Far From My Thoughts

THIS LINK contains a recording of Emily Creel leading Westford (“Far from my thoughts, vain world begone”) at the Rusk County Singing Convention. In addition to the thoughts of the hymn and its meaning, I also have pleasant memories of our friendLeon Ballinger leading this song.

The words are by Isaac Watts, and remind us of our delight in worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ – generally, in church, and in singings. Watts originally called it “The enjoyment of Christ; or, Delight in worship.” Daniel Read used three stanzas of it with his tune Westford. There are three more stanzas not used with the tune, which I print below the three that go with it. May this wonderful song always serve as a reminder to us that when we sing, we are delighting in worship!

1. Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone!
Let my religious hours alone:
Fain would mine eyes my Saviour see;
I wait a visit, Lord, from thee.

2. My heart grows warm with holy fire,
And kindles with a pure desire;
Come, my dear Jesus! from above,
And feed my soul with heavenly love.

3. Blest Jesus, what delicious fare!
How sweet thine entertainments are?
Never did angels taste, above,
Redeeming grace and dying love.

The trees of life immortal stand,
In flourishing rows, at thy right hand,
And in sweet murmurs, by their side,
Rivers of bliss perpetual glide.

Haste then, but with a smiling face,
And spread the table of thy grace;
Bring down a taste of fruit divine,
And cheer my heart with sacred wine.

Hail, great Immanuel, all divine,
In thee thy Father’s glories shine;
Thou brightest, sweetest, fairest One,
That eyes have seen or angels known.

The above hymn is Hymn 15 in Book Two of Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1707). Watts also has a “Part the second” with six more stanzas on the topic. It is Hymn 16.

7. Lord, what a heaven of saving grace,
Shines through the beauties of thy face,
And lights our passions to a flame!
Lord, how we love thy charming Name!

8. When I can say, my God is mine,
When I can feel thy glories shine,
I tread the world beneath my feet,
And all that earth calls good or great.

9. While such a scene of sacred joys
Our raptured eyes and souls imploys,
Here we could sit, and gaze away
A long, an everlasting day.

10. Well, we shall quickly pass the night
To the fair coasts of perfect light;
Then shall our joyful senses rove
O’er the dear object of our love.

11. There shall we drink full draughts of bliss,
And pluck new life from heavenly trees:
Yet now, and then, dear Lord, bestow
A drop of heaven on worms below.

12. Send comforts down from thy right hand,
While we pass through this barren land,
And in thy temple let us see
A glimpse of love, a glimpse of thee.

Missions and Anti-Missions

Some people will not allow themselves to believe there is a distinction between being for preaching the gospel and starting churches (missions) and being against mission boards and mission societies. This Southern Baptist pastor studied Daniel Parker and recognized the difference. He concluded:

“When Daniel Parker died on December 3, 1844, after ten years in Texas, he had successfully demonstrated that his opposition was directed not against missions but against the mission society.” 

“Daniel Parker: Politician, Baptist, and Anti-Mission Missionary,” Max Lee (Pastor, First BC, Winnsboro, LA). The Journal of Texas Baptist History, Volume VI, 1986, William L. Pitts, Editor. Texas Baptist Historical Society, p. 8

A traveling church

Another church on the move

Excerpt from “Baptists of Denton County to Hold Golden Jubilee Celebration,”

Denton Record-Chronicle, Wednesday, May 27, 1936, page 2

A Next-World Bible

“Modern inerrantist evangelicals such as myself should adjust our expectations about the preservation of Scripture to what God actually did with the text of the Hebrew Bible rather than insisting on a level of jot-and-title perfection that God seems to have reserved for the next world.”

The comment above is by Mark Ward and is found in The Authority of the Septuagint (p. 181). What a strange view! It relegates the perfection of a trustworthy Bible to two times that it does no good for most Christians and churches; when it was hot off the press, so to speak, and when we all get to heaven. For now, we just have to make do with not knowing which words in the Bible are correct.

While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
Flaws oft overspread the Bible;
But when studying days are over,
Not an error, all perfect type!

When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we have jot-and-tittle perfection
We’ll have the perfect Bible that we need!

Nah, I think I will keep my expectations for the high standard of God preserving his word, even if I do not have all the answers.

Cottonpickin’ hands

Do not assume you know the conclusion if you do not read the entire post.

The extent of folks rewriting history and “playing the race card” has become a wearisome but regular part of “politics as usual.” When everything is about race, eventually nothing is about race. Enter a discussion between radio host Rich Herrera and Virginia Representative Jen Kiggans about U. S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries inserting himself into a state of Virginia problem. Hakeem Jeffries lives in New York and represents New York in the U. S. House of Representatives. Herrara suggested that if Jeffries wants to be involved in Virigina politics, he should move to Virginia and run for office. He continued, “If not, get your cottonpickin’ hands off of Virginia.” Kiggans agreed with this sentiment.[i]

The condemnation was swift and brutal, with Democrats asserting that Jen Kiggans should “apologize and resign” – for something she did not even say. Elaine Luria sang a high harmony part, claiming, “The racist comments proudly endorsed today by Jen Kiggans warning House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to ‘Get your cotton-picking hands off of Virginia’ are disgusting and beneath any elected official. I grew up in the South. I know what these racist dog whistles mean.” I did a little checking. Reperesentative Luria did grow up in the South, but that doesn’t make her any kind of expert on this subject. Her age, where she lived, that she attended a private school – and the content of what she said – makes me initially think that she does not know anything about picking cotton (or probably farming in general).

Unfortunately, Kiggans partly bought the lie. After complaining about the Democrats divisive tactics, she said, “The radio host should not have used that language and I do not — and did not — condone it. It was obvious to anyone listening that I was agreeing Hakeem Jeffries should stay out of Virginia.”

There is nothing wrong with “cottonpickin’ hands” and nothing specifically racist about the term “cottonpickin’ hands.” In the particular context, this is political theatre. If there are any racists likely involved – the real racists are the ones who apply their own prejudice in assuming that only black Americans picked cotton.

I expect the people who are most “enraged” by this actually know nothing about picking cotton (and probably could care less). Cotton was the “cash crop” of our Rusk County community. The children of all farming families picked cotton. “Cotton-pickin’ hands” was a common expression.[ii] It had nothing to do with the color of the person whose hands were picking cotton. The origin relies on the state of what the hands looked like after a day of picking cotton (often dirty, cut, and bleeding). It was a common rebuke for children. We were told, “Get your cottonpickin hands out of that,” or “Keep your cottonpickin hands off of that.” This is not to say that no one might or could use it with a racist connotation, but simply to acknowledge the fact that it is not inherently racist. Even if you believe the origins were racist – which requires accepting that prejudice that only black Americans picked cotton – it is still a silly accusation, like claiming the atheist who just told you good-bye has just turned into a theist because the origin of “good-bye” is “God be with you.”

Politicians are gonna politic, and I don’t suppose there is any cure for that! For Christians, I think we can “one another” from two directions.

• On the one hand, don’t “make a man an offender for a word” (Isaiah 29:21). If someone does not mean something offensive, don’t take it as or make it offensive.[iii]
• On the other hand, if a thing that is innocuous and allowable “make my brother to offend” (1 Corinthians 8:13), we can choose to leave it off as a matter of liberty.[iv]

Provoked partisan politicians should not be our examples. Brothers and sisters in Christ working together in love on the two suggestions above will likely come out alright in the end.

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[i] And so do I. There is far too much outside meddling in the internal politics and policies of states. And it is not just a Democrat problem. Republicans do it too. Additionally, heating this up as a race issue exposes the weak overall position of the opposers of the Virginia Supreme Court ruling.
[ii] “Picking cotton” (as opposed to pulling the bolls) consisted of picking the cotton out of the boll as opposed to pulling the boll off the plant, with sharp hard edges often scraping and cutting the picker’s hands and fingers. “Cottonpickin hands” usually developed some calluses over time. In explaining the terminology, Michael Schwarz wrote, “The slang adjective ‘cottonpickin’ means ‘damned’ or ‘confounded.’ No sane person in 2026 believes that it has anything to do with the enslaved people who harvested the cash crop of the antebellum South.” I think Schwarz makes two mistakes. First, in seeming to accept that only enslaved people picked cotton in the antebellum South. Second, in relying solely on Dictionary.com for his definition. As someone who grew up regularly hearing the expression, and accepting that it is a euphemism, I do not think people necessarily meant “damned” or “confounded.” Probably more often it was considered an intensifier of dirty or defiled. Another colloquial saying derived from cotton-picking culture is “fair to middling” – a quality grading of cotton (middling being the average). This became a general expression for something that was average, sort of okay but not that great – and also for how a person feels. Another more general farm colloquialism meaning roughly the same as “cotton-pickin’ hands” is “pea-pickin hands.”
[iii] “Just because you are offended doesn’t mean that you’ve been wronged,” Keith Foskey
[iv] In this, I mean things that we are at liberty to do or not do (such as eating meat, in the context of 1 Corinthians 8). When it comes to obeying God, we must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29) – regardless of who might be offended. Let us carefully judge our motives in all things.

Honour thy father and thy mother

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

Jehovah God, in Exodus 20:12

“Even if your parents share values and views and a world view you do not have, you are biblically obligated to honour them; which means to spend time with them and to love on them, and to go visit them.

“You will cease to have a strong country, America, if we do not have kids honouring their parents.

“The closer that you stay with your parents, even though you have disagreements, the better you will be and your nation will be.” 

Charlie Kirk

The sinner

The following is Hymn XXXVIII in Hymns, &c. Composed on Various Subjects, by Joseph Hart (London: J. Everingham, 1759, pp. 54-56). The hymn does not have a title, but is preceded by a verse of scripture.

This is a faithful Saying, and worthy of all Acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners... 1 Tim. i. 15.

1. When Adam by transgression fell,
And conscious, fled his Maker’s face,
Linked in clandestine league with hell,
He ruined all his future race:
The seeds of evil once brought in,
Increased; and filled the world with sin.

2. This lurking leaven ferments the mass.
All nature’s sick; creation’s spoiled;
Each sin-infected sire, alas!
Begets the sin-infected child.
Thus propagation spreads the curse:
And man, born bad, grows worse and worse.

3. But lo! the second Adam came,
The serpent’s subtle head to bruise;
He cancels his malicious claim,
And disappoints his devilish views;
Ransoms poor prisoners with his blood,
And brings the sinner back to God.

4. To understand these terms aright,
This grand distinction should be known:
Though all are sinners in God’s sight,
There are but few so in their own.
To such as these our Lord was sent;
They’re only sinners, who repent.

5. What comfort can a Saviour bring
To those who never felt their woe?
A sinner is a sacred thing;
The Holy Ghost has made him so.
New life from him we must receive,
Before for sin we rightly grieve.

6. Let the self-righteous hence beware,
Lest he this great salvation scorn.
Let every careless soul take care;
For they that laugh shall one day mourn.
High-flying lights, learn hence to stoop;
Dry knowledge only puffs men up.

7. This faithful saying let us own,
(Well worthy ’tis to be believed)
That Christ into the world came down,
That sinners might by him be saved.
Sinners are high in his esteem,
And sinners highly value him.

Joseph Hart (1712-1768) was a teacher, an independent evangelical minister, and a hymn writer. Hart is well-known is some circles, but not that well known among English-speaking Christians in general. In the spring of 1759, he published 119 “hymns, etc.” in his book Hymns, &c. Composed on Various Subjects. This work included “a Preface, containing a Brief Account of the Author’s Experience, and the Great Things that God hath done for his Soul.” His hymns are full of grace, passion, and Christian experience. A few of Hart’s hymns have achieved general acceptance; his most popular is likely that which begins “Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick and sore.” Most of Hart’s hymns are reprinted in William Gadsby’s A Selection of Hymns for Public Worship (this hymn is #89). Peter C. Rae has an article on “Joseph Hart and His Hymns” in the Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology.

Joseph Hart died at age 56, on May 24, 1768, and was buried in the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground in London.

I have not seen this hymn printed in a book with music. I suggest two tunes with the L.P.M. metrical pattern, from the The Sacred Harp 2012 Cooper Edition: Vernon (416b) by Amzi Chapin and Edwards (197) by H. S. Woodard.[i]

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[i] Vernon is a variant or arrangement of Farewell Hymn by Jeremiah Ingalls (The Christian Harmony, 1805). Henry Stephen “Steave” Woodard (1861-1945) was born in South Carolina, but lived most of his life in southeast Alabama. He wrote or arranged Edwards for the 1902 revision of The Sacred Harp by W. M. Cooper.

Some people want to serve, and other quotes

The posting of quotes of human authors does not constitute agreement with either the quotes or their sources. (I try to confirm the sources that I give, but may miss on occasion; please verify if possible.)

“Some people want to serve God part-time, but want to be blessed full-time.” -- James Bell, Jr.

“The locks of Scripture are only to be opened with the keys of Scripture.” -- Charles Spurgeon

“A prayer doesn’t have to be long, as long as it is strong.” -- Amos L. Horton

“Jonah disobeyed God and ended up in a whale. Peter obeyed God and ended up in a jail.” -- Amos L. Horton

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” -- Thomas Paine

“If you can’t see spiritually, you can’t pray properly.” (Cf. 2 Kings 6:15-17) -- Mike Matlock

“Time makes more converts than reason.” -- Thomas Paine

“You can’t out-preach your character.” -- Amos L. Horton

“Through the blood of Christ, you can get over what the Devil puts you under.” -- Joe Arthur

“Does your church submit to the Bible, or does your church expect the Bible to submit to them?” -- Keith Foskey

“For as the sun darts its beams upon a dunghill, and yet is no way defiled by it; so God decrees the permission of sin...yet is not the author of sin.” -- Thomas Boston

“Our hope is anchored in the past, because Jesus rose; our hope is guaranteed in the present, because Jesus lives; and our hope is assured for the future, because Jesus is coming.” -- Alistair Begg