Friday, January 26, 2024

Wednesday, January 17, 2024

CHARLES WESLEY




St Simons Island Georgia, data from the National Park Service

Fort Frederica was established in 1736 by James Oglethorpe to protect the southern boundary of his new colony of Georgia from the Spanish in Florida. Colonists from England, Scotland, and the Germanic states came to Georgia to support this endeavor.

Charles Wesley In Georgia

Charles Wesley set sail for Georgia on October 21, 1735 with his brother John who was doing missionary work for the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. While John was assigned to be the minister at Savannah, Charles served as General Oglethorpe’s secretary of Indian affairs and minister to the soldiers and settlers of Frederica. He arrived on March 9, 1736 and recorded in his journal, “about three in the afternoon, I first set foot on St. Simons island, and immediately my spirit revived. No sooner did I enter upon my ministry, than God gave me, like Saul, another heart…”

When Charles arrived at Frederica he found very primitive conditions and he held services in the open and small prayer meetings in the temporary palmetto huts the settlers constructed. Preaching, however, was not his only job at Frederica. Seven days after his arrival he recorded in his journal, “I was wholly spent in writing letters for Mr. Oglethorpe. I would not spend six days more in the same manner for all Georgia.”

Wesley was constantly involved in the personal struggles of Frederica’s settlers and quickly earned James Oglethorpe’s disfavor. In his journal, he noted, “At half-hour past seven Mr. Oglethorpe called me out of my hut. I looked up to God, and went. He charged me with mutiny and sedition; with stirring up the people to desert the colony.”

At this point in his life, Charles lacked the physical, emotional and mental stamina needed to cope with such a difficult life on the Georgia frontier. While Charles had no love for the conditions in Georgia, many of the Georgia settlers had no great love for the Wesleys. To recent settlers struggling to survive on the harsh frontier, the immediate needs of safety and survival mattered far more than the strict piety espoused by both John and Charles Wesley.

On May 12, 1736, Charles left Frederica eventually bound for England. He recorded his feelings in his journal, “I was overjoyed at my deliverance out of this furnace, and not a little ashamed of myself for being so."


     Hark! The herald angels sing by Charles Wesley

  1. “Glory to the newborn King;
    Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
    God and sinners reconciled!”
    Joyful, all ye nations rise,
    Join the triumph of the skies;
    With th’angelic host proclaim,
    “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
    • Refrain:
      Hark! the herald angels sing,
      “Glory to the newborn King!”

  2. Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
    Christ the everlasting Lord;
    Late in time, behold Him come,
    Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
    Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
    Hail th’incarnate Deity,
    Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
    Jesus our Emmanuel.
  3. Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
    Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
    Light and life to all He brings,
    Ris’n with healing in His wings.
    Mild He lays His glory by,
    Born that man no more may die;
    Born to raise the sons of earth,
    Born to give them second birth.
  4. Come, Desire of nations, come,
    Fix in us Thy humble home;
    Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
    Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
    Now display Thy saving pow’r,
    Ruined nature now restore;
    Now in mystic union join
    Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.
  5. Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
    Stamp Thine image in its place:
    Second Adam from above,
    Reinstate us in Thy love.
    Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
    Thee, the Life, the inner man:
    Oh, to all Thyself impart,
    Formed in each believing heart.

 

Thursday, December 28, 2023

PRAYER

Wikipedia Commons
Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

"What I mean is this. An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God – that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying – the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on – the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers."
-
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
 

Johnny Appleseed

The Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
The sun and the rain and the apple seed.
The Lord is good to me.

And every seed that grows
Will grow into a tree,
And one day soon there'll be apples there,
For everyone in the world to share.
The Lord is good to me.

When I wake up each morning,
I'm happy as can be,
Because I know that with God's care
The apple trees will still be there.
The Lord's been good to me."  

 

RYAN

 

Sixth Grade

DUKE CHAPEL

https://chapel.duke.edu/sites/default/files/offset-3.jpg

Along the left wall, the university's benefactors—Washington Duke and his two sons, James B. Duke and Benjamin N. Duke—are entombed in three 30-ton, white Carrara marble sarcophagi carved by Charles Keck. Over the altar are three limewood figures: Jesus stands in the center, with St. Paul on the left and St. Peter on the right.

[The son of the sculptor, also name Charles Keck, was Larry's roomate at Duke.]   

James Buchanan Duke, Duke Memorial Chapel

Charles Keck

To the left of the chancel and behind the iron gates is the Memorial Chapel. On the altar are three limewood figures: St. Paul, Jesus, and St. Peter. Entombed in the Memorial Chapel are the benefactors for whom the University is named, Washington Duke and his two sons, Benjamin N. Duke and James B. Duke. The sarcophagi and the Memorial Chapel were gifts of the Duke Memorial Association.

Crypt

Between the Memorial Chapel and the chancel, a flight of steps descends to the crypt. Here are buried the following people: William Preston Few, first president of Duke University; Mrs. Nanaline Holt Duke, wife of James B. Duke; J. Deryl Hart, fourth president of Duke University; Mrs. Mary Johnson Hart, wife of J. Deryl Hart; Terry Sanford, sixth president of Duke University, U.S. Senator, and governor of North Carolina; Mrs. Margaret Rose Sanford, wife of Terry Sanford; The ashes of James A. Thomas, chairman of the Duke Memorial Association; James T. Cleland, former dean of Duke Chapel; and his wife, Mrs. Alice Mead Cleland, are also interred here.

Charles Keck, sculptor

Library of Congress

______________

Robert E Lee


 




A photo of the statue taken in months before it was damaged and then removed, shows Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at the entrance to Duke Chapel in Durham, N.C.
AUGUST 19, 2017

Friday, October 6, 2023

NATIONAL GALLERY

 Video - 'God is the Imagination'

Seeing Kathleen reminds me of how Larry first discovered Kathleen Raine's Blake and Tradition when he was in the sitting room of the National Gallery in Washington DC waiting for me to finish looking at pictures. The Melons were instrumental in envisioning and financing the museum and also sponsored the publication of Raine's book. So that may explain why the book was available there. After that we would sometimes go to the National Gallery just so Larry could read the book, since our local Arlington library didn't have a copy. One cold and rainy Saturday morning we went to the museum but were disappointed - the sitting room was overflowing with anti-war protesters who were looking for a warm spot to dry their clothes and feed their babies. A friend who had a friend who had borrowing privileges at the Library of Congress, borrowed the book for us so that Larry could get a longer look at it.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

HENRY MITCHELL

https://droversgap.substack.com/p/the-fiddler-girl

Nobody played for money

And no one sang for pay,

We only loved the music

And gave our love away;

All who were there with us

Got caught up in our sound,

Dancing in the golden light

And passing love around.

 

Sing to the tune of O Susanna