Archive | September 2009

Wednesday’s Whatever: Perelandra and Truth

Sep23

Jeanne Damoff, one of the writers at the blog The Master’s Artist, writes about how C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra “Can Powerfully Inform the Practical Application of Truth.”

Part 1: “The plot basically answers this question: “What would happen if God created reasoning beings on another planet and gave them the same opportunity Adam and Eve had in the garden?” Except, in this case, The Fall has already happened on Earth, The Cross stands as a turning point not only in our world but in all the cosmos, and Satan (The Bent One) is determined to thwart God’s desire to establish perfection and experience unhindered fellowship in a new world.”

Part 2 (aka The Post I Do Not Want To Write): “As far as I can tell, same-sex marriage is as much a threat to the traditional family as drinking bleach is a threat to water. God forbids practicing homosexuality for one reason only: because it destroys the homosexual. Our perspective is all askew. We ask how a loving God could condemn any, when we should be asking how a just God can save any. We live as though the world is our playground and God is supposed to bring the snacks, when in reality we were created by and for His glory and pleasure. We make life about us, when it’s about Him.

God is good in what He forbids. That is what the church should be saying. That is what I should be saying. But apparently we don’t believe it.”

You really should read both parts of Ms. Damoff’s post before you read what I have to say. Maybe you should read Perelandra, too

So, I’m asking myself today: do I believe it? Do I believe that homosexual behavior and gossip and hatefulness and sexual immorality and gluttony and materialism and that other stuff God forbids are all really, really evil and destructive both to the sinner and to the society in which he lives? If I do, why do I keep on doing some of those things? And why do I look the other way and smile ruefully when people I love and care for do them?

And why am I afraid to yell, “Poison!” when I see these things condoned and presented as harmless in the context of children’s and young adult literature. I’m afraid to yell, afraid to even whisper, because someone will accuse me of being homophobic when I say that we ought not be giving books to our young people that present homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle. (And those young people ought to throw them back in our faces when we do.) I’m afraid of being called elitist if I complain that Gossip Girls and other bitchy teenage books marketed to teen girls are teaching them that it’s OK to live self-centered, malicious lives, that they can live that way and still avoid the tragedy of broken relationships. I’m afraid that when I call it like I see it and say that these two young people who are having sex outside of marriage in the latest YA bestseller should be headed for disaster, according to all the statistics and according to God’s Word, I’ll be called a prude or a book banner or an old lady who just doesn’t understand the beauty of the writing in this bodice ripper or that scifi macho potboiler.

Who am I to say what someone else should read? Nobody, really, just a blogger and a Christian and a reader. And one who has her own struggles with malice and envy and a multitude of other sins, sins that but for the grace of God would destroy me and mine just as surely as other sins, to which I am, thankfully, not tempted, destroy the lives of other people. But when authors lie and say that black is white and evil is good and that a little bit of sin won’t hurt you, shouldn’t I say something, even if it gets me banned from the next BBAW or from the lit blogosphere in general? We’re talking about real lives here. Kids and adults are reading books that say things that are untrue and harmful, and I’m not even trying to have the poison in these books taken off the market or banned in Boston; I just feel called to warn some of those who are headed for a cliff (to mix my metaphors unmercifully) that “something wicked this way comes.”

God forgive me. When I care more about the opinions of people I’ve never met and may never meet than I do about the Truth, I am a coward of the worst sort. I may get banned in Boston myself, or at least not read, but God help me, I will tell the truth about the books that I review. Because GOD IS GOOD all the time, in what He forbids as well as in what He affirms, in His justice and in His love. And I am being a disciple of Christ when I call evil what He calls evil and good what He says is good.

Now go out and get you copies of C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy, especially books two and three, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, and read some True stories. Amazing stuff.

Hymn #26: Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Sep22

Lyrics: Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1868.

Music: ST CHRISTOPHER, Frederick C. Maker.

Theme: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14.

Elizabeth Cecelia Douglas Clephane was one of three sisters living in Melrose, Scotland in the mid-1800’s. She wrote several poems, but Beneath the Cross of Jesus was written only one year before Ms. Clephane’s death in 1869 at the age of thirty-nine. It was published, posthumously, three years later.

1. Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty rock
within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness,
a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat,
and the burden of the day.

2. There lies beneath its shadow,
but on the farther side,
the darkness of an open grave
that gapes both deep and wide;
and there between us stands the cross,
two arms outstretched to save,
like a watchman to guard the way
from that eternal grave.

3. O safe and happy shelter,
O refuge tried and sweet,
O trysting place where heaven’s love
And heaven’s justice meet!
As to the holy patriarch
That wondrous dream was giv’n,
So seems my Savior’s cross to me,
A ladder up to heav’n.

4. Upon that cross of Jesus
mine eye at times can see
the very dying form of One
who suffered there for me;
and from my stricken heart with tears
two wonders I confess:
the wonders of redeeming love
and my unworthiness.

5. I take, O cross, thy shadow
for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine than
the sunshine of his face;
content to let the world go by,
to know no gain nor loss,
my sinful self my only shame,
my glory all the cross.

The reference to:
“the mighty Rock” and “a weary land” is taken from Isaiah 32:2.
“home within the wilderness” is taken from Jeremiah 9:2.
“rest upon the way” is taken from Isaiah 28:12.
“noontide heat” is taken from Isaiah 4:6.
“watchman to guard the way” is taken from Ezekiel 33:6-7.
“burden of the day” is taken from Matthew 11:30.
“a ladder up to heav’n” is taken from Genesis 28:11-12.
“my glory all the cross” is taken from Galatians 6:14.

I like this poem/hymn even better with verses two and three added. The image of the cross as a watchman between me and an open grave and as a “trysting place,” not for human lovers, but where the love and the justice of God meet—those are good. I would like to find more of Ms.Clephane’s poetry, but here’s a link to the only one of her poems I can find other than today’s hymn.

The Lost Sheep, or The Ninety and Nine

Texas Tuesday: Boys and Indians

Sep22

What is it about boys and Indians? Three brothers from a family I grew up with—Tommy, Barry, and Eddie—were fascinated with all things Native American. Tommy, who was my age, brought his authentic Indian headdress to school for show and tell. The boys were in Boy Scouts, and it was the Native American aspects of the scouting mythology that caught and held their attention. They took care of our school mascot, a bobcat, in their backyard, and I think it was some kind of symbol for them not only of the school but also of their Native American heritage or aspirations or something.

Fast forward to 2009, and many boys are still interested in Native American history and rituals and culture. We’re studying Texas history this year, and you can’t study Texas heritage and traditions without serving up a good dollop of Native American history, particularly the history of the Plains Indians and that of the tribes of Indians who lived along the Gulf Coast and in the Piney Woods of East Texas. And it’s necessary to discuss all sorts of sticky subjects: cultural genocide, assimilation, adaptation, revenge, war, racist attitudes and all of the baggage that goes with the complicated history of the Europeans meeting, and clashing with, the Native Americans.

Sometimes all of that is much easier to discuss in the context of fiction. Here are a few books that might be both fascinating to the boys (or even girls) in your classroom or homeschool and useful in discussing the history of AngloEuropean and Native American relations. They’re all set in or near Texas.

Comanche Song by Janice Shefelman. Set in 1840. Tsena, the sixteen year old son of a Comanche chief, longs to prove himself as a warrior, but he also supports his father’s efforts to keep peace with the Texans who are crowding into the Comanches’ hunting territories. When Tsena accompanies his father and the other chiefs to San Antonio, he survives the Council House Massacre (a real historical event) only because the white men consider him still a boy. And when Tsena escapes and rejoins his tribe, he is faced with the decision of whether to take revenge on those who have hurt him or to help those who have helped him. How can Tsena become a man and listen to the voice of his Spirit Wolf in a world that is becoming less and less hospitable to him and his tribe’s way of life? The story is informative and interesting without being culturally condescending and without changing history to make either side in this clash seem to be without fault.

Spirit of Iron by Janice Shefelman. Set in 1850. Here’s the token girl book in which fifteen year old Mina Jordan dresses up like a boy aand runs away to Comancheria (Comanche Territory) to help the Texas Rangers find her kidnapped Lipan Apache best friend, Amaya. I still say it’s a boy thing, even though I enjoyed this book and the others. I never actually wanted to BE an Indian or adopt Native American customs or anything.

The Wolf’s Tooth by G. Clifton Wisler. Set in 1858-1859. Elias Walsh isn’t excited about leaving his friends and his home in Waco to move to an isolated Indian reservation just so that his schoolteacher father can “seek out those who want to learn, help them along the path to knowledge.” As far as Elias can see, the few Indians who live on the reservation aren’t too interested in learning or knowledge, just survival. And Thomas Three Feathers, the family’s Tonkawa interpreter and boarder, is strange and stand-offish. Then, the boys go out together to hunt the wolf that has been menacing the community, and Elias is forced to grow up fast.

Buffalo Moon by G. Clifton Wisler. Set in 1859-1860. Fourteen year old Willie Delamer doesn’t want to leave his ranch home in Texas to go to school in New Orleans. He’s sure that he knows all he needs to know, or if he doesn’t, the learning he needs isn’t to be found in a city school. So Willie runs away with his pony across the Brazos River into Indian country. As he lives with the Indians that his father has worked hard to respect and gain respect from, Willie becomes a man while learning to hunt buffalo, wrestle, race horses and make peace with his enemies. The sequel to this book is Thunder on the Tennessee, about Willie Delamer’s adventures during the Civil War as the now fifteen year old fights for Texas and the Confederacy.

Winter of the Wolf by G. Clifton Wisler. Set during the Civil War in 1864. The summer of T.J.’s fifteenth year, his father and his two older brothers ride off to fight the Yankees with Texas General John Bell Hood. T.J. must become the man of the family, and when a huge and seemingly invincible wolf threatens the livestock and the livelihood of the family, T.J. enlists the help of his Comanche friend, Yellow Feather, and the two of them set out to kill the Demon Wolf. The is one is so similar to The Wolf’s Tooth that it makes me think that Mr. Wisler is not above recycling plots. However, if you like one, you’ll probably like it recycled, too, with names changed to protect.

Nonfiction Monday: Written in Bone by Sally M. Walker

Sep21

factfirst1Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker. Carolrhoda Books, 2009.

As this book migrated around the house it garnered varying reactions from the urchins and other family members:

Karate Kid (12): It’s O.K. I liked the bones.

Z-baby (8): Is that a skeleton? Is it a real skeleton from a real person?

Artiste Daughter (20): That’s what I want to be, a forensic anthropologist. Can I read it when you get through with it?

Engineer Husband: That’s a great book! Where did it come from?

I found it a little difficult to concentrate on the information in the book at first, but I soon became intrigued. This book is not dumbed-down or over-simplified for the younger set. In fact, like much YA fiction, this book would be perfectly appropriate for adult reading. Anyone who wants a layman’s introduction to a particular subject should get in the habit of checking out the children’s or young adult section of the library since the authors of nonfiction for young people are careful to explain things as completely as possible while keeping it easy enough for nonprofessionals to understand and appreciate.

In Written in Bone, Ms. Walker accompanies forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, a scientist at the Smithsonian Institution, at his invitation, as he and colleagues from several related disciplines study the remains of some of the Jamestown settlers and of other early colonials who lived in the Chesapeake region of Maryland. The stories of eight different inhabitants of early colonial America are told in nine chapters. The information about how archeology and anthropological studies are done is detailed, comprehensive, and interesting, and I understood most of it –a great accomplishment on the part of the author since my eyes usually glaze over at the mention of the word “science.” One technique that author uses to keep the pages turning is the end of the chapter (commercial break) teaser: “Inside the tent, Doug Owsley, Kari Bruwelheide, archeological conservators, and medical personnel analyzed and sampled the remains for further scientific analysis. What they found amazed and puzzled them.” I could just picture this book as a PBS special, a really good one.

The chapter titles are sure to intrigue readers, too:

1. A Grave Mystery
2. Who Were You?
3. Out of the Grave
4. The Captain
5. The Body in the Basement
6. The Luxury of Lead
7. THe Lead-Coffin People
8. Expect the Unexpected
9. Remember Me

You want to read chapter five first, don’t you?

Ms. Walker does use some imagination and historical documentation to fill in the possible details of the lives of the people whose skeletons were excavated. Those lives include colonials that scientists believe were a teenage boy killed in Jamestown in a skirmish with the Indians, a ship’s captain, an indentured servant, a colonial official, his first wife, and his sickly baby, and an African slave girl. It’s amazing how much scientists can discover about these people and their daily lives as they use all sorts of new technologies to uncover the skeletons’ secrets. I’m really a history buff, not a science fan, but I loved the way the science made the history come alive.

Finally, I can’t leave this book without mentioning the beautiful full color photographs that accompany the text on nearly every page. The photos are large enough to see details, and the page layout isn’t too busy with too many little pictures but rather just enough photographic evidence to illuminate the written content. I wish I could reproduce one or two of the photos here, but you’ll just have to get a copy of the book and see for yourself.

How’s that for a nonfiction teaser?

Advanced Reading Survey: The Idiot by Feodor Dostoyevsky

Sep21

I’ve decided that on Mondays I’m going to revisit the books I read for a course in college called Advanced Reading Survey, taught by the eminent scholar and lovable professor, Dr. Huff. I’m not going to re-read all the books and poems I read for that course, probably more than fifty, but I am going to post to Semicolon the entries in the reading journal that I was required to keep for that class because I think that my entries on these works of literature may be of interest to readers here and because I’m afraid that the thirty year old spiral notebook in which I wrote these entries may fall apart ere long. I may offer my more mature perspective on the books, too, if I remember enough about them to do so.

I’m posting my notes from my reading, 30 years ago, of The Idiot because Cindy just read it and wanted to discuss it with someone else who had read it. I can’t really discuss it with her, but Past-Me can give her thoughts and the quotations she chose to copy into my notebook. (Confusing pronouns!)

Author note:
Dostoyevsky was born the son of an army surgeon and educated as a military engineer. He chose, however, to become a writer, and his first novel, Poor Folk, made him famous almost overnight. While attending a political meeting, he was arrested by the Czarist police and condemned to death. The sentence was later commuted to four years exile in Siberia. He served his sentence and returned to Russia to write his most famous novels, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot.

Characters:
Prince Lyov Nickolayevitch Myshkin: a young epileptic recently returned from Switzerland.
Nastasya Filippovna: a fallen woman whom Myshkin wishes to redeem.
Parfyon Rogozhin: Natasya’s boyfriend and sometimes fiance.
General Ivan Fyorovitch Epanchin: a friend of Myshkin.
Princess Lizaveta Prokofyevna: Epanchin’s wife and a distant relation of Myshkin.
Alexandra, Adelaida, and Aglaia: the Epanchin daughters.
Gavril Ardlionovitch: a man who first to marry Nastasya, then later Aglaia.
many more characters . . .

Quotations:
“At moments he dreamed of the mountains, and especially one familiar spot he always liked to think of, a spot to which he had been fond of going and from which he used to look down on the village, on the waterfall gleaming like a white thread below, on the white clouds, and on the old ruined castle. Oh, how he longed to be there now, and to think of one thing! — . . . Let him be utterly forgotten here! Oh, that must be! It would have been better indeed if they had never known him, and if it had all been only a dream.” p. 330.

“It’s life that matters, nothing but life—the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself at all.” p. 375.

Oh, to have time to re-read some of the books that I read when I was a different person, twenty-one or twenty-two, unmarried, still dreaming and discovering in a twenty-something way. I’m sure I would see different things in the book and save different quotations this time around.

Cindy compares The Idiot to Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow. I don’t remember enough of The Idiot to add to that discussion, but here’s my post on Jayber Crow. I’m fairly sure that both Jayber Crow and Myshkin could be seen as Christ figures, sacrificing themselves and their own desires in love for another. And the quotation above about life being in the living of it and not in the end discovery sounds a lot like these words that I copied from Jayber Crow:

“Nearly everything that has happened to me has happened by surprise. All the important things have happened by surprise. And whatever has been happening usually has already happened before I have had time to expect it. The world doesn’t stop because you are in love or in mourning or in need of time to think. And so when I thought I was in my story or in charge of it, I really have been only on the edge of it, carried along. Is this because we are in an eternal story that is happening partly in time?”

Maybe Cindy’s on to something.

Hymn #27: Rock of Ages

Sep20

Original Title: A Living and Dying Prayer for the Holiest Believer in the World.

Lyrics: Augustus Toplady

Music: TOPLADY by Thomas Hastings.

Theme:

You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.
Isaiah 26:3-4

George Grant on Augustus Toplady and his most famous hymn.

I wrote here about Mr. Toplady and his antipathy for the Wesleys, and what Augustus saw as their heretical Arminian theology. Of the eight survey responders that had Rock of Ages on their top ten list, six also had at least one hymn by Charles Wesley. It seems that the two hymn writers are predestined to dueling, or reconciling, hymns throughout Christian history.

The lyrics for Rock of Ages first appeared in the British publication, A Gospel Magazine, in 1776. The hymn text served as the ending salvo in an article that was written to refute the Wesleyan teachings on free will and to affirm the Calvinist teachings of predestination and total depravity.

1. 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.

2. Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

3. Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

4. While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.

As I have said before, and am not ashamed to repeat, I am a proud Arminocalvinist or Calvinoarminian. I can sit on that fence with the best of them, and God Himself will, in His mercy, rescue me as I come to Him in faith. And I’ll be singing a medley of Rock of Ages, A Debtor to Mercy Alone, Arise My Soul Arise, and O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

Sunday Salon: The Pulitzer Project

Sep20

The Sunday Salon.comI’m supposed to be working on reading, or at least trying out, all of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels. I even joined this project to accomplish that very thing, but I haven’t posted there in a long time. Here’s my list of books I had read when I first joined the project in 2007:

2005 – Gilead (Robinson) Semicolon review here.
1986 – Lonesome Dove (McMurtry) Well, sort of, at least I tried. Unappreciative Semicolon review of the part I finished.
1975 – The Killer Angels (Shaara) One of my Best Books Ever.
1967 – The Fixer (Malamud) I read this one a long time ago when my mom was taking a course in Jewish American literature.
1961 – To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee) One of my Best Books Ever.
1953 – The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway)
1952 – The Caine Mutiny (Wouk)
1947 – All the King’s Men (Warren) Semicolon review here.
1937 – Gone with the Wind (Mitchell)
1928 – The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Wilder)
1925 – So Big (Ferber)
1921 – The Age of Innocence (Wharton) One of my Best Books Ever.
1919 – The Magnificent Ambersons (Tarkington) Semicolon review here.

Since then I’ve read The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty (1973), but I didn’t review it because I couldn’t think of much to say. I started A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, but I found it absurd. I have enough absurd in my life already. And this month, this week dare I say, I’m going to read Andersonville by Mackinlay Kantor, a 750 page novel about the horror that was the Confederate prison of Andersonville during the Civil War. Andersonville is also the Semicolon Book Club selection for this month, so it’s a two-fer. And I’ve been wanting to read it for a while because I like historical fiction. So that’s three reasons.

Hymn #28: Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Sep19

Welsh Title: Arglwydd arwain trwy’r Anialwch
Original (English)Title: Strength to Pass Through the Wilderness

Lyrics: Williams Williams, 1775. Translated to English by Peter Williams (no relation to William).

Music: CWM RHONDDA by John Hughes, 1907.

Theme: By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. Exodus 13:21-22.

Totally cool rendition of CWM RHONDDA by a Welsh Men’s choir:

*William Williams, nicknamed “The Sweet Singer of Wales,” was a medical student when he came under the influence and preaching of evangelist Howell Harris. Williams eventually left medical school and became an evangelist himself and writer of hymns. He wrote over 800 hymns, mostly in the Welsh language.

*Welsh composer John Hughes composed the beloved tune CWM RHONDDA in 1907 for the annual Baptist Cymnfa Ganu (singing festival) at the Capel Rhondda, Potypridd, Wales.

*Three women missionaries in China are said to have sung this hymn as bandits were beating on their door. God was their Strong Deliverer.

*The hymn was sung in Flanders in the trenches by the Welsh soldiers, and it was so melodious that the German soldiers took it up and sang along.

*Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah has been translated into over seventy-five different languages.

*The Welsh to this day sing Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah at outdoor sporting events, especially rugby matches.

*The hymn was sung at Princess Diana’s funeral.

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
[or Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer…]
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield;
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st Thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold:
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer,
Sin, and Satan and the grave,
Sin, and Satan and the grave.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee;
I will ever give to Thee.

Musing on my habitation,
Musing on my heav’nly home,
Fills my soul with holy longings:
Come, my Jesus, quickly come;
Vanity is all I see;
Lord, I long to be with Thee!
Lord, I long to be with Thee!

Sources:
Center for Church Music.
Hymnscript: The Art of Hymns.
Suite 101: Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah

Hymn #29: Be Still, My Soul

Sep19

Original title: Stille, meine Wille, dein Jesus hilft siegen

Lyrics: Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel, 1752. Translated from German to English by Jane Borthwick, 1855.

Music: FINLANDIA by John SIbelius, 1899.

Theme: And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. I Peter 5:10.

From this sermon at the website An Infant in a Cradle:

Be Still, My Soul, (this text and tune) was the favorite hymn of Eric Liddell. He is perhaps most best known for refusing to run on Sunday in the 1924 Olympics (a story made famous in the film, Chariots of Fire). But, later in life, Liddell would become a missionary to China. During World War II, he was captured and imprisoned in a prisoner of war camp, where he would eventually die of a brain tumor.

It was this hymn that he taught to the other prisoners in the camp to provide comfort and hope, to strengthen their faith. In the midst of change and tears, disappointment, grief and fear, Liddell remembered and taught others that the day was coming when all that would be gone, and Jesus Christ would remain forever.

Be still my soul – the Lord is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
leave to thy God to order and provide;
in every change – he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul – thy best thy heavenly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know His voice
Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still my soul – when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened in the vale of tears,
then shalt thou better know his love – his heart,
who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul – the waves and winds still know
his voice who ruled them – while he dwelt below.

Be still my soul the hour is hastening on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment – grief and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot – love’s purest joys restored,.
Be still my soul – when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed – we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy works and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well-pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Hymn #30: Arise, My Soul, Arise

Sep18

Lyrics: Charles Wesley (again)

Music: LENOX by Lewis Edson.
Towner by Daniel Brink Towner.

This tune performed by the acapella group, Glad, isn’t either of the ones above. I don’t know the name of it, but I do like it.

However, my preferred tune to these words is none of the above. I first learned this song at our church, Trinity Fellowship, and the music leaders there are great fans of Twila Paris. Arise, My Soul, Arise is the lead song on Twila’s album Sanctuary. You can listen to a snippet of it by going to her website and clicking on the album cover under “albums”.

Theme: But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.”

Hannah: “a joyful liberation from guilt and sin, into joy and righteousness.”

Hymn Studies: “A song which mentions the fact that we can be born of God is “Arise, My Soul, Arise.” The text was written by Charles Wesley (1707-1788). It first appeared under the title ‘Behold The Man’ in his 1742 Hymns and Sacred Poems.”

Philip Bishop: “I have many favorite hymns, but this Wesley hymn has to be in the ‘Top 10.’ I love the imagery and the progression of thought it expresses.”

1. Arise, my soul, arise,
Shake off thy guilty fears:
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears:
Before the Throne my Surety stands,
Before the Throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on his hands.

2. He ever lives above,
For me to intercede,
His all-redeeming love,
His precious blood to plead;
His blood atoned for ev’ry race,
His blood atoned for ev’ry race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

3. Five bleeding wounds he bears,
Received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers,
They strongly plead for me;
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

4. The Father hears Him pray,
His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away,
The presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

5. My God is reconciled;
His pard’ning voice I hear;
He owns me for his child,
I can no longer fear;
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father!” cry.

Dictionary:
Surety = a person who is legally responsible for the debt, default, or delinquency of another.

Abba = Aramaic for “father”; indicates intimacy; literally “Daddy” or “Papa.”

Effectual= successful in producing a desired or intended result; effective.

Intercede= to intervene on behalf of another.

I think my children’s vocabularies have been expanded because of all the hymns we sing. Do have any examples of words you’ve learned from hymns?

I’m submitting to the Poetry Friday round-up at Becky’s Book Reviews because it’s quite poetic. I love the idea, taken from the verses in Isaiah, that my name is written on His hands.