“Determination”, by Edgar Guest

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My poem of the week this week is another selection from Edgar Guest. My boys are to recite it this morning.

“Determination”

I’ll see it through, whate’er the danger be.
One death is all that God assigns to me.
I’ll stand erect against the odds and shout:
“I may be whipped, but will not turn about!”

I will not play the coward! Fail I may,
But at the post of duty I will stay.
Nor dread of loss, nor fear of being hurt,
Nor softening pride shall tempt me to desert.

I’ll play the man! What if the way seems long?
I will not whimper that all care is wrong.
Blunder I may, but none shall ever cry
I died a failure, since I would not try.

-from Life’s Highway, by Edgar A. Guest (Chicago: The Reilly and Lee Co., 1933), 28

Here is a link to several of Guest’s works at Amazon

“Give me the heart of a Man!”

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My poem of the week this week is one my oldest son found a few months ago when I gave them a few books of poetry and required them to find one they would read and explain for all of us the following day. After reading it aloud for us he suggested it would be a useful one to have memorized. So today is the day for each of them to recite it from memory.

I want my boys to learn dogged determination and perseverance and this poem captures that well.

Battle Cry 

More than half beaten, but fearless,
Facing the storm and the night;
Breathless and reeling but tearless,
Here in the lull of the fight,
I who bow not but before thee,
God of the fighting Clan,
Lifting my fists, I implore Thee,
Give me the heart of a Man!

What though I live with the winners
Or perish with those who fall?
Only the cowards are sinners,
Fighting the fight is all.
Strong is my foe–he advances!
Snapt is my blade, O Lord!
See the proud banners and lances!
Oh, spare me this stub of a sword!

Give me no pity, nor spare me;
Calm not the wrath of my Foe.
See where he beckons to dare me!
Bleeding, half beaten–I go.
Not for the glory of winning,
Not for the fear of the night;
Shunning the battle is sinning–
Oh, spare me the heart to fight!

Red is the mist about me;
Deep is the wound in my side;
“Coward” thou criest to flout me?
O terrible Foe, thou hast lied!
Here with my battle before me,
God of the fighting Clan,
Grant that the woman who bore me
Suffered to suckle a Man!

by John Gneisenau Neihardt

The Hobbit & The Psalms

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My boys and I really enjoyed the recent Hobbit movie. We expected to enjoy it with adventure, fun characters, nobility, courage, perseverance, loyalty- what’s not to like? But I found myself captivated by a certain scene in a way I did not expect. And later I discovered it captivated my boys as well. I am referring to the scene with the song of the dwarves.

I was taken with the robust singing of male voices and the sense that this was a song of a people, one that had been passed down and which told their story, where they had been and where they were going. In singing this song the dwarves reminded themselves of their identity and embraced it anew. They also steeled themselves for their difficult task as the song called them to their duty. The song placed their lives in continuity with the past, calling them to play their part in the history of their people. The song reminded them of a kingdom lost and their duty to reclaim it. I was mesmerized. We bought the soundtrack, and as I listened to it I found myself thinking, “I wish my family had a song like this.”

Then it hit me- We do have songs like this. Not the Van Nestes, not even TN nor the US (though we have national songs as well), but the church. The church has songs which have been passed down through the generations which tell of our past, victories & defeats, which remind us of our identity & remind us of our task and where we are going. These songs are the Psalms. The Psalms retell the history of our people, the people of God, and remind us of the kingdom that was lost due to a dragon’s destruction. They remind us of our role in obedience to the true King who has come and will return to destroy the dragon and re-establish his kingdom. In singing these songs we steel ourselves for the difficult road ahead, and we reaffirm our identity as God’s people as we take up the songs of our forefathers. With these songs we also internalize these truths and shape our characters so that we might be faithful and honor our King.

Let us sing!

Courage, by Edgar Guest

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My poem of the week this week comes from Edgar Guest, a favorite of mine. I had my sons memorize this one last week and recite it this morning. There is much helpful here.

Courage

This is courage: to remain
Brave and patient under pain;
Cool and calm and firm to stay
In the presence of dismay;
Not to flinch when foes attack,
Even though you’re beaten back;
Still to cling to what is right,
When the wrong possesses might.

This is courage: to be true
To the best men see in you;
To remember, tempest-tossed,
Not to whimper, “All is lost!”
But to battle to the end
While you still have strength to spend;
Not to cry that hope is gone
While you’ve life to carry on.

This is courage: to endure
Hurt and loss you cannot cure;
Patiently and undismayed,
Facing life still unafraid;
Glad to live and glad to take
Bravely for your children’s sake,
Burdens they would have to bear
If you fled and ceased to care.
-from Life’s Highway, by Edgar A. Guest (Chicago: The Reilly and Lee Co., 1933), 36

“Read, Pray, Sing” Update

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We are now just about a week away from our conference, “Read, Pray, Sing: The Psalms as an Entryway to the Scriptures”, and things are coming together. There is still some space to get in on the special offers for the first 100 registrants:

a free copy of B&H’s bible software, WORDSearch,

and a free copy of one of the following books:

Forgotten Songs: Reclaiming the Psalms for Christian Worship, ed. Wells & Van Neste

The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying & Praising with the Psalms, Gordon Wenham

Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Prayers from the Psalms: From the Scottish Psalter of 1595, ed. David Calhoun

We are especially grateful to the generous donations from B&H Academic and Crossway Books.

 

Also, we have just updated the conference website so that it includes the titles for the plenary addresses as well as titles and summaries for all the breakout sessions. Our plenary addresses will be:

Andy Davis – “The Sufferings of Christ and the Subsequent Glories in the Psalms”

Heath Thomas – “God, Israel, and the Nations: Praising God and His Salvation in Psalm 117”

 

Then the titles for the breakout sessions are as follows:

Andy Davis — “The Bible Comes to Life: How Scripture Memory Transforms One’s Life”
Heath Thomas — “The Magnificent 7: Seven Ways of Reading (or Misreading) Scripture”

Kevin Chen – “God as a Poet: The Poetry of the Psalms”

Mark Dubis – “Ancient Backgrounds in Bible Study” 
George Guthrie – “Hearing the Psalms: Reading with Head and Heart”
Paul Jackson – “Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees”
Harry Lee Poe – “C.S. Lewis on the Psalms”
Ray Van Neste – “Singing & Praying the Psalms at Home”
Scott Winter (B&H Academic)- “Inductive Bible Study using WORDsearch Bible Software”

 

Come join us!

“The Story of the Cross”

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My poem of the week has been Edward Monro’s “The Story of the Cross.” I discovered this poem reading Anthony Esolen’s recent column at Touchstone Magazine. I appreciated the meditation on Jesus’ cross work, enhanced by Esolen’s comments,  and hope you will as well.

In His own raiment clad, with His blood dyed;
Women walk sorrowing by His side.
Heavy that cross to Him, weary the weight;
One who will help Him waits at the gate.

See! they are traveling on the same road;
Simon is sharing with Him the load.
O whither wandering bear they that tree?
He who first carries it, who is He?

Follow to Calvary; tread where He trod,
He who for ever was Son of God.
You who would love Him stand, gaze at His face:
Tarry a while on your earthy race.

As the swift moments fly, through the blest week,
Read the great story the cross will teach.
Is there no beauty to you who pass by,
In that lone figure which marks that sky?

On the cross lifted Thy face we scan,
Bearing that cross for us, Son of Man.
Thorns form Thy diadem, rough wood Thy throne;
For us Thy blood is shed, us alone.

No pillow under Thee to rest Thy head;
Only the splintered cross is Thy bed.
Nails pierced Thy hands and feet, Thy side the spear;
No voice is nigh to say help is near.

Shadows of midnight fall, though it is day:
Thy friends and kinsfolk stand far away.
Loud is Thy bitter cry; sunk on Thy breast
Hangeth Thy bleeding head without rest.

Loud scoffs the dying thief, who mocks at Thee;
Can it, my Savior, be all for me?
Gazing, afar from Thee, silent and lone,
Stand those few weepers Thou callest Thine own.

I see Thy title, Lord, inscribed above;
Jesus of Nazareth, King of Love.
What, O my Savior, here didst Thou see,
Which made Thee suffer and die for me?

“Child of My grief and pain, watched by My love;
I came to call thee to realms above.
I saw thee wandering far off from Me:
In love I seek for Thee; do not flee.

For thee My blood I shed, for thee alone;
I came to purchase thee, for Mine own.
Weep thou not for My grief, child of My love:
Strive to be with Me in Heaven above.

O I will follow Thee, Star of my soul,
Through the deep shades of life to the goal.
Yea, let Thy cross be borne each day by me;
Mind not how heavy, if but with Thee.

Lord, if Thou only wilt, make us Thine own,
Give no companion, save Thee alone.
Grant through each day of life to stand by Thee;
With Thee, when morning breaks, ever to be.

By Edward Monro, in A Supplement to Hymns Used in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Leeds (Leeds, England: E. W. Sharp, 1864).

God the Evangelist

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“let us mark first of all when the Gospel is preached to us that it is just as if God reached out his hand (as he says by the prophet Isaiah, Isa. 65:2) and said to us, “Come to me.”  It is a matter which ought to touch us to the quick, when we see that God comes to seek us, and does not wait until we come to him, but shows that he is ready to be made at one with us, although we were his daily enemies. He seeks nothing but to wipe out all our faults and make us partakers of the salvation that was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ.  And thus we see how worthily we have to esteem the Gospel, and what a treasure it is”

– John Calvin preaching on 1 Timothy 2

New at The Children’s Hour

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I have recently posted several new reviews at my blog on children’s books, The Children’s Hour. I have a positive review of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic, The Lost World, which is a fun read with some good lessons to mine. I was quite disappointed with the final installment in Alister McGrath’s children’s trilogy, Darkness Shall Fall. I also have a positive review of a valuable book titled Child Identity Theft: What Every Parent Needs to Know. Lastly, I have posted a couple of quotes from Reformers on family life which I found helpful- Luther and Calvin talking about the importance of training our children in the knowledge of God.

Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?

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Re-reading J. I. Packer’s Knowing God I came back across this hymn by Charles Wesley which I have chosen for this week’s poem of the week. Wesley wrote this hymn right after coming to faith expressing his joy in conversion. It is a marvelous expression of the wonder of being redeemed.

Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire,
How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great Deliverer’s praise?

O how shall I the goodness tell,
Father, which Thou to me hast showed?
That I, a child of wrath and hell,
I should be called a child of God,
Should know, should feel my sins forgiven,
Blessed with this antepast of Heaven!

And shall I slight my Father’s love?
Or basely fear His gifts to own?
Unmindful of His favors prove?
Shall I, the hallowed cross to shun,
Refuse His righteousness to impart,
By hiding it within my heart?

No! though the ancient dragon rage,
And call forth all his host to war,
Though earth’s self-righteous sons engage
Them and their god alike I dare;
Jesus, the sinner’s friend, proclaim;
Jesus, to sinners still the same.

Outcasts of men, to you I call,
Harlots, and publicans, and thieves!
He spreads His arms to embrace you all;
Sinners alone His grace receives;
No need of Him the righteous have;
He came the lost to seek and save.

Come, O my guilty brethren, come,
Groaning beneath your load of sin,
His bleeding heart shall make you room,
His open side shall take you in;
He calls you now, invites you home;
Come, O my guilty brethren, come!

For you the purple current flowed
In pardons from His wounded side,
Languished for you the eternal God,
For you the Prince of glory died:
Believe, and all your sin’s forgiven;
Only believe, and yours is Heaven!

The Apocrypha, Lutheran Edition

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For school I recently read through most of the Apocrypha with my boys, and I used the new, The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes(ESV) recently published by Concordia Publishing House. My boys had the standard Oxford Annotated Apocrypha (RSV). It was a great experience simply reading through this literature with them, and I greatly appreciated this new edition.

The great benefit of this Lutheran edition is the wonderful introductory matter, study notes and other guiding matter. Each book is introduced with basic information as well as quotations from Martin Luther on the book’s oddities and value. Luther’s comments (as usual) were often humorous and very helpful. He pointed out well the problems in any book, but noted the value as well. This edition also has a nice overview of the historical setting of the Apocrypha, the time between the testaments, an era often unknown to many in church. Lastly, ten appendices give an overview of other historical material from this time including Josephus, Philo, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic literature, Nag Hammadi Codices and others.

This is a very nice study resource which helps in gaining awareness of the world into which Jesus emerged in his ministry.