Henry Francis Lyte – buried, Nov. 20, 1847

Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee.
Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be.
Perish every fond ambition, all I’ve sought or hoped or known.
Yet how rich is my condition! God and Heaven are still mine own.

Let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior, too.
Human hearts and looks deceive me; Thou art not, like them, untrue.
And while Thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love and might,
Foes may hate and friends disown me, show Thy face and all is bright.

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn and pain!
In Thy service, pain is pleasure; with Thy favor, loss is gain.
I have called Thee, “Abba, Father”; I have set my heart on Thee:
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather, all must work for good to me.

Man may trouble and distress me, ’twill but drive me to Thy breast.
Life with trials hard may press me; heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
Oh, ’tis not in grief to harm me while Thy love is left to me;
Oh, ’twere not in joy to charm me, were that joy unmixed with Thee.

Take, my soul, thy full salvation; rise o’er sin, and fear, and care;
Joy to find in every station something still to do or bear:
Think what Spirit dwells within thee; what a Father’s smile is thine;
What a Savior died to win thee, child of heaven, shouldst thou repine?

Haste then on from grace to glory, armed by faith, and winged by prayer,
Heaven’s eternal day’s before thee, God’s own hand shall guide thee there.
Soon shall close thy earthly mission, swift shall pass thy pilgrim days;
Hope soon change to glad fruition, faith to sight, and prayer to praise.

Henry Francis Lyte was buried this date, 11/20/1847, Nice, France.  Though orphaned he was able to attended Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, specializing in English poetry.  Lyte married Anne Maxwell, 1818, at Bath, daughter of William Maxwell a minister of Monaghan. (Their very happy marriage produced at least one child, a daughter.)  From Trinity College he received his MA in 1820.

Lyte did not have a strong body and in later years suffered from asthma and consumption. His last pastorate (twenty-three years) was a poor parish, pastoring the fishermen and families in Lower Brixham, England.  (It was here he penned “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken.”  Near the end of life (his health in worse condition) Lyte preached his last sermon and also wrote “Abide with Me, Fast Falls the Eventide.”

It was for his health sake that he had started to Italy but expired making it no farther than France. Lyte was born 6/1/1793, at Ed­nam, Scot­land.

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Creation Day 4004 BC – according to James Ussher

10/23/4004 B.C. – This it the DATE, worked out by Archbishop James Ussher, that God “created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1.1).  He went so far as to give a time – 9:00 a.m. GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).  James Ussher (born 1/4/1581 in Dublin, Ireland, died 3/21/1656) did more than any known man to mathematically arrive (working backward) at the dates of Creation and the Flood.  He was a part if the Irish Church and was Calvinistic in his thinking.

 Though many would not contend for this exact day, or hour 🙂 , the good bishop is correct in his approximation of this date for the earth and its heaven being made by the Creator.

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James Ussher – death, Mar. 21, 1656

As soon as Mithridates (mĭth’rĭ•dā’tēz) arrived at Paphlagonia, he made a speech to the soldiers.  When he saw that he had aroused their hatred of the Romans he invaded Bithynia… – 75 BC

                – James Ussher, Annals of the World (London: E.Tyler for J. Crook, 1658,

                                reprint, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 4111 (paragraph #).

 

All Asia was being most intolerably oppressed by Roman money-lenders and tax collectors and defected to Mithridates.  -75 BC

                – James Ussher, Annals of the World (London: E.Tyler for J. Crook, 1658,

                                reprint, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 4112 (paragraph #).

 

A little later he [Mithridates] came to a country that had not been ravaged by war for many years, so that a slave was sold for four drachmas and an ox for one drachma.  Goats, sheep, clothes and other things were equally cheap. – 72 BC

                – James Ussher, Annals of the World (London: E.Tyler for J. Crook, 1658,

                                reprint, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 4176 (paragraph #).

 

James Ussher died this date (3/21/1656) Reigate, Surrey, England.  He was born 1/4/1581 in Dublin, Ireland. 

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James Ussher (Bishop) – birth, Jan. 4, 1581

Since both those great lights stopped and started together, the astronomical account of this is not invalidated by this event.  Even as music, the harmony is not broken, nor do the voices clash if they all rest at the same time and then begin again, each man playing his part until the end of the piece.

– James Ussher, The Annals of the World, (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 50.

 

So the Lydians, a people who were famous for hard work, power and chivalry, grew soft from luxury and lost their courage and virtue.

– James Ussher, The Annals of the World, (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 115.

 

The Lacedemonians sued for peace, a plea which was opposed by those who made a living from war.

– James Ussher, The Annals of the World, (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 168.

Bishop James Ussher was born this date (1/4/1581) in Dublin, Ireland.  This book was origianlly printed in Ireland and London MDCLVIII (1658).  The modern text (quoted above) has 960 pages, approx. 8.5 x 11. 

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Augustus Montague Toplady – birth, Nov. 4, 1740

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

Toplady though English, attended Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.  He was ordained in the Church of England in 1762 but left it in 1775 to pastor a Calvinist church.  He was converted (at 15) through a Methodist outreach.  It is no secret that he later openly opposed to teachings of John Wesley but note the cry in the 1st stanza for the “double cure” and for purety.

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