Hallelujah! what a Savior!

"Man of Sorrows," what a name
For the Son of God who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim!
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood;
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Guilty, vile and helpless, we;
Spotless Lamb of God was He;
"Full atonement" can it be?
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die,
"It is finished," was His cry;
Now in heav'n exalted high;
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!

· Philip P. Bliss, 1875

He is Risen! 

He is Risen indeed!

The Key to the Riddle

Thanks to the suggestion of a friend, this winter I was introduced to a new [old] author. While I cannot find much online about the author other than that she was born in 1851, Margaret S. Comrie managed to pull me into a story set in an era of history I do not usually enjoy. 

The Key to the Riddle, A Story of Huguenot Days is a sweet and stirring story with a wide range of characters, mystery, plots, and surprises. More importantly, it is full of true, biblical encouragement for any who feel their life has not gone as hoped or planned.

Not wanting to give any spoilers, I still must share this excerpt from the end of the book:

"'Soon, however, there sounded in my ears the words, 'He led them forth by the right way,' and certes, I told myself there could be for me, Leon Montoux, no other way but His.'

'Next, I minded me of these bygone years, and the pains our Father God has taken to teach us that there is no cause for us to fret over the riddle, when we know it is His hand that holds the key.'

"Azerole lifted up her head, smiling through her tears. 'And methinks that even this perverse Azerole has learnt that, when we know it is Divine Love that has turned the key, it would ill become the hand of faith to try and force the lock.'"

 

Don't let the historical language turn you off. If you struggle with the old-fashioned words or, as in my case, stumble over French names and exclamations, I can recommend the free audiobook on LibriVox.org. I cannot know how accurate volunteer-Angela's pronunciations are, but her reading was clear and engaging.

"When we know it is Divine Love

that has turned the key,

it would ill become the hand of faith

to try and force the lock."

The Key to the Riddle

Margaret S. Comrie

[I took the door photos while wandering around an overseas convent back in 2012.]

Spring Sunshine and Pain

 

Spring is coming! And though that means much more pain for Elsa and me, we're looking for the hidden beauties God is giving each day.

The quote in my recent post by C.M. Yonge came to mind often last week as strength has dropped to a "can't even knit" level many days. 

We are thankful for some sunshine in which to "be still and know that [He] is God."

Unpacking

 

Five weeks ago the temperature was 25 degrees below zero when we pulled the little Rpod away from our snowy home.

Two weeks ago we were soaking up sunshine and salt water in temperatures 90-110 degrees warmer.

"Let all the earth fear the LORD;

let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him!

For He spoke, and it came to be;

He commanded, and it stood firm."

- Psalm 33:8-9

Now we are unpacking and recovering from four straight days on the road, hence less posts these weeks.

The Exercise of Being Still

"All I can dare to recommend, is patience and self-control. Don't fret and agitate yourself about what you can't do, but do your best to do calmly what you can. It will be made up, depend upon it."

"But how am I to keep from thinking, Maurice? The weaker I am, the more I think."

"Ah! Albinia, you want to learn, as poor Queen Anne of Austria did, that docility in illness may be self-resignation into higher Hands. 

"Perhaps you despise it, but it is no mean exercise of strength and resolution to be still."

- from The Young Stepmother by Charlotte Mary Yonge

Both this portrait and the photograph above are of British author Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901). The few of her works which I have read so far show a depth of understanding of a wide variety of characters and life situations. (Could her extensive knowledge of history, from ancient times on, have aided this?)

While I did not enjoy this book half as much as other Yonge works such as The Daisy Chain, The Trial and The Dove in the Eagle's Nest, this little conversation between a brother and sister contains so much good advice for those of us with chronic illness that I thought it worth sharing. 

Old Projects to Complete

Mom's sorting of the cedar closet unearthed an unfinished project I didn't remember having seen before. 

My paternal Grandma had pieced a stack of squares from polyester scraps left from clothing my aunt. The project somehow ended up with me now, so I trimmed the squares to size last summer and made one more block. But when extra polyester was found in the sorting of more fabric in our basement, I decided to add one more row to make a comfortable lap-quilt. That step is still waiting, as are blanket-stitching and assembling. 





Another long-time inmate of the cedar closet was my third hooked-rug. (Have I mentioned that we were first introduced to hooked rugs on our Canadian Maritime Province camping trip years ago? That was only one of the novel charms of the Cabot Trail.)



This winter was warmed by several more days of pulling colorful loops of wool strips through burlap. All that remains is to bind the edges.

Never Too Old for Children's Literature

A children's story which is
enjoyed only by children is
a bad children's story.
The good ones last.

C.S. Lewis

"Where the children's story is simply the right form for what the author has to say, then of course readers who want to hear that, will read the story or re-read it, at any age. ... I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story. The good ones last. 

"...the neat sorting-out of books into age-groups, so dear to publishers, has only a very sketchy relation with the habits of any real readers. Those of us who are blamed when old for reading childish books were blamed when children for reading books too old for us. No reader worth his salt trots along in obedience to a time-table."

C.S. Lewis On Three Ways of Writing for Children

"Some such readers, in virtue of
their hearts being young and old
both at once, discern more in the
children's books than the children
themselves."

George MacDonald in 
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood

"But I find I have been forgetting that those for whom I write are young -- too young to understand this. Let it remain, however, for those older persons who at an odd moment, while waiting for dinner, or before going to bed, may take up a little one's book, and turn over a few of its leaves. Some such readers, in virtue of their hearts being young and old both at once, discern more in the children's books than the children themselves."

George MacDonald in Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood

[NOTE: Please never take the word of any Christian author for ultimate truth, but rather check it against the Bible. MacDonald was a fallible man with some unorthodox/unbiblical beliefs and both he and Lewis were also influenced by the unbiblical evolutionary worldview. That said, their works contain so many gems that draw me closer to the Saviour.]