Sunday, July 10, 2011

Lost in wonder

It turns out that my young friend Tim, whose practice of using all lowercase letters (except for deity) I mentioned in a previous post, is not irrevocably wed to that idea.

Here is a post he wrote about a year ago that uses conventional English.

I think it is a fitting link for a summer Sunday.

I left the following comment on Tim’s blog:

Another superb post, Tim.

I was Methodist until I was 20, and now, after so many years elsewhere, I am helping with music in a small Methodist church once again. Reading your post, I found myself thinking of Charles Wesley’s wonderful hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”:

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of Heav’n, to earth come down,
Fix in us Thy humble dwelling:
All Thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit
Into ev’ry troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit,
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning,
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith as its beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return, and never,
Nevermore Thy temples leave:
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray, and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish then Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation,
Perfectly restored in Thee:
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.


To help you cool off on this hot July day, here are enough Lutherans to fill an auditorium singing it at the end of a Christmas program (3:17).

5 comments:

  1. oh my gosh, so many lutherians, my fatherinlaw, second marriage was a lutherian, now i can ad these singing to his memory

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  2. Lovely! A certain Episcopalian that I know very well, who was formerly a Southern Baptist, is very, very fond of this hymn. Thank you.

    I hope you and Mrs. RWP have had a lovely Sunday.

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  3. Tim needs to watch his back as the Koran clearly states that Allah will send fire and damnation upon those who fail to follow formal rules regarding the use of capital and small case letters.
    Robert - I may have said before that my wife was raised just four miles from the Wesleys country home at Epworth near Doncaster. I have visited it a couple of times but I didn't pray or sing there.

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  4. Putz, I have had only one marriage, so in the marriage department we are definitely not twins.

    Pat, I think I may know to whom you are referring.

    Lord Yorkshire of Pudding, Wesley spent some time in the colongy of Georgia, and there is a place here called Epworth by the sea.

    Rosezilla (Tracie), I love it, too! The tune in this clip is HYFRODOL by Rowland Pritchard, however. I grew up singing "Love Divine" to the tune BEECHER by John Zundel, p. 22 in the old Cokesbury Hymnal.

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<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...