“He went to the church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and for, and patted the children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of homes, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed of any walk, that anything, could give him so much happiness.”
–Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843
So much happiness!
The drawing is by Quentin Blake (b. 1932), illustrator, Quentin Blake’s A Christmas Carol, 1995
Today we toast the great, but under-appreciated, writer Conrad Richter, who died on this day in 1968. Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote, “There are in the literature of the world few works of historical fiction that make the reader feel that the writer must have been a witness to what he describes; he was actually there and came back – a transmigrated soul – to tell a story. The Awakening Land is such a work… it would be a great novel in any literature.”
I would heartily concur. Richter wrote short stories and 15 novels. His novel The Town, the last story of his trilogy The Awakening Land about the Ohio frontier, won the 1951 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His novel The Waters of Kronos won the 1961 National Book Award for Fiction.
A strange, uneasy feeling ran over him. If he had been wrong about his mother in this, might he by any chance have been wrong in other things about her also? Could it be even faintly possible that the children of pioneers like himself, born under more benign conditions than their parents, hated them because they themselves were weaker, resented it when their parents expected them to be strong, and so invented all kinds of intricate reasoning to prove that their parents were tyrannical and cruel, their beliefs false and obsolete, and their accomplishments trifling? Never had his mother said that. But once long ago he had heard her mention, not in as many words, that the people were too weak to follow God today, that in the Bible God made strong demands on them for perfection, so the younger generation watered God down, made Him impotent and got up all kinds of reasons why they didn’t have to follow Him but could go along their own way.” (The Town)
Like all great fiction, his words still speak to us, even seventy-five years after being published.
Well, as you know, I am a great re-reader, so I will reward myself with some Conrad Richter today.
Yesterday the boy came over and fixed our shutters which have been buffeted around by the wind all year and thus we were beginning to look like that house in the neighborhood that looks like it is decorated for Halloween all year. He also took apart the crib which was taking up a lot of room in our spare bedroom and moved it to the garage. I am so grateful to have adult children who are still speaking to me. This is a blessing not everyone can claim.
So re-read an old book, count your blessings and remember:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
(Lamentations 3:22)
*Today is the poet Paul Valéry’s birthday (1871-1945)–“Le vent se lève… il faut tenter de vivre !” Read the whole poem here.
I’m back in the Psalms in my daily Bible reading. Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm and also the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses.
Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them. 130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple. 131 I open my mouth and pant, because I long for your commandments. 132 Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. 133 Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. 134 Redeem me from man’s oppression, that I may keep your precepts. 135 Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.
(Psalm 119: 129-135)
David Powlison observed that “Psalm 119 is actually not about the topic of getting Scripture into your life. Instead, it is the honest words that erupt when what God says gets into you. It’s not an exhortation to Bible study; it’s an outcry of faith…Psalm 119 is the thoughtful outcry that rises when real life meets real God.”
Charles Spurgeon liked this “priceless Psalm” so much that he suggested “we might do well to commit it to memory.” I wish I could, but 176 verses is a lot!
This sacred ode is a little Bible, the Scriptures condensed, a mass of Bibline, Holy Writ rewritten in holy emotions and actions. Blessed are they who can read and understand these saintly aphorisms; they shall find golden apples in this true Hesperides, and come to reckon that this Psalm, like the whole Scripture which it praises, is a pearl island, or, better still, a garden of sweet flowers.
And here’s a sobering thought from Sinclair Ferguson:
One more week of August! Signs of fall are everywhere!
I continue to unbox the books I hurriedly boxed up last Friday…
I am especially enjoying these books which include articles and reviews from The New Yorker, back when it was a magazine worth reading…
Take for instance Wolcott Gibbs’ review of Guys and Dolls when it opened in 1950. He starts off with this:
I don’t think I ever had more fun at a musical comedy than I had the other night, when an association of strangely gifted men put on a Broadway epic known as Guys and Dolls. There have been loftier moral and aesthetic experiences, like Show Boat and South Pacific; there have been more enduring musical accomplishments, like Porgy and Bess; there have been occasions when the humor was clearly on a more ambitious level, like Of Thee I Sing; there have been sensational individual performances, like practically anything involving Miss Ethel Merman. There has, however, been nothing I can remember that sustained a higher level of sheer entertainment than the operation at the Forty-sixth Street Theatre.
Well.
There are book reviews, television and movie reviews, poetry, fiction, and longer pieces on “the American Scene”, “Artists and Entertainers”, current events, “Characters”, “Curious Developments”, and a lot more. Certainly enough to keep me busy for some time.
I especially enjoyed a long article by Winthrop Sargeant on the poet Marianne Moore, “Humility, Concentration and Gusto”, in the 2/16/1957 issue. I wrote an article about Moore for the Kirkwood Historical Review last year, but I was unaware of this piece in The New Yorker. It is a wonderful in-depth portrait and it reinforces my impression of her. “To some of the more complicated types who frequent literary teas and cocktail parties in…
…well, you understand. I’m afraid they don’t make ’em like Marianne Moore anymore. More’s the pity. Anyway, I am going to aim at exuding an air of invincible energy and cheerfulness. It won’t be easy.
August is trudging along and I am trying to read some real books. I started Everything Sad Is Untrue: (A True Story) by Daniel Nayeri, but it has not grabbed me. I’ll keep going, but I promise nothing. Place In Time by Wendell Berry is really good. I love Wendell Berry. The Marilynne Robinson is also very good and I am reminded that it was my small group reading Genesis thirty-odd years ago that got me started on Bible reading–real Bible reading where you read the whole book, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. Genesis is indeed a great, great book–however you slice it.
I have also been reading the new Van Engen book where he attempts to “show readers how poetry is for everyone–and how it can reinvigorate our Christian faith.” Poetry is for everyone. I am looking forward to hearing him talk on Friday night at church.
I bought Poems for the Children’s Hour at an estate sale a few weeks ago and am enjoying paging through it. Printed in 1927, it is compiled with an eye for “every child’s experiences in family, nature, play, community, patriotic, and spiritual relationships” throughout the year. Do children still know the old clapping game…
If not, they should. I will pass it along to daughter #2 in the hopes that some day her children will get the reference in that old Billy Wilder film with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe…
I was reminded on Sunday that my women’s Bible Study starts up again in a few weeks and I will be back to the Gospel of Matthew and Thursday mornings with the ladies and serious prayer time. This will be a good thing and I am looking forward to it.
If you have been asking yourself, ‘What’s wrong with the world?’, leave it to Alistair Begg to answer well.
And BYU runner Kenneth Rooks winning silver in the 3000m steeplechase was one of the most thrilling races ever. Rooks was the only American to make the men’s steeplechase final. He started the race in the middle of the pack of 16 runners but faded as far back as last place before coming on strong in the final two laps. By the time the bell was ringing to signify the start of the final lap, Rooks had surged into the lead. Ultimately, Soufiane El Bakkali, who won the gold at the Tokyo Olympics, was able to catch and pass him to claim the gold medal, but oh my goodness, Rooks was awesome. This is what the Olympics is all about.
Well, keep reading! Keep doing what you’re doing and keep the faith.
–William Cullen Bryant, “Summer Wind”–read it here.
Yesterday I had lunch with two old (and much older than I) friends at the fancy retirement home where they live. It is always a delight to meet with them and talk about what we are reading, re-reading and what we are finding to watch on TV/streaming. One of them walks on the treadmill every morning and recites the Gettysburg Address from memory. I told him about the guy I used to know who recited the lyrics to Abide With Me while maintaining a plank position every morning. We avoid discussing politics but one of them said that the (very liberal) interfaith group he was in fell apart this year following the events of October 7. This is troubling, but no surprise to me I said. It is not the evangelicals the Jews have to worry about. I have no doubt that I am somewhat of a mystery to them, but we respect each other, and yes, even love each other. And that is the way it should be.
So meet an old friend for lunch, read some poetry out loud, memorize something! And here’s a hymn that we heard in church on Sunday that the boy really liked:
Sing to Jesus, Lord of our shame Lord of our sinful hearts He is our great redeemer Sing to Jesus, honor His name
Last night as I awakened as usual at 4:15 a.m. (why?), I reached over to my bedside table and picked up The Mortification of Sin by the Puritan John Owen. (I am not ashamed to say the edition I have is abridged and “made easy to read” by Richard Rushing.) You may laugh and say, well, that must have put you back to sleep à toute vitesse, but actually I read for about an hour.
As you know, John Owen (1616 – 1683) was an English Noncorformist church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the University of Oxford. He was also an aide and chaplain to Oliver Cromwell. The Mortification of Sin grew out of a series of sermons he preached while serving as Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford.
Let, then, thy soul by faith be exercised with such thoughts and apprehensions as these: “I am a poor, weak creature; unstable as water, I cannot excel. This corruption is too hard for me, and is at the very door of ruining my soul; and what to do I know not. My soul is become as parched ground, and an habitation of dragons. I have made promises and broken them; vows and engagements have been as a thing of nought. Many persuasions have I had that I had got the victory and should be delivered, but I am deceived; so that I plainly see, that without some eminent succour and assistance, I am lost, and shall be prevailed on to an utter relinquishment of God. But yet, though this be my state and condition, let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be strengthened. Behold, the Lord Christ, that hath all fulness of grace in his heart, all fulness of power in his hand, he is able to slay all these his enemies. There is sufficient provision in him for my relief and assistance. He can take my drooping, dying soul and make me more than a conqueror.
Heady stuff, I know, but far superior to scrolling on your phone in the middle of the night. Sinclair Ferguson says, yes, read John Owen on the mortification of sin, but turn to your Scriptures first, and that is good advice. I am currently reading the Psalms in my reading-the-Bible-in-a-year plan. The Psalms never disappoint–especially in the dark recesses of the night.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
–Psalm 34:4
And here’s good news:Epic, Tim Challies’ video series about his round-the-world three-year journey, spanning multiple continents and some of the most unusual places in the world, is available and free to watch on YouTube. In it he searches for thirty-three carefully selected objects that help us understand the long and complicated history of Christianity. I watched the first episode where he travels to Jerusalem and Rome and the second where he goes to England. In that one he visits the cemetery where John Bunyan and John Owen are buried. I really enjoyed both episodes. I hope you do too.
Oh, and the cicadas have arrived. I had to sweep a lot of shells off the front porch!
Have a good day! If the weather allows, get outside and chuck a ball around.
Today is the first day of my 50th high school reunion extravaganza. Please pray for me. I am going to two of the five planned events/get-togethers. And my two oldest BFFs are coming over for lunch on Saturday. Also our church Pig Roast is being held later that day…so it will be a busy weekend!
This bit from Amor Towles’ new novella Eve in Hollywood seems apropos:
Taking a deep breath, Prentice steeled his resolve and began making his way through the crowd toward his host.
It was a humbling journey. A gauntlet composed of every sort of slight. First there was the director of light romances who turned his body just enough to make a casual encounter with Prentice less likely. Then the actress who hadn’t worked since the advent of talkies, who waved at Prentice enthusiastically. Then the writer of droll comedies who nudged a fellow scribbler in order to make a wry remark resulting in an audible guffaw. While scattered throughout were starlets whose eyes barely settled on Prentice at all, recognizing instinctively from the way the others treated him that he was not a man of consequence.
Well, so be it. For that which humbles our sense of vanity prepares us to face that which insults our sense of honor!
Today is also the National Day of Prayer. Following a challenge by Billy Graham, the spring observance was established by President Harry Truman in 1952. Get praying, y’all.
I have to say: thank goodness for Florida. The University of Florida released a memo to students late last week outlining what conduct was unacceptable and the consequences that protesters would face if they chose to violate school policy. “This is not complicated: The University of Florida is not a daycare, and we do not treat protesters like children — they knew the rules, they broke the rules, and they’ll face the consequences,” the school said. Local media reported that nine individuals were arrested on campus by the university’s police department and the Florida Highway Patrol. Would that other universities and college administrators could be so direct and follow through so mindfully.
And here is John Piper’s counsel for godly parenting. Really good advice.
*The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, 15 To declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
We had a rainy day on Tuesday, so the road crew was absent from our street and work stalled. Damn and blast. Yesterday was a beautiful day, but the workmen were slow in getting started and basically did nothing. We’ll see what happens today.
Since I was given two archival boxes for my birthday, I have been reading through piles of old letters before filing them away. They really are a window into the souls of our ancestors. I especially enjoy the ones my maternal grandmother wrote to my mother when she lived far away in flyover exile.
Tomorrow morning I have a hair appointment. Have I ever mentioned that I have let my hair grow since last Sept. and it is a “French Twist”? Ellen Coghlin told me I looked 20 years older and tried to get me to cut it. But long it is. I am nearly 65 and willing to look it. I am sure Ellen’s dyed, buffant hairdo does not make her look any younger! And her wrinkles are many.
Women do not change, do they? Well, I am with my grandmother. I am 68 and willing to look it.
Today we note the birthday of Maud Hart Lovelace(1892 – 1980), an American writer best known for the Betsy-Tacy series. My daughters were big fans of these books back in the day and now daughter #2 is reading them aloud to three-year old Katie, who loves them. She then “reads” them aloud to her sister and to the world at large. Since she has begun atttending a Lutheran pre-school two mornings a week, Jesus has been introduced as a character in her interpretive readings.
In my daily Bible reading I have been working through 1 and 2 Samuel and the story of David who I don’t have to tell you is pretty great. Everyone knows the story of David, the shepherd boy who fought the giant Philistine, Goliath, who had been ridiculing the Israelites for forty days, daring one of them to fight him. Everyone thinks David is crazy when he says he’ll fight Goliath. But do you remember what David said to Saul?
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
–I Samuel 17: 34-37
This is David’s attitude throughout his life and it is a good attitude. Later in II Samuel 22 he spoke to the Lord the words of a song he wrote when the Lord delivered him from the hand of his enemies. He also wrote a Psalm about it: Psalm 18.
The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation. (II Samuel 22:47)
I’m not sure where I was going with this except to say that daily Bible reading is quite an encouragement to me and I highly recommend it.
Along these same lines, this is a good article about Jesus as our shepherd and why he carries a rod. “Numbered by Jesus, we’re led by Jesus; led by Jesus, we’re protected by Jesus; and protected by Jesus, we’re comforted by Jesus.”
And God love him, here’s Bob:
And they’ll raise their hands Sayin’, “We’ll meet all your demands” But we’ll shout from the bow, “Your days are numbered” And like Pharoah’s tribe They’ll be drowned in the tide And like Goliath, they’ll be conquered
P.S. I always liked the Bernini David best (see above).
dual personalities 