Past Postings

Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.

***********************************************************************************************************

[ch. 13]
...But we say that the things of the world are not our own, not as if they were monstrous, not as if they did not belong to God, the Lord of the universe, but because we do not continue among them for ever; being, in respect of possession, not ours, and passing from one to another in succession; but belonging to us, for whom they were made in respect of use, so long as it is necessary to continue with them. In accordance, therefore, with natural appetite, things disallowed are to be used rightly, avoiding all excess and inordinate affection.
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

[ch. 11]
But, say they, if God cares for you, why are you persecuted and put to death? Has He delivered you to this? No, we do not suppose that the Lord wishes us to be involved in calamities, but that He foretold prophetically what would happen— that we should be persecuted for His name's sake, slaughtered, and impaled. So that it was not that He wished us to be persecuted, but He intimated beforehand what we shall suffer by the prediction of what would take place, training us to endurance, to which He promised the inheritance, although we are punished not alone, but along with many. But those, it is said, being malefactors, are righteously punished. Accordingly, they unwillingly bear testimony to our righteousness, we being unjustly punished for righteousness' sake. But the injustice of the judge does not affect the providence of God. For the judge must be master of his own opinion— not pulled by strings, like inanimate machines, set in motion only by external causes. Accordingly he is judged in respect to his judgment, as we also, in accordance with our choice of things desirable, and our endurance. Although we do not wrong, yet the judge looks on us as doing wrong, for he neither knows nor wishes to know about us, but is influenced by unwarranted prejudice; wherefore also he is judged. Accordingly they persecute us, not from the supposition that we are wrong-doers, but imagining that by the very fact of our being Christians we sin against life in so conducting ourselves, and exhorting others to adopt the like life.

But why are you not helped when persecuted? Say they. What wrong is done us, as far as we are concerned, in being released by death to go to the Lord, and so undergoing a change of life, as if a change from one time of life to another? Did we think rightly, we should feel obliged to those who have afforded the means for speedy departure, if it is for love that we bear witness; and if not, we should appear to the multitude to be base men. Had they also known the truth, all would have bounded on to the way, and there would have been no choice. But our faith, being the light of the world, reproves unbelief. “Should Anytus and Melitus kill me, they will not hurt me in the least; for I do not think it right for the better to be hurt by the worse,” [says Socrates]. So that each one of us may with confidence say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear: what shall man do to me?” “For the souls of the righteous are in the hand of the Lord, and no plague shall touch them.”
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

As a follow up to my earlier post regarding downloading and transferring films to DVD, I wanted to add that among the very worthwhile videos to get from YouTube are full length operas. I myself prefer operas from the Renaissance, Baroque era and 18th century -- especially when they are done, including costumes and staging, in (or largely in) an authentic and historical manner. The modern world is "too much with us" as it is, so why then do people want to see it built into one of these very old operas; when instead their imagination can be whisked away, as if via a time machine, into the enchanted, colorful and amusing theater of the past? At any rate, that's how I feel, and strongly, about it. Below are a small, sampling few then, and good productions of, on YouTube that are just my sort of cup of tea in this respect, and which for anyone interested I would recommend:

* "L'Orfeo" by Monteverdi, Nikolaus Harnoncourt version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcRFFmgVGlc

* "Dido and Aeneas" by Henry Purcell (San Francisco School Of The Arts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp01nAwwamA
Note. Nothing so very fancy here as far as production goes and compared to these others, but audibly serviceable. I had chosen another YT version of this fun opera, but within just the past day it was taken down.

* "Rinaldo" by Handel (Pier Luigi Pizzi)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_uUympHwJw

* "Orfeo ed Euridice" by Gluck, It vers. (Bejun Mehta, Eva Liebau, Václav Luks 2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mTydAUQyYg

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

[ch. 7]
The Indian sages say to Alexander of Macedon: “You transport men's bodies from place to place. But you shall not force our souls to do what we do not wish. Fire is to men the greatest torture, this we despise.” Hence Heraclitus preferred one thing, glory, to all else; and professes “that he allows the crowd to stuff themselves to satiety like cattle.”

“For on account of the body are many toils,
For it we have invented a roofed house,
And discovered how to dig up silver, and sow the land,
And all the rest which we know by names.”

To the multitude, then, this vain labour is desirable. But to us the apostle says, “Now we know this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” [Romans 6:6] Does not the apostle then plainly add the following, to show the contempt for faith in the case of the multitude? “For I think that God has set forth us the apostles last, as appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. Up to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are beaten, and are feeble, and labour, working with our hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat; we have become as it were the offscourings of the world.” Such also are the words of Plato in the Republic: “The just man, though stretched on the rack, though his eyes are dug out, will be happy.” The Gnostic will never then have the chief end placed in life, but in being always happy and blessed, and a kingly friend of God. Although visited with ignominy and exile, and confiscation, and above all, death, he will never be wrenched from his freedom, and signal love to God. “The charity which bears all things, endures all things,” [1 Corinthians 13:7] is assured that Divine Providence orders all things well. “I exhort you,” therefore it is said, “Be followers of me.” The first step to salvation is the instruction accompanied with fear, in consequence of which we abstain from what is wrong; and the second is hope, by reason of which we desire the best things; but love, as is fitting, perfects, by training now according to knowledge. For the Greeks, I know not how, attributing events to unreasoning necessity, own that they yield to them unwillingly...
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

Good news! Having waited so long, indeed for years now and for the most part, not finding them on YouTube, I thought I would never again see those wonderful old Bible related films from the 50s and early 60s that they used to (way back when) show on tv on, say, Easter morning. But just within the past week, I finally see them on YouTube. Here is a partial list of some I came across:

"Joseph & His Brethren" (1962)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2dM_kW-SOI&t=3s

"Day of Triumph" (1954) with Lee J. Cobb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIBc3PoUM1k&t=1980s

"The Power of the Resurrection" (1958) with Richard Kiley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ehateyvdy8&t=1570s

"I Beheld His Glory" (1953)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln_W4TYftU4

"The Life of St. Paul" (1938)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7Blas88cL4

Now if only someone would upload or otherwise make available the Paulist Fathers tv series "Insight"!

Also, by the way and if you aren't already aware, there is a convenient and very easy way to download and transfer public domain films from YouTube or Internet Archive and then transfer them to DVD playable disks. There are different ways to do this, but the method I employ utilizes the following:

1. Freemake Video downloader premium
http://www.freemake.com/free_video_downloader/
Note. MP4 is a good format to go with when choosing.

2. Wondershare DVD creator
http://dvdmaker.co/index.html

3. Blank DVD-R disks available at local department and drug stores.

Although certainly most helpful if you have it, no special, high-tech expertise is required for this; just read some simple instructions and or follow tutorial videos on YouTube. For the cost of something like $50.00, plus the expense of blank disks, you can built up a large movie library -- including your very own collection of obscure Bela Lugosi and (for that matter) 1930s films generally, Gordon Mitchell sword and sandal, he-man pictures, and much, much more! -- in relatively no time. Some videos may be too large to fit on a single DVD; in which case you will need an editor to cut the big file down into more manageable sizes. An editor is built into the Wondershare DVD creator, but I myself use a different program for that purpose.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

What will you never see a C-SPAN lecture or symposium on?

MKULTRA.

What will you never see a soberly scientific and impartial documentary done about?

Borley Rectory.

(Hopefully the above will ultimately prove mistaken, but as it stands that is actually how it is.)

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

[ch. 7]
...“He that sows to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” [Galatians 6:8]

But to those miserable men, witness to the Lord by blood seems a most violent death, not knowing that such a gate of death is the beginning of the true life; and they will understand neither the honours after death, which belong to those who have lived holily, nor the punishments of those who have lived unrighteously and impurely. I do not say only from our Scriptures (for almost all the commandments indicate them); but they will not even hear their own discourses. For the Pythagorean Theano writes, “Life were indeed a feast to the wicked, who, having done evil, then die; were not the soul immortal, death would be a godsend.” And Plato in the Phaedo, “For if death were release from everything,” and so forth. We are not then to think according to the Telephus of Aeschylus, “that a single path leads to Hades.” The ways are many, and the sins that lead there. Such deeply erring ones as the unfaithful are, Aristophanes properly makes the subjects of comedy. “Come,” he says, “you men of obscure life, you that are like the race of leaves, feeble, wax figures, shadowy tribes, evanescent, fleeting, ephemeral.” And Epicharmus, “This nature of men is inflated skins.” And the Saviour has said to us, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” [Matthew 26:41] “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God,” explains the apostle: “for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed, can be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” And in further explanation continues, that no one may, like Marcion, regard the creature as evil. “But if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” And again: “For if you live after the flesh, you shall die"...
~ Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), The Stromata, Book 4.

~~~~~~*~~~~~~

More