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)