Sunday Reading

 Today's essay: Heaven, A World of Love by Jonathan Edwards 

This is a sermon I try to read every year, but I missed last year. I highly recommend it. It is a beautiful meditation of heaven and the perfected church, perfectly loving Christ and each other.

Poem: 

Divine Order 

by Horatius Bonar

'Tis first the true and then the beautiful,--

    Not first the beautiful and then the true;

  First the wild moor, with rock and reed and pool,

    Then the gay garden, rich in scent and hue.

  'Tis first the good and then the beautiful,--

    Not first the beautiful and then the good;

  First the rough seed, sown in the rougher soil,

    Then the flower-blossom, or the branching wood.

  Not first the glad and then the sorrowful,--

    But first the sorrowful, and then the glad;

  Tears for a day,--for earth of tears is full,

    Then we forget that we were ever sad.

  Not first the bright, and after that the dark,--

    But first the dark, and after that the bright;

  First the thick cloud, and then the rainbow's arc,

    First the dark grave, then resurrection-light.

  'Tis first the night,--stern night of storm and war,--

    Long nights of heavy clouds and veiled skies;

  Then the far sparkle of the Morning-star,

    That bids the saints awake and dawn arise.

▪︎                  ▪︎

"Thee, God, I come from, to Thee I go"

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Thee, God, I come from, to thee go,           

All day long I like fountain flow    

From thy hand out, swayed about  

Mote-like in thy mighty glow.  

What I know of thee I bless,      

As acknowledging thy stress        

On my being and as seeing  

Something of thy holiness.   

Once I turned from thee and hid,     

Bound on what thou hadst forbid;       

Sow the wind I would; I sinned:

I repent of what I did.     

 

Bad I am, but yet thy child.   

Father, be thou reconciled.      

Spare thou me, since I see               

With thy might that thou art mild.   

I have life before me still 

And thy purpose to fulfil;  

Yea a debt to pay thee yet:   

Help me, sir, and so I will.           

But thou bidst, and just thou art,      

Me shew mercy from my heart         

Towards my brother, every other   

Man my mate and counterpart.