Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 25 September 1626) was an English clergyman and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the Authorized Version (or King James Version) of the Bible.

He was chaplain to reigning monarchs for forty years; not only holding influential positions but also ministering to many who held important positions of State.

Still, his congregations came from all walks of life, apart from royalty, politicians and gentry, there were actors, artisans, musicians, students, common folk and clerics

T. S. Eliot was a fan of Andrewes, calling him "the first great preacher of the English Catholic Church" who always spoke as "a man who had a formed visible Church behind him, who speaks with the old authority and the new culture, whilst his sermons "rank with the finest English prose of their time, of any time."

A man of prayer and learning, each day of his life, from 4 am to noon was spent in prayer and study. Wow. Just wow.

Who has not taken of the bread and the cup, and not been overwhelmed with the grace of God, that we have been given such a privilege? The following is a prayer composed by Andrewes that articulates for us those feelings, and verbalizes proper gratitude in a sprit of humility.

If all the creatures in the world should offer themselves together with me to praise thee, O Lord, yet is it certain that we could not give thee sufficient thanks for the least of thy mercies; and if together we cannot sufficiently praise thee for the least, how much less can I alone perform so great a duty, for such inestimable blessings, as I have at this time received; for vouchsafing to visit me, comfort me, and honour me with acceptance   and admittance to thy blessed table.

If Elizabeth, the mother of John Baptist, upon the Virgin Mary’s entrance to her house) said, Whence is it that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? What shall I say, whom the Lord himself hath visited and united to him, by his blessed Sacrament, being a vessel and receptacle of all impurity, who hath so often affended, despited and neglected him?

King David wondered why God should so esteem of, or visit man; but I wonder much more, why he should be made man for man, abide with him, suffer death for him, and give himself to him for spiritual food. Solomon, after he had built a temple to God, reasoned thus: But will God dwell indeed on the earth? Behold the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house, that I have builded?

May not I much more marvel, that God  will not disdain to come and abide in this my poor and wretched soul?

What greater benefit or grace, what greater argument of his love is there, can there be showed to me?

Oh my soul, if thou wouldest but thoroughly conceive the happiness that cometh to thee by this holy Sacrament, then consider and well weigh, what benefits it bringeth with it. By it the sons of men are made the sons of God, and all that is earthly or carnal in us is mortified, that the Deity may live and abide with us.

What therefore, O my Lord, shall I do?

What thanks shall I render to thee?

With what fervency shall I love thee? For if thou, so mighty  a Lord, hast vouchsafed to love me, poor wretched creature, how should it be, but that I should return love again to thee?

And how shall I express my love better, than in forbearing those things which thou dost abhor, and following those things which thou dost command?

Give, O Lord, to this end thy concomitant grace to me, whereby I may return a reciprocal love to thee, and love those things, which are acceptable to thee, and avoid those things, which are to thee unpleasing.

Give me a heart, which may love thee with so true, faithful, and constant affection, as that nothing under the sun may separate me from the love of thee.

Let me not follow the love of the world, or delight in the vanities of it any longer: but give me power to kill and quench all other love and desires, and to love thee only, desire thee only, and only think of thee, and thy commandments: that all my affections and thoughts may be fixed on thee; that in all temptations and adversities, I may have recourse to thee only, and receive all comfort from thee alone, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

Wikipedia says that denial "is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead.

The Bible is a mirror that doesn't lie, telling us with no sugar-coating that outside of Christ, we are a mess, hopelessly lost, unable to fix things for our selves, and desparately in need of a Savior.

P.T. Forsythe, to an audience of pastors at Yale in 1907, spoke of man's ability to put the best human spin on life, and how we in essence tell God, "I'm doing fine without your help, thank you very much. If I need you - which I probably won't - I'll let you know."

Our moral eyes still have scales, he contends. It is a sign that "sin still has not bitten" when there  "is not yet resistance unto blood; that the holy has not yet outgrown the homely; that grace is untasted still, however the heart takes its fill of love.

The holy has not become the one reality. It indicates the ethical amateur brisk in his studies, though at times abashed; but not the broken man, the broken and contrite spirit, shamed, desperate, and delivered, lost and found.

In such a Gospel as that of man's natural and indelible sonship we not only have no need that God be reconciled to us, we hardly seem to need to be reconciled to God.

All we seem to need is to be reconciled to our inner truer selves. Be true to yourself, is the note of this youthful Gospel, and stir up one another to love. Cultivate the Spirit of Jesus. Believe and work for spiritual progress.

Meet with a shining face the dawn of God who loves to see His children happy. Yes, but in the meantime, where is the anguish of the new birth? And where the stricken confession 'God be merciful to me, a sinner?'"

When the crowd that had gathered heard this, they were pierced to the heart. They asked Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Acts 2:37