George Hodges > Quotes

“In The Ante-Nicene Fathers (8 vols.) the reader will find most of the writings of the Early Church under the Pagan Empire, to the year 325.”
― George Hodges, The Early Church: From Ignatius to Augustine

“He who lives in the world is exposed to perpetual distraction; he is anxious about his wife and children, worried by the care of his house and the oversight of his servants, distressed by misfortunes in trade and quarrels with his neighbors. Every day darkens the soul. The only escape is by the way of solitude. Let there be, then, such a place as ours, separate from intercourse with men, that the tenor of our exercises be not interrupted from without. The day begins with prayers and hymns; thus we betake ourselves to our labors, seasoned with devotion. The study of the Bible is our instruction in our duty. This,”
― George Hodges, The Early Church: From Ignatius to Augustine

“The temples had been deserted and the venerable liturgies forgotten. But this was only one of the ebb-tides in the ever-moving sea of human life. The years of spiritual dearth were followed by years of spiritual plenty. The first three centuries of the Christian era were marked by a general enthusiasm for religion. Christian began in the midst of a religious revival. One”
― George Hodges, The Early Church: From Ignatius to Augustine

“In the East — in Greece and Syria and Egypt — the Romans had conquered countries which had ancient and splendid traditions, and were more civilized than their conquerors.”
― George Hodges, The Early Church: From Ignatius to Augustine

“4. Out of this hopeless state, Christ came to save us. This He did by offering Himself a sacrifice upon the Cross to turn away the wrath of God.”
― George Hodges, Saints and Heroes Since the Middle Ages

“There is plenty of other evidence, however, that the nominal conversion of the Roman Empire to the Christian religion had effected no visible improvement in the common morals. The world was worse rather than better. Out of its besetting temptations men fled to save their souls. They fled from the world, which in the first century was believed by the Christians to be doomed, and liable to be destroyed by divine fire before the end of the year, and which in the fourth century was believed by the Christians to be damned: it belonged to the devil. They fled also from the church, which they accused of secularity and of hypocrisy. Many of the monks were laymen, who in deep disgust had forsaken the services and sacraments. They said their own prayers and sought God in their own way, asking no aid from priests. They were men who had resolved never to go to church again.”
― George Hodges, The Early Church: From Ignatius to Augustine

“You are two vagabonds, you are two tramps,' and out he comes and beats us, and calls us hard names, and rolls us in the mud and snow, and goes in, fastening the door behind him. Then if we get up and go on in great content, glad to suffer hardships, remembering how our Master suffered for our sake, that, Brother Leo, would be the perfect joy.”
― George Hodges, Saints and Heroes to the End of the Middle Ages