31 Days of Song, Day #20

Only five days until Christmas!  I'm so excited.  I'm really thankful to live where I live--somewhere out of a big city where there's hardly any crowds, but we have everything we need right here.  It's such a blessing.

"Come, Thou Redeemer of the Earth" is a Christmas song I'd never heard before, but I find it very beautiful now that I've discovered it.  The best version I could find of it is in the credits of a movie.  Try as I might, I cannot figure out what the last verse is saying.

Let every age adoring fall;

Such birth befits the God of all.

* I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. Job 19:25

This carol stretches back into the early, misty centuries of Christian history.  It was written by the mighty Ambrose, bishop of Milan, whose personal story is as remarkable as his carol is wonderful.

   Ambrose was born about AD 340 in Gaul (modern France), where his father was governor before moving his family to Rome.  In the empire's capital, Ambrose became a noted poet, a skilled orator, and a respected lawyer.  At age thirty-four, he was named governor of an Italian province and headquartered in Milan.

   A crisis arose in Milan after the death of popular Bishop Auxentius as the city argued about his replacement.  Tensions ran high.  Assembling the people, Ambrose used his oratorical powers to appeal for unity; but while he was speaking, a child reportedly cried out, "Let Ambrose be bishop!"  The crowd took up the chant, and the young governor, to his dismay, was elected the city's pastor.

   Taking the call seriously, Ambrose became a great preacher and a deft defender of true doctrine.  He wrote books and treatises, sermons, hymns, and letters.  He tended Milan as a shepherd would.  Under his preaching a young, hot-blooded infidel named Aurelius Augustine was converted to Christ, and St. Augustine went on to become one of the greatest heroes in the history of Christian theology.

   Ambrose continued preaching until he fell sick in AD 397.  When distressed friends prayed for his healing, he replied, "I have so lived among you that I cannot be ashamed to live longer, but neither do I fear to die; for we have a good Lord."  On Good Friday, April 3, Ambrose lay with his hands extended in the form of the cross, moving his lips in prayer.  His friends huddled in sadness and watched.  Sometime past midnight, their beloved bishop passed to his good Lord.

   Sixteen centuries have come and gone, and today the hymns of Ambrose are better known than his sermons.  His beloved Christmas carol, "Veni, Redemptor gentium," was translated from Latin by John Mason Neale in 1862 and set to a lovely, lilting fifteenth-century melody named PUER NOBIS NASCITUR.

Come, thou Redeemer of the earth,

And manifest thy virgin birth

Let every age adoring fall:

Such birth befits the God of all.

Begotten of no human will,

But by the Spirit, Thou art still,

The Word of God in flesh arrayed,

The promised Fruit to man displayed.

The virgin womb that burden gained

With virgin honour all unstained;

The banners there of virtue glow;

God in His temple dwells below.

Forth from his chamber goeth he,

That royal home of purity,

A giant, in twofold substance one,

Rejoicing now his course to run.

From God the Father he proceeds,

To God the Father back he speeds;

His course he runs to death and hell,

Returning on God's throne to dwell.

O equal to the Father, thou!

Gird on thy fleshly mantle now;

The weakness of our mortal state

With deathless might invigorate.

Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,

And darkness breathe a newer light

Where endless faith shall shine serene

And twilight never intervene

All glory to the Father be;

Glory, enternal Son, to thee;

All glory, as is ever meet,

To God the Holy Paraclete. Amen.

* excerpt taken from Then Sings My Soul Special Edition by Robert Morgan, pages 40-41

WOW #2

So, back in January I wrote this post, fully intending to post things like it regularly.  Ha!  I'll try to be more consistent this time around.  Here's some quotes, poems, etc., that I hope will bless you today.

Positive Character Traits (1 Cor. 13:4-5)

• I am patient with you because I love you and want to forgive you.
• I am kind to you because I love you and want to help you.
• I do not envy your possessions or your gifts because I love you and want you to have the best.
• I do not boast about my attainments because I love you and want to hear about yours.
• I am not proud because I love you and want to esteem you before myself.
• I am not rude because I love you and care about your feelings.
• I am not self-seeking because I love you and want to meet your needs.
• I am not easily angered by you because I love you and want to overlook your offenses.
• I do not keep a record of your wrongs because I love you, and “love covers a multitude of sins.”

-- Jerry Bridges

Make your complaint, tell Him how obscure everything still looks to you, and beg Him to complete your cure. He may see fit to try your faith and patience by delaying this completion; but meanwhile you are safe in His presence, and while led by His hand, He will excuse the mistakes you make and pity your falls. But you will imagine that it is best that He should at once enable you to see clearly. If it is, you may be sure He will do it. He never makes mistakes. But He often deals far differently with His disciples. He lets them grope their way in the dark until they fully learn how blind they are, how helpless, how absolutely in need of Him.

What His methods will be with you I cannot foretell. But you may be sure that He never works in an arbitrary way. He has a reason for everything He does. You may not understand why He leads you now in this way and now in that, but you may, nay, you must believe that perfection is stamped on His every act. -- Elizabeth Prentiss

To always be intending to live a new life, but never find time to set about it—this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking from one day to another till he be starved and destroyed. -- Sir Walter Scott

The Lord be praised for all His tender mercies and loving-kindnesses—unceasing and unwearying as His love. My continual shortcomings, and oftcoming for forgiveness again and again, does not exhaust Him. I should have wearied out the whole host of heaven before this; but Jesus is never wearied with hearing the cries of His poor tried and tempted saints. Always are they welcome, and I think the oftener I go the more welcome I am. Not a frown upon that countenance towards one who really feels his need of Him. A smiling welcome, fraught with mighty blessings, which, while it gladdens the heart, fills the soul with a humbling sense of its own vileness, humbled in self, exalted in Christ. -- Mary Winslow

Light Shining Out of Darkness

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

-- William Cowper

O Lord, if it is not springtime in my chilly heart, I pray You make it so, for I am tired of living at a distance from You. When will You bring this long and dreary winter to an end? Come, Holy Spirit, and renew my soul! Quicken me, restore me, and have mercy on me! This very night I earnestly implore you, Lord, to take pity upon Your servant and send me a happy revival of spiritual life! -- Charles Spurgeon

Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend. -- Charles Spurgeon

O gift of gifts! O grace of faith!
My God! how can it be
That Thou, who has discerning love,
Shouldst give that gift to me?

How many hearts Thou mightest have had
More innocent than mine!
How many souls more worthy far
Of that sweet touch of Thine?

Oh, grace! Into unlikeliest hearts
It is thy boast to come,
The glory of Thy light to find
In darkness spots a home.

Oh, happy, happy that I am!
If thou canst be, O faith
The treasure that thou art in life
What wilt thou be in death?

-- Elizabeth Prentiss

In this, the hour of our calamity and peril, to whom shall we resort . . . but to the God of our fathers? -- Abraham Lincoln

Always add, always walk, always proceed; neither stand still, nor go back, nor deviate; he that standeth still proceedeth not; he goeth back that continueth no; he deviateth that revolteth; he goeth better that creepeth in his way than he that moveth out of his way. -- Augustine

Lord, evermore Thy face we seek:
Tempted we are, and poor, and weak;
Keep us with lowly hearts, and meek.
Let us not fall. Let us not fall.

-- Charles Spurgeon

For helping and hiding the Jews, my father, my brother’s son, and my sister all died in prison. My brother survived his imprisonment, but died soon afterward. Only Nollie, my older sister, and I came out alive.

So many times we wonder why God has certain things happen to us. We try to understand the circumstances of our lives, and we are left wondering. But God’s foolishness is so much wiser than our wisdom.

From generation to generation, from small beginnings and little lessons, He has a purpose for those who know and trust Him.

God has no problems—just plans!

-- Corrie ten Boom