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The just estimate of our gifts which Paul enjoins is needful in order that we may ascertain what God has meant us to be and do, and may neither waste our strength in trying to be some one else, nor hide our talent in the napkin of ignorance or false humility. There is quite as much harm done to Christian character and Christian service by our failure to recognise what is in our power, as by ambitious or ostentatious attempts at what is above our power. We have to be ourselves as God has made us in our natural faculties, and as the new life of Christ operating on these has made us new creatures in Him not by changing

– Alexander MacLaren on Romans 12:1-3

I have no sympathy with people who tell us today that these are the darkest days the world has ever seen. The days in which we live are appalling, but they do not compare with conditions in the world when Jesus came into it. Historians talk of the Pax Romana and make much of the fact that there was peace everywhere, the Roman peace. Do not forget that the Roman peace was the result of the fact that the world had been bludgeoned brutally into submission to one central power.…

Notwithstanding the prevailing conditions, the dominant note of these Letters, revealing the experience of the Church, is a note of triumph. The dire and dread facts and conditions are never lost sight of—indeed, they are there all the way through. The people are seen going out and facing these facts—and suffering because of these facts—but we never see them depressed and cast down, we never see them suffering from pessimistic fever. They are always triumphant. That is the glory of Christianity.

If ever I am tempted to think that religion is almost dead today, it is when I listen to the wailing of some Christian people: “Everything is wrong,” or “Everything is going wrong.” Oh, be quiet! Think again, look again, judge not by the circumstances of the passing hour but by the infinite things of our Gospel and our God. And that is exactly what these people did.

– G. Campbell Morgan

HT – http://www.epm.org/blog/2013/Apr/29/historys-darkest-hour?utm_source=feedly

“The whole volume of Scripture did prophesy of him. He was the sum and scope of all their predictions. He was Abraham’s promised seed, Abraham’s Isaac, Jacob’s Shiloh, Moses’ Great Prophet, Esaias’ Immanuel, Ezekiel’s Shepherd, Daniel’s Holy One, Zechariah’s Branch, Malachi’s Angel; all of them predictions to foretell his coming. All their types and ceremonies pointed at him. He was Abel’s Sacrifice, Noah’s Dove, Abraham’s First Fruits, Aaron’s Rod, the Israelites’ Rock, the Patriarchs’ Manna, David’s Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple; all these prefigured his incarnation. They were the folds and swathing of the babe Jesus.”–Bishop Brownrig.