Poets often see things as they are before the "general public" - you and me. Their insight into faith matters needs to be considered, and perhaps could serve as a wakeup call.
Recent Entries
Making Sense Of It AllJanuary 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
Suffering Saints
January 25, 2012
We get nervous thinking about it - suffering for the sake of Christ. How necessary is it, and what does it produce in us?
George Herbert on Prayer Meetings
January 21, 2012
Prayer Meetings are a thing of the past. Or so it seems. What has been lost? Maybe more than we realize.
When Fear Is Good
January 7, 2012
NO FEAR, we are told. And the point is well taken. But fear can be healthy, at least when it comes to eternal matters.
Happy, Happy, Happy
January 4, 2012
The declaration of independence holds up the pursuit of happiness as a right. Did you ever consider the reading the bible might be the one source that will never let you down?
The Twelve Signs Of Grace
December 22, 2011
Self-examination is not easy to do. The tendency is to let ourselves off easy. But examine we must, for eternity is at stake.
"Ouch!!"
July 22, 2011
Spiritual pride is hard to detect. Jonathan Edwards gives some tips. The process can be painful, but necessary.
Choices Have Consequences
January 1, 2010
This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.' Jeremiah 6:16
Thomas Hardy, the English poet perhaps best known for his novels, considered poetry his first love. He had early exposure to the church of England, and then was influenced by the Baptists, choosing to reject both influences. But as you will see in his poem GOD'S FUNERAL, he laments the loss of God, with an unmistakable tinge of regret and fear.
God is now for Hardy the....
Mangled.....Monarch of our fashioning,
Who quavered, sank; and now has ceased to be.
So, now that we have "gotten rid" of God, what do we do?
'And who or what shall fill his place?
Whither will wanderers turn distracted eyes
For some fixed star to stimulate their pace
Towards the goal of their enterprise?'...
Hardy get it - there is no longer any fixed center. Everything is up for grabs.
Some in the background then I saw,
Sweet women, youths, men, all incredulous,
Who chimed as one: 'This is figure is of straw,
This requiem mockery! Still he lives to us!'
Is this a reference to believers who hold to a risen Christ, against all odds, in every age?
I could not prop their faith: and yet
Many I had known: with all I sympathized;
And though struck speechless, I did not forget
That what was mourned for, I, too, once had prized.
Still, how to bear such loss I deemed
The insistent question for each animate mind.....
Hardy refuses to gloss over a culture that chooses to live as though there were no God.
And gazing, to my growing sight there seemed
A pale yet positive gleam low down behind.....
Hope springs eternal. "It's not so bad," says the crowd. "We'll be allright. You'll see."
Whereof, to lift the general night,
A certain few who stood aloof had said,
'See you upon the horizon that small light --
Swelling somewhat?' Each mourner shook his head.
This world needs light. And so alternative sources are sought after. The search is ongoing to find something to hold on to.
And they composed a crowd of whom
Some were right good, and many nigh the best....
Thus dazed and puzzled 'twixt the gleam and gloom
Mechanically I followed with the rest.
Hardy is unable to fight the gravitational pull of the spirit of the age. He gives in without putting up much of a fight.
Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways and in the ancient paths. They made them walk in bypaths and on roads not built up. Jeremiah 18:15
