If God so loved the world, I take that to mean I should also. So a quick "faith reality test" is to see how many people I currently love outside my family and close circle of friends. Am I mentoring anyone? Am I housing a stranger? Am I feeding the hungry? Am I visiting someone sick or imprisoned, in body or mind? Am I helping anyone clothe themselves? 

Or, has my salt (love) lost its savor?

     “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first, or many times until you master it.” Feeble as your beginnings are, you are on your way and will learn by your mistakes."

  "Once we are born again, Jesus quickens us to interlink ourselves with all mankind of all classes and conditions, -- by reverent admiration with the good, by reconciling mercy with the evil, by cheerful sympathy with the happy, by tender compassion with the suffering, by redeeming pity with the oppressed, by hope with all, -- and this to make our own lives entirely one with the life of our Race. There is an exulting joy in this enlargement of Personal Being; and this limitless expansion of love was an essential aim of our Savior."

William Ellery Channing. 

What did Jesus mean when He said -

"And another of His disciples said, Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead." Matt 8:21-22 Here's one application.

"Allow me first to bury my father" in other words, to finish the days of mourning for my father. What the young man really meant was that he did not feel in spirits for joining such a public cause as that of Jesus - involving, as it did, such contact with the world; he wanted for a while to nurse his grief in seclusion.
There are many whose sorrow takes the form of this young man's sorrow. We have a tendency in the time of bereavement to resist motion, to keep indoors, to go nowhere.
And yet, Jesus bids us go. As he bade the young man, so he bids you. You cannot cure your own sorrow by nursing it; the longer it is nursed, the more deep-rooted it grows. It will be harder for you to go out to-morrow than it is today; and it will be harder still the day after. You cannot cure your sorrow by nursing it; but you can cure it by nursing another’s sorrow. Do you think that Jesus wanted this young man to be a stoic! Was it from the ties of the heart He called him when He said "Follow me"? No, it was to the ties of the heart - other ties of other hearts. It was no foreign scene to which Jesus called him - no scene foreign to his grief. Here in your hour of sorrow does He summon you. He bids you to bury your sorrow - not in the wine cup, but in the common pain of others. It is by tears He will heal your tears; it is by grief He will cure your grief. Come out into the common pains of others! To follow Him is to follow the stream of universal human suffering. Bury your sorrow by that stream!"
George Matteson.

"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." Hosea 6:3

The following message is to believers, it is not the way to salvation.

"To know the Lord"! That is a bold aim for this finite soul. And yet, my soul will be satisfied with nothing less. I am beating day and night against the bars of the prison-house. I am crying for the light that alone can explain the darkness. I would be content even to touch the hem of His garment as He passes by. I feel to know Him would indeed be life eternal.

But, I know it is not by searching that I will find my God; it is by following Him. This knowledge, which I seek, is not the beginning of my life, but the end of it. It comes not with the bud, but with the full-blown flower. I say to myself, "If I had a vision of God I would be good. But the Divine word answers me - "be first good, and you shall have a vision of God. It is by "following" Him that I shall learn to know Him. If I would look upon Him as He is, then I must first be like Him. God is love; He has other attributes but that is His essence - that is Himself. Love alone can behold love. The heart is the sense that sees God, and the heart is the life of love. If you will walk with Him, you shall learn to know Him. You shall reach Him by the shortest of all avenues - sympathy." George Matteson.

Now of course, this is addressed to believers, it's not a message about gaining salvation, but about deepening our faith by walking as He walked, loving the destitute and oppressed. In loving those He loves we "know" the Lord. Without following His example of loving we will have but a husk of true victory. 

   Whatever and where ever we see suffering we are to be involved in easing that suffering in any way we can. It may be merely a shoulder to cry on; it may be to help carry our neighbors load; it may be to weep with those that weep and rejoice with those that rejoice; we are to be busy aiding and relieving, we are to be light (love) in darkness. We have a command to help where we see heaviness; to brighten where we meet burdens, to comfort where we find calamities; to free where we encounter chains; to protect where we recognize poverty, to cheer where the atmosphere is chill. Matteson.

  "We are all conscious, however partially, that in human nature there is a Principle that delights in heroic virtue, that admires and reveres men illustrious for self-sacrificing devotedness, that feeds with joy on fictions wherein fellow-beings, amidst great trial and perils are faithful to duty, and act wth noble disinterestedness, at every cost. We all have experienced, in some degree, the workings of this Superior Nature, so as to rejoice with triumphant sympathy, when we read the memoirs of men and women, refined from self-love, pure in principle, consecrated to grand purposes, ascending by lives of ever enlarging love to the blessedness of a heavenly world. 

Now this high power of heart and will, that prompts us to aspire after Perfect Excellence, Jesus came to set free. His aim was to enlarge and invigorate it, to exalt it to supremacy, and by his own character, example and influence, to win and welcome it to that Divine Goodness, which it impels us to pursue.

Again, Jesus came not only to emancipate the Intellect and Moral Power, but to set free our imprisoned Energy of Love. Man was made for love; he lives by love; and the true measure of his life is the largeness and liberty of his love.

Man is born into the arms and nourished on the breast of love. And in domestic life we often see developed an almost miraculous force of disinterested affection. But the human Heart was not designed to be confined to home, however heavenly that home may be. It's emotions naturally flow outward, circle beyond circle, in ever widening waves of sympathy, embracing in their compass a constantly enlarging sphere, and blending at length with the commingling currents and tides of love for the whole race. 

But there are antagonistic elements also in human nature, which tend to immure the Individual within himself, and make him the slave of his selfishness. 

Now it is the glorious characteristic of Christ's salvation, that sets at liberty our Love, breaks down the prison walls of self, and carries us freely forth into this goodly universe -- as the Home of our Father and of His vast Family; that it instructs us how to find objects for our largest affections in all God's children; that it encourages us to identify our private welfare with the advancing good of humanity; that it quickens us to interlink ourselves with all mankind of all classes and conditions, -- by reverent admiration with the good, by reconciling mercy with the evil, by cheerful sympathy with the happy, by tender compassion with the suffering, by redeeming pity with the oppressed, by hope with all, -- and this to make our own lives entirely one with the life of our Race. There is an exulting joy in this enlargement of Personal Being; and this limitless expansion of love was an essential aim of our Savior."
William Ellery Channing 

Rearing children has its seasons that are so demanding, and if not careful we can almost lose ourselves. This photo perfectly illustrates it. 

 When I saw this photo it reminded me of how difficult parenting is. I spent 43 years parenting my children and two grandchildren because of a family tragedy. As parents we have to muster the energy to capture the teachable and bonding moments; and this picture demonstrates that so well. Poor Mom, she just got the baby down and now her four year old is ready to be taught the skills of the ballerina. 

  "Christianity has taught me to respect my race, and to disapprove  its oppressors. It is because I've learnt to regard man under the light of this religion that I cannot bear to see him treated as a brute, insulted, wronged, enslaved, made to wear a yoke, to tremble before his brother, to serve him as a tool, to hold property and life at his will, to surrender intellect and conscience to the priest, or to seal his lips or belie his thoughts through dread of the civil power. 
It is because I have learned the essential equality of men before the common Father, that I cannot endure to see one man establishing his arbitrary will over another by fraud, or force, or wealth, or rank, or superstitious claims. It is because the human being has moral powers, because he carries a law in his own breast, and was made to govern himself, that I cannot endure to see him taken out of his own hands and fashioned into a tool by another's avarice or pride. It is because I see in him a great nature, the divine image, and vast capacities that I demand for him the means of self-development, spheres for free action; that I call society not to fetter, but to aid his growth. Without intending to disparage the outward, temporal advantages of liberty, I have habitually regarded it in a higher light, as the birthright of the soul, as the element in which men are to put themselves forth, to become conscious of what they are, and to fulfill the end of their being."

William Ellery Channing, 1780 - 1842.  

"Whoso would sun himself in peace, 

may be seen of her in deeds of mercy, 

When the pale lean cheek of the destitute

 is wet with grateful tears."

Martin Tupper

  Jesus said, "Therefore take care how you listen..." Lk. 8:18

  I had to think about that because He mentioned, more than once, to "Have ears to hear." I think He means in part: be careful not to approach thoughts as a sceptic or a critic; not as a competitor or a promoter; not as a leader nor a follower; looking forward to what you may not know, not back to what you do; but with a generous attitude, not with the smallness of the seeker after faults, but as 'fellow huntsmen questing after elements of truth.'  

The great big church wus crowded full uv broadcloth an’ uv silk.
An’ satin rich as cream that grows on our ole Brindle’s milk;
Shined boots, b’iled shirts, dickeys an’ stovepipe hats were there.
An’ doods ‘ith trouserloons so tight they couldn’t kneel down in prayer.

The elder, in his poolpit high, said as he slowly riz:
“our organist is kep’ to hum, laid up ‘ith rheumatiz,
An’ as we hev no substitoot, as Brother Moore ain’t here,
Will some’un in the congregation be so kind’s to volunteer?”

An’ then a red-nosed drunken tramp of low an’ rowdy style
Give an introductory hiccup an’ then staggered up the aisle.
Then thro’ thet holy atmosphere there crep’ a sense ov sin.
An’ thro’ thet air uv sanctity the odor uv ole gin.

Then Deacon Purington he yelled, his teeth all set on edge;
“This man perfanes the house uv God, W’y, this is sacrilege!”
The tramp didn’t hear a word he said, but slouched ‘ith stumbling feet,
An’ sprawled an’ staggered up the stairs an’ gained the organ seat.

He then went pawin’ thro’ the keys, an’ soon there rose a strain
That seemed to jest bulge out the heart an’ ‘lectrify the brain.
An’ then he slapped down on the thing ‘ith hands an’ head an’ knees;
He slam dashed his whole body down kerflop upon the keys.

The organ roared, the music flood went sweepin’ high an’ dry;
It swelled into the rafters an, bulged out into the sky.
The old church shook an’ staggered and seemed to reel an’ sway,
An’ the elder shouted “Glory!” an’ I yelled out “Hooray!”

An’ then he tried a tender strain that melted in our ears,
That brought up blessed memories and drenched ‘em down ‘ith tears;
An’ we dreamed of old-time kitchens, ‘ith Tabby on the mat,
Uv home an’ love and baby-days, an’ mother an’ all that.

An’ then he struck a streak of hope, a song from souls forgiven,
They burst the prison bars uv sin an’ stormed the gates of Heaven;
The morning stars they sung together, no soul wus left alone,
We felt the universe was safe an’ God wus on His throne.

An’ then a wail of deep despair and darkness came again,
An’ long black crepe hung on the door uv all the homes of men;
No luv, no light, no joy, no hope, no songs uv glad delight,
An’ then – the tramp he staggered down and reeled into the night.

But he knew he’d tol’ his story, though he never spoke a word,
An’ wuz the saddest story that our ears had ever heard;
He hed tol’ his own life history, an’ no eye wuz dry that day,
When the elder rose an’ simply said, “My brethren, let us pray!”
Sam Walter Foss

Politics

  I found this piece on the evils that politics can create very interesting. 

  "I do not say that you must take no side in politics. The parties which prevail around you differ in character, principles and spirit, though far less than the exaggeration of passion affirms; and, as far as conscience allows, a man should support that which he thinks best. In one respect, however, all parties agree. They all foster that pestilent spirit which I now condemn. In all of them party spirit rages. Associate men together for a common cause, be it good or bad, and array against them a body of people resolutely pledged to an opposite interest, and a new passion, quite distinct from the original sentiment which brought them together, a fierce, fiery zeal, consisting chiefly of aversion to those who differ from them, is roused within them into fearful activity. Human nature seems incapable of a stronger, more unrelenting passion. It is hard enough for an individual, when contending all alone for an interest or an opinion to down his pride, willfulness, love of victory, anger, and other personal feelings. But let him join a multitude in the same warfare, and without singular self-control, he receives into his single breast the vehemence, obstinacy, and vindictiveness of all. The triumph of his party becomes immeasurably dearer to him than the principle, true or false, which was the original ground of division. The conflict, becomes a struggle, not for principle, but for power, for victory; and the desperateness, the wickedness of such struggles, is the great burden of history. In truth, it matters little what men divide about, whether it be a foot of land or precedence in a procession. Let them but begin to fight for it, and self-will, ill-will, the rage for victory, the dread of mortification and defeat, make the trifle as weighty as a matter of life and death." 
William Ellery Channing. 

  Robert Louis Stevenson was describing one of his professors that he admired most. He said, "Fleeming would never allow you to think that you were living, if there were not, somewhere in your life, some touch of heroism, to do or to endure. This was his rarest quality and far on in middle age the strings of his nature still sounded as high a note as a young man's. He loved the harsh voice of 'duty' like a call to battle. He loved courage, enterprise, brave natures, a brave word, an ugly virtue, everything that lifts us above the battle where we eat or the bed we sleep upon. He loved his virtues to be practical, his heroes to be great eaters of beef. A fine buoyant sense of life and of man's unequal character ran trough all his thoughts. He could not tolerate the spirit of the flattery; being what we are, he wished us to see others with a generous eye of admiration, not with the smallness of the seeker after faults."

Jeanne Hachette ('Joan the Hatchet'). She was the daughter of a peasant and is known for an act of heroism on 27 June 1472, when she prevented the capture of her town by the enemy troops of Burgundy. The town was defended by only 300 men-at-arms.

The Burgundians were making an assault, and one of their number had actually planted a flag upon the battlements, when Jeanne, axe in hand, flung herself upon him, hurled him into the moat, tore down the flag, and revived the drooping courage of the garrison. 

Here's more detail about her and the women who fought side by side with the men to defend their city.

In June of 1472 Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, laid siege to the French town of Beauvais. Over the course of the three week siege, a peasant woman named Jeanne Laisne joined a contingent of women and children responsible for loading the town’s cannons, delivering munitions and dumping boiling liquid over the walls onto the attackers.

By 27 June, many of the French defenders had lost hope and begun to flee as an assault from the Burgundians seemed set to defeat the town. An officer was about to plant the Burgundian flag on the wall and claim Beauvais when Jeanne grabbed a hatchet and flung herself upon him, hurling him off the wall and tearing down the flag. Her bravery revived the courage of the garrison and the French soldiers returned to their posts, keeping the Burgundians at bay until reinforcements arrived and the town was saved.

By way of recognition, King Louis XI heaped favors on Jeanne and ordered for the ‘Procession of the Assault’ to take place in Beauvais every year with women marching at the head of the parade. This tradition still continues.

In 1851, a bronze statue sculpted by Gabriel-Vital Dubray was unveiled in Beauvais by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.