Strong to save
May 26, 2008 Americana, Faith and Works
Staten Island pier, Fleet Week
Originally uploaded by Ron Coleman
Two verses I sang, as a high school men’s choir tenor:
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
These men and women did and do place themselves in mortal peril all around the world so the likes of us can write self-indulgent blogs without fearing even for a second the peril that our ancestors, in whatever place they were, lived with at every moment in their own homes — the perils of tyranny, of arbitrary violence and of comprehensive destruction of their entire worlds.
This Memorial Day we are morally obliged to thank them, to remember them, and to thank no less the God Who has given so much victory and might to their hands and to ours; and we are obliged as well to live our lives to and demand of our civilization a standard of moral and civic quality that merits the bestowing of such grace today and tomorrow.
May 30th, 2008 at 4:12 am
Huzzah, hurrah and all like that.
This is a pretty good graf:
“This Memorial Day we are morally obliged to thank them, to remember them, and to thankno less the God Who has given so much victory and might to their hands and to ours; and we are obliged as well to live our lives to and demand of our civilization a standard of moral and civic quality that merits the bestowing of such grace today and tomorrow.”
Not great but pretty good.
June 1st, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Thanks, Craig. I agree. It’s not great. I knew it when I posted it. But I thought it was good enough to post. And I was really tired.
That is our medium!