2011

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God,
To endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downward by thy flood,
And lost in following years.

Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

 

--Isaac Watts--

Best Picture Ever

The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg

 

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

Cicero

The loveliness of God's will

"God's plans and purposes for me, and for you, dear reader, were all made and determined on from the beginning; and as they are worked out day by day in our lives, how wise should we be if, with joyful certainty, we accepted each unfolding of His will as a proof of his faithfulness and love! When once I, as a believer, can say from my heart, 'This is the will of God concerning me', it matters not what the 'this' is - whether it be a small domestic worry or the severance of the dearest earthly ties - the fact that it is His most blessed will, takes all the fierce sting out of the trouble, and leaves it powerless to hurt or hinder the peace of my soul. There is all the difference between the murderous blows of an enemy, and the needful chastisement of a loving father's hand! The Lord may make us sore, but He will bind us up. He may wound, but His hands make whole. How often has the Lord to break a heart before He can enter into it, and fill it with His love; but how precious and fragrant is the balm which, from that very moment, flows out of that heart to others!"

(Susannah Spurgeon, Free Grace and Dying Love, pp. 35-36)

On the wise men

"Sages, leave your contemplations,
Brighter visions beam afar;
Seek the great Desire of nations"

The verses above refer to the three wise men who came to visit Christ as a child, but I think we can all learn a lesson from their example. If three pagan scholars stopped their work and undertook the long journey to Palestine, can't we - professing Christians - set aside time from our work and studies to commune with God?

As usual, Jonathan Edwards has profound insight that sums it up better than I could........

"The excellency of Christ is an object suited to the superior faculties of man, suited to entertain the faculty of reason and understanding; and there is nothing so worthy about which the understanding can be employed as this excellency. No other object is so great, noble, and exalted."

Cruelty

 Wow. The pattern companies have stooped far too low.

You can just see the humiliation on these dogs' faces.

The coolest Halloween costume ever, no?

I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art

I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art,
My only trust and Saviour of my heart,
Who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;
I pray thee from our hearts all cares to take.

Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,
Reigning omnipotent in every place:
So come, O King, and our whole being sway;
Shine on us with the light of thy pure day.

Thou art the life, by which alone we live,
And all our substance and our strength receive;
O comfort us in death's approaching hour,
Strong-hearted then to face it by thy pow'r.

Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,
No harshness hast thou and no bitterness:
Make us to taste the sweet grace found in thee
And ever stay in thy sweet unity.

Our hope is in no other save in thee;
Our faith is built upon thy promise free;
O grant to us such stronger hope and sure
That we can boldly conquer and endure.

Miscellanies

1. I'm not a grammar nerd, but I have been taught to live in horror of the dreaded 'dangling participle.' It made my day when I found the aforesaid grammar error in my grammar textbook:

   "Although her collaborator was deceased, the Nobel Prize Committee promptly excepted its rule and awarded Dr. Yallow the undeniably prestigious Nobel Prize for Medicine."

   Hahahahahhaha. 
2. I was curious, so I counted all the Facebook statuses (stati?) I posted in 2010. The total? The devastatingly huge number of 12. I am so addicted, I know.
3. Apparently there is another Jane Eyre movie coming out in March. It looks slightly incredible. I like how the poster doesn't have the stuffy look most "bonnet dramas" seem to have:

   
4. I read A Midsummer Night's Dream a week or two ago. Boy, the last act is hilarious! Shakespeare isn't as hard as I was afraid he would be. Don't you love those revelations? :-)
5. I did an epic cleaning of my room last week, and I found the beginning of a little story I tried writing when I was in middle school. It's all about the incidents that a group of kids in a tiny church got into. Each character is a thinly disguised version of everyone who was at my own church at the time, and just about everything that went on in the story actually happened. It was pretty awesome reading it and being reminded of the fun times I had back in the day. So there's my commercial in support of cleaning - you never know what you may find. Ha.

Some things never change......

Even though there is in this generation a growing number of professors, a great noise of religion, religious duties in every corner, and preaching in abundance, there is little evidence of the fruit of true mortification. Perhaps we might find that, judging by the principle of mortification, the number of true believers is not as multiplied as it appears from those who have made a mere profession. Some speak and profess a spirituality that far exceeds the former days, but their lives give evidence of a miserable unmortified heart. If vain spending of time, idleness, envy, strife, variations, emulence, wrath, pride, worldliness, selfishness, are the marks of Christians, we have them among us in abundance. May the good Lord send us a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we will be in a sad condition!

 John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

Wives & Daughters - chapters 1-10

Sorry for not posting lately. We were really busy with Thanksgiving and such. If anybody still reads this blog, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! Now, on with this post......

Honestly, I haven't really found too much in Wives and Daughters so far to make up an interesting blog post. Either Gaskell writes pure narrative or I'm bad at analyzing (probably the latter ;-). So sorry if this is a pretty boring first post.

The main character is a 17 year old girl named Molly Gibson, who is the daughter of a semi-brilliant country surgeon; her mother died when she was little. Not surprisingly, Molly & her father are pretty close. Although she has a sort of governess who lives with them, Molly lives in a slightly awkward position - two young interns live in the house to study under Dr. Gibson, and one of them seems to have acquired a fancy for Molly. After intercepting a love letter from the aforesaid smitten intern, Molly's father decides to send his daughter to visit friends for a while.

Molly becomes pretty close with Mr. & Mrs. Hamley, the people she's staying with. They always talk about their two college-age sons, who seem to be exact opposites of each other. The older son, Osborne, is polished, intellectual, and poetic (the family has high hopes for him), while Roger, the younger, is entirely uninterested in book learning, preferring all things natural and scientific. Roger comes home to visit for a while, and he and Molly don't really hit it off.

One day, Molly's father decides to get married again. The intended lady, a widow, has a daughter Molly's age, so you'd think the whole thing is a good idea. However, Mrs. Kirkpatrick sort of seems like a rather selfish, shallow person, and when Dr. Gibson informs Molly of the news, she freaks out. Later on, Roger finds her crying under a tree, and in a gruff sort of way, tries to console her. So I'm thinking that they'll probably become friends despite their initial personality clash.

Like Jane Austen's novels, there's a very clear distinction in Wives and Daughters between the "commoners" and the gentry. You know there will be the inevitable Rich-girl/guy-wants-to-marry-poor-guy/girl-but-snobby-parents-interfere situation. And I find it slightly not cool how suddenly Dr. Gibson decided to re-marry. Although he had been thinking about it for a while, he literally made the decision AND came up with who to marry all while riding over to a client's house. Yikes!

One thing about Victorian literature that always strikes me is the different and odd philosophies to be found in each book. (Alcott is one of the weirdest) Wives and Daughters is not excluded. Here's an excerpt in which Dr. Gibson tells Molly's governess how he would like her education to go:

"Don't teach Molly too much: she must sew, and read, and write, and do her sums; but I want to keep her a child, and if I find more learning desirable for her, I'll see about giving it to her myself. After all, I am not sure that reading or writing is necessary. Many a good woman gets married with only a cross instead of her name; it's rather a diluting of mother-wit, to my fancy; but, however we must yield to the prejudices of society, Miss Eyre, and so you may teach the child to read."

????

But besides these assorted oddities, I find Wives and Daughters to be a pretty good book so far. I like the everyday kind of story, not gothic novels a la Emily Bronte or Ann Radcliffe. The subtitle of Wives and Daughters is "An Everyday Story," so I think we're good to go.

Till next Monday....

I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord

I love thy Kingdom, Lord,
The house of thine abode,
The church our blest Redeemer saved
With his own precious blood.

I love thy church, O God:
Her walls before thee stand,
Dear as the apple of thine eye,
And graven on thy hand.

For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend;
To her my cares and toils be giv'n,
Till toils and cares shall end.

Beyond my highest joy
I prize her heav'nly ways,
Her sweet communion, solemn vows,
Her hymns of love and praise.

Jesus, thou Friend Divine,
Our Saviour and our King,
Thy hand from ev'ry snare and foe
Shall great deliv'rance bring.

Sure as thy truth shall last,
To Zion shall be giv'n
The brightest glories earth can yield,
And brighter bliss of heav'n.

Miscellanies

1. Sorry for the shortage in posting. My computer had a nasty virus that took my dad a while to fix. Usually I'm really paranoid about that kind of a thing....I have no clue how I got it. All you Mac users, no PC hating, please. ;-)

2. This one only Maddie & I will enjoy, so humor me. Then again, how could the title of this article NOT make you want to read it? "20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World."

3. When I was little, I was obsessed with Cinderella. When I say obsessed, I mean it. And you know what is cruel? At that time, my beloved Disney version of the movie was in the "Vault" as they call it, so I was never able to get a VHS of it till I was older. It was the great sorrow of my early childhood. I made up for it by raiding my library of all the different literary versions of the story they had. So today, I found a book on Google Books which has 345 variants of the story! Is that even possible??

4. I sort of love this Monet picture:

Luther's hymn

A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper he amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great;
And armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is he,
Lord Sabaoth his name,
From age to age the same,
And he must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through him who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God's truth abideth still;
His kingdom is for ever.

-----

Happy Reformation Day!

Katherine Parr on holiness

Of the wives of Henry VIII, the only one who I had ever thought of as being remotely connected with the reformation was Anne Boleyn. Well, as it turns out, his final wife, Katherine Parr, became a steadfast member of the movement midway through her reign. One time, she nearly lost her life for her convictions. She wrote two small books: the first, a prayer book called Meditations, and the second, a devotional work full of spiritual insight, titled The Lamentation of a Sinner. I've posted a quote from the latter before, but the book is so good, I have another excerpt to share:

"Charity suffereth long, and is gentle, envieth not, upbraideth no man, casteth frowardly no faults in men's teeth, but referreth all things to God (1 Cor. 13), being angry without sin (Eph. 4:26), reforming others without their slanders, carrying ever a storehouse of mild words to pierce the stony-hearted men. I would that all Christians, like as they have professed Christ, would so endeavor themselves to follow Him in godly living. For we have not put on Christ to live any more to the vanities, delights, and pleasures of the world, and the flesh, suffering the concupiscence and carnality of the flesh to have its full swing: for we must walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh, for the spirit is spiritual, and coveteth spiritual things, and the flesh carnal (Gal. 5:16 ff), and desireth carnal things. The men, regenerate by Christ, despise the world and all the vanities and pleasures thereof."

(The Lamentation of a Sinner, ch. 8)

Wives & Daughters

Elizabeth Gaskell in the year of her marriage

I was so into starting this, I sort of read the first 7 chapters. Oops. I promise to wait till next week to talk about them!

Like many of the famous authors of the 19th century, Gaskell originally published Wives and Daughters in a periodical. Cornhill Magazine was a competitor of Dickens's own All the Year Around, and its first editor was William Makepeace Thakeray of Vanity Fair fame.

I was looking at my edition of Wives and Daughters, and the author blurb said that Elizabeth Gaskell married a Unitarian pastor. In the 1800's novels were frowned upon by most pastors, so it would seem to be an odd match. But the Unitarians, whose outlook on religion was 'Everybody's right!', were more concerned with social issues than deciding whether novels were wholesome or not. I'm curious to see whether traces of Mrs. Gaskell's "theology" will show up in the book.

Also from the cover of my book, it appears as if Darwinism might make an appearance. One of the characters in Wives and Daughters is an avid naturalist, and Gaskell mentions one of his interests being comparative anatomy. If I remember what I learned in biology, comparative anatomy and Darwinism go hand in hand.

Apparently, Gaskell died before she finished the book, so I guess we all get to imagine how it ends. However, the second editor of Cornhill Magazine decided to finish it (presumably to keep the subscribers happy) and the last chapter is written by him. I wonder if he made it all up himself or whether Gaskell left behind notes that he followed? Hmmmmm......

Hahahahaha

This literally JUST fell into our yard:

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it's a pretty tall tree. Good thing it fell where the pool used to be, and not on top of the house! Now to figure out how to get rid of it........

Busy

I take pictures of scenery when I get bored @ my sister's photo shoots

I want to jump in that pile of leaves!

Besides the usual workload of self-inflicted schoolwork, I've been busy with errands, get-togethers, catching up on reading.....pretty much living a life. My dad's been in the hospital on and off since the 10th with a mysterious infection. I can never remember the official name for his disease (something like Non Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis) but because he's on the transplant list, you have to be careful about the slightest fever. So we've been going to and from the hospital pretty often too. All this to say, there isn't much time to be on the computer. Ah well, at least I'm writing now.

Last fall was LAME, so in reaction I've made a mental list of fall-ish things I want to do this year. So far I've

• Gone to a cornmaze
• Gotten mums
• Pressed flowers from the garden (is that really a fall thing? whatever)
• Eaten candy corn
• Walked through/taken pictures of the trees
• Raked leaves
• Been to a bonfire (there wasn't any marshmallow roasting or anything so I don't know if that counts ;-)

All that's left is to get pumpkins and celebrate Reformation Day and Thanksgiving! This October has been unusually warm, so it's been great to enjoy the nice weather longer. I couldn't imagine living somewhere without the four seasons.

If I don't post tomorrow, I'll be back Monday with the first Wives and Daughters post!

The church's one Foundation

The church's one Foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is his new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav'n he came and sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her,
And for her life he died.

Elect from ev'ry nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food.
And to one hope she presses,
With ev'ry grace endued.

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song.

The church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain and cherish
Is with her to the end;
Though there be those that hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against or foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.

'Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till with the vision glorious
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious
Shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union
With the God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with thee.

Wow.

"Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony, Luther's prince, was a man of simple and sincere piety who had devoted a lifetime to making Wittenberg the Rome of Germany as a depository of sacred relics. He had made a journey to all parts of Europe, and diplomatic negotiations were facilitated by an exchange of relics. The king of Denmark, for example, sent him fragments of King Canute and St. Brigitta.

The collection had as its nucleus a genuine thorn from the crown of Christ, certified to have pierced the Savior's brow. Frederick so built up the collection from this inherited treasure that the catalogue illustrated by Lucas Cranach in 1509 listed 5,005 particles, to which were attached indulgences calculated to reduce Purgatory by 1,443 years. The collection included one tooth of St. Jerome, of St. Chrysostom four pieces, of St. Bernard six, and of St. Augustine four; of Our Lady four hairs, three pieces of her cloak, four from her girdle, and seven from the veil sprinkled with the blood of Christ. The relics of Christ included one piece from his swaddling clothes, thirteen from his crib, one wisp of straw, one piece of the gold brought by the Wise Men and three of the myrrh, one strand of Jesus' beard, one of the nails driven into his hands, one piece of bread eaten at the Last Supper, one piece of the stone on which Jesus stood to ascend into heaven, and one twig of Moses' burning bush. By 1520 the collection had mounted to 19,013 holy bones. Those who viewed these relics on the designated day and made the stipulated contributions might receive from the pope indulgences for the reduction of purgatory, either for themselves or others, to the extent of 1,902,202 years and 270 days. These were the treasures made available on the day of All Saints."

(Here I Stand, pp. 51-53)

How do people come up with this stuff????

October

1. I said last week that we'd be starting Wives and Daughters on Monday, but Maddie is taking a break from blogging for a couple weeks, so we're postponing it till the 25th. It works out this way, anyways, because I've been catching up on some stuff and wouldn't have had time to read the chapters.
2. Right now all the trees are brilliant, as you can see in the above photos. Autumn is definitely my favorite season, the only bad thing about it is that it doesn't last longer! I'm trying to enjoy it all while I can.
3. The aforesaid blogging break of Maddie's is part of a no-social-media challenge we at our homeschool co-op agreed to do, as we're reading Do Hard Things together. Well, obviously, I'm still blogging, but we're all refraining from Facebook, email, IM, etc., etc. Facebook is totally overrated in my opinion, but it's still hard to resist the urge to stalk interact with the people I know. Today was the first time I've written an actual letter to someone in a really long time. I've forgotten how fun letters are!
4. Yesterday, I turned 17. Most of the aforesaid homeschool group meets on Tuesday nights for a Bible study, and they totally surprised me with an Italian dinner (my favorite food!) and cupcakes (courtesy of Maddie :-). It was definitely one of those birthdays you don't forget. God has blessed me with great friends.

Luther on studying Free Will

"It is not irreligious, idle, or superfluous, but in the highest degree wholesome and necessary, for a Christian to know whether or not his will has anything to do in matters pertaining to salvation. Indeed, let me tell you, this is the hinge on which our discussion turns, the crucial issue between us; our aim is, simply, to investigate what ability 'free-will' has, in what respect it is the subject of Divine action and how it stands related to the grace of God. If we know nothing of these things, we shall know nothing whatsoever of Christianity, and shall be in worse case than any people on the earth! He who dissents from that statement should acknowledge that he is no Christian; and he who ridicules or derides it should realize that he is the Christian's chief foe. For if I am ignorant of the nature, extent and limits of what I can and must do with reference to God, I shall be equally ignorant and uncertain of what God can and will do in me - though God, in fact, works all in all. Now, if I am ignorant of God's works and power, I am ignorant of God Himself; and if I do not know God, I cannot worship, praise, and give thanks or serve Him, for I do not know how much I should attribute to myself and how much to Him. We need, therefore, to have in mind a clear-cut distinction between God's power and ours, and God's work and ours, if we would live a godly life."

(The Bondage of the Will, p. 78)

2 Announcements

 

The Life of Martin Luther

# 1. Maddie & I have decided on another Junto book - Wives and Daughters. I saw the movie, so I sort of know what happens, although Masterpiece Theater flicks aren't always the most reliable in the true to the book department. It seemed interesting enough, though, so hopefully this will be a fun read. I can't find my brain this week, so I might be off on this one, but I think we're starting next Monday.

# 2. I'm reading The Bondage of the Will right now for school, and every day I get more and more hyped about the Reformation. In fact, I'm so excited, I'm declaring October to be Reformation Month here at Ex Libris. There are SO many good quotes and stories I keep coming across, I can't help but share them all with you! So expect to see random posts each week on the topic. Maybe I'll come up with something especially cool for October 31st. Who knows.

How sweet and awful is the place

How sweet and awful is the place
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores.

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
"Lord, why was I a guest?

"Why was I made to hear thy voice,
And enter while there's room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?"

'Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God,
Constrain the earth to come;
Send thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

We long to see thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May, with one voice and heart and soul,
Sing thy redeeming grace.

(Isaac Watts)

Gotta love art history

I've been reading The Annotated Mona Lisa because I'm doing a little Renaissance history, and found that Michelangelo was quite the character:

"His wit could be cruel, as when he was asked why the ox in another artist's painting was so much more convincing than other elements. 'Every painter,' Michelangelo said, 'does a good self-portrait.'"

NICE. Oh, and then there's this one about Leonardo da Vinci:

"He died at the age of 67 in France, where he had been summoned by Francis I for the sole duty of conversing with the king."

That's an original job. Now, I know plenty of people I'd pay not to talk........

Great God of Wonders

Great God of wonders! all thy ways
Are worthy of thyself divine;
And the bright glories of thy grace
Among thine other wonders shine:
Who is a pardoning God like thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

Pardon from an offended God!
Pardon for sins of deepest dye!
Pardon bestowed through Jesus' blood!
Pardon that brings the rebel nigh!
Who is a pardoning God like thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

O may this glorious, matchless love,
This God-like miracle of grace,
Teach mortal tongues, like those above,
To raise this song of lofty praise:
Who is a pardoning God like thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free?

Autumn

Thou comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain,
With banners, by great gales incessant fanned,
Brighter than brightest silks of Samarcand,
And stately oxen harnessed to thy wain!
Thou standest, like imperial Charlemagne,
Upon thy bridge of gold; thy royal hand
Outstretched with benedictions o'er the land,
Blessing the farms through all thy vast domain!
Thy shield is the red harvest moon, suspended
So long beneath the heaven's o'er-hanging eaves;
Thy steps are by the farmer's prayers attended;
Like flames upon an altar shine the sheaves;
And, following thee, in thy ovation splendid,
Thine almoner, the wind, scatters the golden leaves!

Longfellow

Makes me laugh every time...

Mr. F's Aunt

"The major characteristics discoverable by the stranger in Mr F.’s Aunt, were extreme severity and grim taciturnity; sometimes interrupted by a propensity to offer remarks in a deep warning voice, which, being totally uncalled for by anything said by anybody, and traceable to no association of ideas, confounded and terrified the Mind. Mr F.’s Aunt may have thrown in these observations on some system of her own, and it may have been ingenious, or even subtle: but the key to it was wanted. The neatly-served and well-cooked dinner (for everything about the Patriarchal household promoted quiet digestion) began with some soup, some fried soles, a butter-boat of shrimp sauce, and a dish of potatoes. The conversation still turned on the receipt of rents. Mr F.’s Aunt, after regarding the company for ten minutes with a malevolent gaze, delivered the following fearful remark:

‘When we lived at Henley, Barnes’s gander was stole by tinkers.’ 

Mr Pancks courageously nodded his head and said, ‘All right, ma’am.’ But the effect of this mysterious communication upon Clennam was absolutely to frighten him."

- Little Dorrit, chapter 13

Foolishness to the gentiles....

I was looking inside my Omnibus III book, as I know all of you do, and I came across a discussion question that was asked:

"Since the rise of Christianity, one of the great tensions in Western culture has been framed as 'faith v. reason.' How do faith and reason fit together?"

Especially after I was exposed to the philosophers when I started high school, that dilemma has been on my mind pretty often. There's a lot in the Bible that makes sense to anyone who thinks about it long enough, but when you get to doctrines like Christ's Incarnation or Resurrection, the only way we can possibly accept it is through faith.

When reading church history, one thing I've noticed is how often people try to resolve the dilemma. The church fathers spent much of their time reconciling Platonism with New Testament doctrines. Later on in Medieval Europe, Scholasticism, with its most famous adherent, Thomas Aquinas, picked up where our Ancient forefathers left off, producing several different hermeneutical techniques (whether they were good or not, well, that's another post ;-) which clearly show the influence of philosophy. When the Reformation came around, Protestant scholars like Luther or Calvin often used the sophisticated rules of logic to aid their Biblical studies. And likely the most recognizable to us today, the liberals of the 19th and 20th centuries often compromised such doctrines as 6-Day Creation and the Virgin Birth in order to make the Bible fit neatly into their scientific theories.

With all that in mind, I think of one of my favorite parts of the Bible, Acts 17. Here, Faith (Paul) and Reason (the Greeks) meet. I find Paul's approach to witnessing to the very-philosophical Gentiles interesting. Instead of completely dismissing reason and philosophy, he uses both to argue his case. That isn't to say that he embraced their philosophies himself, but it does show that we can arrive at truths taught in the Bible simply by thinking rationally about things around us, i.e. the depravity of man, the basic moral law, etc.

But where reason falls short is when you try to explain why man is fallen or prove that Christ is God. If we were able to explain away every difficulty in the Bible, there would be no place for faith. "But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

In the end, it appears that reason is best used when it is the servant of faith. Nothing should dissuade us of what we believe is taught in the Bible. But when witnessing, teaching, or studying, reason helps  us arrive at conclusions or forcefully present an argument. In church history, when orthodox Christianity is embraced, intellectual pursuits don't diminish, but flourish. Take a look at all the books written in the Reformation, Puritan era, Great Awakening, etc. On the other hand, when a culture abandons Christ, things go downhill. Ever heard of Postmodernism, anyone?

Randomness

My delphinium earlier this summer. I love that plant.

1. So today I was going on my merry way down the freeway, when all the sudden, this person forgot that when you merge, you don't have the right of way. After forcing me out of my lane and nearly creating the worst car accident in world history, the aforesaid driver proceeded to swear/display ungenteel hand signals/etc at yours truly. Now you're probably thinking I'd better get a life/toughen up for making such a big deal about the fiasco, well maybe you're right, but the story gets rather funny. Before I got off the freeway, we saw up ahead that the driver took the same exit as we normally do. As it turns out, they ended up driving down the very street we live on.
   I've never stalked somebody before (really, I haven't), but we had a pretty good time guessing what that driver was thinking as they probably thought that's what I was doing. As they turned down a side street near my house, I was quite tempted to go drive through my neighborhood looking for any black SUV's parked in driveways, but I decided against it. It'd be slightly awkward if they recognized me. :-)
2. I remember mentioning that I planned to post more on here as I could count it as writing assignments for school. Well, the topics I came up with are incredibly boring, even for this blog. How exactly do you make an explanation for why the Renaissance started in Italy engaging? Anyways, speaking of posting on here, Maddie & I were collaborating about possible Junto books, and I think a decision will be anounced soon. (Because I know all 4 of my readers are dying to know)
3. Right now my family is watching some movie where a doll comes to life and goes around killing people. Did the writers REALLY think we'd find it believable that this little toy could inflict that much damage? Besides, aren't there other movies with similar cheesy, rabid dolls? They always have stupid women, uncannily smart four year olds, and dolls that appear to die by burning in the end, but later return in sequals. (Ok, now this movie is reminding me of Terminator) LAME. Why is my family still watching this?
4. Lately the weather has become very fall-ish. The days are clear and windy, the temperatures are cooler, and the leaves are changing. September is one of the best months in Wisconsin, if you ask me. I think it's high time for a corn maze and bonfire. I remember one corn maze we went to that was shaped like the logo of the Green Bay Packers. I know, I know.........
5. Food for thought, a la Jonathan Edwards (I love this theologian): "Religion, in its purity, is not so much a pursuit as a temper; or rather it is a temper, leading to the pursuit of all that is high and holy. Its foundation is faith; its action, works; its temper, holiness; its aim, obedience to God in improvement of self, and benevolence to men."

Consistency of character

Harvey Newcomb:

The beauty of the Christian character greatly depends on its symmetrical proportions. A person may be very zealous in some things, and yet quite defective in his Christian character; and the probability is, that he has no more religion than shows itself in its consistent proportions. The new energy imparted by the regenerating grace of God may unite itself with the strong points of his character, and produce a very prominent development; while, in regard to those traits of character which are naturally weak, in his constitutional temperament, grace may be scarcely perceptible. For instance, a person who is naturally bold and resolute will be remarkable, when converted, for his moral courage; while, perhaps, he may be very deficient in meekness. And the one who is naturally weak and irresolute will, perhaps, be remarkable for the mild virtues, but very deficient in strength and energy of character. The error lies in cultivating, almost exclusively, those Christian graces which fall in with our prominent traits of character. We should rather bend our energies, by the grace of God, chiefly to the development of those points of character which are naturally weak, while we discipline, repress, and bring under control, those which are too prominent. This will prevent deformity, and promote a uniform consistency of character.

(The Young Lady's Guide, pp. 79-80)

First day of school

Even after I started homeschooling, the first day of school has always frighteningly exciting for me. Don't ask why...

This summer, we worked on fixing up this oddly-shaped room in our house, previously an office, and I'm using it this year as my "study" for schoolwork. My grandmother's old desk in our back porch and a bookcase from IKEA have been appropriated by yours truly for school purposes. ;-) That, with a window looking out to the front garden & street (you know, so that you can spy on neighbors unwind during 5 minute breaks) makes the room a very pleasant place in which to spend 8 hours of the day. In fact, I was so excited about it, I took a picture of it all nice and clean before I started school this morning:

I'm still incredibly embarassed about that list of 24 books I made out last year......this year's is 15. And since I know you're dying to see what's on it, here ya go -

• Erasmus, The Praise of Folly
• Machiavelli, The Prince
• Luther, The Bondage of the Will
• 2 Shakespeare plays (Hamlet & A Midsummer Night's Dream)
• More, Utopia
• Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation
• Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
• Milton, Paradise Lost
• Swift, Gulliver's Travels
• Edwards, A Narrative of the Surprising Work of God
• Voltaire, Candide
• Paine, Common Sense
• Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
• The Autobiography of Ben Franklin 

So right now I'm reading The Praise of Folly, Erasmus's satire on the foolishness of the ostentatious scholars/rulers/clergy of his day. Well, knowing that Erasmus wrote it, I was quite petrified to read it. You know, it's just going to be a bunch of illegible Renaissance Humanism. As it turns out, however,  it's actually very funny! There were several times today that I laughed out loud (I have a total weakness for dry, sarcastic humor). Need proof?

[Folly is speaking] "In general I think I show a good deal more discretion than the general run of gentry and scholars, whose distorted sense of modesty leads them to make a practice of bribing some sycophantic speaker or babbling poet hired for a fee so that they can listen to him praising their merits, purely fictitious though these are. The bashful listener spreads his tail-feathers like a peacock and carries his head high, while the brazen flatterer rates this worthless individual with the gods and sets him up as the perfect model of all the virtues - though the man himself knows he is nowhere near that; "infinity doubled" would not be too far away." (p. 11)

The "infinity doubled" phrase did me in. Please tell me you laughed too. :-)

All in all, I pronounce this to be a very good first day of school. Let's hope the rest of the year is half as enjoyable.

Travelling, ect.

Last week I was in Illinois with my mom for a conference and this week I'll be up north visiting relatives. Therefore the lack of posting around here. It'll be a nice way to relax before school starts again. (What happened to this summer?)

At the conference, we heard Susan Wise Bauer speak, and she mentioned that highschoolers ought to do 2 essay/papers/some-type-of-assignment-that-has-an-opinion a week, so maybe I'll make one a blog post. A desperate attempt to keep blogging, I know. There's weeks where you're on a roll, full of ideas to write about, and there's others where you feel totally uninspired. I guess the only way to remedy that is to keep practicing writing.

Speaking of school, this year I'm studying Renaissance-Enlightenment history/great books/etc. Totally excited. The Renaissance/Reformation era is one of my favorites. Yes, the former was full of humanism and earthly-mindedness, but without it, the latter couldn't have survived. One of the things I soon began to appreciate when we started homeschooling was how we studied secular and church history simultaneously. (i.e., the King Ahasuerus whom Esther married was quite possibly the Xerxes who was involved in the Greek-Persian Wars)

Anyways, I hope to get some nice pictures while I'm gone (I got a new camera!), so if any are good, maybe I'll post some when I get back.

To close, wisdom from my favorite author:

Accustom yourselves to holy thoughts. Serious meditation represents everything in its true color. It shows the evil of sin, and the luster of grace. By holy thoughts, the head grows clearer and the heart better: "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto your testimonies" (Psalm 119:59). If men would step aside a little out of the noise and hurry of business, and spend only half-an-hour every day thinking about their souls and eternity, it would produce a wonderful alteration in them! (Thomas Watson)

Isaiah 52:7-10

How lovely on the mountains
         Are the feet of him who brings good news,
         Who announces peace
         And brings good news of happiness,
         Who announces salvation,
         And says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

    Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices,
         They shout joyfully together;
         For they will see with their own eyes
         When the LORD restores Zion.

    Break forth, shout joyfully together,
         You waste places of Jerusalem;
         For the LORD has comforted His people,
         He has redeemed Jerusalem.

    The LORD has bared His holy arm
         In the sight of all the nations,
         That all the ends of the earth may see
         The salvation of our God. 

What must it have been like to be an Old Testament member of God's church? These verses make me wonder how it must have been to be waiting in anticipation for the coming Messiah. We today seem to take the Incarnation for granted. It'd be interesting to have been there when Christ's disciples finally figured out that not only had the Messiah come, but He was God. It's downright stunning that God would become one of us and take the punishment we deserved for offending Him.

"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God....."

1 John 3:1

Convicting.

We have not known thee as we ought,
Nor learned thy wisdom, grace and pow'r;
The things of earth have filled our thought,
And trifles of the passing hour.
Lord, give us light thy truth to see,
And make us wise in knowing thee.

We have not feared thee as we ought,
Nor bowed beneath thine awful eye,
Nor guarded deed, and word, and thought,
Remembering that God was nigh.
Lord, give us faith to know thee near,
And grant the grace of holy fear.

We have not loved thee as we ought,
Nor cared that we are loved by thee;
Thy presence we have coldly sought,
And feebly longed thy face to see.
Lord, give a pure and loving heart
To feel and own the love thou art.

We have not served thee as we ought;
Alas! the duties left undone,
The work with little fervor wrought,
The battles lost, or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal, and give the might,
For thee to toil, for thee to fight.

When shall we know thee as we ought,
And fear, and love, and serve aright!
When shall we, out of trial brought,
Be perfect in the land of light!
Lord, may we day by day prepare
To see thy face, and serve thee there.

(Thomas Pollock)

On Antinomianism

The Missal by John Waterhouse

Katherine Parr:

Only speaking of the Gospel makes not men good Christians, but good talkers, except [when] their facts and works agree with the same: so then their speech is good because their hearts are good. And even as much talk of the word of God, without practicing the same in our living, is evil and detestible in the sight of God, so it is a lamentable thing to hear how there are many in the world that do not well digest the reading of scripture, and do commend and praise ignorance, and say that much knowledge of God's word is the original of all dissension, schisms, and contention, and makes men haughty, proud, and presumptuous by reading of the same.

This manner of saying is no less than a plain blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. For the Spirit of God is the author of his word, and so the Holy Ghost is made the author of evil, which is a most great blasphemy and (as the scripture saith) "a sin that shall not be forgiven in this world, neither in the other to come" [Matt. 12:32]. It were all our parts and duties to procure and seek all the ways and means possible, to have more knowledge of God's word set forth abroad in the world, and not allow ignorance, and discommend knowledge of God's word, stopping the mouths of the unlearned with subtle and crafty persuasions of philosophy and sophistry, whereof comes no fruit, but a great perturbation of mind to the simple and ignorant, not knowing which way to turn them. For how is it not extreme wickedness to charge the holy, sanctified word of God with the offenses of man? To allege the scriptures to be perilous learning, because certain readers thereof fall into heresies?

(The Lamentation of a Sinner, chapter 10)

No doubt Katherine Parr had the Catholics of her day in mind as she wrote the above words, but they still stand relevant today. Sins have a nasty habit of recurring through the years: In the Middle Ages, the Roman church discouraged laymen from reading the Bible, asserting that only the allegedly well-trained clergy was capable of reading it correctly; today, Evangelicalism is infiltrated with the belief that "doctrine divides."

Summer Miscellanies

1. A few days ago, I discovered the new stats tab on my blogger dashboard. Whoa, is it fun. In the past month, my brilliant blog had somewhere around 40 page views. And half were me. I know, TRAFFIC OVERLOAD.....
   There's 2 nice things about having an unread blog: a. You don't have to worry about what everyone thinks of what you say, and b. having a popularity complex is a problem you won't be dealing with for a while.....
2. It's very difficult to get algae out of swimming pools.
3. Maddie was over at my house on Saturday, and being the nerdy duo that we are, we went to Half Price Books. There, I spotted a couple of sets of books put out by one of the coolest publishers in the whole entire world. Every single book of theirs is a work of art. So are their prices. Ah well.
4. The best summer project, a la Jonathan Edwards: "Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before."
5. Ok, only nerds like me will appreciate this one. The other day I came across an article about a painting I've often seen of Ophelia from Hamlet. Apparently, a lady found the exact location of the setting the artist painted. Wow.

Dante's Inferno

Through me the way to the infernal city,

Through me the way to eternal sadness,

Through me the way to the lost people.

Justice moved my supreme maker,

I was shaped by divine power,

By highest wisdom, and by primal love.

Before me, nothing was created

That is not eternal, and eternally I endure.

Abandon all hope, you that enter here.

(Canto 3, lines 1-9)

Imagine yourself wandering, lost, in a creepy forest and suddenly you happen upon Virgil, who takes you to a gateway that has these words hanging over it. Sound like a fun tourist trap? Ehhhh.....

Botticelli's chart of Hell

Despite it's ominous first section, The Inferno quickly engaged my interest. I mean, who isn't fascinated by delightful things like demons pecking victims immersed in pitch or heretics entombed in blazing sarcophagi? Yeah, no one, I know. All joking profundity aside, I've often noticed that we humans have an interest in morbidity. Just like the Romans who flooded the Colosseum for the gladiator games and the medieval peasants enthralled by burning heretics, we modern, post-enlightenment, liberated-from-superstition people are still drawn to it. Ever noticed how popular horror flicks or ghost stories are?

The layout of Dante's hell makes the book a masterpiece in and of itself. The entire time I was reading The Inferno, I kept asking myself, "How did this guy come up with this stuff?!" According to the book, Hell is divided into two main sections and three types of sins - Upper Hell  (the sins of incontinence or lack of self control) and Nether Hell (the sins of violence and fraud).

In Upper Hell are found those characterized by lust, gluttony, stinginess & extravagance, and wrath. In case you were wondering, no, the punishments here aren't that creative. However, it does contain my favorite: the misers and the spendthrifts, who have been strategically placed in the same circle, are their  own punishment. All day long they bicker about the spending of eachother's money (or lack thereof) and throw stones at one another. Brilliant, Dante, brilliant.

The sins of violence come right after the aforesaid circle of the heretics and the people found there aren't quite what you would think of as particularly violent. There's the obvious murderers and suicides, but then there's those who are destructive towards God and the order He designed for His creation - profligates, usurers, blasphemers, etc. By far, however, the largest section of Hell is the sins of fraud. Dante includes a wide range of sins here, including flatterers, hypocrites, sorcerers, thieves, liars, and counselors of fraud.

When I got to the end of the story, I got a major case of heebie jeebies. In the last layer stands a gigantic Satan, whose three heads continually tear up the three most heinous traitors to their lords: Brutus, Cassius, and (dum dum dum!) Judas. Virgil and Dante end up having to climb down Satan's hairy body to get out of Hell. YEESH.

As Dante was a medieval Catholic, most people, as did myself, assume that his book is full of Catholicism. While it definitely is present, the more prominent force is Greek philosophy. For example, Dante got his inspiration for the organization of Hell from Aristotle, whose book on ethics laid out which sins were more destructive than others. Also, it's important to understand that the book is an allegory, like Pilgrim's Progress, and the punishments therin are images of how pernicious sin is in our lives. (Dante wasn't so concieted as to believe that he knew how the otherworld is set up :-) The biggest problem I had with Dante's assessment of which sin is worse than the other is in the beginning. In the first (and least serious) layer he places The Futile - those who knew about Christ but never did anything about it. The Bible clearly states that the sin of unbelief is one of the worst you can commit.

Overall, though, this book is definitely one of my favorites. It made me think. Although I'm unquestionably not a poetic type of person, I have a weekness for epics, and this is hands down one of the best. But I probably wouldn't have appreciated it as much if I didn't read the edition I did - Dorothy Sayers' translation was fun to read (it rhymed!) and her notes brought to my attention many things I never would have noticed. I highly reccomend it!

Dear blog, I haven't forgotten you...

....summer projects have been taking up my time. For the past 2 weeks or so we've been completely re-doing a back room in our house and it's finally starting to shape up. {Nota Bene - don't ever assume wallpaper simply glides off drywall. Reality is quite the opposite.....}

Dolce far Niente by John Waterhouse

I've been meaning to post more about The Warden but it's been difficult to get to. As this is the case, I think I'll just finish the book and post about it when I'm done. Is it just this book or do Anthony Trollope's stories have really sloooowww beginnings? I heard he and Dickens were similar writers, but so far, they seem incredibly different. Dickens usually grabs my attention right away.

Since summer's here, I've made a list of books I'd like to try reading before school starts up again. The Lord of the Rings, The Twelve Caesars, Five Cities That Ruled the World, Living for God's Glory, and Anne Dutton's Autobiography are some that I'm really excited about. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off!

I hope yours is a relaxing summer!

The Warden? Oh yeah.....

I don't even remember when I said I was going to start reading this book.....maybe it's better that way. Boy am I pathetic. Oh well. I'm not too far into The Warden yet, but I was starting to stress out over how lazy I am on here so 2 chapters is better than nothing, right?

So far, the characters don't seem to be as brilliant as those in Bronte or Dickens. Maybe Villette has me addicted to 1st person narratives.

Anyways, so far, the character that stands out to me most is Dr. Grantly. Who is Dr. Grantly? Well, allow me to give you a short family run down of the main character - Septimus Harding. Mr. Harding, a widower, has 2 daughters - the elder is maried and the much younger one still at home. One of Mr. Harding's best friends is the bishop of the diocese, and the bishop's son, Dr. Grantly, is married to Mr. Harding's daughter. Dr. Grantly, that worthy man, is an archdeacon  in the Anglican church and his is an awe-inspiring, conservative, puritanical personality. The people of the town almost live in fear of him. But when he's at home with his wife, he miraculously reverts to being a normal person! It is his wife alone who seems to know his opinions, fears, observations, etc. To everyone else, he is rigid and cold. That dual personality cracks me up!

The aforesaid Septimus Harding is almost the opposite of Dr. Grantly. Everyone loves him - he's warm and friendly, chatty, and open minded. Simple things are what please him most, and he is especially fond of music. He's in charge of a charity hospital (it's really more like a senior home) which houses 12 elderly men. This institution was founded back in the middle ages and as time has gone by, it's become a very valuable bit of property. Mr. Harding, however, is generous and even lowerd his personal salary in order to give more to his men in Hiram's Hospital.

As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Harding's younger daughter, Eleanor, still lives at home. But maybe not for long. In the town, Barchester,  there is a young surgeon named John Bold, who admires Eleanor. As he is a friend of her father, John Bold often comes to visit them in the evening. Dr. Grantly, however, doesn't entirely approve of the match - John Bold is a zealous, progressive reformist.

Tension rises when Bold's new cause is a matter of how the funds are being spent at Hiram's Hospital. He shocks several in town when he comes to inquire after the Hospital's accounting. Dr. Grantly is scandalized and Mr. Harding is hurt. And I have no clue what happens next.

This quest for the holy grail, i.e. the truth of how the hospital is run, looks like it's the main conflict in the story. John Bold's eagerness for reform brings up a good question - which causes are worth our time campaigning for? There's an organization for everything from drinking milk to self-esteem to recycling to being nice to our pets. And which should we concern ourselves with? As Christians, our primary focus should be God's glory and advancing His kingdom. That cause will be here till the end of the earth, and whole lifetimes can be and are filled by doing so. It's so easy to become sidetracked by secular causes and forget about serving in the church, evangelism, discipleship, etc. 

So, where is the balance between the sacred and the mundane? I have two humble ideas. First, (obviously) we should take care that we never involve ourselves in something that would be contrary to what God says in His Word. Second, activities that could potentially point others to Christ seem to be better choices than others. For example, volunteering at a pregnancy center or supporting a child in a third world country might open doors to evangelism, whereas promoting ethanol usage is sort of a dead end. I'm not saying you should never do the latter kind of thing (the last thing I want to do is be legalistic!), but the former seems to have so much more potential for good you can do others.

Well, my mind has blessedly run out of things to say, so, until next week, adieu!

On the importance of miracles in the Gospels

Gresham Machen:

"It may certainly be admitted that if the New Testament narrative had no miracles in it, it would be far easier to believe. The more commonplace a story is, the easier it is to accept it as true. But commonplace narratives have little value. The New Testament without any narratives would be far easier to believe. But the trouble is, it would not be worth believing. Without the miracles the New Testament would contain an account of a holy man - not a perfect man, it is true, for He was led to make lofty claims to which He had no right - but a man at least far holier than the rest of men. But of what benefit would such a man, and the death of which marked His failure, be to us? The loftier be the example which Jesus set, the greater becomes our sorrow at our failure to attain to it; and the greater our hopelessness under the burden of sin. The sage of Nazareth may satisfy those who have never faced the problem of evil in their own lives; but to talk about an ideal to those who are under the thralldom of sin is a cruel mockery. Yet if Jesus was merely a man like the rest of men, then an ideal is all we have in Him. Far more is needed by a sinful world. It is small comfort to be told that there was goodness in the world, when what we need is goodness triumphant over over sin. But goodness triumphant over sin involves an entrance of the creative power of God, and that creative power of God is manifested by the miracles. Without the miracles, the New Testament might be easier to believe. But the thing that would be believed would be entirely different from that which presents itself to us now. Without the miracles, we should have a teacher; with the miracles we have a Savior."

(Christianity & Liberalism, pp. 103-104)

Hither and thither

John Waterhouse, A Grecian Flower Market

1. I recently finished reading The Rule of St. Benedict. Whooaaaaaaa. I'm so glad I'm Protestant. Those monasteries are something else, let me tell ya. For instance, there was a no talking rule. Even if you had guests or a hoity toity bishop or something there, you'd be in deep yogurt* for speaking to them. (Obviously, these monasteries are for men....women wouldn't survive for 5 minutes with no chit chat) Also, you had to go to prayer services around 7 times a day. That meant waking up in the middle of the night. Yeesh. Usually I'm a pretty laid back person, but let me tell you, if I have a bad night's sleep, watch out! Yeah, so I'd never make it there.
2. For all those who like the game Monopoly, you'll like it even more after reading this article. Surprising, huh?
3. The school year's coming to a close. Remember when I mentioned in September that I made the mother of all reading lists? Well, that mamoth number of 24 books has now been whittled down to 15. Funny how that happens. What was I thinking? [shaking head]
4. I love the paintings done by John Waterhouse. It's probably because his subjects are mostly of  legends or the myths of my beloved Classical world. Ahhh. Do any of my 3 readers have a favorite painter?
5. Charles Spurgeon had a great morning devotional for today.

*"deep yogurt" is a phrase easily recognized by anyone who's taken an IEW course. Mr. Pudewa is awesome.

The Road to Emmaus

"Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. And He said to them, "What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?" And they stood still, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, "Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?" And He said to them, "What things?" And they said to Him, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. "But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. "Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see." And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?" And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, "The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon." They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread."

 Luke 24:13-35

My litterary hall of shame....or....The books I wish I didn't bother reading

THIS COULD BE YOU

In no particular order:

1. The Mysteries of Udolpho. Ok, well, I'm sort of glad I read this one, because I kept hearing about it in Jane Austen and such. But boy, was this one a doozy. The character line-up includes a flighty heroine, a hero who eerily resembles John Willoughby in Sense & Sensibility, an aunt perpetually having a bad day, and the evil Count Montoni (he was really mean). It also boasts one of the sappiest plots ever. In parts where Mrs. Radcliffe intended for me to cry, I usually ended up laughing like a madwoman.
2. Wuthering Heights. Perhaps one of my 3 readers has already noticed my disdain for this book. Cathy has too much of an attitude for me to sympathize with her, Heathcliff must be mad, and what is with the cousin marriage at the end? {shiver} Besides that, the tone of the book is so dreary that you feel depressed after each time you read it. And don't get me started on the plot...
3. The Inheritance (Louisa May Alcott). This one makes Udolpho look serious. Also, if you've read Little Women, this would most definitely be the book Jo wrote. Features include archaic language complete with "thee" and "thou" usage and a predictable plot. Its one of the rare occasions when the movie is better than the book.
4. Messenger. Lois Lowry is too out there. Unless you like books that don't make sense and end bleakly with conclusions that make you scratch your head.
5. Gilgamesh. The ancient Sumerians had strange, strange minds. Nuff said.

I would have included Twilight here, but as I haven't had the horror of reading the series, I didn't think it'd be fair to include a book I haven't read. :D

Rutherford's Hymn

The sands of time are sinking,
The dawn of heaven breaks,
The summer morn I've sighed for,
The fair sweet morn awakes;
Dark, dark, hath been the midnight,
But dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's land.

The King there in his beauty
Without a veil is seen;
It were a well-spent journey
Though seven deaths lay between:
The Lamb with his fair army
Doth on Mount Zion stand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's land.

O Christ, he is the fountain,
The deep sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I've tasted
More deep I'll drink above:
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's land.

The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear bridegroom's face;
I will not gaze at glory,
But on my King of grace;
Not at the crown he gifteth,
But on his pierced hand:
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Emmanuel's land.

Primavera

On three unrelated notes...

1. Sorry about falling off the face of the blogosphere. In the past few weeks I was busy planning a surprise party for Callie (which turned out great!), racing to try to end the school year well, helping out with errands and such while tax season plagued my mom, and then there was the death of an old friend of the family. So next week, I'll try to return to my regularly unscheduled blogging. I promise to write a Junto post. :D
2. Do you ever associate books (particularly fiction) with seasons? With spring here, all I can think about is Robin Hood. Summer would get The Odyssey and Fall, Persuasion. Not sure about winter.....anything depressing I guess (Wuthering Heights?).
3. This has me almost as giddy as a 12 year old girl who's won tickets to a Justin Bieber concert. I can't wait till it comes out!