Word of the Week

Just dug this up from an old post from 2008. The word is "fustian." It could be considered a synonym for pretentious, but more in reference to one's writing or speech. Enjoy...


Fustian
–noun

1.

a stout fabric of cotton and flax.

2.

a fabric of stout twilled cotton or of cotton and low-qualitywool, with a short nap or pile.

3.

inflated or turgid language in writing or speaking: Fustiancan't disguise the author's meager plot.

Actually, this word reminds me of the quote about the rhetoric of Warren G. Harding. It was said that a typical speech by Harding was like "an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea." 

just think about it...

Early on, Henry Bracton, a thirteenth century jurist and compiler of the first known British legal compendium, The Statute and Common Law of England (in Latin, of course), recognized the revolutionary implications of the Magna Carta. For the first time, the king was explicitly subject to the common law: ‘The king must not be subject to any man, but to God and the law; for the law makes him king.’  

- from a book

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist says...

"For all of life's disparities in talent and wealth, each of us is given exactly the same amount of time in each hour, and in each day, and in each year..." 


From a commencement address to law school graduates, transcribed here. 

Quotes of the Week

"It is true that we face difficulties in our work. But whenever we encounter problems and difficulties in the work, such as opposition and rejection, we discover whom we are really serving, what is the center of our service, and for what we serve. This was the problem between Paul and Barnabas. During times of trial, the attraction of the work, the natural human elements, and our own inclinations drop away; our work begins to be purified. Our service must not be based on natural attraction, human affinity, our own inclinations, the attraction of the brothers and sisters, or the work itself. It must be only based on God."

- Watchman Nee

Quote from Watchman Nee

Brothers and sisters, you need to aspire to be ministers of life to others. Do not ever be disappointed that you are not as eloquent as others, or that you do not have as much Bible knowledge as others. As long as you live in life, you will be able to supply life to other members. Some people begin to pray in the prayer meeting right after they are saved. Their prayers may be very awkward, but when others touch them, they receive light and supply. Yet after these ones have been Christians for a period of time, the life supply in them becomes less and less. Having lived the Christian life for a few years, they pick up much knowledge and many doctrines, yet there is a lack of the supply of life. The supply of life is not a matter of knowledge but a matter of freshness. It is better to have less knowledge and less doctrine than it is to lose the supply of life. We should ask the Lord to deliver us from our inability to supply life and should pray that we live before Him in a genuine way. If we live before the Lord and are in touch with life, we will supply others with life and wash their feet every time we contact them. They will receive the freshness of life and be recovered spiritually.

You can read the rest here.

Favorite Quotes

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Edward Hopper

Dear Mother,

I am glad to hear you are growing stout-I had guessed as much from your handwriting-you know it's comparatively easy to detect the writing of a fat lady. I hope however that you won't rise over two hundred. In spite of that you should be thankful that you are feeling so much better...

The Man in the Arena

This is a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910. It was subsequently re-printed in his book Citizenship in a Republic. Here is a passage:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Darby Quote

"Oh, the joy of having nothing and being nothing, seeing nothing but a Living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but His interests down here." - J.N.D.

Time & Relativity

"This long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the sea is flat again."

-John Maynard Keynes

Another Post

“When my life is through,

And the angels ask me to recall

The thrill of them all,

I shall tell them I remember you.”

Just Something I Like

Warren Harding’s speeches were once described as “an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea.”

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Vague and insignificant forms of speech, and abuse of language have so long passed for mysteries of science; and hard and misapplied words, with little or no meaning, have, by prescription, such a right to be mistaken for deep learning and height of speculation, that it will not be easy to persuade either those who speak or those who hear them, that they are but the covers of ignorance, and hindrance of true knowledge.

~John Locke, 1960