New Jerusalem

New Jerusalem – some 1400 miles.  

 

If each “estate” is

 

½ mile wide, by ½ mile long, by ½ mile high

 

there could be 21,952,000,000 “estates”

 

in the New Jerusalem.

 

(Is your name on one?)

- eab, 1/00

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Henry IV, Edict of Nantes – Apr. 13, 1598

On this date, 4/13/1598, Henry IV (of Navarre) King of France granted the Huguenot Christians “The Edict of Nantes.”  This granted his non-catholic subjects a larger measure of religious freedom.  It lacked a few weeks of being 26 years since the infamous “St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre” (8/23/1572) in which thousands of Christians were assassinated by Roman Catholic mobs. (Thousands? – the estimates run from a conservative 5000 to as high as 30,000.)  The massacre happened just six days after the wedding of this very leader, later Henry IV.

Sadly, this “Edict” only remained in effect for 87 years.

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Erastus Johnson – death, Jun 16, 1909

“The Rock That Is Higher Than I”

Oh! sometimes the shadows are deep,
And rough seems the path to the goal,
And sorrows, sometimes how they sweep
Like tempests down over the soul.

Refrain

O then to the Rock let me fly
To the Rock that is higher than I
O then to the Rock let me fly
To the Rock that is higher than I!

2.

Oh! sometimes how long seems the day,
And sometimes how weary my feet!
But toiling in life’s dusty way,
The Rock’s blessèd shadow, how sweet!

3.

Then near to the Rock let me keep
If blessings or sorrows prevail,
Or climbing the mountain way steep,
Or walking the shadowy vale.

Erastus Johnson died this date 6/16/1909.  He was a school teach­er in Maine (at 17), experienced something of the Gold Rush (Cal­i­for­nia), was in Pennsylvania (24 years in the oil bu­sin­ess).  Also lived in Maine again and Wash­ing­ton before moving to his death sight, Walt­ham, Mass­a­chu­setts.

“O Sometimes the Shadows are Deep” (a.k.a. “The Rock That Is Higher Than I”) was written during another America financial panic – that of 1871, after knowing that many had lost thousands of dollars among whom was John Wan­a­mak­er.  (Wan­a­mak­er lost $70,000, which to him at that time, was a large amount.)

Johnson was born 4/20/1826, in log­ging camp above Bang­or, Maine.

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