Loving And Lovable

Loving And Lovable A Daily Devotional by J. Stephen Lang

The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life.
Proverbs 13:14

1667: One of the drawbacks of a state church is that it lacks spiritual vigor while exciting things happen outside it. This was the case with the Church of England in the 1600s and 1700s when a vital spirituality could be found among the Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, and Methodists with the Church of England almost in a coma.

But there were some individual pastors within the state church who kept the flame of faith alive. Among these was Jeremy Taylor who died on this date.

Born in 1613, Taylor was a “golden boy,” blessed with good looks, charm, and intelligence. After his ordination he met and deeply impressed the king Charles I who by royal decree bestowed a doctor of divinity degree on the young man.

During the English Civil War of the 1640s, Taylor sided with the king and the Church of England, although he wrote the book The Liberty of Prophesying pleading for religious tolerance—something few Church of England clergy approved of at the time.

In 1650 Taylor published one of the world’s great devotional books The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living, followed by its sequel Holy Dying.

Living in a time of civil war, when many people died young and suddenly, he observed in Holy Living that “God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends.” Being of a generous and merciful nature himself, he could warn his readers that “if we refuse mercy here, we shall have justice in eternity.”

Taylor had a way with words and also a way with images, as when he compared sin to a grain of sand—although it is small, on the inside of a watch it causes great destruction, so there is no such thing as a “small sin.”
Taylor was a lovable and loving man, and the Church of England rightly regards him as one of its most appealing saints.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for words and images that lodge in our hearts and guide us to you. Amen.