John Mayer was an English Puritan. Here lists duties from the English Catechism, such as doing good to all. We should soften our hearts and feel deep compassion in our bellies towards the poor. He also encourages an additional dimension, of being careful for others’s spiritual well being.
Would one necessarily be a distraction from the other? Can we look after our neighbors’ bodies and souls?
How can you let your hard heart break?
Heinrich Bullinger, Protestant Reformer, says the early church used its money on ransoms, dowries, the building of hospitals, harbours, and schools, entertaining _poor_ travelers. They built harbors!
Today, the church is known for opposing some of these, whether funded by tax dollars or the work of other churches.
How can you be like the ancient fathers?
James Renwick Wilson Sloane, a Presbyterian minister, on the theological orthodoxy of fellow abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Says that Garrison didn’t have very orthodox theology, but who could blame him, given all the pro-slavery churches he interacted with. (Note: many abolitionists did care about correct doctrine).
What might you be driving people towards? Do they have to accept every one of your tenets?
Greg Johnson