Adiaphora
lewism: Subterranea Helsinki
“Although a country with few people and plenty of space, Finlands’ capitol city Helsinki being located on a peninsula finds itself constantly constrained by the sea for space. Luckily the city sits above bedrock which is deep and which frequently punctures the ground. So Helsinki increasingly uses its bedrock to tunnel into and create an underground city. Now with over 400 documented underground facilities and 200 more planned, Subterranea Helsinki is probably one of the largest and most comprehensive underground city systems in the world for its size.”
Although, the execution leaves a bit to be desired: when you’re there, the station Lewis features in the above photo feels a whole lot like a scene out of Total Recall or something.
Doug Wilson: “A Deeper Level of Worship”
“Many of you are here as parents of little ones and, in some cases, many little ones. For you, the worship of the Lord is a far more arduous task that it is for the rest of us. All of us are engaged in the work of worshipping the Lord, but you are carrying young ones in your arms as you perform the same labor that we do.
The work includes great things, like keeping everyone in fellowship throughout the whole service, and trivial things, like finding your place in the psalter. The work is daunting, and it is sometimes easy to forget why you are doing it. There are three things for you to keep in mind as you continue.
The first is that while you sometimes need to be reminded why you are doing this, God knows exactly why you are doing it. Do not grow weary in doing good. God sees, and your labor in the Lord will bear good fruit. Your labor is before the LordóHe sees, and He rejoices. When you need to be reminded, there is one who can always remind you. You are here with your little ones because God calls you to worship Him together with all the children He has given you.”
![On the wishlist now: Type: A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles [i love typography]](http://7.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksp1hr5a3C1qz54swo1_500.jpg)
“ Reception of truth on the authority of God is an eminently religious act. Belief in the inspiration of Scripture can be appraised as an act of worship under given circumstances. ”
» Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology, 10
Jos and Martin have been hard at work on the text weight of Questa, and have posted the basic Latin character set. I especially love the Q, R, f, and 5.
Questa Text (via exljbris)
“ Thus when bread is given as a symbol of the body of Christ, we must immediately think of this similitude. As bread nourishes, sustains, and protects our bodily life, so the body of Christ is the only food to invigorate and keep alive the soul. When we behold wine set forth as a symbol of blood, we must think that such use as wine serves to the body, the same is spiritually bestowed by the blood of Christ; and the use is to foster, refresh, strengthen, and exhilarate. For if we duly consider what profit we have gained by the breaking of his sacred body and the shedding of his blood, we shall clearly perceive that these properties of bread and wine, agreeably to this analogy, most appropriately represent it when they are communicated to us. ”
» John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.17.3
“ We should be inhuman where God is human, we should be ashamed of Jesus Christ Himself, were we willing to be ashamed of the Church. What Jesus Christ is for God and for us, on earth and in time, He is as Lord of this community, as King of this people, as Head of this body and of all its members. He is all these with and in this inconspicuous, painfully divided, and otherwise very questionable Christendom. He is all these with, among, and in the Christians whom one can admire or even love only in the face of many serious difficulties. He is all these as the Reconciler and Redeemer of the whole world. He is all these, however, in the strange communion of these strange saints. The Church is not too mean a thing for him but, for better or for worse, sufficiently precious and worthy in His eyes to be entrusted with His witnessing and thus His affairs in the world—yes, even Himself. So great is God’s loving-kindness! ”
» Karl Barth (in The Humanity of God) (via wesleyhill)
Refreshed and Assured
“Moreover, Christ is the only food of our soul, and, therefore, our heavenly Father invites us to him, that, refreshed by communion with him, we may ever and anon gather new vigour until we reach the heavenly immortality. But as this mystery of the secret union of Christ with believers is incomprehensible by nature, he exhibits its figure and image in visible signs adapted to our capacity, nay, by giving, as it were, earnests and badges, he makes it as certain to us as if it were seen by the eye; the familiarity of the similitude giving it access to minds however dull, and showing that souls are fed by Christ just as the corporeal life is sustained by bread and wine. …
Pious souls can derive great confidence and delight from this sacrament, as being a testimony that they form one body with Christ, so that every thing which is his they may call their own. Hence it follows, that we can confidently assure ourselves, that eternal life, of which he himself is the heir, is ours, and that the kingdom of heaven, into which he has entered, can no more be taken from us than from him; on the other hand, that we cannot be condemned for our sins, from the guilt of which he absolves us, seeing he has been pleased that these should be imputed to himself as if they were his own. This is the wondrous exchange made by his boundless goodness.”
[John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.17.1]
Premier League heroes: Sami Hyypia
A nice profile of a defender who played for two squads near and dear to my heart, Liverpool and the Finland National Team.
A nice little diagram helping us goyim write our Hebrew letters 1) smoothly, and 2) without a calligraphic pen.
“Artistic Hebrew Type” p10 (via Yaronimus Maximus)
Pamper Yourself
“All of the Megalines offer the same basic product—not a service or a set of services but more like a feeling: a blend of relaxation and stimulation, stressless indulgence and frantic tourism, that special mix of servility and condescension that’s marketed under configurations of the verb ‘to pamper.’ This very positively studs the Megalines’ various brochures: ‘…as you’ve never been pampered before,’ ‘…to pamper yourself in our Jacuzzis and saunas,’ ‘Let us pamper you,’ ‘Pamper yourself in the warm zephyrs of the Bahamas.’ The fact that adult Americans tend to associate the word ‘pamper’ with a certain other consumer product is not an accident, I think, and the connotation is not lost on the mass-market Megalines and their advertisers.”
[David Foster Wallace, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”, via DM]
Do you ever get the feeling, like I do, that your work never makes an impact, that it would be wonderful to make something you could touch with your fingers? I used to get that way a lot when life was all spreadsheets and analysis. This set of letterpress invitations by MPLS’s own Studio on Fire brings back all those old feelings. Simply exquisite.
