And Let this Feeble Body Fail

"The sufferings of this present time are
not worthy to be compared with the glory
which shall be revealed to us." - Romans 8:18.

And let this feeble body fail,
And let it droop and die;
My soul shall quit the mournful vale,
And soar to worlds on high;
Shall join the disembodied saints,
And find its long-sought rest,
(That only bliss for which it pants)
In my Redeemer's breast.

In hope of that immortal crown,
I now the cross sustain,
And gladly wander up and down,
And smile at toil and pain:
I suffer out my threescore years,
Till my Deliverer come,
And wipe away his servant's tears,
And take his exile home.

Surely he will not long delay:
I hear his Spirit cry,
"Arise, my love, make haste away!
Go, get thee up, and die.
O'er death, who now has lost his sting,
I give thee victory;
And with me my reward I bring,
I bring my heaven for thee."

O what hath Jesus bought for me!
Before my ravished eyes
Givers of life divine I see,
And trees of paradise;
They flourish in perpetual bloom,
Fruit every month they give;
And to the healing leaves who come
Eternally shall live.

I see a world of spirits bright
Who reap the pleasures there;
They all are robed in purest white,
And conquering palms they bear:
Adorned by their Redeemer's grace,
They close pursue the Lamb;
And every shining front displays
The unutterable name.

They drink the vivifying stream,
They pluck the ambrosial fruit,
And each records the praise of him
Who tuned his golden lute:
At once they strike the harmonious wire,
And hymn the great Three-One:
He hears; he smiles; and all the choir
Fall down before his throne.

O what are all my sufferings here,
If, Lord, thou count me meet
With that enraptured host to appear,
And worship at thy feet!
Give joy or grief, give ease or pain,
Take life or friends away:
I come, to find them all again
In that eternal day.

—Charles Wesley, the first verse of which was quoted in Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, volume 2 chapter 11 p368.

Dred

The mouth of the North is stuffed with cotton, and will be kept full as long as it suits us.

—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, volume 2 chapter 32 p537.

Revelations of Divine Love

Before this I had had a great and longing desire that God should give me deliverance from this life. I had often considered the woes of this present world, and the joys and blessedness of the future. Even if there had been no suffering in this life, but no Lord either, I sometimes thought it would have been more than I could have borne. This grieved me, and made me long all the more eagerly. Besides, because of my own wretchedness, slothfulness, and incapacity, I did not want to live and toil as it fell to me to do.

To all this our Lord in his courtesy gave me an answer that brought comfort and patience. He said, "Suddenly you will be taken from all your pain, all your sickness, all your discomfort, and all your woe. You will come up above, with me as your reward, and you will be filled to the full with love and blessedness. Never again will there be any sort of suffering, or unhappiness, or failure of will. It will be all joy and bliss eternally. Why should it grieve you to suffer a while, seeing that this is my will and my glory?

–Dame Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, translated by Clifton Wolters, ch64 p177.

Proverbs 24:21-22

My son, fear the LORD and the king;
Do not associate with those who are given to change,
For their calamity will rise suddenly,
And who knows the ruin that comes from both of them?

—Proverbs 24:21-22 NASB

Barack Obama

I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But ... I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.

—Barack Obama's victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbbIQFcEhcQ

Robert Frost

He thinks if he could teach him that, he'd be
Some good perhaps to someone in the world.

–Robert Frost, The Death of the Hired Man, 1915.

Dred

"Dere's one thing the man said at de last camp-meeting. He preached 'bout it, and I couldn't make out a word he said, 'cause I an't smart about preaching like I be about most things. But he said dis yer so often that I couldn't help 'member it. Says he, it was dish yer way: 'Come unto me, all ye labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'"

"Rest, rest, rest!" said the woman, thoughtfully, and drawing a long sigh. "O, how much I want it!

—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp, volume 1 chapter 8 p96.