosea is well-known. I almost said too well know. It is so familiar that we fail to ask ourselves whether we should have been likely to act as Hosea did, and to see what the prophet makes of his tale. We take it for granted that because it is in the Bible it must be ordinary, commonplace, tame, whereas... Read more

What is your life for? The only answer is that your life is to be integrated into the meaning of all life, and the meaning of all life is Christ. Behind all your suffering is the agony of the Son of Man. Beyond your sin is sin-bearing love that will not let you go, and every fragmentary good, every virtue we possess, is his alone. It is like the reconciliation of fiction and autobiography. In fiction, the author’s purposes prevail;... Read more

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The real grieving figure is that of the thousands who have simply ‘ceased to be members’. Some people say they are small loss; they can never have been really whole-hearted members. I do not believe it. Of course they were not perfect, but neither were they hypocrites. They have lost a faith which once they had, and, for this is the main point, that is something that in the future might happen to any of us. You cannot ever become... Read more

Death is not merely an end that hovers over us, with which someday we shall have to reckon. The breath of corruption taints life now. The life most of us live now is lived at ‘a poor dying rate’. It is not by any means complete or satisfactory life. It hasn’t enough depth, enough happiness, enough sanity, enough power. It may be respectable. It may even be ethically good (like St. Paul’s as a Pharisee), but that is not enough.... Read more

“The real trouble with materialism is that it is narrowing and immature. It does not take into account the whole breadth and sweep of human experience. It is faith that gives coherence to scientific thought, for faith means that behind the infinite variety of phenomena, there is no mere haphazard association of chances, but purpose and mind and reason. Christians ought to be the first explorers of the universe, for they know that it is the expression of personal consistent... Read more

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There is something here for us to learn and to imitate. If you are bent on treating the doctrine of the Trinity as a piece of metaphysics, then I shall not be surprised if you find it incredible or if it be credible, irrelevant, if you insist on divorcing it from practical life. if you insist upon regarding it as a toy for theologians, then inevitably it will never mean anything to you. To do this is a mistake. The... Read more

I am saying that the great problems—economic, social, political—have a theological element in them and if that element is eliminated, the problems will not be solved. For our contribution runs deep… Half, or any higher proportion you like, of our political, social, economic problems are due to those who precipitate all these problems with no more than a half-baked theology to support them. Whatever you do, learn your theology properly. You need it in every department of ministerial life. You... Read more

The parts of the New Testament that really prove the resurrection are not Mt. 28, Mk. 16, Lk. 24, and John 20.21. These are the stories of the first Easter. Of course I am not depreciating them; they are of great value. But taken in themselves and on their own, they could be wrong, they could be mistaken, they could be deliberate fiction, invented to bolster up a case. The parts of the New Testament that prove the resurrection are... Read more