Book Review: Seasons of Clear Shining

  

         Seasons of Clear Shining

by Meg Sharpe and Arthur C. Dixon

Fountaria Canada,

Brampton, Ontario 2016

Hardcover, 151 + 9 pages

     When I first set eyes on this book and its cover, I didn’t know just where it was going. But because I know Arthur Dixon, I was glad to take the chance and buy it. My wife and I had just suffered what looked to be a grievous financial loss. We were reeling from what seemed like a let-down by God himself. How wonderful to read on page 4, an appropriate quotation from Brother Lawrence (1605-1691): “Let all our employment be to know God…and if our love for God were great, we should love him equally in pains and pleasures.”

        I was well into the book when the thought struck me, “I’m full! I’m overflowing! How much more of this wonderful stuff can there be?” And I looked and there were eighty more pages! Don’t do as I did, though. It’s a devotional— read only one or two pages at a time.

      The title is based on a poem by William Cowper, quoted in the preface:

“When comforts are declining,  

      he grants the soul again,

A season of clear shining,    

      to cheer it after rain.”

To Dixon and Sharpe, “clear shining” comes after “rain”. And just as the subtitle says (rediscovering Jesus in great songs of the faith), they have seen this clear shining in their selection of hymns. The clear shining is far more than just the knowledge that the believer is safe for eternity. The clear shining is learning more about Jesus and seeing him more clearly “after rain” (or even after hurricanes). A beam of God’s light illuminates something for our spirit, in each poem, that we might never have noticed without the commentary.

       Encouragement and blessing pour from every page. A few examples:—(p.47) "the primary mandate of our triune God” is “to love him with our heart and soul and mind and strength”, not to “check our brains at the church door [A.C.Dixon]”; (p.53) “Jesus’ hands were kind hands [Margaret Cropper]”; (p.73) “nations… civilizations—these are mortal…it is immortals whom we joke with, work with… [C.S.Lewis]”; (p.74) “take thou my cup, and it with joy or sorrow fill [Horatius Bonar]”; (p.79) “deepest thanks that I have another life to look forward to—a life joyous with light and flowers and heavenly song [Helen Keller].” I could go on, because there are scores of examples. Instead let’s turn to some of the technical aspects of the book.

       For starters, one of the most noticeable changes, and one that might upset some traditionalists, is the discontinuance of capitals on pronouns referring to Deity.  However, this is in keeping with KJV and NIV (Cf. John 3:32-35). I learned at least two new words: “misotheist” and “fluffernutter”! And what can I say of the pictures? —a perfect complement of detail and illustration to satisfy the reader’s need for visual commentary as well. 

        Finally, something that may be just a matter of taste, but a practice that, for me, occasionally removes the book from “timelessness” and sets it down in our very limited and changeable “now”. This is the mention of certain people and organizations. I would rather not hear of Dawkins or Sarfati, of Nye or the Vineyard Movement, of abortion atrocities, or ICR, or Randy Guliuzza. I would rather, as the vast majority of the book does, keep my eyes on Jesus.

        Let me finish with two quotations that every Christian needs to apply to their own life—that I need to apply to my life. “We read the apostle Peter’s exclamation in Acts 10:14, ‘By no means, Lord!’ No, Lord?” (p.74) The other quote is on p.60: “Young kids love to shout, ‘Daddy, look at me!’…In the same spirit we ought to say, ‘Lord Jesus, look!’ in every action, every thought. If we can’t, we need to ask, ‘Should I be involved in this at all?’”