Great work by a true saint and pastor of the Church. To read through these poems is to do a Bible study of the highest quality. The beauty of these poems, however, is that, even if you read them as prose, they still speak with a powerful and beautiful voice.įinally, as the late Princeton Seminary theologian Diogenes Allen never tired of pointing out, the poems of The Temple are positively drenched in Scriptural references, allusions, and teachings. The poems are written in a wide range of style and variety. My biggest problem with The Temple is that I don't read a lot of poetry, so I frequently had trouble with the meter of the verses. And "The Sacrifice," the second poem in The Temple, is a biblical/devotional/spiritual tour-de-force which brilliantly, and powerfully, expresses the grief of Christ as He undergoes His Passion. The Country Parson still, after four centuries, has words of truth and wisdom for any and all who would aspire to leadership in the church. Written nearly 400 years ago, these texts still speak powerfully to the heart of Christian life and discipleship. Composed of two main sections, "The Country Parson," and "The Temple," which is a series of poems about the life and ministry of Jesus, the mission of the Church, and the teachings of the Bible. "Beauty and beauteous words should go together." The Forerunners, 30Ī classic of spiritual theology. I stood amazed at this,//Much troubled, till I heard a friend express,//That all things were more ours by being his.//What Adam had, and forfeited for all,//Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall." "But to have nought is ours, not to confess//That we have nought. "Who wants the place, where God doth dwell,//Partakes already half of hell." Time, 23-24 "Man is the world's high Priest he doth present//The sacrifice for all " Providence, 13-14 "Prayers chas'd syllogisms into their den,//And Ergo was transform'd into Amen." The Church Militant, 55-56 "Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?//He is brittle crazy glass://Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford//This glorious and transcendent place,//To be a window, through thy grace." The Windows, 1-5 "Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,//Which my God feels as blood but I as wine." The Agony, 17-18 "I answer nothing but with patience prove//If stony hearts will melt with gentle love." The Sacrifice, 89-90 "A broken altar, Lord, thy servant rears,//Made of a heart, and cemented with tears" The Altar, 1-2 Wit's an unruly engine, wildly striking//Sometimes a friend, sometimes the engineer.//Hast thou the knack? pamper it not with liking://But if thou want it, buy it not too dear.//Many affecting wit beyond their power,//Have got to be a dear fool for an hour.// Pick out of mirth, like stones out of the ground,//Profaneness, filthiness, abusiveness.//These are the scum, with which coarse wits abound://The fine may spare these well, yet not go less.//All things are big with jest: nothing that's plain,//But may be witty, if thou hast the vein.// ![]() Laugh not too much: the witty man laughs least://For wit is only news to ignorance.//Less at thing own things laugh lest in the jest//Thy person share, and the conceit advance.//Make not thy sport, abuses: for the fly//That feeds in dung, is colored thereby.// "When thou dost tell another's jest, therein//Omit the oaths, which true wit cannot need://Pick out of tales the mirth, but not the sin." Perirrhanterium, 61-63 It is my custom to read some volume of poetry every year, always out loud. The Temple is as moving of a work today as The Country Parson is not. Most of all, we see a soul in love with God, one who craved fellowship with His creator and laid all at His feet. As a poet, Herbert writes not just deftly but revealingly as well as memorably. The latter, The Temple, is a loosely joined collation of his poetry. ![]() Herbert knew how to turn a phrase, so there are memorable lines, but on the whole it is relatively useless for two reasons: first, he wrote it prior to pastoring, and as such it is his meditation on what a pastor should be without actually having been a pastor yet, and second, it hews strictly to the time/place in which he was and is thus of little practical value in our day. The former, The Country Parson, is his meditation on the proper manner for a rural Anglican priest to conduct himself and shepherd his parish. His two major works, unpublished in his own lifetime, are included in this volume. ![]() George Herbert, a devoted 17th century Anglican priest, died young.
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