…ONE THOUSAND AND ONE…

Could one count the grains of sand,

One could hold in one’s hand,

Moist, mingled, multitudes of quartz;

Could one imagine the huge number,

Counting slumber to slumber,

That line just a few little ports;

Could one pretend to know,

Counting row after even row,

The final tally would be so very grand,

The mind would definitely bend,

Before one came near the end,

Of counting the moist, multitudes of sand.

– eab,  Apr. ‘78

Read Full Post »

Alaska bought from Russia

ON THIS DATE

USA bought Alaska from Russia 3/30/1867, being one of the greatest real estate deals – both in space & best price per square mile – of all time.  It was purchased for 7.2 million or about $0.02 (2 cents) per acre.

A move was afoot for this USA – Russian sale before the uncivil war.  Following it, Eduard Stekl, Russian’s envoy to Washington, negotiated the talks. Of the $7.2 million one source says $165,000 (a lot of money in that day) was used to bribe some U.S. senators & newspapermen.  It is said to have passed senate by one vote & was called “Seward’s Follie” “Seward’s Icebox” – a term you may have to explain to some.

The Russians had discovered the Alaska mainland in an expedition led by Vitus Bering (a Dane) in 1741.  The first Russian settlement was established 8/14/1784 & the first Russian Orthodox Church in the west was started 1795 (in Kodiak). It wasn’t until 2/22/1825, that Russia & Britain established the Alaska/Canada boundary. A quote heard in 1985 & one that has few exceptions is, “Every man that visits Alaska either returns or always wants to.”  The following was written while in AK some years ago:

Pointed  Trees

To humanly count the pointed trees,

Guarding just one cool, Alaskan stream,

Could take a life-time, if you please,

(And t’would be a nightmare – not a dream).

 

Trees are there whom no man has yet seen,

All awkwardly pointing to the sky,

An odd blend of black, gray, and green,

Silent, except for the wind’s sad cry.

 

From seedling to youth, to great old age,

They stand rooted in the northern sod,

Of wonders they’re just on more page,

Mute life, glorifying their high God.

– eab,  9/16/06

Read Full Post »

Word

“He made darkness his secret place;

his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.”

Psa 18.9

Read Full Post »

WORD

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and

fill the waters in the seas, and

let fowl multiply in the earth.

Gen 1.22

Read Full Post »

Author “Nearer My God” – born

ON THIS DATE

Sarah Fuller Flower was born 2/22/1805, at Harlow, Essex, England, the younger daughter of Mr & Mrs Benjamin Flower, editor/owner of The Cambridge Intelligencer.  In 1834 she married William Brydges Adams, a well-known inventor & civil engineer.  She is said to have met William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens, & Leigh Hunt & to have corresponded with Robert Browning who reportedly admired her.

 

She contributed 13 hymns to a book published in 1841 among which is her famous “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”   There is a tradition/story that as the ill-famed Titanic sank, the ship’s band played “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”  If so, it perhaps helped more than one to repent.  If not true one could wish that it were. 😦   She died 8/14/1848 in London.

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me,

Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee.

Refrain

Nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer to Thee!

 

 

Read Full Post »

Word

And God said,

Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and

fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Gen 1.20

Read Full Post »

Sir Grenfell Quote

 

“Faith is not a denial of reason; it is a corollary of finality in relation with the infinite.”

– Sir Wilfred Grenfell, MD from his book What Christ Means to Me

 

Read Full Post »

Word

“And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together

of the waters called he Seas:

and God saw that it was good.”

Gen 1.10

Read Full Post »

Missionary Nommensen – born

ON THIS DATE

Ingwer Ludwig Nommensen was born 2/6/1834 in Nordstrand, Schleswig, (then Danish) Germany.   Though injured by a horse cart as a boy he learned to walk again.  After graduated from Rhenish Mission Seminary, Wuppertal, Germany he went as a pioneer Luthern missionary to Sumatra, Indonesia (then Netherland’s East Indies) arriving in 1862.  In 1887 his wife died leaving him with four children and his second wife (whom he married in 1892) also preceded him in death, as did two sons.

Nommensen was the leading missionary in Batak for 54 years.  He translated the New Testament (1878), establishing schools, hospitals, even a seminary.  By the time of his death (5/23/1918) the Batak church had 34 pastors, over 750 teacher-preachers, and 180,000 members in 500 churches.  Little wonder he has been referred to as “the Apostle of the Batak.”

Read Full Post »

Gray Sea

The great, gray sea churns and froths at me,

And all I see from shore,

Is the same as before.

Of ships it is bare,

No bobbing lights there.

The great, gray sea.

– eab, Jan. ’68

Read Full Post »