Louisiana singing

North Central Louisiana Sacred Harp Singing meets at Ringgold, south of Minden on Saturday September 3rd, starting at 10 a.m. (d.v.). Singing is from both the “red book” and the “blue book”. The location is at New Providence Primitive Baptist Church. From Interstate 20 at Minden, take US 371 south and travel about 20 miles to Ringgold. Turn left/east on Highway 154 and go about one mile; the New Providence church and cemetery is on the left. More info: (318) 894-9549.

Y'all come.

On what has been sown

On what has now been sown
Thy blessing, Lord, bestow;
The power is Thine alone
To make it spring and grow.
Do Thou in grace the harvest raise,
And Thou alone shalt have the praise.

To Thee our wants are known,
From Thee are all our powers;
Accept what is Thine own
And pardon what is ours.
Our praises, Lord, and prayers receive
And to Thy Word a blessing give.

Oh, grant that each of us
Now met before Thee here
May meet together thus
When Thou and Thine appear
And follow Thee to Heav'n, our home.
E'en so, Amen, Lord Jesus, come!

John Newton (1725-1807)
Olney Hymns, 1779

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."

Ye immortal throng

O ye immortal throng of angels round the throne,
Join with our feeble song, to make the Savior known:
On earth ye knew His wondrous grace;
His glorious face in Heav'n ye view.

Ye saw the Heav'n-born Child in human flesh arrayed,
Benevolent and mild while in the manger laid:
And "Praise to God, and peace on earth,"
For such a birth, proclaimed aloud.

Around the bloody tree ye pressed with strong desire
That wondrous sight to see, the Lord of life expire:
And could your eyes have known a tear,
Had dropped it there in sad surprise.

Around His sacred tomb a willing watch ye keep
Till the blest moment come to rouse Him from His sleep:
Then rolled the stone, and all adored
Your rising Lord with joy unknown.

When, all arrayed in light, the shining Conqueror rode,
Ye hailed His rapturous flight up to the throne of God,
And waved around your golden wings,
And struck your strings of sweetest sound.

The warbling notes pursue, and louder anthems raise,
While mortals sing with you their own Redeemer's praise:
And thou, my heart, with equal flame,
And joy the same, perform thy part.

Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), 1737

Prophecy and inspiration

HYMN 151, L. M.

Prophecy and inspiration.

'Twas by an order from the Lord
The ancient prophets spoke his word;
His Spirit did their tongues inspire,
And warmed their hearts with heav'nly fire.

The works and wonders which they wrought
Confirmed the messages they brought;
The prophet's pen succeeds his breath,
To save the holy words from death.

Great God, mine eyes with pleasure look
On the dear volume of thy book;
There my Redeemer's face I see,
And read his name who died for me.

Let the false raptures of the mind
Be lost, and vanish in the wind;
Here I can fix my hope secure;
This is thy word, and must endure.

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

The debt ceiling fraud

If you're listening to the news at all, you've read and heard ad nauseum the hand-wringing episodes over the national debt ceiling. Now I'm no economist, and I might be wrong, but it seems to me that the so-called debt ceiling is mostly a fraud perpetrated on the U.S. public.

Why do I say that? Let me put it in simple terms that I can understand. The debt ceiling is basically a credit limit. If I apply and obtain a credit card, the lending institution sets the credit limit. I can borrow up to that amount and no more. In the case of the Congress, they are the ones borrowing and setting the credit limit. A little conflict of interest? What is the purpose of having it if they just bump it up whenever they need to? Sounds like a lot of hocus pocus to me.

Sacred Harp Singing School

If you're in Southeast Texas, take advantage of the Sacred Harp Singing School sponsored by the Florida Avenue Baptist Church and Heritage Baptist Institute. It will be at the Florida Avenue Church's fellowship hall this Saturday, July 30.

When: Starts at 10 a.m.
Book: 2006 Sacred Harp, Cooper Edition
Location: 645 W. Florida Ave.
Beaumont, TX 77705

For more information please email: sheilatx-AT-hotmail.com

A sea of comfort

(Rom. 8:28) And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

"A self acclaimed minister boldly informed me some years ago that only good things work together for good: bad, evil, and sinful things, said he, could never work together for the good of the redeemed. Does this not drain dry the sea of comfort found in this verse? Where does the child of grace go for comfort when plagued with inner sin and outward trials if God does not work evil for their good?" -- From 'A Blessed Promise', Wayne Gregory, July 9, 2011

Hymn 45 by Watts

Hallelujah Meter 6.6.6.6.8.8.

Hosannah to the King
Of David's ancient blood!
Behold, he comes to bring
Forgiving grace from God:
Let old and young attend his way,
And at his feet their honors lay.

Glory to God on high,
Salvation to the Lamb;
Let earth, and sea, and sky,
His wondrous love proclaim:
Upon his head shall honors rest,
And every age pronounce him blest.

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

Follow the money

A new Texas law requires doctors performing abortions to show women the results of their sonograms and explain the child and its development. Abortion doctors normally do ultrasounds for their own benefit but don’t usually give women detailed information about it.

A group is bringing suit against this new law. Dr. Alan Braid, an abortion practitioner in San Antonio, objects to the law, saying "My job is not to make the patient feel guilty about her choice or force information on her that she does not want; my job is to care for the patient, act in her best interests, and respect her autonomy. To provide her information that she does not want and that may cause her harm is certainly against my oath as a physician to 'do no harm'."

Unbelievable! A man who is about to snuff out an innocent life invokes the "do no harm" clause!? Might it have more to do with not making a sale than doing no harm? In any other case a doctor would be negligent to not discuss all the details with the patient so she could make informed consent. Why not in this case?

Come, let us join our friends above

Let saints on earth in concert sing
With those whose work is done;
For all the servants of our King
In Heav'n and earth are one.

One family, we dwell in Him,
One Church, above, beneath;
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream of death.

One army of the living God,
To His command we bow;
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.

E'en now to their eternal home
There pass some spirits blest;
While others to the margin come,
Waiting their call to rest.

Jesu, be Thou our constant Guide;
Then, when the word is given,
Bid Jordan's narrow stream divide,
And bring us safe to Heav'n.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Funeral Hymns, 1759.
Derived from Wesley's hymn "Come, let us join our friends above."

In memory

Susan Delaine Vaughn Milstead, passed away Saturday July 2, 2011. She was the youngest and last surviving child of James Thomas Vaughn and Delanie Jane Whitten.

The book of God's decrees

HYMN 99 C. M.
The book of God's decrees.

Let the whole race of creatures lie
Abased before their God;
Whate'er his sovereign voice has formed
He governs with a nod.

Ten thousand ages ere the skies
Were into motion brought,
All the long years and worlds to come
Stood present to his thought.

There's not a sparrow or a worm
But's found in his decrees;
He raises monarchs to their throne,
And sinks them as he please.

If light attends the course I run,
'Tis he provides those rays;
And 'tis his hand that hides my sun,
If darkness clouds my days.

Yet I would not be much concerned,
Nor vainly long to see
The volume of his deep decrees,
What months are writ for me.

When he reveals the book of life,
O may I read my name
Amongst the chosen of his love,
The followers of the Lamb!

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

The new morality

Nine new graphic cigarette warning labels were unveiled Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration, part of the agency's sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco and tobacco products.

The government can't "legislate morality" -- unless it wants to. Living in a world that moves further and further from traditional morality, the anti-moralists nevertheless have to get on their high-horses once in awhile to fight evil. I guess that's OK as long as they don't get on the same side of an issue with biblicists -- like no homosexual marriage and such like. Seeing it is not enough to simply warn folks of the dangers of smoking, now they will have pictures. A dead guy with his chest sewn up. A smoker exhaling through a hole in his neck. Despite all the rhetoric of the anti-tobaccoites, a few graphic pictures will not have the desired effect. I particularly like this one: "Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in non-smokers." Now that will frighten the smoker to death!

The sea

The sea.

If for a time the air be calm,
Serene and smooth the sea appears;
And shows no danger to alarm
The inexperienced landsman's fears.

But if the tempest once arise,
The faithless water swells and raves;
Its billows, foaming to the skies,
Disclose a thousand threat'ning graves.

My untried heart thus seemed to me,
(So little of myself I knew)
Smooth as the calm unruffled sea,
But ah! it proved as treach'rous too!

The peace, of which I had a taste,
When Jesus first his love revealed
I fondly hoped would always last,
Because my foes were then concealed.

But when I felt the tempter's pow'r
Rouse my corruptions from their sleep;
I trembled at the stormy hour,
And saw the horrors of the deep.

Now, on presumption's billows borne,
My spirit seemed the LORD to dare;
Now, quick as thought, a sudden turn
Plunged me in gulfs of black despair.

LORD, save me, or I sink, I prayed,
He heard, and bid the tempest cease;
The angry waves his word obeyed,
And all my fears were hushed to peace.

The peace is his, and not my own,
My heart (no better than before)
Is still to dreadful changes prone,
Then let me never trust it more.

John Newton (1725-1807)
Olney Hymns, 1779

The time of judges

In a period called the time of the judges, the sad commentary on the people was that "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." In that sad time, when things got bad enough, God raised up judges -- leaders who would deliver the people.

We too live in a sad time. But the tables have turned. Now the world has raised up "judges" who do (and rule) that which is right in their own eyes. A pitiful example comes from a few days back in Corpus Christi, Texas. District Court Judge Jose Longoria (and some prosecutors share blame, and family members), accepted a plea in the case of Rosalina Gonzales for Injury to a Child for spanking her daughter. I am not acquainted with all the details of the case, so this commentary does not deal with all the details. But...the judge, so-called, charged Gonzales, "You don't spank children today." This was clearly his opinion which he tried to pass off as the force of law.

"You don't spank children today," said Longoria, "in the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don't spank children. You understand?"

In contrast to Longoria, the Texas Attorney General's website says, for example, "Texas law allows the use of force, but not deadly force, against a child by the child's parent, guardian, or other person who is acting in loco parentis. Most parents do, in fact, use corporal punishment..."

Ultimately for the Christian, it does not matter what the judge or the attorney general says. What does God say? We live in a rapidly degenerating time. Soon laws may prohibit spanking. If so, Christians will have to decide whether they will obey God or men.

judge Longoria: You don't spank children today.
The Word of God: He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

judge Longoria: You don't spank children today.
The Word of God: Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

judge Longoria: You don't spank children today.
The Word of God: Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

judge Longoria: You don't spank children today.
The Word of God: Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.

judge Longoria: You don't spank children today.
The Word of God: hou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

judge Longoria: You don't spank children today.
The Word of God: The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

judge Longoria: You don't spank children today.
The Word of God: And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Who are you going to believe?

Voltaire and the cottager

The path to bliss abounds with many a snare;
Learning is one, and wit, however rare.
The Frenchman, first in literary fame
(Mention him, if you please. Voltaire?—The same),
With spirit, genius, eloquence, supplied,
Lived long, wrote much, laugh’d heartily, and died;
The Scripture was his jest-book, whence he drew
Bon-mots to gall the Christian and the Jew;
An infidel in health, but what when sick?
Oh—then a text would touch him at the quick;
View him at Paris in his last career,
Surrounding throngs the demi-god revere;
Exalted on his pedestal of pride,
And fumed with frankincense on every side,
He begs their flattery with his latest breath,
And, smother’d in’t at last, is praised to death!

Yon cottager, who weaves at her own door,
Pillow and bobbins all her little store;
Content though mean, and cheerful if not gay,
Shuffling her threads about the live-long day,
Just earns a scanty pittance, and at night
Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light;
She, for her humble sphere by nature fit,
Has little understanding, and no wit,
Receives no praise; but though her lot be such
(Toilsome and indigent), she renders much;
Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true—
A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew;
And in that charter reads with sparkling eyes,
Her title to a treasure in the skies.
Oh, happy peasant! Oh, unhappy bard!
His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward;
He praised perhaps for ages yet to come,
She never heard of half a mile from home:
He, lost in errors, his vain heart prefers,
She, safe in the simplicity of hers.

From the poem Truth by William Cowper

An early appointment

I received the following story via e-mail. I don't know whether or not it is true, but I thought it had a good sentiment.

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had to be somewhere by 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient,
I would evaluate his wound.

On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."

Truth by William Cowper

Man, on the dubious waves of error toss’d,
His ship half founder’d, and his compass lost,
Sees, far as human optics may command,
A sleeping fog, and fancies it dry land;
Spreads all his canvas, every sinew plies;
Pants for it, aims at it, enters it, and dies!
Then farewell all self-satisfying schemes,
His well-built systems, philosophic dreams;
Deceitful views of future bliss, farewell!
He reads his sentence at the flames of hell.

From the poem Truth by William Cowper

Hope in Despair

Encompassed with clouds of distress,
And tempted all hope to resign,
I pant for the light of Thy face,
That I in Thy beauty may shine.

Disheartened with waiting so long,
I sink at Thy feet with my load;
All plaintive I pour out my song,
And stretch forth my hands unto God.

Shine, Lord, and my terror shall cease;
The blood of atonement apply,
And lead me to Jesus for peace –
The Rock that is higher than I.

Speak, Savior, for sweet is Thy voice,
Thy presence is fair to behold;
I thirst for Thy Spirit, with cries
And groanings that cannot be told.

"Hope in Despair", by Augustus M. Toplady