WHERE ?

 

A little holiness chapel here,

A larger holiness church there

But in between the country is bare

A small fire in that steeple house

A slight glow comes from this

Between are souls who know no holy bliss – – –

America.                               

                – eab, Jun. ‘93

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Katharine Lee Bates – death, Mar. 29, 1929

“O Beautiful for Spacious Skies”

 

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain;
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.

 

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine.

 

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self control,
Thy liberty in law.

 

Katharine Lee Bates died this date (3/28/1929) at Well­es­ley, Mass­a­chu­setts.  She was born Au­gust 12, 1859 at Fal­mouth, Mass­a­chu­setts the daughter of a minister.  Bates penned the above patriotic song in 1904.

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – birth, Feb. 27, 1807

“A Psalm of Life”

 

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
        Life is but an empty dream ! —
   For the soul is dead that slumbers,
        And things are not what they seem.

 

    Life is real !   Life is earnest!
        And the grave is not its goal ;
    Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
        Was not spoken of the soul.

 

    Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
        Is our destined end or way ;
    But to act, that each to-morrow
        Find us farther than to-day.

 

    Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
        And our hearts, though stout and brave,
    Still, like muffled drums, are beating
        Funeral marches to the grave.

 

    In the world’s broad field of battle,
        In the bivouac of Life,
    Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
        Be a hero in the strife !

 

    Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant !
        Let the dead Past bury its dead !
    Act,— act in the living Present !
        Heart within, and God o’erhead !

 

    Lives of great men all remind us
        We can make our lives sublime,
    And, departing, leave behind us
        Footprints on the sands of time ;

 

    Footprints, that perhaps another,
        Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
    A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
        Seeing, shall take heart again.

 

    Let us, then, be up and doing,
        With a heart for any fate ;
    Still achieving, still pursuing,
        Learn to labor and to wait.

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born this date (2/27/1807) in Port­land, Maine.

He was one of the greatest poets of America.  See also his “Oh, How Blest Are Ye Whose Toils Are Ended” And his well known Christmas Carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”  He died 3/24/1882.

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Lpost – John Darby (born Nov. 18, 1800)

John Nelson Darby was a British-Irish blooded, Dublin-trained, lawyer who turned Church of Ireland minister and then moved on (1828) to help establish the Plymouth Brethren.  He would perhaps be unknown today but for his meeting with eighteen-year-old Margaret MacDonald who is said to have had a vision regarding a “secret rapture” of the church.  Though this doctrine has other, older, questionable roots, Darby popularized it in the Isles and in America having a strong influence on C. I. Scofield.  Scofield in turn, placed the secret rapture idea in his Scofield Bible and today it has widely held acceptance among many evangelicals though the word rapture is non-biblical.  Many also have failed to atempt to reconcile their concept of “thief in the night” with the rest of Peter’s inspired words, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” 2Pe 3.10.  Three items are here which surely seem to not be secret.

Jesus is going to come! That is in the Bible.  The return of Christ is not in question! 

Too many are accepting the doctrine of a “secret rapture” without examining it.  Look up it origins (the “s” is purposeful) – it will surprise you.  The secret rapture appears to have catholic roots. It has also this visionary root in MacDonald. 

Conversely does a “secret rapture” have any roots in the actual Bible?  Do your homework.  Be willing to re-examine this doctrine.  Or for many – be willing to examine it for the first time.  Can (will) this doctrine play into the hands of the antichrist?

One source to see is Grace, Faith, and Holiness, (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1988), 586.

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Gipsy Smith – converted to Christ, Nov. 17, 1876

“Jesus, Revealed in Me” (stanza 2)

 

Here Lord I bring my heart,

My love, my strength, my will;

Cleanse me in every part,

With all Thy Spirit fill.

 

Written by Rodney Simon “Gipsy” Smith.  Gipsy (also spelled “Gypsy”) Smith was born in a gipsy tent near London, England in 1860; he was “born again” (John 3.3) this date in 1876.  Smith worked with the Salvation Army (had high regard for William Booth), with the Methodist, and evangelised among several other groups.  He made five preaching trips to America as well as preaching in Australia.

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James L Nicholson – death, Nov.6, 1876

“Whiter Than Snow”  (stanza 1)

Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole;
I want Thee forever to live in my soul.
Break down every idol, cast out every foe;
Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

This was song was written by James Nicholson, a native of Ireland.  He made America his adopted land.  James died this day in Washington DC but was buried back in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he had worked for the Post Office.

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