Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
John CalvinRead
The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the days of their life.
Interpretation
Knowledge is meaningless without humility and acknowledgment of a higher power.
This quote by John Calvin emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's limitations and the need for guidance from a higher authority, specifically God, in the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge. It suggests that even the most knowledgeable individuals are foolish if they do not understand their dependence on divine guidance throughout their lives, highlighting the interplay between humility and learning.
In practice
In a sermon highlighting the importance of humility in education.
Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.
Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.
When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.
Lives of great men oft remind us as we o'er their pages turn, That we too may leave behind us - Letters that we ought to burn.
Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it 'for a reasonable period'--and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have.
Fire is the best of servants, but what a master!
Sometimes, magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.
Stop all this weeping, swallow your pride/ You will not die, its not poison -Tombstone Blues
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