We Will Feast in the House of Zion
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
That is the closing of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’. Below is a recording of Sandra McCraken’s ‘We Will Feast in the House of Zion’, recording at her congregation, Covenant Presbyterian Church in Nashville. God have mercy.
Smoking Spiritualized
Smoking Spiritualized. II
Ralph Erskine (1685–1752)
WAS this small plant for thee cut down?
So was the plant of great renown,
Which Mercy sends
For nobler ends.
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 5
Doth juice medicinal proceed
From such a naughty foreign weed?
Then what ’s the power
Of Jesse’s flower?
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 10
The promise, like the pipe, inlays,
And by the mouth of faith conveys
What virtue flows
From Sharon’s rose:
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 15
In vain the unlighted pipe you blow—
Your pains in outward means are so,
Till heavenly fire
Your heart inspire:
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 20
The smoke like burning incense towers;
So should a praying heart of yours
With ardent cries
Surmount the skies:
Thus think, and smoke tobacco. 25
Thomas Cole’s ‘The Oxbow’
‘View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow’
