An Exceptional Read

This poor blog hasn't seen much activity since the first of the year and I don't know that I've been on at all. This is about to be remedied... Predictably, I'm going to say something along literary lines. :) I just finished Makers of Religious Freedom in the 17th Century this evening and found it to be very enjoyable; slightly slow in a few sections but I knew next to nothing about three of the men and it was well written. It gives roughly 50 page biographies on four men--Scottish Covenanters Alexander Hendersen and Saumel Rutherford, and English Puritans John Bunyan and Richard Baxter. One of the things I found most intriguing was the wide and hugely varied kinds of men they were, and how the Lord used them. They were everything from landed gentlemen to men of the lowest social class and they each filled a particular role in the shaping of their national histories. Of particular interest was the fact that, although they all desired to lead lives devoted to their own congregations, they each had to deal heavily in politics and all but Hendersen truly suffered persecution--either in the form of being exiled or suffering imprisonment. I was startled at how much unrest and threat to true Christianity was present, particularly in the life of Baxter.

It was a pleasant surprise to find beautiful and poetic language flowing so freely from their pens. This is a selection from Richard Baxter's Poetical Fragments that closed the book.

Now it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live:
To love and serve Thee is my share:
And this Thy grace must give.

If lie be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey:
If short: yet why should I be sad,
That shall have the same pay?

Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before:
He that into God's Kingdom comes
Must enter by this door

Come, Lord, when Grace hath made me meet
Thy blessed Face to see:
For if Thy work on earth be sweet,
What will Thy glory be?

My knowledge of that Life is small;
The Eye of Faith is dim:
But it's enough that Christ knows all;
And I shall be with Him.

Our Newest Little Cousin

Valentine Cookies

Becca and I had so much fun in the kitchen the other day. Here is what we did...

Half if the top cookie was dipped in almond bark.

Then drizzled with chocolate.

And made into a cookie sandwich!
All packed and ready to ship to grandparents. :)

To a Young Girl Singing

Oh, what do you know of the song, my dear,
And how have you made it your own?
You have caught the turn of the melody clear,
And you give it again with a golden tone,
Till the wonder-word and the wedded note
Are flowing out of your beautiful throat
With a liquid charm for every ear:
And they talk of your art,--but for you alone
The song is a thing, unheard, unknown;
You only have learned it by rote.

But when you have lived for awhile, my dear,
I think you will learn it anew!
For a joy will come, or a grief, or a fear,
That will alter the look of the world for you;
And the lyric you learned as a bit of art,
Will wake to life as a wonderful part
Of the love you feel so deep and true;
And the thrill of a laugh or the throb of a tear,
Will come with your song to all who hear;
For then you will know it by heart.

Henry van Dyke