Search After Happiness

I found the following in some old files, which I apparently wrote in June of 2020.

The Search After Happiness

The following hymn is an excerpt from A Search After Happiness: A Pastoral in Three Dialogues, written by “A Young Lady” (Hannah More), in 1762/1773.[1] In the second edition, the title was changed to The Search After Happiness: A Pastoral Drama, and this portion of the poem was expanded to seven 4-line stanzas.[2] The poem/hymn as used in The Sacred Harp and other shape-note books has some word changes, and only six stanzas (the third stanza is not used).

In later printings, the “Preface” explains the purpose of the “Pastoral Drama”:

The object of the following Poem, which was written in very early youth, was an earnest wish to furnish a substitute for the very improper custom, which then prevailed, of allowing plays, and those not always of the purest kind, to be acted by young Ladies in boarding schools. And it has afforded a serious satisfaction to the Author to learn that this little Poem, and likewise the Sacred Dramas, have very frequently been adopted to supply the place of those more dangerous amusements. If it may be still happily instrumental in promoting a regard to Religion and Virtue in the minds of young persons, and afford them an innocent, and perhaps not altogether unuseful, amusement in the exercise of recitation, the end for which it was originally composed, and the author’s utmost wish in its re-publication, will be fully answered.

In the drama this portion is sung by the character Florella, a young shepherdess.

1. While beauty and youth are in their full prime,
And folly and fashion affect our whole time;
O let not the phantom our wishes engage,
Let us live so in youth that we blush not in age.
 
2. The vain and the young may attend us a while,
But let not their flattery our prudence beguile;
Let us covet those charms that shall never decay
Nor listen to all that deceivers can say.
 
3. I sigh not for beauty, nor languish for wealth,
But grant me, kind Providence, virtue and health;
Then richer than kings, and far happier than they,
My days shall pass swiftly and sweetly away.
 
4. For when age steals on me, and youth is no more,
And the moralist Time shakes his glass at my door,
What pleasure in beauty or wealth can I find?
My beauty, my wealth, is a sweet peace of mind.
 
5. That peace! I’ll preserve it as pure as ’twas given
Shall last in my bosom an earnest of heaven;
For Virtue and Wisdom can warm the cold scene,
And sixty can flourish as gay as sixteen.
 
6. And when I the burden of life shall have borne,
And death with his sickle shall cut the ripe corn,
Reascend to my God without murmur or sigh,
I’ll bless the kind summons, and lie down and die.

The third stanza that Florella sings is:

How the tints of the rose, and the jess’mine’s perfume,[3]
The eglantine’s fragrance, the lilac’s gay bloom,
Tho’ fair and tho’ fragrant, unheeded may lie,
For that neither is sweet when Florella is by.

This is the stanza not used in songbooks. The other six stanzas are used with the tune Morality, number 136 in The Sacred Harp. It is in other shape-note tune books as well, such as The Southern Harmony. It can be found on YouTube sung at Waycross Primitive Baptist Church.

Hannah More was born February 2, 1745 in the village of Fishponds in Gloucestershire. She was a daughter of Jacob and Mary Grace More. He was a schoolmaster. She was taught by her father, then attended a girls’ school of her oldest sister Mary. Hannah later taught at the school, and wrote A Search After Happiness circa 1762.[4] She left teaching and earned most of her living through writing. After a religious conversion she became close friends of John Newton and& William Wilberforce. She was one of the most successful writers of her time. She died September 7, 1833 and is buried at All Saints Churchyard in Somerset, England.

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[1] A Search After Happiness: A Pastoral in Three Dialogues, A Young Lady, Bristol: S. Farley, 1773, pp. 30-31. The “Advertisement” in the Google version purported to be printed in 1773 strongly suggests that this is the first printed/book version of A Search After Happiness.
[2] The first printed version had 26 lines rather than 28 lines.
[3] The first version appears to have jessamine (jess’mine’s), while later versions change this to “jasmine.”

[4] The scan of the book at Google Books does not have a date printed, but it is believed to be from around 1762. However, Google Books dates it as 1766.

Going nowhere

“How many times we have heard a Preacher announce a text, and then immediately depart from it on an excursion over land and sea, and never come back to the text again. When the sermon is over we feel like saying what Mandy said to Sam after he had ridden the merry-go-round at the circus for one solid hour: ‘Sam, you’ve been gone an hour and spent a whole dollar, but you ain’t been nowhere!’ My father used to tell of a deacon who slipped a note on the preacher’s pulpit saying ‘Stick to your text—and some of it will stick to us.’ To advertise a text and then ignore it is fraudulent advertising!”

M. R. DeHaan, Bread For Each Day, Zondervan, 1962, June 30

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 friend Leon Ballinger loving and often 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