A people named "Sue"

Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard has filed suit against the federal government for failing to properly monitor her captor, Phillip Garrido, who was on parole.

A West Palm Beach, Florida couple was awarded $4.5 million in a “wrongful birth” law suit. They claimed certina medical professionals were negligent, not finding or telling them that their child had no arms and only one leg. They say if they would have known they would have aborted the baby. They found a 6-person jury who agreed with them.

And the latest, three people in Bastrop County, TX are suing (s l o w d o w n and read c a r e f u l l y) Bluebonnet Electric because dead tree limbs fell on their power lines and started the raging wildfire in the area.

Our world has gone lawsuit crazy. In the first case, of Jaycee Dugard, I can feel sympathy. If only... But still the suit shifts the blame from where it really lies -- Phillip Garrido and his wife -- to someone who probably has deeper pockets. In the second case, the newly wealthy couple accepts no responsibility for the baby THEY created and shifts the blame to the medical profession. Perhaps folks who gave birth 50 or 60 years can find someone to sue because there weren't any sonograms/ultrasounds/whatever available to them at the time. (And we should not fail to notice that the couple intended to use the information to commit murder). And Bastrop County, in Texas no less, the power company is now responsible for what used to be called "acts of God". I suppose the lawyer couldn't figure out how to sue God!! Why not try -- all the gold and silver is His and the cattle on a thousand hills.

3 hymns

Months, days and hours shall pass away
Blending in one eternal day.
The Christian's hope shall be his store
When time shall be no more.
R. L. Vaughn, 2011
____________________

Psalm 102:3. 25-28. Third Part
Man's mortality and Christ's eternity; or,
Saints die, but Christ and the church live.

It is the Lord our Saviour's hand
Weakens our strength amidst the race;
Disease and death at his command
Arrest us, and cut short our days.

Spare us, O Lord, aloud we pray,
Nor let our sun go down at noon:
Thy years are one eternal day,
And must thy children die so soon?

Yet in the midst of death and grief
This thought our sorrow shall assuage,
"Our Father and our Saviour live;
"Christ is the same thro' every age."

'Twas he this earth's foundation laid;
Heaven is the building of his hand:
This earth grows old, these heavens shall fade,
And all be chang'd at his command.

The starry curtains of the sky
Like garments shall be laid aside;
But still thy throne stands firm and high;
Thy church for ever must abide.

Before thy face thy church shall live,
And on thy throne thy children reign;
This dying world shall they survive,
And the dead saints be rais'd again.
By Isaac Watts
____________________

How charming is the place
Where my Redeemer God
Unveils the beauties of His face,
And sheds His love abroad.

Not the fair palaces
To which the great resort,
Are once to be compared with this,
Where Jesus holds His court.

Here, on the mercy seat,
With radiant glory crowned,
Our joyful eyes behold Him sit,
And smile on all around.

To Him their prayers and cries
Each humble soul presents:
He listens to their broken sighs,
And grants them all their wants.

To them His sovereign will
He graciously imparts;
And in return accepts, with smiles,
The tribute of their hearts.

Give me, O Lord, a place
Within Thy blest abode,
Among the children of Thy grace,
The servants of my God.
1787 by Samuel Stennett

The narrow way, by Cowper

The narrow way.

What thousands never knew the road!
What thousands hate it when 'tis known!
None but the chosen tribes of God,
Will seek or choose it for their own.

A thousand ways in ruin end,
One, only, leads to joys on high;
By that my willing steps ascend,
Pleased with a journey to the sky.

No more I ask, or hope to find,
Delight or happiness below;
Sorrow may well possess the mind
That feeds where thorns and thistles grow.

The joy that fades is not for me,
I seek immortal joys above;
There, glory without end, shall be
The bright reward of faith and love.

Cleave to the world ye sordid worms,
Contented lick your native dust;
But God shall fight, with all his storms,
Against the idol of your trust.

William Cowper (1731-1800)
Olney Hymns, 1779

Huh?

We live in a world so intolerant that we can't even have the Ten Commandments on student book-covers, all the while wondering why they lie and cheat and steal and rape and kill.

Go figure.

Daniel Read complains, gets even

I enjoyed and was amused by these honest thoughts of Daniel Read.

"It is not only ungenerous but unjust to publish the works of any author without his consent.---Irritated beyond measure at the unprovoked robbery committed upon the American Singing Book by the Editor of the Worcester Collection and having no redress but by retaliation there being then no law in existance to prevent such abuses I availed myself of that opportunity to publish some peices from the Worcester Collection to which I had no right." -- Excerpt from a 1793 letter from Daniel Read to Jacob French, as printed in Music in the USA: a documentary companion, Judith Tick, editor, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 74)

The Wal-Mart of Lumber

It struck me while hunting for something in Lowe's that they are the "Wal-Mart" of lumber.

(This is not complimentary to Lowe's or Wal-Mart.)

Psalm 27, Watts

PSALM 27 PART 2 v.8,9,13,14
C. M.
Prayer and hope.

Soon as I heard my Father say,
"Ye children, seek my grace,"
My heart replied without delay,
"I'll seek my Father's face."

Let not thy face be hid from me,
Nor frown my soul away;
God of my life, I fly to thee
In a distressing day.

Should friends and kindred near and dear
Leave me to want or die,
My God would make my life his care,
And all my need supply.

My fainting flesh had died with grief
Had not my soul believed,
To see thy grace provide relief;
Nor was my hope deceived.

Wait on the Lord, ye trembling saints,
And keep your courage up;
He'll raise your spirit when it faints,
And far exceed your hope.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
The Psalms of David, 1719