John 15.12-17

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another.

Friends with God. What an incredible thing.

History thesis update #2: Wherein I don't want Bunyan to feel left out

I continue writing. It's been going at a snail's pace, but the end is in sight.....down to the last four pages. Yesterday was a Keach party, and tonight it's Bunyan. I just read through his "Apology" for Pilgrim's Progress for the first time (an embarrassing confession made even more so by the fact that it's less than 240 lines long), and I absolutely loved his concluding stanza. It's both a shameless plug for his own novel and also a daydreamy tribute to the pleasures of reading literature in a Christian context. Leaving it here for further enjoyment.

 This Book is writ in such a Dialect   
As may the minds of listless men affect:
It seems a novelty, and yet contains   
Nothing but sound and honest Gospel strains.   
  Would’st thou divert thyself from Melancholy?   
Would’st thou be pleasant, yet be far from folly?   
Would’st thou read Riddles, and their Explanation?
Or else be drowned in thy Contemplation?   
Dost thou love picking meat? Or would’st thou see   
A man i’ th’ Clouds, and hear him speak to thee?   
Would’st thou be in a Dream, and yet not sleep?   
Or would’st thou in a moment laugh and weep?
Wouldest thou lose thyself, and catch no harm,   
And find thyself again without a charm?   
Would’st read thyself, and read thou know’st not what,   
And yet know whether thou art blest or not,   
By reading the same lines? O then come hither,
And lay my Book, thy Head, and Heart together.

Uncanny research

So, for my history thesis, I'm tracing the connection between the prominence of metaphors in (Reformed) Baptist theology and the seventeenth century Baptists' involvement in the rise of the novel in England. John Bunyan, I'm looking at you. Anyways, researching this topic, which I might add is a wild goose chase because apparently nobody else has thought to write about Baptist literature, has led me to the figure of Benjamin Keach, otherwise known as the Reformed Baptist star of the late 1600's. He casually helped write the 1689 in addition to scandalizing everyone by saying we should sing hymns (in addition to psalms) in worship. He also had a crazy son, whose story will never cease to entertain me. You just can't make some of this stuff up.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you've just met someone, and after five minutes of talking, you realize you have everything in common? I'm kind of going through this with Keach. Not so much biographically, because, well, I'm not a male pastor-theologian from the 17th century. It's more that his collected works basically deal with all the big things I'm interested in studying: literature as a means of discussing theology, typology, covenant theology, poetry & worship.....I could go on, but I think that conveys the general idea. It's slightly weird to come across someone born 350 years before you who seems to have been on the same wavelength. Like you're playing a game of chess, and they're always one step ahead of you, but you're actually both on the same side anyways. He is now on my list of people I wish I could have a dinner party with. But since I can't have that any time soon, I kind of just want to go read everything he's written. You know, basic stuff.

The struggle is real. But really, it actually is, because I'm supposed to be writing my thesis right now, and I'm procrastinating by blogging. So the struggle is really real, and, well, you can see how that's going. 15 days before I walk....not that I'm counting or anything.