Pride? Pride!

Shyness and

 

                Show-off-ness

 

Can both indicate

 

                Carnal pride.                         

- eab, 10/23/09

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FINAL FLIGHT

The soul is now preparing for its firm and final flight;

To plunge, to fall, to slip into the endless realm of night,

Or to soar, to climb, to lift, into the glorious light.

That soul, my Friend, is yours.

To choose is a God-given “right.”

Forsake sin, choose Christ

Who’ll make heaven a constant delight.

Flee the devil’s coming doom,

Where flame and fear both affright

The Blood, at Calvary spilt,

Has not lost it bright sight of might.    

                – eab, 10/29/06

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Christopher Wordsworth – birth, Oct. 30, 1807

O day of rest and gladness, O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness, most beautiful, most bright:
On Thee, the high and lowly, through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy, to the great God Triune.

On Thee, at the creation, the light first had its birth;
On Thee, for our salvation, Christ rose from depths of earth;
On Thee, our Lord, victorious, the Spirit sent from heaven,
And thus on Thee, most glorious, a triple light was given.

Thou art a port, protected from storms that round us rise;
A garden, intersected with streams of paradise;
Thou art a cooling fountain in life’s dry, dreary sand;
From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain, we view our promised land.

Thou art a holy ladder, where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder, nearer to heaven, our home;
A day of sweet refection, thou art a day of love,
A day of resurrection from earth to things above.

Today on weary nations the heavenly manna falls;
To holy convocations the silver trumpet calls,
Where Gospel light is glowing with pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing, with soul refreshing streams.

New graces ever gaining from this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining to spirits of the blessed.
To Holy Ghost be praises, to Father, and to Son;
The church her voice upraises to Thee, blessed Three in One.

Christopher Wordsworth was born this date 10/30/1807, Bocking, Essex, England.  He was a nephew to William Wordsworth the poet.  He was headmaster of Harrow Boys School and a member of the Church of England was archdeacon of Westminster and later bishop of Lincoln. Christopher was an outstanding Greek scholar and published many works, including a commentary of the Bible.  Today we remember him for one of his 127 hymns  “O Day of Rest and Gladness.”  He died 3/20/1885 at Lincoln, England.

His statement about hymns is worth knowing, “It is the first duty of a hymn to teach sound doctrine and thence to save souls.”

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Father

If God is your Father –

 

          You HAVE a relationship with Him.

 

If you do not have a relationship with God,

 

          He is NOT your Father. 

 

– eab, 9/29/09

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RELIGION? NOT ENOUGH!

Religion in form will not stand life’s storm.

Religion in rite will not weather death’s night.

Religion by tradition will not handle eternal transition.

                – eab, 10/28/08

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John Henry Hopkins Jr. – birth, Oct. 28, 1820

We three kings of Orient are;
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

Refrain

O star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.

Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshipping God on high.

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.

John Henry Hopkins Jr. was born this date, 10/28/1820 at Pittsburgh, PA.  He grad­u­at­ed twice (1839 BA, 1845 MA) from the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Ver­mont.  He was a re­port­er in New York Ci­ty but eventually enrolled at Gen­er­al The­o­log­ic­al Sem­in­ary grad­u­ating in 1850. He was that sem­in­ary’s first mu­sic teach­er but went on to minister in Trin­i­ty Church, Platts­burg, New York, and Christ Church, Will­iams­port, PA.  He wrote several other songs in addition to “We Three Kings” (done for a Christ­mas pa­geant). Hopkins, died 8/14/1891 at Hudson, NY.

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There are decent people

 

                who are not Christians –

 

There are no Christians

 

                who are knowingly indecent.

– eab,10/25/09

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MAKE A god?

That man would make his own little god,

Make it of stone, chrome metal, or sod,

Make it faceless or with a long face,

Set it up in a prominent place,

Give his “making” a worshipful nod –

That, friend, is sadly, extremely odd.

                – eab, 10/27/06

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William Penn – arrived in America, Oct. 27, 1682

…He that covets can no more be a moral man than he that steals; since he does so in this mind.  Nor can he be one that robs his neighbor of his credit, or that craftily undermines him of his trade, or office.

                – William Penn, Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims (Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1792), 107. 

 William Penn on this date, 10/27/1682, arrived in America.  He was an English Quaker, a colonist, and the founder of Pennsylvania (which he named after his father).  He wrote “No Cross, no Crown; a Discourse showing the Nature & Discipline of the Holy Cross of Christ” (1688).

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Borrowers

Paganism borders on,

 

            and borrows from,

 

                        the broth of Christianity.

– eab, 4/04

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