Archive | August 2009

Reading Through Asia: Vietnam

Aug12

Hitchhiking Vietnam: A Woman’s Solo Journey in an Elusive Land by Karin Muller. Globe Pequot Press, 1998.

I enjoyed reading this memoir/travelogue of an American woman who spent seven months in post-war Vietnam, traveling by bus, motorcycle, bicycle and on foot from the Mekong Delta to the northern border with China and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. She endured hardships and discomforts that would have sent me scuttling back to Texas within the first few pages, but I never was sure why. Ms. Muller tries to explain in the book. She writes about her mother’s stories of growing up in Africa and about the sense of adventure she inherited from her somewhat peripatetic parents. However, and maybe it was just my underdeveloped sense of adventure, the Vietnam Karin Muller describes is not inviting; it’s full of greed, bribery, poverty, alcoholism, and political corruption. And that’s just among the tourist population. The Vietnamese themselves, with a few exceptions, are out to get as many American dollars as possible or in the case of the government bureaucrats and the police, determined to make travel as difficult as possible for anyone with fair skin and a camera. Muller keeps lookng for a “village” where she can live for awhile and enjoy her Rousseau-inspired vision of happy natives living simple, uncluttered lives. She does find such villages a couple of times during her odyssey, but the visit usually comes to an abrupt end when government officials or basic materialism intervene.

The book, while fascinating in its descriptions of modern Vietnam from a foreigner’s perspective, didn’t stir my sense of adventure, nor did it make me want to hop on a plane for Vietnam. But don’t go by me. Eldest Daughter told me today that I was a stick in the mud, and my idea of a wonderful trip involves London, Oxford, Cambridge, and Stratford-on-the-Avon. I think I’ll stick with the armchair travel route to Asia since I’m spoiled by basic conveniences such as flush toilets and clean drinking water and food that doesn’t contain parasites.

One thing I found interesting, and sad, is that Vietnam seems to be going the way of China with its one-child policy as exemplified in this account of a conversation that the author had with a group of Vietnamese soldiers:

“To my surprise, not one of them had more than two children in a land that valued family above all else, the larger the better. My driver reminded me of the billboards I had seen in almost every town, proclaiming the new government in favor of small families, with captions reading, ‘Have one or two children!’ Army doctrine apparently took a more active role, and soldiers were demoted one star for every child more than two.”

There were other stories that shed light on the current state of the people of Vietnam: Ms. Muller’s friend and erstwhile guide Tam tells her about his struggles to survive in post-war Vietnam as a former interpreter for the U.S. Marines during the war.

One chapter focuses on the Zao village in northern Vietnam where Ms. Muller spends a week living with a family of rice-growers. It’s somewhat idyllic, with a patriarchal extended family working together to build the family’s fortunes and find marriages for its young men and women. However, the chapter also includes a badly burned baby with no medical care other than a tube of athlete’s foot medication salvaged from the Red Cross at some time in the history of the village. Not so idyllic after all.

In the final analysis, I just couldn’t figure out why Karin Muller wanted to travel through Vietnam. She seemed to have some compassion for the people whose lives were so poverty-stricken. But harking back to a bad experience in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, Ms. Muller doesn’t think she can make a difference in the people’s lives nor that she has any right to try. She does try to rescue some endangered animals (a gibbon, baby leopards, and an eagle) destined for the medicinal markets of China, but the results of that attempt at good works are mixed. She says at the beginning of the book that she wants to understand the Vietnamese people and their ability to forgive their former enemies, the Americans. Maybe cultural understanding was enough of a goal to get her through sleepless nights in squalid surroundings, dysentery and scurvy, and countless bureaucratic tangles and arguments.

It wouldn’t be enough for me. I’m not only a stick in the mud; I’m also a wimp.

Other Vietnam books I have read or want to read:

I’ve heard that The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a good read about the Vietnam War and the American soldiers who fought and died in it. I have the book on my shelf, but I haven’t read it yet. I did read Phillip Caputo’s classic memoir A Rumor of War (a long time ago), and I remember it as fascinating, disturbing, but sometimes simplistic. Either of these books would probably teach the reader a lot about Americans in Vietnam, but not too much about Vietnam or the Vietnamese themselves.

For children or yong adults the following books might be helpful in understanding Vietnamese culture and interactions:

Goodbye, Vietnam by Gloria Whelan.
Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata. Semicolon review here.
When Heaven Fell by Carolyn Marsden. Semicolon review here.
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. Perry, a teenager from Harlem, experiences the horrors of the Vietnam War.
Paradise of the Blind by Thu Huong Duong and Nina McPherson. This book is a YA coming of age novel of post-war Vietnam, originally written in Vietnamese, banned in Vietnam, and later translated into English and published in the U.S. It sounds like a wonderful window into Vietnam written by a Vietnamese author.

For today’s round-up of reviews of titles set in Southeast Asia or written by Southeast Asian authors, check out the One Shot World Tour at Chasing Ray.

Hymn #40: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Aug11

Lyrics: Author unknown. Translated to English by John Mason Neale, 1851.

Music: Unknown composer. Arranged and harmonized by Thomas Helmore, 1854.

Theme: And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith THE LORD. Isaiah 59:20.

Brandon at Siris: “no single human hand sat down and wrote it, and it has been sung by countless people across the centuries and the continents, its format adapted and re-adapted many times, and yet the message is still crystal clear and the hymn itself still exquisite.”

Amanda: “I have a thing for Advent. Waiting for Jesus.”

According to a book we own called Color the Christmas Classics, this Christmas carol dates back to the time of Emperor Charlemagne of France. It was originally sung in Latin and was an antiphon, “a short liturgical text sung in response to a psalm or other spoken text.” The carol was sung over a period of seven days, from December 17th to the 23rd, in response to a scripture about the brith of Christ read by the priest. You can go to this website to see all seven antiphons (or verses) in Latin and in various English translations.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Refrain:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
And drive away the shades of night
And pierce the clouds and bring us light!

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud, and majesty, and awe.

Reading Through Asia: Cambodia

Aug11

First I read When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him. This harrowing and honest memoir of young girl growing up in Khmer Rouge-ruled Kampuchea was my introduction to the literature of the Cambodian Holocaust. I’ve never seen the movie that everybody seems to reference when talking about the horror that was Pol Pot’s Kampuchea because I cannot watch reenactments of actual, horrible events. I’ve also never seen Schindler’s List nor The Passion of the Christ. Reading about such events and acts is bad enough.

During the time covered in the book, Chanrithy Him suffered the loss of her father, murdered in a “re-education camp”, her mother, who died in a squalid hospital from untreated disease and malnutrition, five siblings, who died of malnutrition and disease, and other family members lost to the insane and disastrous policies of the Khmer Rouge government. The book begins with some background about Chanrithy Him’s childhood, but focuses on the details of her daily life in Cambodia/Kampuchea from April 17, 1975 when the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Pen until her escape a few years later with what remained of her family to a refugee camp in Thailand.

“Death is a constant, and we’ve become numb to the shock of it. People die here and there, all around us, falling like flies that have been sprayed with poison.”

You can read the first chapter of When Broken Glass Floats online here.
And here is an interesting review of three memoirs of the Cambodian Killing Fields, all published in 2000: Music through the Dark, written by Bree Lefreniere and narrated by Daran Kravanh, When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him, and First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung.

Next I read When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution by Elizabeth Becker. This book was a more complete history of Cambodia before and during Pol Pot’s reign of terror. The author attempted to show how Pol Pot and cohorts came into power, what kept them in power, and what the effects of their genocidal policies were on the people of Cambodia. It’s a decent enough attempt, but Ms. Becker gets bogged down in the details and sometimes fails to explain the larger picture. Pol Pot and his friends sometimes seem like sympathetic characters even in the midst of their carrying out of horrendous acts simply because they are humans who even turn against one another at intervals.

Some of the most memorable passages in the book tell about Becker’s personal experiences in Cambodia as the guest of the Khmer Rouge regime. She was invited, along with two other journalists, in December 1978 to see what the Khmer Rouge had accomplished in a little over three years of rule in Cambodia. She, of course, saw only what the government wanted her to see, and she was unable to talk to people or see anything without the ever-present guides and translators who presented the Communist propaganda line in spite of the general appearance of grinding poverty and escalating violence and paranoia. Becker’s visit came to a climax with the midnight murder of one of her fellow journalists, Malcolm Caldwell, a sympathizer with the Khmer Rouge government, who nevertheless became a victim of its incompetence and general craziness.

Read this one for all the detailed information and for an idea of what was going on when all over the country and in foreign countries in relation to Cambodia. Read some of the memoirs and personal stories listed above to get a feel for what horror was perpetrated by the this so-called “agrarian communist utopia of Democratic Kampuchea.”

For today’s round-up of reviews of titles set in Southeast Asia or written by Southeast Asian authors, check out the One Shot World Tour at Chasing Ray.

Your Jesus Is Too Safe by Jared C. Wilson

Aug11

I wonder what it says about me or about Mr. WIlson’s book that I enjoyed the footnotes, which are multitudinous and entertaining, almost as much as I did the main text of the book. In fact, I found myself turning each page, reading the footnotes first, then the text to which each footnote referred, then the two facing pages in order. Some examples:

p. 101: I keep assuming that you’re someone who speaks aloud to books. If I were you, I wouldn’t do this if you’re seated next to someone in a waiting room or on an airplane. Unless you really want to freak people out and give them a good story to tell their friends. In that case, go ahead, weirdo.

p. 126: OK, he was on a donkey, so we’ll call it “lukewarm pursuit.”

p. 193: Well, for me personally, it’s not up for debate, but I’m trying to be charitable to all my less Calvinist friends.

(Footnote to a footnote: Thanks, Jared, for your Christian charity in bearing with us wishy-washy Arminocalvinists.)

So, I liked the footnotes. What else?

A lot. I read Jared Wilson’s manifesto (n. a public declaration of policy and aims) on who Jesus is, what Jesus “policy and aims” were and are, and then I started again and read it all over. I did the re-reading thing for two or maybe three reasons:

1. There’s a lot of good stuff in here. I confess that whenever I read nonfiction, unless it tells a story, I tend to skim, to look for the good parts, mostly the story parts. But Mr. Wilson has written a book that tells the story of Jesus from twelve different perspectives or roles, and I was afraid that because of my bad reading habits, I might have missed something. I did miss stuff, and I’m glad I gave myself a second chance.

2. Jared Wilson and his fellow Thinklings were some of the first bloggers I ever read, so when I heard he was having his first book published, I wanted to read it. And I wanted to make sure I read it thoroughly. I can’t claim to be an unprejudiced reviewer; Jared and I have actually met once. We’ve exchanged emails a couple of times. And I like his writing and his focus on the person of Jesus. So I was predisposed to like his book, footnotes and all. (However, no money exchanged hands in the process of my writing this review.)

3. In the end I was captivated, not by Jared’s writing or his wit, but by the person he was writing about: Jesus. I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what I had missed in my fifty plus years of doing church. I’ve been a disciple of Jesus Christ for a long time, but in reading Your Jesus Is Too Safe, I fell in love with Jesus all over again. That’s not safe, but it sure is fun and rich and Awe-ful, in the best and most archaic sense of the word.

If you think you’ve heard it all before, maybe you have. But maybe, just maybe, you should read Your Jesus Is Too Safe with an open mind and a heart prepared to reencounter the Biblical Jesus who is our Promise, our Prophet, our Forgiver, the Son of Man, our Shepherd, our Judge, our Redeemer, our King, our Sacrifice, our Provision, our Lord, and our Saviour.

“Brace yourself. Turning over tables is a messy business.”

This review is a part of Jared Wilson’s blog tour for the book Your Jesus Is Too Safe. For more reviews of the book, you can go to Jared’s blog, The Gospel-Driven Church.

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome

Aug10

A sampler:

“You can never rouse Harris. There is no poetry about Harris—no wild yearning for the unattainable. Harris never ‘weeps he knows not why.’ If Harris’s eyes fill with tears, you can bet it is because Harris has been eating raw onions, or has put too much Worcester over his chop.”

“Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need—a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough more to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.”

“In the church is a memorial to Mrs. Sarah Hill, who bequeathed $1(pound) annually, to be divided at Easter, between two boys and two girls who ‘had never been undutiful to their parents; who had never been known to swear or to tell untruths, to steal, or to break windows.’ Fancy giving up all that for five shillings a year! It is not worth it.”

“George got out his banjo after supper, and wanted to play it, but Harris objected: he said he had got a headache, and did not feel strong enough to stand it. George thought the music might do him good — said music often soothed the nerves and took away a headache; and he twanged two or three notes, just to show Harris what it was like.
Harris said he would rather have a headache.”

Such a delightful little book about three young men and a dog named Montmorency, who scull up the Thames in a boat. I probably never would have picked it up had it not been for another delightful longer book by Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog. I recommend both in succession.

Other book bloggers say:
Word Lily: “If you like dogs. Boating. England. History. Humor. Performing. Camping. Resistentialism. Traveling. Cheese. A fondness for any one of these, I think, would be enough to commend this book to you.”

Lisa the Correspondent: “This is a gentle read, and by no means a page turner. It is not so much what they do on the river as how the author tells it, and if you are fond of classic British humour, you will enjoy the telling.”

SCB at Wear the Old Coat: “In due course, the three young men (and the dog) determine that the way to deal with their maladies is to spend two weeks boating down the River (the Thames), and the book is the hilarious account of their trip.”

Hymn #41: This Is My Father’s World

Aug10

Lyrics: Maltbie Babcock, 1901.

Music: TERRA BEATA by Frank L. Sheppard, 1915.

Theme: The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Psalm 24:1.

Steve Webb’s Lifespring Hymn Stories: This Is My Father’s World.

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.

Maltbie Babcock: “Good habits are not made on birthdays, nor Christian character at the new year. The workshop of character is everyday life. The uneventful and commonplace hour is where the battle is lost or won.”

This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.”
This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.

This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad?
The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.
This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.

This is my Father’s world. I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known.
This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.

Maltbie Babcock’s original poem consisted of sixteen verses, but these are all I could find. Babcock himself was a Presbyterian minister in addition to being a swimmer, a baseball player, a singer/musician, and a poet. He also liked to walk and to hike, and he often told his secretary or his wife, “I’m going out to see my Father’s world!” His somewhat lengthy poem about his Father’s world was published posthumously, and his friend, Frank Sheppard, set it to the music of an old English folk tune.

Sources:
101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck.
The Center for Church Music: This Is My Father’s World.
Wikipedia: Maltbie Davenport Babcock.
Anchor for the Soul: This Is My Father’s World.
Wordwise Hymns: Maltbie Babcock Born.

Hymn #42: What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Aug9

Lyrics: Joseph Mendicott Scriven, 1855.

Music: ERIE by Charles Converse, 1868.
Alternate tune: CALON LAN

Theme: A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.

Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised, Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing, all to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded, there will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship, will be our sweet portion there.

Joseph Scriven’s first fiance drowned the night before their wedding was to take place. He moved to Canada (from England) where he met and became engaged to another young woman, Eliza Roche. Eliza contracted pneumonia and died shortly before the wedding. Joseph joined the Plymouth Brethren and spent the rest of his life serving the aged and the poor. Unfortunately, Mr. Scriven also died tragically, by drowning, either a suicide or an accident.

This monologue by Christian comedienne Chondra Pierce is an excellent commentary on this hymn and on the faithfulness of our Lord:

It seems odd and mildly humorous to me, but this hymn is said to be a very popular wedding song played at Japanese weddings. A Japanese poet’s (secular) words have been set to Mr. Converse’s tune, but usually if the words are sung, they’re a Japanese translation of Mr. Scriven’s lyrics. I’m trying to imagine “Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer” in Japanese and at a wedding. Incongruity anyone?

The tune has also been used, particularly during World War I for other, more bawdy, lyrics, but you don’t want to go there, do you? Me neither. I’m still stuck on the Japanese wedding song thing. If you’re wanting to get that picture out of your imagination, go back and listen to Chondra Pierce again. It’s worth another listen.

Sources:
What a Friend We Have in Jesus by Lindsay Terry in Christianity Today.
Seiyaku: What a Friend We Have in Jesus.

Sunday Salon: More Books I Want to Read

Aug9

The Sunday Salon.comThe Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death and Pretty Much Everything Else by Christopher Beha. Grove Press. New York Times Book Review. Excerpt from the first chapter of The Whole Five Feet. Why do I so enjoy reading books about people reading books? About reading projects? It’s addictive and tempting. I want to start another project of my own, write a book about it, have everyone read about my reading. Which is what I’m doing here at the blog, isn’t it?

The Last Queen by C.W. Gortner. A fictional account of the life of Juana la Loca, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and mother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Reviewed here by Heather at A Lifetime of Books. I really like historical fiction about royals, IF it’s done well and not too romanticized. This novel sounds like a winner. (But I could do without the partially decapitated model on the cover.)

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas. This memoir of an Iranian American refugee growing up in California is reviewed at Small World Reads. I’ ready for something funny since most of my reading has been quite serious lately.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. I’ve read a lot of buzz about this YA novel, and now I see in Jennifer’s review that the protagonist of the novel has a favorite book: A Wrinkle in Time! Since I’m a Madeleine L’Engle fan from way back, how can I resist?

The Widow’s Season by Laura Brodie. Reviewed by Carrie K. This one just sounds like fun.

Pastwatch by Orson Scott Card. Reviewed by Seth Heasley at Collateral Bloggage. (By the way, I like the title of Mr. Heasley’s blog, don’t you?) I may need to move this sci-fi/historical fiction novel way up on the list since we’re starting this year’s history unit with Christopher Columbus.

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore. Reviewed by Kathy at Bermuda Onion. Georgia, Baptist church, Dairy Queen, I’m hooked.

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert. Reviewed at Framed and Booked. This series of cozy mysteries sounds as if it’s worth a try at least.

Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner. Reviewed by Barbara at Stray Thoughts. Read here about my love for the writing of Jamie Langston Turner. I’m pleased to read about this new book by a favorite author. (Yikes! another half head guillotined by the edge of the cover!)

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch. Carrie makes this book sound like a must-read, and I heard someone recommend it at the homeschool conference I attended this weekend. So I’ll read it.

Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films With Wisdom and Discernment by Brian Godawa. Another Carrie (Reading to Know) pick.

Hymn #43: Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy

Aug8

Lyrics: Joseph Hart, 1759.

Music: RESTORATION arranged by William Walker, 1835, from The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.
Also BEACH SPRING arranged by Benjamin Franklin White, 1844 from The Sacred Harp.
These two were competing hymnals, both using “shape notes“. (Here’s a shape note rendition of this hymn.) Benjamin F. White was William Walker’s brother-in-law. Unfortunately, although the two men worked together at first in collecting and composing hymn tunes, they refused to share credit for the collections they produced. So they were estranged for the rest of their lives.
Or you could go back to Indelible Grace for this tune by Darwin Jordan or this one by Matthew S. Smith. Brown Bear Daughter, who has a predilection for minor key tunes, insists on retaining the traditional Southern Harmony RESTORATION tune, and I’ll admit that I’m with her.

Theme: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30.

Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and pow’r.

Refrain:
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.

Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies;
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?

Lo! th’ incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.

Baker Church:

“The verses of the hymn were composed much earlier (1759) by English pastor Joseph Hart. Two years before he wrote this hymn, Hart was converted to Christianity following a Moravian service he attended on Pentecost Sunday. Despite his rearing in a Christian home, Hart entered a stage of rebellion in his early twenties characterized by a lifestyle of carnality and a philosophy of anti-Christian sentiments. He was known as an enemy of the cross, and went to great lengths to discredit Christianity and its followers. Hart published a pamphlet entitled, “The Unreasonableness of Religion” as a response to one of John Wesley’s sermons, earning him a reputation not unlike that of Saul. Hart fell into a depression in the 1850s(sic1750s). It was during this time that he developed a Spiritual conviction that eventually led him to the Moravian meeting in 1857(sic1757) and his eventual conversion. Filled with the Holy Spirit and anxious to share his experience, Hart took to writing poetry, from which the text of our hymn was derived.”

Here’s yet another tune by CCM artist Todd Agnew:

Sources:
Rebecca Writes: Sunday’s Hymn.
Baker Church Media: Come Ye Sinners.

Hymn #44: Just As I Am

Aug7

Lyrics: Charlotte Elliot, 1835.

Music: WOODWORTH by WIlliam B. Bradbury is the traditional tune for this hymn.
I like the tune, found in the 1975 Baptist Hymnal, called TABERNACLE by Phillip Landgrave, 1968. Unfortunately, I can’t find a good midi or mp3 of this tune. Here’s the only one I found, but it’s played way too fast and peppy for my taste.

Theme: How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! Hebrews 9:14.

Billy Graham: “That well-known Gospel hymn has been used by God in crusades all over the world to draw people to Himself, not only in English but also in other languages as well.” (Graham chose this hymn’s title as the title of his 1997 autobiography.)

Rev. H.V. Elliott, Charlotte’s brother: ‘In the course of a long ministry I hope I have been permitted to see some fruit for my labours; but I feel far more has been done by a single hymn of my sister’s”.

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, tho’ tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind-
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee to find-
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, thy love unknown
Has broken ev’ry barrier down,
Now to be thine, yea thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, of that free love
The breadth, length, depth and height to prove,
Here for a season, then above,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

Sources:

Workers for Jesus: Just As I Am.

STEM Publishing: Miss Charlotte Elliott, 1789-1871.