The Reverend Kavanaugh led the services at church today, so we sang from the old blue hymnal. #68 (by Isaac Watts, from Psalm 39), which we’ve not often sung, I found particularly worthwhile:<\/p>\n
Teach me the measure of my days,
\nThou Maker of my frame;
\nI would survey life’s narrow space,
\nAnd learn how frail I am.<\/p>\nA span is all that we can boast,
\nAn inch or two of time;
\nMan is but vanity and dust
\nIn all his flower and prime.<\/p>\nSee the vain race of mortals move
\nLike shadows o’er the plain;
\nThey rage and strive, desire and love,
\nBut all the noise is vain.<\/p>\nSome walk in honor’s gaudy show,
\nSome dig for golden ore;
\nThey toil for heirs, they know not who,
\nAnd straight are seen no more.<\/p>\nWhat should I wish or wait for, then,
\nFrom creatures earth and dust?
\nThey make our expectations vain,
\nAnd disappoint our trust.<\/p>\nNow I forbid my carnal hope,
\nMy fond desires recall;
\nI give my mortal interest up,
\nAnd make my God my all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhis puts me in mind of the following (#205, by Charles H Gabriel, from Psalm 103), which is my forever favourite:<\/p>\n
The tender love a father has
\nFor all his children dear,
\nSuch love the Lord bestows on them
\nWho worship Him in fear.<\/p>\nThe Lord remembers we are dust,
\nAnd all our frailty knows;
\nMan’s days are like the tender grass,
\nAnd as the flower he grows.<\/p>\nThe flower is withered by the wind
\nThat smites with blighting breath;
\nSo man is quickly swept away
\nBefore the blast of death.<\/p>\nUnchanging is the love of God,
\nFrom age to age the same,
\nDisplayed to all who do His will
\nAnd reverence His Name.<\/p>\nThose who His gracious cov’nant keep
\nThe Lord will ever bless;
\nTheir children’s children shall rejoice
\nTo see His righteousness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nA friend told me recently that although he doesn’t claim to understand it, he finds the Gospel of John rather beautiful. This morning Mr Oosterbaan read the first chapter or so of it, and I knew what my friend was talking about. It seemed to me John probably rushed home and wrote it the second he got back from the mountain of Transfiguration. Checking it out<\/a> now, it’s interesting to see that Jesus instructed his disciples not to tell anyone the vision until after his resurrection. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Reverend Kavanaugh led the services at church today, so we sang from the old blue hymnal. #68 (by Isaac Watts, from Psalm 39), which we’ve not often sung, I found particularly worthwhile: Teach me the measure of my days, Thou Maker of my frame; I would survey life’s narrow space, And learn how frail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mhjb.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}