For what use is it to know the truth in words, only to defile the body and perform evil deeds? Or what profit indeed can come from holiness of body, if truth is not in the soul? For these rejoice together and join forces to lead man to the presence of God.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons, On the Apostolic Preaching, 40.

Catholicity means that our particularity must not undermine the most cherished and central unity of the church: We worship the triune God who reconciled sinful humanity to himself through the incarnate Son and in the power of his given Spirit. And by this affirmation of particularity within a larger catholicity, our theology of Christian life will seek to honor both the historical and the contemporary. We look to the past and the present, honoring the universal while creating space for the particular.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 40-41.

Many were the wondering questions from time to time addressed to me. The idea of a resurrection from the dead was that which most keenly interested these Natives, and called forth their powers of inquiry and argument. Thus the waves of hope and fear swept alternately across our lives; but we embraced every possible opportunity of telling them the story of the life and death of Jesus, in the strong hope that God would spare us yet to bring the benighted Heathen to the knowledge of the true salvation, and to love and serve the only Saviour.

John G. Paton, The Autobiography of the Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), 98.

Amongst the Heathen, in the New Hebrides, and especially on Tanna, woman is the down-trodden slave of man. She is kept working hard, and bears all the heavier burdens, while he walks by her side with musket, club, or spear. If she offends him, he beats or abuses her at pleasure . . . Oh, how sad and degraded is the position of Woman, where the teaching of Christ is unknown, or disregarded though known! It is the Christ of the Bible, it is His Spirit entering into Humanity, that has lifted Woman, and made her the helpmate and the friend of Man, not his toy or his slave.

John G. Paton, The Autobiography of the Pioneer Missionary to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), 90.

Christian life is, therefore, not just my life, but life in communion with God and all his people.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 30.

As Mediator between God and humanity, the incarnate Son is God’s grace given to us. He is not only God, worthy of worship, but also our Priest, King, and Prophet who leads our worship. In theology as in worship, we must always see that Christ is central to Christian life. We enjoy life, love, and fellowship now with God by the Holy Spirit, the eternal divine person who is the bond of love between the Father and the Son, so even now the same Spirt is the bond of love connecting us and God in Christ.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 28.

Q. How may we attain contentment under manifold losses and disappointments? — A. By a diligent study to supply the want of other things with God himself; by considering, that our God cannot be lost, that our wise and gracious Father is the author of all our losses and disappointments, that they are necessary to convince us of the vanity of this world, prevent us from taking up our rest therein, and to prepare a place for God and his fulness in our hearts, Phil. 4:19.

John Brown of Haddington, Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism, 276.

Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

But parity among her ministers is not the only feature which distinguishes the government of the Presbyterian Church. Her mode of conducting discipline in each church by a bench of Elders, acting as the representatives of the members at large; and by courts of review and control, admitting of appeals, where parties feel aggrieved, and binding all the particular churches together as one body, walking by the same rules of truth and order, and subject to the same uniform constitutional authority, are among her peculiar advantages. In regard to both these points, Presbyterians differ from Independents and Congregationalists, as well as from Episcopalians, and, indeed, from most other denominations of Christians.

“The Government of the Presbyterian Church” by Samuel Miller quoted in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 98.

The Bible contains the religion of Protestants. It is the only infallible, and the sufficient rule of faith and practice. Even if Prelacy were found unequivocally represented as existing, by the Fathers, in fifty years after the last Apostle, yet if it be not found in the Bible, as it assuredly is not, such testimony would by no means establish its apostolic appointment. It would only prove that the Church was very early corrupted. We know, indeed, that no such testimony exists; but if it did, as long as we have the Bible, we ought to reject it.

“The Government of the Presbyterian Church” by Samuel Miller quoted in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 94.