Hope

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Push (1996)

  I would like to. Abdul get tested. He is not HTV positive. Something like that make me feel what Rhonda, what Farrakhan, say—there is a god. But me when I think of it I'm more inclined to go wid Shug in The Color Purple. God ain' white, he ain' no Jew or Muslim, maybe he ain' even black, maybe he ain' even a "he." Even now I go downtown and seen the rich shit they got, I see what we got too. I see those men in vacant lot share one hot dog and they homeless, that's good as Jesus with his fish. I remember when I had my daughter, nurse nice to me— all that is god. Shug in Color Purple say it's the "wonder" of purple flowers. I feel that, even though I never seen or had no flowers like what she talk about. I'm not happy to be HIV positive. I don't understand why some kids git a good school and mother and father and some don't. But Rita say forgit the WHY ME shit and git on to what's next. I don't know what's next. I took the TABE test again, this time it's 7.8. Ms Rain say quantum leap! Like I was one place and instead of step up, it's a leap! What does that score actually mean? I read according to the test around 7th or 8th grade level now. Before on test I score 2.0 then 2.8. The 2.0 days was really low days because I could not read at all (test just give you 2.0 even if you don't fill in nothing). I got to get up to the level of high school kids, then college kids. I know I can do this. Ms Rain tell me don't worry it's gonna work out. I still got time. It's Sunday, no school, meetings. I'm in dayroom at Advancement House, sitting on a big leather stool holdin' Abdul. The sun is coming through the window splashing down on him, on the pages of his book. It's called The Black BC's. I love to hold him on my lap, open up the world to him. When the sun shine on him like this, he is an angel child. Brown sunshine. And my heart fill. Hurt One year? Five? Ten years? Maybe more if I take care of myself. Maybe a cure. Who knows, who is working on shit like that? Look his nose is so shiny, his eyes shiny. He my shiny brown boy. In his beauty I see my own. He pulling on my earring, want me to stop daydreaming and read him a story before nap time.

• From The Erotic Engine (2011)

  While it might provide no comfort to pornographers, some experts think the adult industry’s expertise in cost effectiveness is more relevant to the mainstream than ever. Erotologist C. J. Scheiner said, “I’ve actually been trying to talk some of the people I know who made films in the adult industry into considering trying to get jobs in the television industry because TV right now is trying to cut back their costs all over the place. The people who have been making erotica really know how to do things very efficiently.” I asked Lewis Perdue, who has done so much innovative analysis of the adult industry, whether he thinks pornography’s power is waning. He told me he hasn’t seen anything that makes him question the industry’s robustness. “As for the adult industry being a ‘has been’—the fact that they still make money selling content while The New York Times and others are still struggling speaks for itself,” he said in an email. “The adult industry is being hit hard by an avalanche of free porn which is hurting profits and making it harder to make money. However, they still manage—as a whole—to stay in the black. Their business models are evolving and that is where I see their innovation plowing new ground for the Internet as a whole.” So perhaps these dark times do not signal the end of the pornographer’s role as technological pioneer. This may be a dip rather than a decline. Pornographers are already fighting back on many fronts. Some use “legal tube sites” to post promotional clips—titillating trailers for full-length films. They hope surfers will be intrigued enough to pay for the full feature. They are embedding digital watermarks and other identifiable properties into their products to help them better track and catch pirates. Some are specializing, leaving the vanilla porn to the tube sites while trying to attract a small but passionate market that is dedicated enough to a specific fetish to pay the cost of admission. These measures may stanch the bleed. And if they do, mainstream media will no doubt adopt them to combat their own declining revenues. Such innovations, though, have to do with reaction and damage control. They are not the kind of bold advances that gave the pornography industry its technological mystique. Those kinds of innovations are more difficult to predict. I asked Porn and Pong author Damon Brown (who also writes for Playboy) how he thought the adult world might next lead the mainstream. He wisely declined to make specific predictions, but did suggest where the next big ideas might come from.

• From Jesus and His Jewish Influences (2015)

  Jesus and His Jewish Influences Lecture 22 Rabbinic Judaism’s Traditions about Jesus I n this lecture, we discuss the impact that the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple had on Judaism in the decades and centuries afterward. We review the events surrounding the Second Jewish Revolt, or the Bar Kokhba Revolt, between 132 and 135 A.D., which led to extremely punitive measures against the Jews by the emperor Hadrian. We conclude by examining the rise of Rabbinic Judaism—the transformation of Judaism from a sacrificial cult, led by a priesthood, to a community-based religion centered on prayer and worship in synagogues. Apocalyptic Works ●● In the aftermath of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple, a number of apocalyptic works were composed. The intention was to reassure readers that, in fact, the violence was all part of God’s plan and that the righteous would be delivered through the Messiah. These apocalyptic works include 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and the Book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse of John, in the New Testament. ●● The works 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch are Pseudepigrapha, which means that they are attributed to people other than their authors. The book 4 Ezra presents Ezra as a lawgiver like Moses, as well as the recipient of heavenly mysteries through divine revelation. ●● In the following passage, notice the concern with the revelation of divine secrets by God through an intermediary figure: “And it came to pass on the third day, while I was sitting under an oak, behold a voice came out of a bush opposite me and said, Ezra, Ezra. And I said, here I am, Lord. And I rose to my feet. Then he said to me, I revealed myself in a bush and spoke to Moses. And I led him up to Mount Sinai. And I kept him with me many days and showed him the secrets of the times and declared to him the end of the times.”

• From Jesus and His Jewish Influences (2015)

  /HFWXUH 6 7KH-HZLVK'LDVSRUDDQGWKH*ROGHQ5XOH I n this lecture, we examine evidence of the ancient Jewish Diaspora communities in Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, and Egypt through literary works, such as the books of Tobit and Esther. We conclude with a discussion of the Golden Rule, a version of which occurs in Tobit, whose meaning was the subject of debate among Jews in the time of Jesus. The Book of Tobit ƔThe Book of Tobit is an apocryphal book, which means that it is included in the Catholic Bible but not in the Jewish or Protestant canons of sacred scripture. The theme of Tobit is that God is with us, even in the midst of trouble and suffering; the book tells a story of hope and deliverance. ƔIn the story, Tobit is an Israelite exile in Assyria who has been punished by blinding for his righteous deeds (burying the dead). Far away, Sarah, who is a distant relative of Tobit, has been married seven times, and each time, her husband was killed on their wedding night by a demon who was in love with her. Both Tobit and Sarah pray for death as a release from their troubles. ƔGod responds by sending the angel Raphael, whose name literally means “God has healed.” Raphael uses Tobiah, Tobit’s son, as an agent to drive off the demon from Sarah and heal Tobit’s blindness. Tobiah then marries Sarah. The moral of the VWRU\LVWKDW*RGUHZDUGVWKHSLRXVHYHQLIWKH\PXVWVXIIHU¿UVW ƔThis tale sounds like the story of Job, but with several important distinctions. Whereas in Job, the individual suffers; in Tobit, the suffering is collective. That is, exile and dispersion are God’s SXQLVKPHQWIRU,VUDHO¶VVLQV%XWWKHSXQLVKPHQWLVQRW¿QDO7KH return from dispersion will have as its focus proper pan-Israelite worship in a rebuilt Jerusalem.

• From Wild (2012)

  “It’s so good to see you,” I said once I had it on, attempting to not seem to be hunching in a remotely upright position because I had to, but rather leaning forward with purpose and intention. “I haven’t seen anyone on the trail so far. I thought there’d be more—hikers.” “Not many people hike the PCT. And certainly not this year, with the record snow. A lot of people saw that and postponed their trips until next year.” “I wonder if that’s what we should do?” I asked, hoping he’d say he thought that was a great idea, coming back next year. “You’re the only solo woman I’ve met so far out here and the only one I’ve seen on the register too. It’s kind of neat.” I replied with a tiny whimper of a smile. “You all ready to go?” he asked. “Ready!” I said, with more vigor than I had. I followed him up the trail, walking as fast as I could to keep up, matching my steps with the click of his trekking pole. When we reached a set of switchbacks fifteen minutes later, I paused to take a sip of water. “Greg,” I called to him as he continued on. “Nice to meet you.” He stopped and turned. “Only about thirty miles to Kennedy Meadows.” “Yeah,” I said, giving him a weak nod. He’d be there the next morning. If I continued on, it would take me three days. “It’ll be cooler up there,” Greg said. “It’s a thousand feet higher than this.” “Good,” I replied wanly. “You’re doing fine, Cheryl,” he said. “Don’t worry about it too much. You’re green, but you’re tough. And tough is what matters the most out here. Not just anyone could do what you’re doing.” “Thanks,” I said, so buoyed by his words that my throat constricted with emotion. “I’ll see you up in Kennedy Meadows,” he said, and began to hike away. “Kennedy Meadows,” I called after him with more clarity than I felt. “We’ll make a plan about the snow,” he said before disappearing from sight. I hiked in the heat of that day with a new determination. Inspired by Greg’s faith in me, I didn’t give quitting another thought. As I hiked, I pondered the ice ax that would be in my resupply box. The ice ax that allegedly belonged to me. It was black and silver and dangerous-looking, an approximately two-foot-long metal dagger with a shorter, sharper dagger that ran crosswise at the end. I bought it, brought it home, and placed it in the box labeled Kennedy Meadows, assuming that by the time I actually reached Kennedy Meadows I would know how to use it—having by then been inexplicably transformed into an expert mountaineer.

• From The Confessions of Saint Augustine (354)

  Then I sought a way of obtaining strength sufficient to enjoy Thee; and found it not, until I embraced that Mediator betwixt God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who is over all, God blessed for evermore, calling unto me, and saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and mingling that food which I was unable to receive, with our flesh. For, the Word was made flesh, that Thy wisdom, whereby Thou createdst all things, might provide milk for our infant state. For I did not hold to my Lord Jesus Christ, I, humbled, to the Humble; nor knew I yet whereto His infirmity would guide us. For Thy Word, the Eternal Truth, far above the higher parts of Thy Creation, raises up the subdued unto Itself: but in this lower world built for Itself a lowly habitation of our clay, whereby to abase from themselves such as would be subdued, and bring them over to Himself; allaying their swelling, and tomenting their love; to the end they might go on no further in self-confidence, but rather consent to become weak, seeing before their feet the Divinity weak by taking our coats of skin; and wearied, might cast themselves down upon It, and It rising, might lift them up.

• From Push (1996)

  It's not over yet! Jermaine untitled by Precious Jones Rain, wheels, bus car, only in dreams I have car me n Abdul riding like in the movies sun a yellow red ball rising over hills where indeins usta live beaches. Islands where Jamaica-talks live Bob Marley song first I don't unnerstan it but now I do CONCREET JUNGLE it's a prison days we live in at least me I'm not really free baby, Mama, HIV where I wanna be where i wanna be? not where I AM on the 102 down lex avenue I do have lungs take in air I can see I can read nobody can see now but I might be a poet, rapper, I got water colors my child is smart my CHILDREN is alive some girls in forin countries babies dead. Look up sometimes and the birds is like dancers or like programmed by computer how they fly tear up your heart bus moving PLAY THE HAND YOU GOT housemother say. HOLD FAST TO DREAMS Langston say. GET UP OFF YOUR KNEES Farrakhan say. CHANGE Alice Walker say. Rain fall down wheels turn round DON'T ALWAYS RHYME Ms Rain say walk on go into the poem the HEART of it beating like a clock a virus tick tock. 1991

• From Mystical Tradition: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (2008)

  Sufis discovered new things about Allah not found in the Qur’an? 2. Did Sufism escape or transcend the ethics of the Shari’ah and, therefore, exist outside the boundaries of Islam? III. In his life and his writings, al-Ghazzali experienced and sought to resolve these intellectual and spiritual tensions. A. He wrote more than 70 books. His Deliverance from Error (c. 1100) is something of an intellectual and spiritual autobiography. 1. Born in Tus in Iran, al-Ghazzali was a brilliant student of law, philosophy, and theology. He was appointed professor or dean at Nizamiyah University in Baghdad (1091), where he lectured to as many as 300 students at a time. 2. His polymathic studies led to an intellectual and spiritual crisis in 1095; he abandoned his career and, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, lived as a Sufi. In Sufism, he found a certitude that was based in experience and located in the heart, not the mind. 3. He lectured again at Nizamiyah in 1106, then returned to his hometown, where he died in 1111. B. In the realm of philosophy, al-Ghazzali is best known for his Aims of the Philosophers, summarizing Ibn Sina’s teaching, and The Incoherence of the Philosophers, a rebuttal of the philosophical positions advanced, in particular, by Ibn Sina. 1. He challenges the capacity of philosophy to know what it claims to know, adopting an epistemological skepticism. Only Allah “causes”; only faith gives secure knowledge of what is real. 2. Ibn Rushd wrote The Incoherence of the Incoherence in response to al-Ghazzali. C. In other areas, al-Ghazzali represented a mediating position that enabled faith and the intellectual and mystical life to remain in conversation. 1. In jurisprudence, he championed the Shafi’i school, which recognized the role of ijtihad, “free inquiry.” 2. In theology, he adopted the Ash‘ari position and developed further the agreement of faith and reason, faith remaining primary, but reason inquiring into faith for its internal coherence. 3. In mysticism, he argued that the knowledge and morality of the Sufi must fit within the exoteric frame of the Shari’ah. ©2008 The Teaching Company. 125

• From The Confessions of Saint Augustine (354)

  What then have I to do with men, that they should hear my confessions—as if they could heal all my infirmities—a race, curious to know the lives of others, slothful to amend their own? Why seek they to hear from me what I am; who will not hear from Thee what themselves are? And how know they, when from myself they hear of myself, whether I say true; seeing no man knows what is in man, but the spirit of man which is in him? But if they hear from Thee of themselves, they cannot say, “The Lord lieth.” For what is it to hear from Thee of themselves, but to know themselves? and who knoweth and saith, “It is false,” unless himself lieth? But because charity believeth all things (that is, among those whom knitting unto itself it maketh one), I also, O Lord, will in such wise confess unto Thee, that men may hear, to whom I cannot demonstrate whether I confess truly; yet they believe me, whose ears charity openeth unto me. But do Thou, my inmost Physician, make plain unto me what fruit I may reap by doing it. For the confessions of my past sins, which Thou hast forgiven and covered, that Thou mightest bless me in Thee, changing my soul by Faith and Thy Sacrament, when read and heard, stir up the heart, that it sleep not in despair and say “I cannot,” but awake in the love of Thy mercy and the sweetness of Thy grace, whereby whoso is weak, is strong, when by it he became conscious of his own weakness. And the good delight to hear of the past evils of such as are now freed from them, not because they are evils, but because they have been and are not. With what fruit then, O Lord my God, to Whom my conscience daily confesseth, trusting more in the hope of Thy mercy than in her own innocency, with what fruit, I pray, do I by this book confess to men also in Thy presence what I now am, not what I have been? For that other fruit I have seen and spoken of. But what I now am, at the very time of making these confessions, divers desire to know, who have or have not known me, who have heard from me or of me; but their ear is not at my heart where I am, whatever I am. They wish then to hear me confess what I am within; whither neither their eye, nor ear, nor understanding can reach; they wish it, as ready to believe—but will they know? For charity, whereby they are good, telleth them that in my confessions I lie not; and she in them, believeth me.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  I. The Prayer of the Roman Church from the newly recovered portion of the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, ch. 59–61 (in Bishop Lightfoot’s translation, St. Clement of Rome, Append. pp. 376–378): "Grant unto us, Lord, that we may set our hope on Thy Name which is the primal source of all creation, and open the eyes of our hearts, that we may know Thee, who alone abidest Highest in the highest, Holy in the holy; who layest low the insolence of the proud: who scatterest the imaginings of nations; who settest the lowly on high, and bringest the lofty low; who makest rich and makest poor; who killest and makest alive; who alone art the Benefactor of spirits and the God of all flesh; who lookest into the abysses, who scannest the works of man; the Succor of them that are in peril, the Saviour of them that are in despair; the Creator and Overseer of every spirit; who multipliest the nations upon earth, and hast chosen out from all men those that love Thee through Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son, through whom Thou didst instruct us, didst sanctify us, didst honor us. We beseech Thee, Lord and Master, to be our help and succor. Save those among us who are in tribulation; have mercy on the lowly; lift up the fallen; show Thyself unto the needy; heal the ungodly; convert the wanderers of Thy people; feed the hungry; release our prisoners; raise up the weak; comfort the faint-hearted. Let all the Gentiles know that Thou art God alone, and Jesus Christ is Thy Son, and we are Thy people and the sheep of Thy pastures

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The advocates of this theory appeal to the certain promises of the Lord,1162 but particularly to the hieroglyphic passage of the Apocalypse, which teaches a millennial reign of Christ upon this earth after the first resurrection and before the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.1163 In connection with this the general expectation prevailed that the return of the Lord was near, though uncertain and unascertainable as to its day and hour, so that believers may be always ready for it.1164 This hope, through the whole age of persecution, was a copious fountain of encouragement and comfort under the pains of that martyrdom which sowed in blood the seed of a bountiful harvest for the church. Among the Apostolic Fathers Barnabas is the first and the only one who expressly teaches a pre-millennial reign of Christ on earth. He considers the Mosaic history of the creation a type of six ages of labor for the world, each lasting a thousand years, and of a millennium of rest; since with God "one day is as a thousand years." The millennial Sabbath on earth will be followed by an eighth and eternal day in a new world, of which the Lord’s Day (called by Barnabas "the eighth day") is the type.1165 Papias of Hierapolis, a pious but credulous contemporary of Polycarp, entertained quaint and extravagant notions of the happiness of the millennial reign, for which he appealed to apostolic tradition. He put into the mouth of Christ himself a highly figurative description of the more than tropical fertility of that period, which is preserved and approved by Irenaeus, but sounds very apocryphal.1166 Justin Martyr represents the transition from the Jewish Christian to the Gentile Christian chiliasm. He speaks repeatedly of the second parousia of Christ in the clouds of heaven, surrounded by the holy angels. It will be preceded by the near manifestation of the man of sin (a[nqrwpo" th'" ajnomiva") who speaks blasphemies against the most high God, and will rule three and a half years. He is preceded by heresies and false prophets.1167 Christ will then raise the patriarchs, prophets, and pious Jews, establish the millennium, restore Jerusalem, and reign there in the midst of his saints; after which the second and general resurrection and judgment of the world will take place. He regarded this expectation of the earthly perfection of Christ’s kingdom as the key-stone of pure doctrine, but adds that many pure and devout Christians of his day did not share this opinion.1168 After the millennium the world will be annihilated, or transformed.1169 In his two Apologies, Justin teaches the usual view of the general resurrection and judgment, and makes no mention of the millennium, but does not exclude it.1170 The other Greek Apologists are silent on the subject, and cannot be quoted either for or against chiliasm.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The inhabitants of the Forest Cantons, full of gratitude, made a devout pilgrimage to St. Mary of Einsiedeln, where Zwingli had copied the Epistles of St. Paul from the first printed edition of the Greek Testament in 1516, and where he, Leo Judae, and Myconius had labored in succession for a reformation of abuses, with the consent of Diepold von Geroldseck. That convent has remained ever since a stronghold of Roman Catholic piety and superstition in Switzerland, and attracts as many devout pilgrims as ever to the shrine of the "Black Madonna." It has one of the largest printing establishments, which sends prayer-books, missals, breviaries, diurnals, rituals, pictures, crosses, and crucifixes all over the German-speaking Catholic world.298 Bullinger, who succeeded Zwingli, closes his "History of the Reformation" mournfully, yet not without resignation and hope. "All manner of tyranny and overbearance," he says, "is restored and strengthened, and an insolent régime is working the ruin of the confederacy. Wonderful are the counsels of the Lord. But he doeth all things well. To him be glory and praise! Amen." NOTE ON THE CONVENT OF EINSIEDELN. (Comp. § 8, pp. 29 sqq.) On a visit to Einsiedeln, June 12, 1890, I saw in the church a number of pilgrims kneeling before the wonder-working statue of the Black Madonna. The statue is kept in a special chapel, is coal-black, clothed in a silver garment, crowned with a golden crown, surrounded by gilt ornaments, and holding the Christ-Child in her arms. The black color is derived by some from the smoke of fire which repeatedly consumed the church, while the statue is believed to have miraculously escaped; but the librarian (Mr. Meier) told me that it was from the smoke of candles, and that the face of the Virgin is now painted with oil. The library of the abbey numbers 40,000 volumes (including 900 incunabula), among them several copies of the first print of Zwingli’s Commentary on the true and false Religion, and other books of his. In the picture-gallery are life-size portraits of King Frederick William IV. of Prussia, his brother, the Prince of Prussia (afterwards Emperor William I. of Germany), of Napoleon III. and Eugenie, of the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria and his wife, and their unfortunate son who committed suicide in 1889, and of Pope Pius IX. These portraits were presented to the convent on its tenth centenary in 1861. The convent was founded by St. Meinhard, a hermit, in the ninth century, or rather by St. Benno, who died there in 940. The abbey has now nearly 100 Benedictine monks, a gymnasium with 260 pupils of twelve to twenty years, a theological seminary, and two filial institutions in Indiana and Arkansas. The church is an imposing structure, after the model of St. Peter’s in Rome, surrounded by colonnades. The costly chandelier is a present of Napoleon III. (1865).

• From Little Women (1868)

  The ugly duckling turned out a swan, you know." and Amy smiled without bitterness, for she possessed a happy temper and hopeful spirit. Mrs. March laughed, and smoothed down her maternal pride as she asked, "Well, my swan, what is your plan?" "I should like to ask the girls out to lunch next week, to take them for a drive to the places they want to see, a row on the river, perhaps, and make a little artistic fete for them." "That looks feasible. What do you want for lunch? Cake, sandwiches, fruit, and coffee will be all that is necessary, I suppose?" "Oh, dear, no! We must have cold tongue and chicken, French chocolate and ice cream, besides. The girls are used to such things, and I want my lunch to be proper and elegant, though I do work for my living." "How many young ladies are there?" asked her mother, beginning to look sober. "Twelve or fourteen in the class, but I dare say they won't all come." "Bless me, child, you will have to charter an omnibus to carry them about." "Why, Mother, how can you think of such a thing? Not more than six or eight will probably come, so I shall hire a beach wagon and borrow Mr. Laurence's cherry-bounce." (Hannah's pronunciation of char-a-banc.) "All of this will be expensive, Amy." "Not very. I've calculated the cost, and I'll pay for it myself." "Don't you think, dear, that as these girls are used to such things, and the best we can do will be nothing new, that some simpler plan would be pleasanter to them, as a change if nothing more, and much better for us than buying or borrowing what we don't need, and attempting a style not in keeping with our circumstances?" "If I can't have it as I like, I don't care to have it at all. I know that I can carry it out perfectly well, if you and the girls will help a little, and I don't see why I can't if I'm willing to pay for it," said Amy, with the decision which opposition was apt to change into obstinacy. Mrs. March knew that experience was an excellent teacher, and when it was possible she left her children to learn alone the lessons which she would gladly have made easier, if they had not objected to taking advice as much as they did salts and senna. "Very well, Amy, if your heart is set upon it, and you see your way through without too great an outlay of money, time, and temper, I'll say no more. Talk it over with the girls, and whichever way you decide, I'll do my best to help you." "Thanks, Mother, you are always so kind." and away went Amy to lay her plan before her sisters. Meg agreed at once, and promised her aid, gladly offering anything she possessed, from her little house itself to her very best saltspoons.

• From The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915)

  The formation of the ideal world is therefore not an irreducible fact which escapes science; it depends upon conditions which observation can touch; it is a natural product of social life. For a society to become conscious of itself and maintain at the necessary degree of intensity the sentiments which it thus attains, it must assemble and concentrate itself. Now this concentration brings about an exaltation of the mental life which takes form in a group of ideal conceptions where is portrayed the new life thus awakened; they correspond to this new set of psychical forces which is added to those which we have at our disposition for the daily tasks of existence. A society can neither create itself nor recreate itself without at the same time creating an ideal. This creation is not a sort of work of supererogation for it, by which it would complete itself, being already formed; it is the act by which it is periodically made and remade. Therefore when some oppose the ideal society to the real society, like two antagonists which would lead us in opposite directions, they materialize and oppose abstractions. The ideal society is not outside of the real society; it is a part of it. Far from being divided between them as between two poles which mutually repel each other, we cannot hold to one without holding to the other. For a society is not made up merely of the mass of individuals who compose it, the ground which they occupy, the things which they use and the movements which they perform, but above all is the idea which it forms of itself. It is undoubtedly true that it hesitates over the manner in which it ought to conceive itself; it feels itself drawn in divergent directions. But these conflicts which break forth are not between the ideal and reality, but between two different ideals, that of yesterday and that of to-day, that which has the authority of tradition and that which has the hope of the future. There is surely a place for investigating whence these ideals evolve; but whatever solution may be given to this problem, it still remains that all passes in the world of the ideal.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Our Lord had predicted this conflict, and prepared His disciples for it. "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. They will deliver you up to councils, and in their synagogues they will scourge you; yea and before governors and kings shall ye be brought for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child: and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." These, and similar words, as well as the recollection of the crucifixion and resurrection, fortified and cheered many a confessor and martyr in the dungeon and at the stake. The persecutions proceeded first from the Jews, afterwards from the Gentiles, and continued, with interruptions, for nearly three hundred years. History reports no mightier, longer and deadlier conflict than this war of extermination waged by heathen Rome against defenseless Christianity. It was a most unequal struggle, a struggle of the sword and of the cross; carnal power all on one side, moral power all on the other. It was a struggle for life and death. One or the other of the combatants must succumb. A compromise was impossible. The future of the world’s history depended on the downfall of heathenism and the triumph of Christianity. Behind the scene were the powers of the invisible world, God and the prince of darkness. Justin, Tertullian, and other confessors traced the persecutions to Satan and the demons, though they did not ignore the human and moral aspects; they viewed them also as a punishment for past sins, and a school of Christian virtue. Some denied that martyrdom was an evil, since it only brought Christians the sooner to God and the glory of heaven. As war brings out the heroic qualities of men, so did the persecutions develop the patience, the gentleness, the endurance of the Christians, and prove the world-conquering power of faith. Number of Persecutions.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Irenaeus, on the strength of tradition from St. John and his disciples, taught that after the destruction of the Roman empire, and the brief raging of antichrist (lasting three and a half years or 1260 days), Christ will visibly appear, will bind Satan, will reign at the rebuilt city of Jerusalem with the little band of faithful confessors and the host of risen martyrs over the nations of the earth, and will celebrate the millennial sabbath of preparation for the eternal glory of heaven; then, after a temporary liberation of Satan, follows the final victory, the general resurrection, the judgment of the world, and the consummation in the new heavens and the new earth.1171 Tertullian was an enthusiastic Chiliast, and pointed not only to the Apocalypse, but also to the predictions of the Montanist prophets.1172 But the Montanists substituted Pepuza in Phrygia for Jerusalem, as the centre of Christ’s reign, and ran into fanatical excesses, which brought chiliasm into discredit, and resulted in its condemnation by several synods in Asia Minor.1173 After Tertullian, and independently of Montanism, chiliasm was taught by Commodian towards the close of the third century,1174 Lactantius,1175 and Victorinus of Petau,1176 at the beginning of the fourth. Its last distinguished advocates in the East were Methodius (d., a martyr, 311), the opponent of Origen,1177 and Apollinaris of Laodicea in Syria. We now turn to the anti-Chiliasts. The opposition began during the Montanist movement in Asia Minor. Caius of Rome attacked both Chiliasm and Montanism, and traced the former to the hated heretic Cerinthus.1178 The Roman church seems never to have sympathized with either, and prepared itself for a comfortable settlement and normal development in this world. In Alexandria, Origen opposed chiliasm as a Jewish dream, and spiritualized the symbolical language of the prophets.1179 His distinguished pupil, Dionysius the Great (d. about 264), checked the chiliastic movement when it was revived by Nepos in Egypt, and wrote an elaborate work against it, which is lost. He denied the Apocalypse to the apostle John, and ascribed it to a presbyter of that name.1180 Eusebius inclined to the same view.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  A. Wahl: Unsterblichkeits-und Vergeltungslehre des alttestamentlichen Hebraismus. Jena, 1871. Dr. Ferdinand Weber (d. 1879): System der Altsynagogalen Palaestinischen Theologie aus Targum, Midrasch und Talmud. Ed. by Franz Delitzsch and Georg Schnedermann. Leipzig, 1880. See chs. XXI. 322–332; XXIV. 371–386. Aug Wünsche: Die Vorstellungen vom Zustande nach dem Tode nach apokryphen, Talmud, und Kirchenvätern In the "Jahrbücher für Prot. Theol." Leipz. 1880 Bissel: The Eschatology of the Apocrypha. In the " Bibliotheca Sacra," 1879. IV. Christian Eschatology: See the relevant chapters in Flügge, and Alger, as above. Dr. Edward Beecher: History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution. New York, 1878 (334 pages). The relevant sections in the Doctrine Histories of Münscher, Neander, Gieseler, Baur, Hagenbach (H. B. Smith’s ed. vol. I. 213 sqq. and 368 sqq.), Shedd, Friedrich Nitzsch (I. 397 sqq.) A large number of monographs on Death, Hades, Purgatory, Resurrection, Future Punishment. See the next sections. Christianity—and human life itself, with its countless problems and mysteries—has no meaning without the certainty of a future world of rewards and punishments, for which the present life serves as a preparatory school. Christ represents himself as "the Resurrection and the Life," and promises "eternal life" to all who believe in Him. On his resurrection the church is built, and without it the church could never have come into existence. The resurrection of the body and the life everlasting are among the fundamental articles of the early baptismal creeds. The doctrine of the future life, though last in the logical order of systematic theology, was among the first in the consciousness of the Christians, and an unfailing source of comfort and strength in times of trial and persecution. It stood in close connection with the expectation of the Lord’s glorious reappearance. It is the subject of Paul’s first Epistles, those to the Thessalonians, and is prominently discussed in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. He declares the Christians "the most pitiable," because the most deluded and uselessly self-sacrificing, "of all men," if their hope in Christ were confined to this life. The ante-Nicene church was a stranger in the midst of a hostile world, and longed for the unfading crown which awaited the faithful confessor and martyr beyond the grave. Such a mighty revolution as the conversion of the heathen emperor was not dreamed of even as a remote possibility, except perhaps by the far-sighted Origen. Among the five causes to which Gibbon traces the rapid progress of the Christian religion he assigns the second place to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. We know nothing whatever of a future world which lies beyond the boundaries of our observation and experience, except what God has chosen to reveal to us. Left to the instincts and aspirations of nature, which strongly crave after immortality and glory, we can reach at best only probabilities; while the gospel gives us absolute certainty, sealed by the resurrection of Christ.

• From Little Women (1868)

  "I think too much of my looks and hate to work, but won't any more, if I can help it." "I'll try and be what he loves to call me, 'a little woman' and not be rough and wild, but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else," said Jo, thinking that keeping her temper at home was a much harder task than facing a rebel or two down South. Beth said nothing, but wiped away her tears with the blue army sock and began to knit with all her might, losing no time in doing the duty that lay nearest her, while she resolved in her quiet little soul to be all that Father hoped to find her when the year brought round the happy coming home. Mrs. March broke the silence that followed Jo's words, by saying in her cheery voice, "Do you remember how you used to play Pilgrims Progress when you were little things? Nothing delighted you more than to have me tie my piece bags on your backs for burdens, give you hats and sticks and rolls of paper, and let you travel through the house from the cellar, which was the City of Destruction, up, up, to the housetop, where you had all the lovely things you could collect to make a Celestial City." "What fun it was, especially going by the lions, fighting Apollyon, and passing through the valley where the hob-goblins were," said Jo. "I liked the place where the bundles fell off and tumbled downstairs," said Meg. "I don't remember much about it, except that I was afraid of the cellar and the dark entry, and always liked the cake and milk we had up at the top. If I wasn't too old for such things, I'd rather like to play it over again," said Amy, who began to talk of renouncing childish things at the mature age of twelve. "We never are too old for this, my dear, because it is a play we are playing all the time in one way or another. Our burdens are here, our road is before us, and the longing for goodness and happiness is the guide that leads us through many troubles and mistakes to the peace which is a true Celestial City. Now, my little pilgrims, suppose you begin again, not in play, but in earnest, and see how far on you can get before Father comes home." "Really, Mother? Where are our bundles?" asked Amy, who was a very literal young lady. "Each of you told what your burden was just now, except Beth. I rather think she hasn't got any," said her mother. "Yes, I have. Mine is dishes and dusters, and envying girls with nice pianos, and being afraid of people." Beth's bundle was such a funny one that everybody wanted to laugh, but nobody did, for it would have hurt her feelings very much. "Let us do it," said Meg thoughtfully.

• From The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1915)

  We have said that there is something eternal in religion: it is the cult and the faith. Men cannot celebrate ceremonies for which they see no reason, nor can they accept a faith which they in no way understand. To spread itself or merely to maintain itself, it must be justified, that is to say, a theory must be made of it. A theory of this sort must undoubtedly be founded upon the different sciences, from the moment when these exist; first of all, upon the social sciences, for religious faith has its origin in society; then upon psychology, for society is a synthesis of human consciousnesses; and finally upon the sciences of nature, for man and society are a part of the universe and can be abstracted from it only artificially. But howsoever important these facts taken from the constituted sciences may be, they are not enough; for faith is before all else an impetus to action, while science, no matter how far it may be pushed, always remains at a distance from this. Science is fragmentary and incomplete; it advances but slowly and is never finished; but life cannot wait. The theories which are destined to make men live and act are therefore obliged to pass science and complete it prematurely. They are possible only when the practical exigencies and the vital necessities which we feel without distinctly conceiving them push thought in advance, beyond that which science permits us to affirm. Thus religions, even the most rational and laicized, cannot and never will be able to dispense with a particular form of speculation which, though having the same subjects as science itself, cannot be really scientific: the obscure intuitions of sensation and sentiment too often take the place of logical reasons. On one side, this speculation resembles that which we meet with in the religions of the past; but on another, it is different. While claiming and exercising the right of going beyond science, it must commence by knowing this and by inspiring itself with it. Ever since the authority of science was established, it must be reckoned with; one can go farther than it under the pressure of necessity, but he must take his direction from it. He can affirm nothing that it denies, deny nothing that it affirms, and establish nothing that is not directly or indirectly founded upon principles taken from it. From now on, the faith no longer exercises the same hegemony as formerly over the system of ideas that we may continue to call religion. A rival power rises up before it which, being born of it, ever after submits it to its criticism and control. And everything makes us foresee that this control will constantly become more extended and efficient, while no limit can be assigned to its future influence. III

• From Little Women (1868)

  I felt as if I'd got into a romance, sitting there, watching the Neckar rolling through the valley, listening to the music of the Austrian band below, and waiting for my lover, like a real storybook girl. I had a feeling that something was going to happen and I was ready for it. I didn't feel blushy or quakey, but quite cool and only a little excited. By-and-by I heard Fred's voice, and then he came hurrying through the great arch to find me. He looked so troubled that I forgot all about myself, and asked what the matter was. He said he'd just got a letter begging him to come home, for Frank was very ill. So he was going at once on the night train and only had time to say good-by. I was very sorry for him, and disappointed for myself, but only for a minute because he said, as he shook hands, and said it in a way that I could not mistake, "I shall soon come back, you won't forget me, Amy?" I didn't promise, but I looked at him, and he seemed satisfied, and there was no time for anything but messages and good-byes, for he was off in an hour, and we all miss him very much. I know he wanted to speak, but I think, from something he once hinted, that he had promised his father not to do anything of the sort yet a while, for he is a rash boy, and the old gentleman dreads a foreign daughter-in-law. We shall soon meet in Rome, and then, if I don't change my mind, I'll say "Yes, thank you," when he says "Will you, please?" Of course this is all very private , but I wished you to know what was going on. Don't be anxious about me, remember I am your 'prudent Amy', and be sure I will do nothing rashly. Send me as much advice as you like. I'll use it if I can. I wish I could see you for a good talk, Marmee. Love and trust me. Ever your AMY CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO TENDER TROUBLES "Jo, I'm anxious about Beth." "Why, Mother, she has seemed unusually well since the babies came." "It's not her health that troubles me now, it's her spirits. I'm sure there is something on her mind, and I want you to discover what it is." "What makes you think so, Mother?" "She sits alone a good deal, and doesn't talk to her father as much as she used. I found her crying over the babies the other day. When she sings, the songs are always sad ones, and now and then I see a look in her face that I don't understand. This isn't like Beth, and it worries me." "Have you asked her about it?" "I have tried once or twice, but she either evaded my questions or looked so distressed that I stopped.