Turn, rather, to these teachings, my very dear friend: take up your cross and follow the Lord. For, when I noticed that you were being slowed down in your divine purpose by your preoccupation with domestic cares, I felt that you were being carried and dragged by your cross rather than that you were carrying it ahead of you. That cross of ours which the Lord commands us to carry, that we may be as well armed as possible in following Him, what else does it mean but the mortality of this flesh? It makes us suffer now until death is swallowed up in victory. Therefore, this cross must itself be crucified and pierced with the nails of the fear of God, for we should not be able to carry it if it resisted us with free and unfettered limbs. There is no other way for you to follow the Lord except by carrying it, for how can you follow Him if you are not His?
Saint Augustine of Hippo
Letter to Laetus
- Gary Hartenburg responds to Matthew Lee Anderson’s piece on The New Evangelical Scandal (Winter 2008) at Mere Orthodoxy.
- At the First Things blog, Jordan Hylden writes on Anglicans in Africa.
- The Barna Group offers a fascinating survey on spiritual gifts.
- Marking the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the Claremont Institute collects an impressive series of writings on the president.
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