" ....Further up the ladder of death he went, exclaiming, 'Art not Thou from everlasting, O Lord my God. I shall not die but live.' And in the last seconds before he was with Christ, Mr Sickerfoot, as sure of foot and as full of faith as Joshua, lifted the napkin from his face, crying, The Covenants! The Covenants! They shall yet be Scotland's reviving.' Captain William Govan, intently watching, stood by. His martial shoulders were squared. Gazing lovingly at the dangling dead minister of Christ, he thought of Calvary's Tree. 'It is sweet! It is sweet!' he cried, 'otherwise how durst I look with courage upon the corpse of him who hangs there, and smile upon these sticks and that gibbet as the very Gates of Heaven.' The hangman had him prepared. The brave soldier taking a ring from a finger, gave it to a friend, asking him to carry it to his wife, and to tell her that he died in humble confidence and found the Cross of Christ sweet, and that Christ had done all for him, and that it was by Him alone that he was justified. Someone called to him to look up to the Lord Jesus, and he smilingly said, 'He looks down and smiles at me.' As he ascended the ladder there rang out from him across the crowds these words: 'Dear friends, pledge this cup of suffering as I have done before you sin, for sin and suffering have been presented to me and I h ave chosen the suffering part.' The rope adjusted, he ended his witness with, 'Praise and glory be to Christ forever.' A little pause, a little prayer, the signal given, and all was over, and he too swung in the fresh summer air."

James Guthrie, martyr of the Covenanters. God make us like him.



(http://www.newble.co.uk/guthriew/jamesmem.html)

A sadly worn little copy of George Herbert's poems, which I discovered in the used book store around the corner and down the street, has proven itself far more precious than the two dollars I paid for it. Now that I have fixed the cover (stiff fusible interfacing wrapped in cotton fabric) my dear friend is much better prepared for the frequent handling he receives.


Herbert is intensely devotional as well as a lover of colorful words. Hence I like him very much; his verse is like good medicine. Here is the one poem that I cannot get out of my head for the love of it:

"The Dawning"

Awake, sad heart, whom sorrow ever drowns ;
Take up thine eyes, which feed on earth ;
Unfold thy forehead, gathered into frowns ;
Thy Saviour comes, and with Him mirth :
Awake, awake,
And with a thankful heart His comforts take.
But thou dost still lament, and pine, and cry,
And feel His death, but not His victory.

Arise, sad heart ; if thou dost not withstand,
Christ's resurrection thine may be ;
Do not by hanging down break from the hand
Which, as it riseth, raiseth thee :
Arise, Arise;
And with His burial linen drie thine eyes.
Christ left His grave-clothes, that we might, when grief
Draws tears or blood, not want a handkerchief.

Love!

the very Definition of all that is Beautiful and Good


"God is dependent upon nothing beyond his own being...There were no principles of truth, goodness, or beauty that were next to or above God according to which he patterned the world. The principles of truth, goodness, and beauty are to be thought of as identical with God's being; they are the attributes of God."

"When man fell it was therefore his attempt to do without God in every respect. Man sought his ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty somewhere beyond God, either directly within himself or in the universe about him...man had interpreted the universe under the direction of God, but now he sought to interpret the universe without reference to God."

- Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith

How we need to know this God! It is an extraordinary comfort to the beauty-loving and believing soul that the God whom we look forward to knowing for all of eternity is the very definition of all that is beautiful and good. Any good thing we love here is derivative of His great goodness and beauty.

"When tyrants reign, let us first remember our faults, which are chastised by such scourges; and, therefore, humility will restrain our impatience. Besides, it is not in our power to remedy these evils, and all that remains for us is to implore the assistance of the Lord, in whose hand are the hearts of mean and the revolutions of kingdoms."

- John Calvin, Institutes, aphorism 98

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. "
- James 4:10, ESV

I can confess and bemoan my sinfulness without being humble. Self-examination that ends with the mournful declaration, 'I'm a terrible person' may not be true humility, because it can leave me more self-righteous than I was before. The goal of seeing my sin is, after realizing all that I am in my self, that I childlike, needy, trusting, run to Jesus and rejoice in Him as Savior.
After I have seen all of my failures, I must refuse to exult in the discerning depth of my self-awareness. Humility's final look is toward the Lord. To know my own weakness and wretchedness, and yet freely exult in a mighty and gracious Savior, is the most humble act of all.

"It is not he that reads most, but he that meditates most, that will prove the choicest, sweetest, wisest and strongest Christian."

- Thomas Brooks

Part of Something Beautiful

The Castle of Alcalá de Guadaira by David Roberts

"let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." - 1 Peter 3:4

The beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit is dreadfully underrated. It doesn't look like much. Humanity's eyes are so dazzled and their ears so dulled by the flash and noise of loud-spirited women, that they can hardly see the pure beauty of harmony. Momentary sensations seem more attractive than the enduring wonder of a life increasingly submitted to God. Striking every key on a piano, or pouring all the paints in the box onto a canvas might attract people's attention with noise and color, but it is not beauty, because it has no harmony. A beautiful and lasting piece of art comes from careful attention to order and design.

A woman living in cheerful acquiescence to the Creator's design is beautiful because she has been brought into a place of harmony. Living as God designed her to live, she stands where she was meant to be. Like one true note in a great symphony, or one true stroke in a great painting, she is beautiful because she has become a willing part of a greater beauty. By so doing, she becomes both less (because she has given up herself) and more (because she is part of something greater). Those who know and love that something greater can see the true beauty of her life, and the greater thing to which it points - the redemptive purpose of an all-wise God. She may be disdained by those who cannot see that something greater. Those who cannot see are often the majority, and those who love the Creator are all too few. But only for now...

"Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints."

- Revelation 19:6-8, ESV