{"id":1843,"date":"2011-02-25T11:32:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-25T19:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2011\/02\/25\/contend-for-the-faith-quotable-2\/"},"modified":"2011-02-25T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T19:32:00","slug":"contend-for-the-faith-quotable-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/2011\/02\/25\/contend-for-the-faith-quotable-2\/","title":{"rendered":"contend for the faith &ndash; quotable (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cAgain: Hippolytus refers to the action of the <i>suburbicarian<\/i> bishops in provincial council. And here is the place to express dissatisfaction with the apologetic tone of some writers, who seem to think Hippolytus too severe, etc. As if, in dealing with such \u2018wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing,\u2019 this faithful leader could show himself a true shepherd without emphasis and words of abhorrence. Hippolytus has left to the Church the impress of his character as \u2018superlatively sweet and amiable.\u2019 Such was St. John, the beloved disciple; but he was not less a \u2018son of thunder.\u2019 Our Divine Master was \u2018the Lamb,\u2019 and \u2018the Lion;\u2019 the author of the <i>Beatitudes<\/i>, and the author of those terrific <i>woes<\/i>; the \u2018meek and gentle friend of publicans and sinners,\u2019 and the \u2018lash of small cords\u2019 upon the backs of those who made His Father\u2019s house a \u2018den of thieves.\u2019 Such was Chrysostom, such was Athanasius, such was St. Paul, and such have ever been the noblest of mankind; tender and considerate, gentle and full of compassion; but not less resolute, in the <i>crises<\/i> of history, in withstanding iniquity in the persons of arch-enemies of truth, and setting the brand upon their foreheads. Good men, who hate strife, and love study and quiet, and to be friendly with others; men who never permit themselves to indulge a personal enmity, or to resent a personal affront; men who forgive injuries to the last farthing when they only are concerned, &#8211; may yet crucify their natures in withstanding evil when they are protecting Christ\u2019s flock, or fulfilling the command to \u2018contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.\u2019 What the Christian Church owes to the loving spirit of Hippolytus in the awful emergencies of his times, protecting the poor sheep, and grappling with wolves for their sake, the Last Day will fully declare. But let us who know nothing of such warfare concede nothing, in judging of his spirit, to the spirit of our unbelieving age, which has no censures except for the defenders of truth: &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Eternal smiles its emptiness betray,      <br \/>As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><font size=\"1\">A. Cleveland Coxe, \u201cElucidations on &#8216;The Refutation of All Heresies&#8217; by Hippolytus,\u201d in <i>The Ante-Nicene Fathers<\/i>, ed. Philip Schaff, vol. 5, electronic ed. (Garland, TX: Galaxie Software, 2000), 12.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"1\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline\" title=\"don_sig2\" alt=\"don_sig2\" src=\"http:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/don_sig27.png\" width=\"150\" height=\"50\" \/><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAgain: Hippolytus refers to the action of the suburbicarian bishops in provincial council. And here is the place to express dissatisfaction with the apologetic tone of some writers, who seem to think Hippolytus too severe, etc. As if, in dealing with such \u2018wolves in sheep\u2019s clothing,\u2019 this faithful leader could show himself a true shepherd [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[78,43,44],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2fYWj-tJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxgoad.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}