William Temple (1881-1944) was one of the greatest Archbishops of Canterbury in modern times and has been described as a "spiritual giant". He was a philosopher and a statesman who supported social reforms and defending the working class. He was also a pioneer in the ecumenical movement.
Temple spoke up passionately in the House of Lords in 1943 against the slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis, arguing for their protection to be made a priority and comparing Allied leaders to the priest and the levite who passed by on the other side of the road from the man who fell among thieves. He co-founded the Council of Christians and Jews.
He was also a profound spiritual writer who saw deeply into the heart of the gospel. One of his books was Christian Faith and Life, which reflected on how to live as a Christian in a changing world.
Here are 10 quotes from that book, published in 1931.
1. Remember that Christianity is not, first and foremost, a religion; it is first and foremost a revelation. It comes before us chiefly not with a declaration of feelings we are to cultivate, or thoughts we are to develop; it comes before us, first and foremost, with the announcement of what God is, as He is proved in what he has done.
2. As soon as the reality of God was an intellectual certainty, there would no longer be any spiritual merit in faith. From the point of view of religion, not only of the Christian religion, faith is something nobler in its own kind than certainty.
3. The Christian conception of God begins with an exaltation of the the Divine Majesty, the greatest the mind can conceive, but when the greatness and the far-reaching power, might and authority of God exhibit themselves for man, it is by washing the disciples' feet.
4. Our duty to God requires that we should, for a good part of our time, be not consciously thinking about Him. That makes it absolutely necessary, if our life is to be a life of fellowship with Him that we should have our times which are worship, pure and simple.
5. We cannot always be thinking about Christ, but we can refuse to dwell on any thoughts which are out of tune with Him.
6. You will find it is not possible for a vivid memory of Jesus Christ and an unclean thought or a mean and treacherous desire to be in your mind at the same time.
7. To choose your career for selfish reasons is a worse sin than, let us say, committing adultery, for it is the withdrawal of the greater part of your time and energy from the service of God.
8. The worst things that happen do not happen because a few people are monstrously wicked, but because most people are like us.
9. Repentance does not merely mean giving up a bad habit. What it is concerned with is the mind: get a new mind. To repent is to adopt God's viewpoint in place of your own.
10. It is not easy to find outstanding opportunities for practising this great virtue of forgiveness. But there are plenty of little ones, and the little ones test us more searchingly because there is nothing heroic about them. It is always easier to do one big heroic thing than a thousand little, obscure things; and that is what it has to be with most of us.
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