Reviews and Views

…in my opinion.

A Believer’s Death – Gone From My Sight

What follows is a depiction of a believer’s death that should be told at memorial services. It is a poem written by Henry van Dyke.

Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then, someone at my side says; “There, she is gone!”

“Gone where?” Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There, she is gone!” There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout; “Here she comes!”

And that is dying.

June 17, 2023 Posted by | advice, Death, Poem | , | Leave a comment

The Lazy Man

As a door turn on its hinges,
With a sound everyone cringes.
So the lazy one turns on his bed,
While his family needs to be fed.

How long will you sleep?
Is slumber really that deep?
When will you arise?
The sun already shines!

A folding of hands, a little more slumber,
While little ones hunger.
What worth are you man,
But to do what you can?

The world and flesh hang on hinges
Both move in rhythemic binges.
Yet neither are heaven nearer,
Than he that is not a hearer.

December 13, 2022 Posted by | Bible, Culture, Poem | , , , , | 1 Comment

Once To Every Man and Nation

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some new decision,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
Twixt that darkness and that light.
Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet ‘tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own.

James Russell Lowell, 1845
Cited by Paul B. Long in Citizen Soldiers of World War II

I saw this posted on The Watchman’s Bagpipes blog of August 14, 2021 Posted by Glenn E. Chatfield at 10:03 AM

August 15, 2021 Posted by | Culture, Poem | , , , | Leave a comment

Men of Christ

Men of Christ stop your dreaming!
Can’t you see their weapons gleaming?
See their warrior pennants streaming
To this battlefield!

Men of Christ stand you steady.
It cannot ever be said of you
For the battle, you were not ready.
Christians never yield!

From the hills rebounding
Let this war cry sounding
Summon all at Gospel’s call
The mighty force surrounding.

Men of Christ on to glory
This will ever be your story.
Keep these fighting words before you
Christians will not yield!

The original lyrics were “Men of Harlech” or “The March of the Men of Harlech” probably written and used as early as 1461 in Britain.  It is important for Welsh national culture and gained international recognition when it was featured in the 1941 movie How Green Was My Valley and the 1964 film Zulu. You can go to any search engine and find the audio to this song. Here I’m using it to promote the idea that we are in spiritual warfare and need to pay attention to the times we are living in.

August 31, 2017 Posted by | Poem, Religion | Leave a comment

A Ship Adrift

Occasionally, I come across a poem that is interesting and wanted to share this one.

“Caution!” howls the wind as the gale starts to blow.
The third mast is down and over the side; morale is low.
Dangers lie ahead; hidden by the swaying waves,
But the captain drives the crew to some destination he craves.
 
“With all haste, man the oars!” shouts the captain to his crew.
Other orders follow to the reviving few.
Hours turn to days; the storm does not break.
Now is not the time for a single mistake!
 
Hearts grow faint without a compass by day or stars by night.
Survival forces most to look for any respite.
Where is the savior they so desperately pray?
Why should another life be destroyed and tossed away?
 
The ship remained adrift for many days in an unsettling sea.
The exhausted crew begins to contemplate mutiny.
The battered hull begins to seep water when they all hear
The captain say “Be of good cheer.  We have nothing to fear.”
 
The rest of the story remains a mystery of late.
That ship has still not arrived at its destination to date.
With three masts down and sails torn and distrust settling in,
The ship floats helplessly with beaten men spread too thin.
 
Anonymous Author
 
 

April 9, 2012 Posted by | Poem | Leave a comment