The Holy Spirit revives zeal by shedding abroad in the hearts of men the love of God and that love is the first-fruit of the Spirit and it is always love that brings zeal into action.

and goes on:

If zeal is to be maintained or recovered, a primary means is always the duty of meditation.

Murray quotes the following from Thomas Manton, a great Puritan divine:

Meditation is not to store our head with notions but to better the heart. Study informs the mind, but practical meditation is the whetting, sharpening of a known truth upon the soul. Study is like a winter’s sun that shines but warms not. But meditation is like blowing up the fire, where we do not mind the blaze but the heat. In study we are like wine merchants taking wine to store for sale. In meditation we are like those who buy wine for their own use and comfort.

What is the reason men have such a barren, dry, sapless spirit in their prayers? It is for want of exercising themselves in holy thoughts.

And what should we meditate on?

Preeminently on the person and glory and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Meditate on the King. Set Christ before you. Give yourselves to looking to him.

This sermon is the second in a series called “The Pastor and His Study” that Iain Murray gave at the 1996 Desiring God Conference.

[via: wpMail.me and wpCandy]

1. Start up Firefox.
2. Type “about:config” into the address bar in Firefox and hit enter.
3. Click “I’ll be careful, I promise!” (if the warning appears).
4. Type “layout.spellcheckDefault” into the Filter field.
5. Change the value for the layout.spellcheckDefault field to “2″ instead of “1″ (default).
6. Restart Firefox and you should be set.

If you are new to about:config in Firefox, checkout MozillaZine’s intro.

I first discovered Elements from the The Elements of Typographic Design Applied to the Web so long ago that I’m not sure how I stumbled upon it. The impression it made was permanent and so some time later, earlier this year, I checked out Elements (the book) from the library. It was love at first sight. I have a great love for beautiful typography of which Elements itself is such a wonderful specimen. Bringhurst’s treatment of the history of typography is lucid and illuminating. It gives us modern-day type workers the opportunity to be connected to this centuries-old craft. He is also an authoritative guide to producing works of type with good style and taste.

If I were teaching a class this is exactly the sort of book I would use as a textbook. It’s clear, thorough, and a handy reference to return to for a quick refresher or inspiration.

Speaking of handy, did I mention the form factor: 9.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches? It’s tall vertical format fits comfortably in the hand and the supple binding just beg for momentary sessions. All of this while not making longer sessions uncomfortable. The paper is a heavier weight that says quality in an understated way. The book also has a ribbon to keep track as you progress.

Elements is inspiring to me for more than the sheer beauty of good typography. My angle, as one might expect, is to bring some of that beauty, that care, that craftsmanship and refined technique to the web – one letter, one word, one document at a time. If we are to publish more books and long-form writing online (and good ones at that!), then we need to be able to grok Elements and re-imagine it for the discipline of web design. Here’s to the work before us.

PS. Cheers to Richard Rutter for inspiring me more than a few years ago with his re-interpretation of Elements  for the web and leading me to this priceless resource.