Cowper's Grave

         William Cowper (1731-1800) is the writer of such hymns as God moves in a mysterious way, My Saviour Whom absent I love, There is a fountain, and at least three others in the Believer's Hymn Book. In 1719, Cowper collaborated with John Newton (author of Amazing Grace) in publication of a hymnbook, Olney Hymns. Sadly, Cowper suffered severe depression throughout much of his adult life and attempted suicide on numerous occasions. This is the unhappy background to much of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, Cowper's Grave. Here are seven verses out of the total of fourteen. Especially note Browning's grasp of the faithfulness and all-sufficiency of Christ and of His substitutionary death.

1. It is a place where poets crowned may feel the heart's decaying,—
It is a place where happy saints may weep amid their praying:
Yet let the grief and humbleness as low as silence languish!
Earth surely now may give her calm to whom she gave her anguish.

3. And now, what time ye all may read through dimming tears his story.
How discord on the music fell, and darkness on the glory,
And how, when, one by one, sweet sounds and wandering lights departed.
He wore no less a loving face because so broken-hearted.

10. ...Thus woke the poet from the dream his life's long fever gave him,
Beneath those deep pathetic Eyes which closed in death to save him!

11. Thus? O, not thus! No type of earth could image that awaking,
Wherein he scarcely heard the chant of seraphs round him breaking,
Or felt the new immortal throb of soul from body parted,
But felt those eyes alone, and knew, "My Saviour! not deserted!"

12.  Deserted! Who hath dreamt that when the cross in darkness rested,
Upon the Victim's hidden face no love was manifested?
What frantic hands outstretched have e'er the atoning drops averted?
What tears have washed them from the soul, that one should be deserted?

13. Deserted! God could separate from His own essence rather;
And Adam's sins have swept between the righteous Son and Father.
Yea, once, Immanuel's orphaned cry his universe hath shaken, —
It went up single, echoless, "My God, I am forsaken!"

14. It went up from the Holy's lips amid his lost creation,
That, of the lost, no son should use those words of desolation!
That earth's worst frenzies, marring hope, should mar not hope's fruition.
And I, on Cowper's grave, should see his rapture in a vision!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1838

God was pleased to reveal his Son...

        ...in ME! In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul makes a number of astounding comments about how the world may learn of Jesus. This is from chapter 1, verse 16, and it tells us that somehow, by looking at Paul, we can see Jesus. Once we see Jesus in him, he can start to tell us more. In 2:20, Paul tells us that, “Christ lives in me.” The thought is that Paul can’t just do what he likes because now Christ animates his body, much as the dead bones of Ezekiel 37 were re-animated by the breath of God.

        In Chapter three, verse 27, Paul brings his whole argument home—“all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” The previous picture was our body with Christ living in us. Now the image is our body clothed with Christ. When someone looks at us, the vast majority of what they see should be Christ. Romans 13:14 is in the same vein: “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”

        But our “self” is not completely gone when we are clothed with Christ; our face and our hands, at least, still show. God doesn’t take away or overwhelm our individual personalities. David was once a shepherd, whose shepherd-heart, as in Psalm 23, stills shines through. Luke was a physician who cares for the health of the lame beggar at the temple gate (Acts 3:2).

        Finally, in 4:14, we see the effect of the indwelling Christ—the Galatians welcomed Paul “as if [he] were Christ Jesus himself.” If they could have done so, they would have torn out their eyes and given them to him! (4:15) What a challenge to us! Would anybody ever dream of giving us an eye because we need it and are so much like Christ?  

The Upper Room (John 13-17)

 

Man overboard!

        In the May, 2011, issue of this Newsletter, we reviewed Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, Cowper’s Grave. Browning shows the completeness of the sacrifice made at Calvary, and how William Cowper had no need ever to feel forsaken.

        I was reading the story of Jonah and how he brought grief on his sailor friends. Their only hope was to deliberately throw Jonah overboard. The Bible gives us no details of his moments just after hitting the water, but I think Cowper’s poem is appropriate and graphic. Here are a few verses:

 

               THE CASTAWAY

               (four stanzas out of eleven)

               Obscurest night involved the sky,

                   The Atlantic billows roared,
               With such a destined wretch as I,
                   Washed headlong from on board,
               Of friends, of hope, of all bereft,
               His floating home for ever left.

               Not long beneath the whelming brine,

                   Expert to swim, he lay;
               Nor soon he felt his strength decline,
                   Or courage die away;
               But waged with death a lasting strife,
               Supported by despair of life.
               - - - -

               Nor, cruel as it seemed, could he

                   Their haste himself condemn,
               Aware that flight, in such a sea,
                   Alone could rescue them;
               Yet bitter felt it still to die
               Deserted, and his friends so nigh.
               ----

               No voice divine the storm allayed,

                   No light propitious shone,
               When, snatched from all effectual aid,
                   We perished, each alone:
               But I beneath a rougher sea,
               And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.
                                                             William Cowper

         The castaway was washed overboard by accident; his friends threw out boards and casks but couldn’t come about to rescue him. He swam strongly for a while but grew weaker and weaker till he gulped the water and sank.

     Cowper then takes the image from the physical to the spiritual— his castaway friend sank and drowned—he, on the other hand, feared a deeper, eternal, spiritual loss.

        From the hymns and poems that Cowper wrote, we know that he was a true believer, but he had little or no assurance of his salvation. Returning to Browning’s poem about Cowper, she shows how he had every reason to bless the Lord after death, when he...

                Felt the new immortal throb of soul     

                       from body parted,
               But felt those eyes alone, and knew,  
                      “My Saviour! not deserted!”                                                           Ì

River Liffey, Dublin

A few thoughts on prayer and the will of God

        Recently I’ve had several conversations about knowing the will of God. The individuals involved—true Christians—were looking for signs and not really looking for God’s guidelines for choosing “the best”. Later I was amused to read a quotation about Andrew Bonar, about a man looking for signs: “When a man told Bonar he had felt an angel touch him during an illness, Bonar said, “Have you a cat in the house? Don’t you think it may have been the cat?”

        As far as what we should pray for, there are things God has told us—pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for kings and rulers, pray for the salvation of friends and neighbours (and even enemies). We can pray about specifics like a job or a home or a spouse or health. Paul prayed to have his “thorn in the flesh” removed.

        But we can’t make unconditional claims on God or it becomes what I call the eleventh commandment—“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test!” (Deut.6:16) There is a “Christian” book on the market right now that I feel breaks this commandment: The Circle Maker. The blurb says, “When his land was in the grip of a drought in ancient times, Honi Ha’Magel drew a circle in the sand, stepped inside it, and declared that he wouldn’t budge until God sent rain.” It’s less daring than “throwing himself down from the pinnacle of the temple” but it is equally “putting God to the test.” (Mat.4:5-7)

        I’m sure God did send rain eventually but the Scripture quotation that may apply is, God “gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” (Psa.106:15) Something I greatly fear. Even Jesus said, “Not my will but Thine.” We can’t demand things of God or boss Him around. Would we do that to a friend? Would we do that to Jesus? The thought is absurd!     

        Scripture says that the Israelites prayed, but then “didn’t wait for God’s plan to unfold.” (Psa.106:13)  We have to be patient. Here is a suggestion: The next time a difficulty comes up in your life, start journaling it. Record the date and the problem; as events take place, record their dates and details. Follow through until you can say without a doubt, “This is how God’s plan unfolded for me.” Watching God in action, so-to-speak, I’m sure you will be blessed, however it unfolds!   Ì

Michelangelo's Pieta

   Think of the tools necessary to get the body off the cross—a ladder, and a heavy crowbar and spacers, at least, to pull the nails. And loving hands to help hold the body as each nail came out. If you know Michelangelo’s Pieta in the Vatican, it is one of the most heart wrenching scenes imaginable.