When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed him by They never hurt a hair of him, they only let him die; For men had grown more tender, and they would not give him pain, They only passed him down the street, and left him in the rain. Studdert Kennedy G.A....
How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean Are thy returns! ev’n as the flowers of spring; To which, beside their own demean, The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring. Grief melts away Like snow in May, As if there were no such thing. Who would have thought my...
On the outskirts of Jerusalem the donkey waited. Not especially brave, or filled with understanding, he stood and waited. How horses, turned out into the meadow, leap with delight! How doves, released from their cages, clatter away, splashed with sunlight. But the...
'A wolf is not only turned into a sheep, but doth also take to himself a shepherd's nature. It is as if Christ should bring forth with his hand some angel sent from heaven.' John Calvin (1509-64), Commentary, (Acts 9:1-5).
It was the first failure (Mons Officer Training Unit, Aldershot) I’d ever had, but it was salutary. I had begun my National Service as a committed Christian, a Conservative and, I’m sure, a prig. Now priggishness apart, I was none of these things quite, and though I...
Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze...
Here dies another day, During which I have had eyes, ears, hands And the great world around me; And with tomorrow begins another. Why am I allowed two? G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936).
… if all the world Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulse, Drink the clear stream and nothing wear but freize, The all-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, Not half his riches known, and yet despised; And we should serve him as a grudging master, As a...
Imposter! Do not charge most innocent Nature, As if she would her children should be riotous With her abundance. She, good cateress, Means her provision only to the good, That live according to her sober laws, And holy dictate of spare Temperance. If every just man...
Come down, O Christ, and help me! Reach thy hand, For I am drowning in a stormier sea Than Simon on thy Lake of Galilee: The wine of life is spilt upon the sand, Me heart is in some famine-murdered land Whence all good things have perished utterly, And well I know my...
I found Him not in world or sun, Or in eagle’s wing, or insect’s eye; Nor through the questions men may try, The petty cobwebs we have spun:… A warmth within the breast would melt The freezing reason’s coldest part, And like a man in wrath the heart Stood up...
Christmas sets the centre at the edge. And from this day our world is re-aligned; A tiny seed unfolding in the womb Becomes the source from which we all unfold And flower into being. We are healed, The End begins, the tomb becomes a womb, For now in him all things are...