Sunday, November 20, 2011

DEAR SHEPHERD OF THY PEOPLE, HEAR



Dear Shepherd of Thy people, hear;
Thy presence now display;
As Thou hast given a place for prayer,
So give us hearts to pray.

O Lord, our languid souls inspire,
For here, we trust, thou art!
Send down a coal of heav’nly fire,
To warm each waiting heart.

Show us some token of Thy love,
Our fainting hope to raise;
And pour Thy blessings from above,
That we may render praise.

Within these walls let holy peace
And love and concord dwell;
Here give the troubled conscience ease,
The wounded spirit heal.

The feeling heart, the melting eye,
The humble mind bestow;
And shine upon us from on high,
To make our graces grow!

May we in faith receive Thy Word,
In faith present our prayers;
And, in the presence of our Lord,
Unbosom all our cares.

And may the Gospel’s joyful sound
Enforced by mighty grace,
Awaken many sinners round,
To come and fill the place.


Words: John New­ton, Ol­ney Hymns (Lon­don: W. Ol­iv­er, 1779). In New­ton’s orig­in­al ver­sion, the first stan­za was the one be­gin­ning, “O Lord, our lan­guid souls in­spire.”


To hear the music for this Hymn:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/d/e/dearshep.htm

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

"She shall be called women, because she was taken out of man.". Genesis 2: 21-23


My Husband and I with Our Daughter and Her Husband with little Grace.
Marriage is a True Blessing From God.


And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called women, because she was taken out of man.
Genesis 2: 21-23



Though now existing apart from him, with a personality of her own, she is restored by marriage to a mystical re-union with him. The rib, which was taken out of his side, is replaced by the living form which is the compliment of himself, so that he "who loveth his wife loveth himself." And as "no man ever hated his own flesh," so in "nourishing and cherishing her." he simply "loves his own body".

There is a depth of tenderness in this, which just floods the heart with blessed sympathies. It is love itself which puts the crown of headship upon man; who, in the splendor of this majesty, folds within himself the gentle counterpart of his own being, who wreathes the garland around his brow. She is henceforth one with him in a mystical unity, holier and closer then that which was broken when the flesh ever cleft the side.


Taken from: "The Family" by: B.M. Palmer and J.W. Alexander. Published in 1847