Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D. – death, Oct. 7, 1894

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,

Sails the unshadowed main, –

The venturous bark that flings

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings

In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,

And coral reefs lie bare,

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

 

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;

Wrecked is the ship of pearl!

And every chambered cell,

Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,

As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,

Before thee lies revealed, —

Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

 

Year after year beheld the silent toil

That spread his lustrous coil;

Still, as the spiral grew,

He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,

Stole with soft step its shining archway through,

Built up its idle door,

Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

 

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,

Child of the wandering sea,

Cast from her lap, forlorn!

From thy dead lips a clearer note is born

Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!

While on mine ear it rings,

Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings: –

 

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,

As the swift seasons roll!

Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D., died this date, 10/7/1894, at Boston, Massachusetts.   Holms published several works in the medical field, but is more remembered for his poems such as “Old Ironsides,” “The Last Leaf,” and the above.  Holmes was born 8/29/1809 (same year as President Lincoln) at Cambridge, the son of a minister.

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Glenn Griffith – birth, Aug. 17, 1894

The only place where God works is in the realm of faith…

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 15.

God is looking for somebody that’s looking for God.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 16.

The only way to keep saved is to get sanctified.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 24.

It [sin] pays wages in three installments:             1) It kills the conscience,

                                                                        2) Dries up the fountain of emotion,

                                                                        3) Breaks the power of resistance.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 39.

If men are not stirred to love God, they will trifle until they love something else.

                Glenn Griffith, I Sought for a Man (missing city: publisher, date), 40.

Glenn Griffith was born this date, 8/17/1894 at Augusta, KS.  He was one of the eleven children of John and Elizabeth Griffith.  His first pastorate was at Newton, Kansas.  He as a compassionate preacher with real tears (in his eyes, not his “voice”) who graced the platforms of many holiness camps including Sea Breeze Camp (FL).  He was a leading influence in the Interchurch Holiness Convention.  “Grif” (as his contemporaries called him) departed this life on 1/12/1976.

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William D Longstaff – death, Apr. 2, 1894

“Take Time to Be Holy”

 

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

 

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

 

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;
And run not before Him, whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

 

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive beneath His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

  

William D (Dunn) Longstaff died (4/2/1894) at Cambridge Terrace, Durham, England.  He was a friend of Dwight L Moody and Ira D Sankey.  He was also was friends with William Booth (founded Salvation Army) and some of his hymns seem to have been published in the Army’s War Cry.

  
Longstaff, who was born 11/26/1822, at Durham, England was the treasurer of the Bethesda Free Chapel in Sunderland.

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