Letter 74 to Lady Culross Aberdeen 1837
Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Andrew Bonar)
Source: Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
Has wounds but still lives (2010)
Context: So I wanted to say she's safe and sound. And for those of you who are still concerned, I saw her this morning for the last time — and her whole face here, which was ravaged and gone, seemingly, was not only healed — there was fur growing back on it. So, that is the end of the story of Has Wounds But Still Lives, and she's in earthly kitty heaven, which is having an owner that loves you to pieces and takes care of you. So — with that in mind, I wanted to thank everyone again. And so many wonderful things are happening all around me — and they don't need to happen to me. But to be given the grace to be a part of it, or to see it — especially to help — is the best thing I could ever have.
“Whenever I see a pretty woman, I have to pray for grace.”
Quoted by Wilhelm Wyl, Joseph Smith, the Prophet, His Family and His Friends (Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing, 1886), 55
Attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr.
Statement during National Prayer Breakfast (27 September 2010), "Obama 'Christian By Choice': President Responds To Questioner" by Charles Babington and Darlene Superville, Associated Press (28 September 2010) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/28/obama-christian-by-choice_n_742124.html?view=print - Video : President Obama: "I am a Christian By Choice" at ABC News (29 September 2010) http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/09/president-obama-i-am-a-christian-by-choicethe-precepts-of-jesus-spoke-to-me.html
2010
Context: I'm a Christian by choice. My family didn't — frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead — being my brothers' and sisters' keeper, treating others as they would treat me. I think also understanding that Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we're sinful and we're flawed and we make mistakes, and that we achieve salvation through the grace of God. But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people and do our best to help them find their own grace. That's what I strive to do. That's what I pray to do every day. I think my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith. … One thing I want to emphasize, having spoken about something that obviously relates to me very personally, as president of the United States I'm also somebody who deeply believes that part of the bedrock strength of this country is that it embraces people of many faiths and no faith… that this is a country that is still predominantly Christian, but we have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, and that their own path to grace is one that we have to revere and respect as much as our own.
That's part of what makes this country what it is.
“See, Winter comes to rule the varied year,
Sullen and sad.”
Source: The Seasons (1726-1730), Winter (1726), l. 1.
