ellauri029.html on line 922: Therefore, we can say that irony is fine; irony is a figure of speech that can bring attention and clarity to a situation. Sometimes, irony can be painful because the truth it reveals is convicting. Satire, which uses irony to gently deride and prompt needful change, can be appropriate on occasion; we have examples of satire in Scripture.
ellauri143.html on line 1023: Things not displeasing, needful things, declare.
ellauri164.html on line 908: “By his rash act Moses took away the force of the lesson that God purposed to teach. The rock, being a symbol of Christ, had been once smitten, as Christ was to be once offered. The second time it was needful only to speak to the rock, as we have only to ask for blessings in the name of Jesus. By the second smiting of the rock the significance of this beautiful figure of Christ was destroyed.” –Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 418
ellauri217.html on line 707: The purpose of the meeting, according to Acts, was to resolve a disagreement in Antioch, which had wider implications than just circumcision, since circumcision is the "everlasting" sign of the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 17:9–14). Some of the Pharisees who had become believers insisted that it was "needful to circumcise them, and to command [them] to keep the law of Moses" (KJV).
xxx/ellauri224.html on line 361: Eliot – arguably the greatest poetry in English in the 20th century – was so worried that he might be pursuing religious and literary sainthood for his own ego rather than to the greater glory of god, that he forgot ever to consider whether it was even possible or desirable to pursue sainthood at the expense of ordinary kindness and common decency. Throughout his life – and it was a long one, full of great work – he left a trail of human wreckage and hurtful speech. Any account of that work and of the ideas embedded in it has to keep track of the harm he did, not in a spirit of cheap point-scoring, but as an awful warning. Those of us who try to pursue both an ethical life and a creative one find that it is never easy, that it is always needful that we weigh one good against another.
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