A B (Albert Benjamin) Simpson – birth, Dec. 15, 1843

“The Mercy of God Is an Ocean Divine”   (stanza 1 and refrain)

The mercy of God is an ocean divine,
A boundless and fathomless flood.
Launch out in the deep, cut away the shore line,
And be lost in the fullness of God.

Launch out, into the deep.
Oh let the shore line go.
Launch out, launch out in the ocean divine,
Out where the full tides flow.

A B Simpson was born 12/15/1843 on Prince Edward Island in Canada.  It was my privilege to see the spot where his family home was.  His dad had a mill and would cut lumber, place it on a small boat and float it down the narrow creek that boarded their land to a ship building yard.  Simpson was a lad who grew up with the sea – this song reflects this boyhood scenes.  He died 10/29/1919 in Nyack, NY. 

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George MacDonald – birth, Dec. 10, 1824

In God’s Kingdom…a man’s salvation rarely comes without the prayers of another who labors unseen.  

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 19.

 

Never did his face light up when he spoke of the Son of God, of his death, or of his resurrection.  Never did he make mention of the kingdom of heaven as if it were anything more venerable than the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 61.

 

For God is love, and love is that which is, and was, and shall be for evermore – boundless, unconditional, self-existent, creative!

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 117.

 

The heart o’ both king and cobbler’s in the hand o’ the Lord…

 – George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 147.

 

Ignorant people go abut always asking why God permits evil.  We know why!  So that we might know – really know – what good is like, and therefore what God himself is like.

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 206.

George MacDonald was born 12/10/1824 in Scotland.  He was a pastor but also a writer.  His pen influenced the later pen of C S Lewis.

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