Weep not: a funeral procession is interrupted

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

...sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

The cancelled burial, Luke 7:11-15.

When Jesus and his disciples entered the city of Nain (v. 11), a dead man was being carried out for burial (v. 12a). A large congregation accompanied the grieving mother (v. 12c), who was a widow (v. 12b). The dead man was the only son of this widow woman (v. 12b).

Jesus saw the woman and her situation, sympathized with her, and spoke to her (v. 13). Jesus stopped the funeral procession (v. 14a). Jesus spoke to the dead (v. 14b; cf. John 5:25-29). The dead man sat up, talked, and was taken to his mother (v. 15).

The direct outcome, Luke 7:16-17.

• God was feared.
• God was glorified.
• The news was spread.

Thoughts. The Lord has the power of life and death. He is the way, the truth, and the life. In him is life. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die? Why will ye die, when the power of life is so nearby?

---

Some weep not verses:

Luke 8:52 And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.

Luke 23:28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.

Revelation 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Psalm 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Pro-Life Reply: When Does Life Begin

The Pro-Life Reply to: “No One Knows When Life Begins”

In this video, Dr. Tara Sander Lee, a molecular geneticist and Director of Life Sciences for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, delivers a scientific response to this common argument and dives into the developmental stages of the preborn child.

Have a listen. This lesson is under 5 minutes. In it, the speaker makes these points:

• Not knowing when life begins should be an argument AGAINST abortion
• The developing baby grows at an extremely rapid pace, especially in the first trimester
• At 22 weeks, it is possible for babies to be born and survive outside the womb
• In the womb, babies exhibit behaviors we do as adults
• Zygote, blastocyst, embryo, and fetus are all terms that merely refer to age
• Preborn babies are not parasites; if they were, the mother’s immune system would attack it
• It is a scientific certainty that human life begins at the moment of fertilization

Pro-Life Reply: My Body, My Choice

The Pro-Life Reply to: “My Body, My Choice”

In this video, Kirsten Watson, mother of 7, including twins, explains how to respond to “My Body, My Choice” and reinforce the pro-life argument for the most vulnerable members of society. Be informed and better prepared in less than 5 minutes. Some of the points she makes are:

• When a woman is pregnant, there is more than one body involved
• A right isn’t a right if I only apply it to me
• A woman’s right over her own body does not give her the right to end the life of any other human being
• Mothers and fathers have a natural and legal obligation to support their children after birth, so it should follow that they have this obligation before birth
• “My body, my choice” encourages men to use women, not respect them

Pitbull Pidcock

Rick Pidcock, a freelance writer and graduate of Bob Jones University, at times seems trying to establish himself at the pitbull of the left of liberal Not-Baptist Opinion Everywhere (aka Baptist News Global. He is a prolific contributor to BNG, but, like Martha, he is careful and troubled about many things – especially if those things have anything to do with “white evangelical conservatives.” It is almost like he has an insecurity rooted in fear.

Like many on the left, he fears the possibility of no longer being able to kill babies in the womb. He and they are enamored with that “right.”

The primary case against abortion is theological, not political. When conservatives declare that “life begins at conception,” that is a theological claim based on Psalm 139:13, not a scientific claim or a public policy claim.[i]

No great surprise for people who claim the Bible as their authority. And while biblical claims do not find their genesis in science, they do not necessarily contradict one another. And even if Pidcock can’t see it, “science,” which parses its words carefully in the current “politically-charged” atmosphere, is near the same place as Christians. Even the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute admits, “Pregnancy is established when a fertilized egg has been implanted in the wall of a woman's uterus.” And Encyclopedia Brittanica states, “The zygote (fertilized egg cell)...represents the first stage in the development of a genetically unique organism.”

Logic, common sense, and the American College of Pediatricians are slightly ahead of them, and right there with the Bible and Christians. There is one point in which something changes from two to one. “The predominance of human biological research confirms that human life begins at conception—fertilization. At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop.”

Rick cannot take it. In another diatribe, he makes clear his holier-than-thou position: If you want to discuss abortion with him, you must lay aside what you believe and discuss it on his terms. What hubris!

Drop that concept [belief in hell], and then maybe we can talk about abortion with a modicum of humanity and common sense. Until then, I can’t take anything conservative evangelicals in the pro-life movement have to say about abortion the least bit seriously.

See how the “liberal-minded” left operates? Acquiesce to my position before we can even begin to discuss an issue. Oh, the intolerance of tolerance!

---

[i] Note two things about “a theological claim based on Psalm 139:13, not a scientific claim or a public policy claim.” 1. “As if” that is the only theological prop we have. 2. He seems to disallow Christians using their source of truth in “public policy.” Get your truth elsewhere if you wish to unveil it in the public square. This from the folks who talk talk talk about “religious freedom.”

Who is wrong in abortion debate?

Today’s post is an expansion of a “Letter to the Editor” to the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper, Tallahassee, Florida. The letter is a response to “Both sides are wrong in abortion debate,” an opinion piece by retired psychologist Gary Whittenberger, published on December 6th. (If you cannot view it on their site, it is also available at Yahoo News.)

Dr. Whittenberger gets some things right and some things wrong. He rightly denounces the viability and privacy problems with the Roe v. Wade decision. Viability from that day and time (26 weeks) is now out the window. Lyla Stensrud was born in 2014 at 21 weeks.[i] Richard Hutchinson was born in 2020 at 21 weeks. Curtis Means of Alabama was recently certified as the “world’s most premature baby to survive,” his time of birth making his about 24 hours less than Richard’s time of birth. Whittenberger wisely knows that with advances in medical technology “viability will continue to go downward.” He further states, “nobody should have the right to hide an unethical or illegal act in private, and sometimes killing a fetus is like that.”

However, when he represents what is wrong on the pro-life side, he gets it wrong, writing:

The pro-lifers are wrong because they give an answer to the wrong question, i.e. “When does life begin?” That is totally irrelevant, and we already know that the zygote is alive. The relevant question is “When should the fetus be considered a person and assigned basic human rights?”

I suppose he does not intend to misrepresent the pro-life position. Nevertheless, in that statement he does so. Pro-lifers are not arguing that some unknown life form begins at the moment of conception – but that two humans create another human life, a person.  To pro-lifers “when does life begin” means “when does human life begin, including with it personhood and basic human rights.” Whittenberger is free to disagree with the pro-life position, but he should not misrepresent it, either knowingly or unknowingly. We are contending that at conception the life that begins at that time (which he admits is life) is a person, entitled to basic human rights, and that our laws should support and protect those rights.

Finally, Whittenberger disagrees with pro-lifers because he believes that a “human fetus cannot be a person until its brain matures to the point that it acquires the capacity for consciousness,” and that “this occurs at the end of the 24th week post-conception.” This agrees with a common scientific view that “the thalamo-cortical complex that provides consciousness with its highly elaborate content, begins to be in place between the 24th and 28th week of gestation.” (This disagrees with the living lives of Lyla Stensrud, Richard Hutchinson, Curtis Means, and others born before 24 weeks!)

According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, consciousness is “an organism’s awareness of something either internal or external to itself.” This view proves to be a dangerous concept for determining personhood, not only for the children less than 24 weeks, but also for adults in comas.[ii] Are they no longer persons and entitled to basic human rights? Sadly, this is where we have arrived and what many people think. Snuff them out unceremoniously. They have not consciousness. They are not persons.

Biblically, humans – all humans – have value because God made us in his image (Genesis 1:27, Job 33:4, Psalm 119:73).[iii] We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), in ways beyond the comprehension of man’s thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Let us, if we err, “err” on the side of life.

Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

---

[i] Or less, according to some unofficial reports.
[ii] It is also dangerous because this is unsettled science, subjective and subject to change. “Consciousness in general and the birth of consciousness in particular remain as key puzzles confronting the scientific worldview.” – “The Emergence of Human Consciousness: From Fetal to Neonatal Life” (Lagercrantz, H., Changeux, JP. Pediatr Res 65, 255–260, 2009). How much better to walk into the unknown, uncertain, and unsettled with the old medical adage, primum non nocere (first, do no harm). Where you are unsure, “err” on the side of life, not death.
[iii] Often expressed in the theological terminology imago Dei (Latin for “image of God”). 

James 4:13ff

James 4:13-17 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

If we rightly believe our life in a vapour, it might not affect all that much whether we plan to go somewhere, conduct business, and make money (i.e., not knowing about tomorrow, we still might make plans. Cf. Proverbs 6:6-8 Proverbs 31:16). However, if we rightly believe our life in a vapour, it should affect how we think and talk about those plans! A plan is made in the mind or thoughts. The thought-out plan is spoken with the mouth. Have these two things occurred with or without taking the truth about life, the future, and God into account? Very often our tongue will tell (Matthew 15:18). Over a lived-life, the Christian should learn that God is the disposer of life, and the events of life (Luke 12:20; Proverbs 16:33; 19:21).

In verse 13, James refers to what they say. In verse 15, he refers to what they ought to say. In verse 14, he refers to what they do not know, as well as the true condition of life. Verse 15 applies the recognition of this true condition to how we think and act.

• Our knowledge is restricted. “ye know not what shall be on the morrow.”
• Our life is temporal. “It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”
• God’s will is sovereign. “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

James concludes with a general principle that stresses the importance of doing what we know to do. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Do not sin. Do what you know is right.

Southern Baptists for Abolishing Abortion

A group of Southern Baptists has started an organization called Southern Baptists for Abolishing Abortion. While pro-life is a common position among Southern Baptists, John Smith, pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church in Cashmere, Washington emphasized this difference, “All other resolutions [in the SBC, about abortion] have stopped short of calling abortion for what it is, the murder of our pre-born neighbors and the call for its immediate end.” 

Derin Stidd, pastor of Harmony Baptist Church in Frankfurt, Indiana told The Resurgent, “...instead of celebrating legislation which regulates when, where, and how a baby can be murdered, our resolution calls for Christ-honoring legislation which seeks to completely and totally criminalize abortion without exception or compromise. In this regard, our resolution is the only anti-abortion call-to-action that is actually consistent with our doctrinal statement.” 

 The resolution can be read HERE.

Ethical conundrum?

A recent discussion (2019) of “babies born alive” was ignited by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who said, “And it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that’s non-viable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” Now you can debate just exactly what he meant, but discussion of whether to let an infant die is definitely on the table in what he said, at least concerning one he would consider “non-viable.” Nevertheless, though some might dismiss this as sensationalism on the part of Pro-Lifers, it is not a new discussion.

Here is old news (1999) about doctors not providing life support to a survivor of a botched abortion:
Staff who helped baby not treated as heroines

In the following link, a Civil Justice Subcommittee in Florida (2013) discusses House Bill 1129, a “born alive” bill; the Planned Parenthood representative struggles to answer questions about babies born alive:
State of Florida Civil Justice Subcommittee hearing on March 27, 2013

Discussion of the Bill starts about 10:50.
Questions to Planned Parenthood (some excerpted below) start about 39:17.

Chairman Boyd: “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”

Alicia Snow of Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood: “Uh, well, we believe that any decision is made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”
...

Representative: “Along the same lines you stated that a baby born alive on a table as a result of a botched abortion that that decision should be left to the doctor and the family. Is that what you’re saying?”

Alicia Snow: “That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider.”

Representative: “I think that at that point the patient would be the child struggling on the table, wouldn’t you agree?”

Alicia Snow: “That’s a very good question. I really don’t know how to answer that...”

There should be no ethical conundrum of whether to save a live baby who is dying right in front of you – unless you had already been trying to kill it!

The way is short

Below is an almost unreadable epitaph on a tombstone at the Isabell (Isbell) Chapel Cemetery at Sand Hill, Rusk County, Texas. The name on the tombstone is no longer visible.

The way is short, my friend,

That reaches out before us,

God’s tender heavens above us bend,

His love is smiling o’er us.

A little while is ours,

For sorrow or for laughter;

I’ll lay the hand you love in yours,

On the shore of the hereafter.

When I searched online to see if I had deciphered the reading correctly, I found it was part of a poem written by Mary Clemmer. The first four lines are on the stone at Isabell Chapel, and I found the four lines that come after.

Pro-birth or Pro-death

A Catholic Nun Perfectly Explains the Major Hypocrisy of the “Pro-Life” Argument -- The linked article says that a “Catholic nun’s explanation of the term ‘pro-life’ from 2004 is resurfacing after recent antiabortion events.” Joan Chittister, a Catholic nun, made the point back then on PBS’s Now that “being against abortion doesn’t mean you’re pro-life.” Chittister stated, “I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

Here are some things wrong with the quote, especially as it is used to forward the cause of abortion.

What’s the opposite of pro-birth? Pro-death. While there is a wider moral scope than just being pro-birth, surely we do want to be pro-birth rather than pro-death!

Where is the proof that those who oppose abortion don’t want a child to be fed, educated, and housed? The broader conversation is not needed if we adopt the pro-death platform! None of those children will need to be fed, educated, or housed. (Many of them won’t even get a decent burial.) Is that what is wished for? Only beginning from the pro-birth position is the broader conversation of pro-life relevant.

And, yes, we do need to have that broader conversation.

My Life Wasn't Supposed To Turn Out Like This

I just read My Life Wasn't Supposed To Turn Out Like This by Stephen Altrogge. I don't know anything about Altrogge and only saw the article because my daughter linked it on Facebook. I recommend it to you for your reading. Here are a few excerpts.

"Up until two years ago, I thought I had my life pretty well mapped out...Then things took a strange turn."

"Maybe you can relate...The idyllic notions of your youth have been smashed upon the rocks of reality."

"God often takes his people on strange paths through uncharted territories."

"God took David on a path David would never have chosen for himself so that he could teach David things he could never have learned otherwise."

"The testimony of 10,000 saints is this: God knows what he is doing."

The Way of Life

The Way of Life. 9s.8s. w/chorus (February 13, 2017)

1. The fine-spun web--the spider's token--
Is like the things we weave on earth.
The web of life with ease is broken--
A tenuous thread to death from birth.
Chorus:
But Jesus Christ, the sinner's friend,
The web of life can spin again.
There is no doubt, we need a Saviour
For life is short and death is sure.

2. How bright and gay the fresh bloomed flower,
It cheers the heart and makes the day.
But comes apace the fatal hour--
Bright promises vanish away.
Chorus:
But Jesus Christ, the sinner's friend,
The bloom of life can bud again.
There is no doubt, we need a Saviour
For life is short and death is sure.

A Sermon of Trees

A man is of "few days and full of trouble," and our lives are "even as a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanish away." Few people find the time to use that "few days" to enjoy the wonders of this old world that God has put here to inspire us, and to live out their little span just for the dollars and cents to be made. I love a good sermon, a song, and, sweet humble worship, but sometimes I find them in the strangest places. A quiet forest turns out to be a great sermon; a soft wind through the spruce and pine is sometimes a song too wonderful to snare it in earthly lines and spaces, and even the ocean's "winds and waves" seem to "obey Him" and the great magnificent forests most certainly declare the glory of God. 

-- Elder Roy W. Cothern, July 1949, from "A Sermon of Trees"

5 important truths about life

Comments, Scriptures and Hymns on five important truths about life

Life: "the animate existence or period of animate existence of an individual." (Dictionary.com)

Job 14:1-2 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

Some important truths about life are self-evident. Others require that God show them to us. Below are five important truths about life, three which are understood by most folks, and two (while just as true) are often denied or misunderstood.

1. An inconvenient truth: Life is short even at its longest.

Comment
Job tells us we are of few days. Life is brief, which other inspired writers testify, and which fallen man knows by his own experience. The brevity of life is an inconvenient truth -- not suiting one's wants. It is awkward and gets in the way of living forever. Many biblicists believe the world as we know it has existed for six to ten millennia. Even a life extended into the hundreds, as a few long-livers of whom we hear, is but a brief moment in light of that length of time. Though wrong, evolutionists consider the world in terms of billions and billions of years. How insignificant to that span would be our paltry stay here on earth? The God of creation deals not in time, but in eternity. To him a thousand years is as day. How insignificant are we in comparison?

Scripture
Job 9:25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
Isaiah 40:6-8  The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
James 4:14 ...For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Hymn
Time! what an empty vapor ‘tis!
Our days, how swift they are,–
Swift as an Indian arrow flies,
Or like a shooting star.

Death, like an overflowing stream,
Sweeps us away; our life’s a dream,
An empty tale, a morning flow’r,
Cut down and withered in an hour.

2. An unpleasant truth: Life is hard and troublesome at its best.

Comment
The harsh realities of life are unpleasant. They smudge and scratch our rose covered glasses; they firmly block all our escape routes. In this world of sin and sorrow, the effects of sin are all too real to dismiss and no one escapes them. No, not even by wealth, power or prestige. Even in the most affluent times and situations, man finds his demons inevitably find him.

Scripture
Ecclesiastes 2:23 For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
Job 5:6-7 Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

Hymn
My life is spent with grief, I cried,
My years consumed with groans;
My strength decays, mine eyes are dried,
And sorrow wastes my bones.
Among mine enemies my name
Was a mere proverb grown,
While to my neighbors I became
Forgotten and unknown.

3. An apparent truth: Life is always seeking to end in death, even when it begins.

Comment
"The living know that they must die." Death is certain. It is the end of all life. The Bible and the obituary sections of our newspapers agree in their testimony. From infants in the womb to centenarians; the high, the low; the rich, the poor; all races, all ages, all places. Death is universal. It is one thing we know. It is one thing on which we agree.

Scripture
Hebrews 9:27 ...it is appointed unto men once to die...
Ecclesiastes 8:8 There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.
James 1:15 ...sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Hymn
Our life is ever on the wing,
And death is ever nigh;
The moment when our lives begin,
We all begin to die.

Death, ’tis a melancholy day
To those who have no God,
When the poor soul is forced away,
To seek her last abode.

4. An essential truth: Life is the time to serve the Lord.

Comment
Life, that brief span between our time to be born and our time to die, is the time to prepare to meet God. Mankind often does not take the one thing he knows -- the certainty of death -- and apply to it wisdom. Wisdom tells us to remember God while there is life and while there is hope. When the living tree of our lives transform into the felled tree of death -- where that tree has fallen is where it shall be.

Scripture
Ecclesiastes 11:3 ...and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Hymn
Life is the time to serve the Lord,
The time t’ensure the great reward;
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.

5. An encouraging truth: Life is not the end of our existence.

Comment
Loretta Lynn once sang, "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die." Isaac Watts wrote, "Death is the gate of endless joy, and yet we dread to enter there." To fallen man, death is our enemy, the end of our animate life. But that animate temporal life is not the end of our existence. Providentially, God engages our last enemy to transfer the Christian into His presence! Death is an end, but it is not an eternal end. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture
1 Corinthians 15:19-20 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

Hymn
When from the dead He raised His Son
And called Him to the sky,
He gave our souls a living hope
That they should never die.

[Note: All poems quoted are by Isaac Watts.]

More Scriptures and hymns on life

Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope.
Psalm 78:39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
Psalm 102:11 My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
John 16:33 ...In the world ye shall have tribulation...
Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

I’m but a sojourner below,
As all my fathers were;
May I be well prepared to go
When I the summons hear.
But if my life be spared awhile,
Before my last remove,
Thy praise shall be my bus’ness still
And I’ll declare Thy love.

Should earth against my soul engage,
And fiery darts by hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan’s rage,
And face a frowning world.
Let cares like a wild deluge come,
And storms of sorrow fall!
May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my heav’n, my all.

Buried in sorrow and in sin;
At hell’s dark door we lay,
But we arise by grace divine,
To see a heav’nly day.

There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
There everlasting spring abides
And never fading flow’rs;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heav’nly land from ours.

Broad is the road that leads to death,
And thousands walk together there;
But wisdom shows narrow a path,
With here and there a traveler.

Death, like an overflowing stream,
Sweeps us away; our life’s a dream,
An empty tale, a morning flow’r,
Cut down and withered in an hour.
Our age to sev’nty years is set;
How short the time! How frail the state!
And if to eighty we arrive,
We’d rather sigh and groan than live.
Teach us, Oh Lord, how frail is man;
And kindly lengthen out the span,
Till a wise care of piety
Fit us to die and dwell with Thee.

Why should we start or fear to die,
What tim’rous worms we mortals are;
Death ’tis the gate to endless joy,
But still we dread to enter there.

[Note: All hymns quoted are by Isaac Watts.]

Longfellow: The Village Blacksmith

After Mother quoted "A Psalm of Life" and "Trees", I asked her if she remembered "The Village Blacksmith." (I actually didn't remember the title, but thought of the first two lines, "Under a spreading chestnut-tree, the village smithy stands..."). She professed to once knowing this good stout poem, but could only quote the first stanza. Read as Longfellow expounds on work...life...memories.

Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands. 

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man. 

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low. 

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor. 

He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice. 

It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes. 

Toiling,--rejoicing,--sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose. 

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.

-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in 1840

Christ my all

On his Baptismal Birthday, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

God’s child in Christ adopted,—Christ my all—
What that earth boasts were not lost cheaply rather
Than forfeit that blessed name, by which I call
The Holy One, the Almighty God, my Father?
Father! in Christ we live, and Christ in Thee,
Eternal Thou, and everlasting we.
The heir of heaven, henceforth I fear not death;
In Christ I live! in Christ I draw the breath
Of the true life! Let then earth, sea, and sky
Make war against me; on my front I show
Their mighty Master’s seal. In vain they try
To end my life, that can but end its woe.
Is that a death-bed where a Christian lies?
Yes, but not his—’Tis Death itself there dies.

Abortion in rare cases?

"We must respond to all tragic circumstances of pregnancy from the unshakeable foundation of two indisputable premises: human life begins at conception, and it is always wrong to intentionally kill an innocent human being.  The unborn child’s right to life and liberty is given by his or her Creator, not by his or her parents or by the state.  The right to life is inalienable: that is, not to be trespassed upon by another."

"When the life of the mother is truly threatened by her pregnancy, if both lives cannot simultaneously be saved, then saving the mother’s life must be the primary aim.  If through our careful treatment of the mother’s illness the pre-born patient inadvertently dies or is injured, this is tragic and, if unintentional, is not unethical and is consistent with the pro-life ethic.  But the intentional killing of an unborn baby by abortion is never necessary." -- From the Official position statement of the Association of Pro-Life Physicians

The joy of Sacred Harp

As for me.....when I can no longer sing Sacred Harp, I want to listen. When I can no longer hear, I want to see it. When I can no longer sing, hear, or see, please wheel me in and prop me up against some old singer so I can feel it!

And when all my senses are gone, plant me under a stone engraved with four shapes and the inscription "Here lies the dust of R.L.V., his spirit sings at home."

The shortness and misery of life

Hymn 39, Common Meter
The shortness and misery of life.

Our days, alas! our mortal days
Are short and wretched too;
"Evil and few," the patriarch says,
And well the patriarch knew.

'Tis but at best a narrow bound
That Heav'n allows to men,
And pains and sins run through the round
Of threescore years and ten.

Well, if ye must be sad and few,
Run on, my days, in haste;
Moments of sin and months of woe,
Ye cannot fly too fast.

Let heav'nly love prepare my soul,
And call her to the skies,
Where years of long salvation roll,
And glory never dies.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book II, 1707