Sunday, March 3, 2024

At Easter

At Easter by Kate A. Bradley

I wonder if the anguished moon looked
down
Through all that long last night
And buried in her scarred breast, lean and
brown,
The memory of that sight!
I wonder of th' uneasy birds awoke
As glowed that strange, great light
Which paled the purple east where morn-
ing broke.
And sang, inspired by God's own breath,
"There is no death! There is no death!" 

There is no death, O hearts that throb in
vain
With longing, pulsing tide,
Or in love's fullness, nigh akin to pain,
Unfearing abide;
There is no death, O soul whom niggard
fate
Has left unsatisfied.
The cycles swing and joy those lips await
Who oft have sung on earth in pain,
"I rise again! I rise again!"

No sacrifice, O Self, can blot thee out,
Or satisfy the debt
Which binds thee to the usurer of doubt
With interest of regret!
Still is not life to even thee denied:
One way remaineth yet-
As was thy Christ, must thou be crucified.
But with those wounds in hands and feet,
E'en Self finds resurrection sweet!

Rejoice, O soul whose work is just begun,
That all time lies before!
Rejoice, O heart whose treasure all have
won
That dimmer, farther shore!
The stone that angels moved away that
night
Was rolled from Heaven's door;
Awake and stand forth in hope's sudden
 light,
And sing as sang the birds that morn:
"There is no death, for Life is born!"

Saturday, March 2, 2024

The Risen Life

        Easter is a season of joy and flowers-let it be also a time for spiritual awakening and the growth of faiths; it is a season when joyful chorals are sung on every hand - let it be also marked by generous charities and Christ-like ministries to those who now sit in the shadow of death, or who pine in the desserts of a religionless experience. Resurrection should not all of it be postponed until the last day - much of it may take place on earth in redeemed hearts and evangelized society. It should be remembered that the Lord is even now by his spirit converting hearts to the likeness of a higher life. Resurrection thus becomes a continual process, consummated at last in the skies, where it reaches the plane of a perfect life. The Lord, if we believe and are faithful, will perfect that which concerneth us. 

"Why Come Ye At Break of Morning?"

What Easter Owes to Good Friday

        I love Easter, with its tranquil certitude that death is vanquished. Easter! It is a brightness of the soul more beautiful than the brightness of the day, more evident than the sun. I would that I could carry into all hearts filled with shadow, veiled in mourning, a ray of that divine dawn.
       Why, then, do so many Christians fail to catch the vivifying secret of this royal day?
       It is because they do not know what Easter owes to Good Friday. The glory of Easter is not directly accessible to us. To conquer it we must pass through the "via dolorosa." Such is the meaning of the Scripture. Superficial man sees the spirit of God only in the miracle that reads the rock of the tomb into fragments, and he stretches out his hand to grasp the miracle; but his hand remains empty. The Christian soul throughout the ages is not thus deceived. It says, "From the Cross, the Crown."
       Thou tellest me, brother, that thou canst not believe in the Easter message. Thou dost not astonish me beyond measure. Didst thou see the Christ die? And those who, like Him, die for love of others? Hast thou felt the greatness of those vanquished for God, for justice? Hast thou wished to be able to die like them? If these things are unknown to thee, how canst thou discern the Easter message? Thou hast not the eyes to bear the light.
       The crucible of life is terrible. In our nights, in our dungeons, in our supreme struggles, show us not the Risen, but the Crucified One! It is from His dead eyes that the eternal dawn of Easter is kindled. To die as He died, to die with Him, is to spell the unknown Verb of the true life. There is no other school to liberate men from the hideous chains of all their slaveries, and from the most awful of all--their slavery to death. There is no other school that does this but the school of the Cross.
       If, then, thou wouldst bathe thy soul in the victorious brightness of Easter, know this: Easter is the supernatural daylight: Good Friday the night of anguish, from whose bosom the cry arises on the air, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
       But do not misapprehend -- this light comes from that night. There, in the thick darkness, opens the door into the "kingdom that cometh not with observation."
       It is Thou, O Christ! It is Thy spirit which is the Resurrection and the Life! Have pity upon us who are children in faith! Thou Who hast trod the dust of our earth! Thou Who hast passed through our twilights! Thou Who hast lain with us in the tomb, that the tomb might be less dark! Holy Victim of Calvary! Man of Sorrows! May our souls across our humble religious symbols be granted a glimpse of Thine ineffable grandeur.
       Come and tell us words of life, Thou Who art eternal! Sound the awakening in our torpor, in our lassitude! Sound the trumpet of morning through the night of our graves!
       And in this Easter time may all that is divine in us thrill and rise in holy insurrection against death and all its conspirators, and for life and all its alliances. Amen. by Charles Wagner.
 

 Sandi Patty sings "Via Dolorosa"

Thursday, February 29, 2024

A nostalgic cross stitch by Helen Grant

       This design by Helen Grant includes: old-fashioned children (the boy with a hoop and girl with bonnet), birds, roses, peacocks, butterfly and cat. Find more patterns by her in the links below.

        The text on this needle point pattern reads:

"My portion is not large indeed, 
But then how little do I need? 
For Nature's calls are few-
In this the art of living lies:
To want no more than my suffice,
And make that little do. 
wrought by "

Pussy Willow Poem

Illustrated "Pussy Willows" by Cora M V Preble.

The little pussy willows
Upon the small, brown trees
Lie sleeping in their cradles,
Arocking in the breeze.

And every pussy willow,
So fat and round and small,
Is dreaming in the sunshine,
And curled up in a ball.

Such funny little fellows
In fuzzy coats of fur-
I wonder, if I stroked them,
Would pussy willows purr?

An Easter Significance

The Burial Procession from Christian Clip Art Review.
 

        "This is one of the Easter significances of death, that through it, God is transferring our affections, our longings, our hopes, our plans, from earth to heaven-from the testing-place to the dwelling place, from the dark valley of preparation to the shining lights of eternal realization. He weans us over, as it were, from earth to heaven, by taking our loved ones to himself, and leading after them our hearts' desires and our sanctified imaginations and hopes. All the beauties and glories of the apocalyptic vision might make no appeal to us, satisfied as we are with this earth where our loved ones dwell, if God did not endear to us the city which is to be our eternal home by calling some of our cherished ones to dwell there. Then immediately our longings to go out to it, we dream of it, we live so as to be more fit for it." author unknown.

Dani and Lizzy sing "Dancing In The Sky"

"Consider The Lilies" by Ethel Halton


Iris die cut.


Consider The Lilies

Within the rich man's garden
Full many a flower was seen,
With crowns of gold and crimson
On cups of emerald green. 
 
They brought the dead King thither,
And every flower in bloom
Bowed down its head in sorrow
About the Savior's tomb.
 
But see- the white-winged angels
Have rolled the stone away,
And 'mid the flowers only
The white grave cerements lay.

Next day they sought to find them;
Lo! rising where they fell,
Like the white hand of an angel,
Waved there - a lily's bell.
 
So pure, so white, and spotless
It pointed in the air,
As if to tell new comers
That He had risen there.
 
Born of His white robes fallen,
Like white leaves folded up,
They found a scepter gold and small
Within each fragrant cup.
 
And so amid the blossoms
Of the rich man's fragrant bowers
Was born the Easter lily-
The angel of the flowers.

Sunday, April 9, 2023

The Resurrection of Christ

 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
RT. REV. SAMUEL FALLOWS, D. D.

       TAKE clear the fact of the resurrection of Christ, it will be a fact that chimes with humanity’s unutterable longings, and fits in as the key-stone of the radiant arch of its hopes. Make clear that fact, and then, as the meridian sun brings out in all their boldness the mountains, and in all their beauty, the swarded valleys faintly described in the dim twilight, so will a risen Sun of righteousness bring out these hints, and truths, and ideas, in controlling power over the intellect, and influence over the practical life. Make clear that fact, and one simple-minded Christian believer, full of resurrection power, shall chase a thousand carping rationalists, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. Our faith in God, asks of God—a risen Redeemer.
       St. Paul claims, if Christ be not risen, faith in Him is vain. So interwoven with the very life, and teachings, and death of Christ was the truth of His resurrection, that to deny the latter would be to destroy, root and branch, all faith in Him as Teacher and Savior. He had said, “ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again.” After the surpassing glory of the transfiguration, he had commanded, “ Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead.”
       He must either have been unconsciously deceived, and then he would have shown himself a weak, erring man, and no longer entitled to the claim of a teacher sent from God; or he must have been a willful impostor, and thus have sunk in the mire trodden beneath the feet of indignant, deluded men. If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; your faith in Him as a Savior is vain. Your Christian consciousness is a nullity, and a He. There has been no atonement Ye are yet in your sins. Life, death, resurrection, all enter into the redeeming work of Christ He was “delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.” “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” No resurrection, no salvation.
       He asserts of the apostles: “We are found false witnesses.” We, who were fully competent by reason of our numbers, to be believed, for there were the eleven apostles, the two Marys, Cleopas the most of the seventy, and five hundred others beside. Nearly all were living, and ready to testify. Fully competent, as to our powers of judgment and varied experience; fully competent, from the opportunities we have enjoyed of knowing the facts to which we bear witness. We have been with the Savior; we have known him intimately; we have treasured up His words. His image is stamped upon our hearts; we beheld His miracles; we knew he was crucified; we went to the tomb, expecting to find the body there; we saw Him alive again; we saw His pierced hands and wounded side; we heard the familiar voice; we received our high commission; we saw Him ascend into glory.
       We have gained nothing, from an earthly standpoint, but loss of home, of friends, of reputation. We are made the filth and off scouring of the world. We are made a spectacle unto angels and to men. Stripes, bonds, imprisonment are before us. The headsman’s axe glitters in the sun. “To the Hons, to the Hons!” rings in our ears. Covered with pitch, and set on fire, we shall light the streets of Rome by midnight! If in this hope only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
       How the apostle, with jubilant utterance, turns away from the loathsome impossibility he has presented.
       “Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” The irrefutable fact stands forth in all its glorious majesty and infinite sweep of meaning.
       The Gospel records must be torn to tatters, and scattered with the rent sybilline leaves, never more to be gathered. The whole colossal fabric of Christianity must have been built upon an abyss. The head and founder of the Church must have been created by the Church. A man must have been the father of his own ancestors, before this fact can be successfully denied.
       Christ is risen from the dead. His own words have been justified. Christ is risen from the dead, and God has given the seal and sign manual to his Messianic mission. He has declared Him to be the Son of God, with power. Christ is risen from the dead, and an unsetting sun—the new and unfailing center of attraction—has burst forth in glory from the darkness of the tomb. Christ is risen, and we, too, shall rise. Every charnel house is robbed of its terrors. The sting has been plucked from death, and the grave been robbed of its victory. The darkness has forever passed. It is morning.
       In that beautiful city of the dead, Greenwood cemetery, where the precious dust of so many loved ones reposes—that city, on its eminence, graced with flowers, fit resurrection—emblems of life and  loveliness springing from decay, and melodious with the music of birds—that city, overlooking the city of the living below it, and the river and the sea beyond it, contains here and there a broken pedestal, which speaks of plans unrealized, and expectations unfulfilled; of aspirations unsatisfied, and ends unachieved. But on some of them is a hand pointing upward. A risen Christ is the inspiration of the  thought. The upward pointing is the mute and eloquent suggestion, that on the plains of the New Jerusalem, the column of life shall be erected.
       A limited sphere here, a boundless amphitheatre there. Seeming failure here, assured success there. Dead hopes here, living realizations there. Bafflings, disappointments here; unimpeded progress them Home there, rewards there, friends there, Jesus there. Can we doubt the life beyond? “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain, in the Lord.”

The Dead Are The Living

In loving memory.
        I have seen one die-the delight of his friends, the pride of his kindred, the hope of his country: but he died! How beautiful was that offering upon the altar of death! The fire of genius kindled in his eye; the generous affections of youth mantled in his cheek; his foot was upon the threshold of life; his studies, his preparations for honored and useful life, were completed; his breast was filled with a thousand glowing, and noble, and never yet expressed aspirations; but he died! He died; while another, of a nature dull, coarse and unrefined, of habits low, base, and brutish, of a promise that had nothing in it but shame and misery-such an one, I say was suffered to encumber the earth. Could this be, if there were no other sphere for the gifted, the aspiring, and the approved, to act in? Can we believe that the energy just trained for action, the embryo thought just bursting into expression, the deep and earnest passion of a noble nature, just swelling into the expansion of every beautiful virtue, should never manifest its power, should never speak, should never unfold itself? Can we believe that all this should die; while meanness, corruption, sensuality, and every deformed and dishonored power should live? No, ye goodly and glorious ones! ye godlike in youthful virtue!-ye die not in vain: ye teach, ye assure us, that ye are gone to some world of nobler life and action.
       I have seen one die; she was beautiful; and beautiful were the ministries of life that were given her to fulfill. Angelic loveliness enrobed her; and a grace as if it were caught from heaven, breathed in every tone, hallowed every affection, shone in every action-invested, as a halo, her whole existence, and made it a light and blessing, a charm and a vision of gladness, to all around her: but she died! Friendship, and love, parental fondness, and infant weakness, stretched out their hand to save her; but they could not save her: and she died! What! did all that loveliness die? Is there no land of the blessed and the lovely ones, for such to live in? Forbid it, reason, religion!-bereaved affection, and undying love! forbid the thought! It cannot be that such die in God's counsel, who live even in frail human memory, forever!  Rev. Orville Dewey, D. D

Saturday, April 8, 2023

Life is For Character, and Character For Immortality

"And endurance produces character, and 
character produces hope... Romans 5:4

 LIFE IS FOR CHARACTER, AND CHARACTER FOR IMMORTALITY.
CARDINAL J. H. NEWMAN.

      WHAT is our life for? There can be but one answer. This world is a training-school for character; as a pleasure-garden or a workshop it is a failure. Its flowers fade, its beauties pall, its work is never done, and is often broken off in the midst, or at the very beginning. There must be some better vindication of the Creator. It is this: The world is a school-house for man, for the whole of man. He has numerous faculties and powers; none can be left out. He has body, intellect, sensibilities, will. Are these all of man? Has he no conscience, no religious aspiration, no "longing after immortality?" Philosophy must include all the facts. Any view of life which debars from the fullest culture any part of our complex nature is essentially defective, and any view which omits the highest part is practically false.
      This last indictment will be found to stand against the scheme of culture drawn out in the eloquent words of Mr. Huxley: ''That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that as a mechanism it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth working order-ready, like a steam-engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with the great and fundamental truths of Nature, and of the laws of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature or art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself.'' Lovely picture of a culture radically defective; and in this defective form absolutely impossible, for lack of the divine element. No man ever yet trained ''a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience,'' and learned ''to hate all vileness and to respect others as himself,'' save under the searching eye of God, and by the transforming energy and abiding inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
      There is painful proof that many professing Christians have no better notions of the possibilities of noble culture which every day affords than are indicated in our quotation from Mr. Huxley. They prize not the moments as gold dust, and are often laboriously occupied in 'killing time.' A competent authority declares the end of life to be to ''seek for glory, honor, and immortality:'' the glory of a true, symmetrical, godly character; the honor such a character is sure to win, and the immortality to which it leads.

Friday, April 7, 2023

Man, Body, Soul and Spirit

 MAN, BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT.
REV. F. W. ROBERTSON

       The apostle Paul divides human nature into a three-fold divisions. This language of the apostle, when rendered into English, shows no difference whatever between ''soul'' and ''spirit.'' We say for instance, that the soul of man has departed from him. We also say that the spirit of a man has departed from him. There is no distinct difference between the two; but in the original two very different kinds of thoughts, two very different modes of conception, are presented by the two English words ''soul'' and ''spirit.'' When the apostle speaks of the body, what he means is the animal life- that which we share in common with beasts, birds, and reptiles; for our life, our sensational existence, differs but little from that of the lower animals. There is the same external form, -the same material in the blood vessels, in the nerves, and in the muscular system. Nay, more than that, our appetites and instincts are alike, our lower pleasures like their lower pleasures, our lower pain like their lower pain; our life is supported by the same means, and our animal functions are almost indistinguishably the same.
       But, once more, the apostle speaks of what he calls the ''soul.'' What the apostle meant by what is translated ''soul‚'' is the immortal part of man-the immaterial as distinguished from the material; those powers, in fact, which man has by nature-powers natural, which are yet to survive the grave. There is a distinction made in Scripture by our Lord between these two things. ''Fear not,'' says He, ''them who can kill the body; but rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.''
       We have, again, to observe, respecting this, that what the apostle called the ''soul‚'' is not simply distinguishable from the body, but also from the spirit. By the soul the apostle means our powers natural- the powers which we have by nature. Herein is the soul distinguishable from the spirit. In the Epistle to the Corinthians we read, ''But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things.'' Observe, there is a distinction drawn between the natural man and the spiritual. What is there translated ''natural‚'' is derived from precisely the same word as that which is here translated ''soul.'' So that we may read, just as correctly, ''The man under the dominion of the soul receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things.'' And again, the apostle, in the same Epistle to the Corinthians, writes: ''That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural;'' that is, the endowments of the soul precede the endowments of the spirit. You have the same truth in other places. The powers that belong to the spirit were not the first developed; but the powers which belong to the soul, that is, the power of nature. Again, in the same chapter, reference is made to the natural and spiritual body. ''There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.'' Literally, there is a body governed by the soul, that is, powers natural; and there is a body governed by the Spirit, that is, higher nature. Let, then, this be borne in mind, that what the apostle calls ''soul'' is the same as that which he calls, in another place, the ''natural man.'' These powers are divisible into two branches-the intellectual powers and the moral sense. The intellectual powers man has by nature. Man need not be regenerated in order to possess the power of reasoning, or in order to invent. The intellectual powers belong to what the apostle calls the ''soul.'' The moral sense distinguishes between right and wrong. The apostle tells us, in the Epistle to the Romans, that the heathen-manifestly natural men-had the law ''work of the written in their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness.''
       The third division of which the apostle speaks he calls the ''spirit;'' and by the spirit he means that life in man which, in his natural state, is in such an embryo condition that it can scarcely be said to exist at all,-that which is called out into power and vitality by regeneration, the perfections of the powers of human nature. And you will observe that it is not merely the instinctive life, nor the intellectual life, nor the moral life, but it is principally our nobler affections,-that existence, that state of being, which we call love. That is the department of human nature which the apostle calls the spirit; and accordingly, when the Spirit of God was given on the day of Pentecost, you will remember that another power of man was called out, differing from what he was before. That Spirit granted on the day of Pentecost did subordinate to Himself, and was intended to subordinate to Himself, the will, the understanding, and the affection of man; but you often find these spiritual powers were distinguished from the natural powers, and existed without them. So, in the highest state of religious life, we are told, men prayed in the spirit. Till the spirit has subordinated the understanding, the gift of God is not complete‚-has not done its work. It is abundantly evident that a new life was called out. It was not merely the sharpening of the intellectual powers; it was calling out powers of aspiration and love to God; those affections which have in them something boundless,-that are not limited to this earth, but seek their completion in the mind of God Himself

"Where The Spirit Of The Lord Is" from Life.Church

Sunday, March 5, 2023

How to crochet a cross bookmark...

        I received this crocheted cross many years ago as a gift. It was made by an elderly lady who was bedridden near the end of her life. She could pray, sleep, eat a little and crochet. If you would like to learn how to make one just like it or similar... follow the links below to several crafters at YouTube.

"His Name Is Jesus" from my Bible Art Journal online here.
 

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Earth's Easter (MCMXVI)


"Behold The Lamb"

EARTH'S EASTER (MCMXVI)
BY ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER


Earth has gone up from its Gethsemane,
And now on Golgotha is crucified;
The spear is twisted in the tortured side;
The thorny crown still works its cruelty.
Hark! while the victim suffers on the tree,
There sound through starry spaces, far and wide,
Such words as by poor souls in hell are cried:
"My God! my God! Thou hast forsaken me!"

But when Earth's members from the cross are drawn.
And all we love into the grave is gone.
This hope shall be a spark within the gloom:
That, in the glow of some stupendous dawn.
We may go forth to find, where lilies bloom,
Two angels bright before an empty tomb.

Easter Day by John Keble

"Faith At The Cross"
 

EASTER DAY 
BY JOHN KEBLE


O Day of days! shall hearts set free.
No "minstrel rapture" find for thee?
Thou art the Sun of other days.
They shine by giving back thy rays:

Enthroned in thy sovereign sphere
Thou shed'st thy light on all the year:
Sundays by thee more glorious break,
An Easter Day in every week:

And week days, following in their train,
The fullness of thy blessing gain.
Till all, both resting and employ,
Be one Lord's day of holy joy.

Then wake, my soul, to high desires.
And earlier light thine altar fires:
The world some hours is on her way.
Nor thinks on thee, thou blessed day:

Or, if she thinks, it is in scorn:
The vernal light of Easter morn
To her dark gaze no brighter seems
Than Reason's or the Law's pale beams.

" Where is your Lord? " she scornful asks
"Where is his hire? we know his tasks;
Sons of a King ye boast to be:
Let us your crowns and treasures see."

We in the words of truth reply
(An angel brought them from the sky),
" Our crown, our treasure is not here,
'Tis stored above the highest sphere:

" Methinks your wisdom guides amiss,
To seek on earth a Christian's bliss;
We watch not now the lifeless stone:
Our only Lord is risen and gone."

Yet even the lifeless stone is dear
For thoughts of him who late lay here;
And the base world, now Christ hath died,
Ennobled is and glorified.

No more a charnel-house, to fence
The relics of lost innocence,
A vault of ruin and decay —
The imprisoning stone is rolled away.

'Tis now a cell where angels use
To come and go with heavenly news.
And in the ears of mourners say,
" Come, see the place where Jesus lay ":

'Tis now a fane, where love can find
Christ everywhere embalmed and shrined:
Aye gathering up memorials sweet
Where'er she sets her duteous feet.

Oh, joy to Mary first allowed.
When roused from weeping o'er his shroud,
By his own calm, soul-soothing tone,
Breathing her name, as still his own !

Joy to the faithful Three renewed.
As their glad errand they pursued!
Happy, who so Christ's word convey.
That he may meet them on their way!

So is it still: to holy tears,
In lonely hours, Christ risen appears;
In social hours, who would Christ see
Must turn all tasks to charity.

Sabbath Morn by Nicolai Grundtvig

Waiting at the empty tomb...

 FROM THE DANISH OF NICOLAI GRUNDTVIG

From death, Christ on the Sabbath morn,
A conqueror arose;
And when each Sabbath dawn is born
For death a healing grows.
This day proclaims an ended strife,
And Christ's benign and holy life.

By countless lips the wondrous tale
Is told throughout the earth;
Ye that have ears to hear, oh, hail
That tale with sacred mirth!
Awake, my soul, rise from the dead,
See life's grand light around thee shed.

Death trembles each sweet Sabbath hour,
Death's brother. Darkness, quakes;
Christ's word speaks with divinest power,
Christ's truth its silence breaks;
They vanquish with their valiant breath
The reign of darkness and of death.

An Easter-Tide Deliverance

The Hope of Israel...

AN EASTER-TIDE DELIVERANCE A. D. 430
BY MARIA H. BULFINCH


The sun was drowned in the western tide,
The moon shone pale on the mountain side;
The heathen host, by the camp-fire's light,
In feasts and revels passed the night.
They talked of deeds that should be done
At early dawn of the morrow's sun;
They laughed in scorn that the Christian band
Their mighty host should dare withstand.
The Christians prayed through the whole night long,
Their arms were weak, their faith was strong.
Close pressed the foe on every side,
But heaven above was fair and wide.
The sun that sank in the blood-red sea,
An earthly type of their fate might be.
The moon that shone with so cold a light
In vain might seek them another night;
But Christ, their leader, would faithful be,
And death in His cause is victory.
Hours passed — one ray of morning light
Was on the topmost mountain height.
On a lofty crag, sublime and high,
A form stood forth 'gainst the glowing sky.
The Saint Germanus! — he turned his eyes
Where Easter's sun began to rise.
No word of sorrow his lips let fall.
No word of dangers around them all.
He bared to heaven his reverent head.
For Christ this morn arose from the dead.
Then "Alleluia!" aloud he cried,
And "Alleluia!" the rocks replied;
And "Alleluia!" from cliff to cave,
An answering shout the Christians gave.
The echoes sound it again and again.
Like the voice of a host of mighty men.
The heathens start, with strange, vague fear,
"What unseen foes have drawn so near?
Hath the God of the Christians sent in the night
His Bands of Angels to join in the fight?"
Then wild with terror they fled away —
The battle was won that Easter-Day.
Is life so hopeless, brother, to thee,
That naught but death can bring victory?
Rise thou above thine own despair,
Forget thyself and thy pressing care;
Let the voice of praise from thy lips arise,
Thine Alleluia mount to the skies;
And on thy heart's glad Easter-Day,
Thy foes, in terror, shall flee away.

Monday, February 7, 2022

Weave a Chenille Stem Easter Basket

The finished yarn and chenille stem basket.

       Learn to make a very sophisticated Easter basket using textured and unusual yarns. This is a perfect Easter craft for using left over yarns that you may have tucked away in the drawer full of discards. I have so many supplies like this! I just hate to be wasteful and not use them somehow... The supplies you will need include: chenille stems (all white), yarn, cardboard, small nail and wire clippers. I made this basket for 2019, but I'm just now getting around to posting it here, sorry.
Selecting the yarn for this craft will greatly
determine how your finished piece looks!
Step-by-Step Instructions:
  1. Cut an oval from heavy cardboard for the bottom of your chenille stem basket.
  2. Use a nail to punch holes along the outer edges of the cardboard bottom.
  3. Bend the ends of each chenille stem around and up through the holes. The length of these fuzzy wires will predetermine the height of the sides of your basket.
  4. At this point you may wish to wire the bottom of your basket with an extra wire or chenille stem if you intend to display it on an Easter egg tree. To wire the bottom push a stem up through and back down into two holes strategically located in the bottom cardboard.
  5. Now continue to weave yarn in and out of every other chenille stem. The yarn you choose to use for this weave will greatly shape and affect the appearance of the basket; so choose carefully.
  6. Shape a wire oval the same size of the base to twist the tips of the chenille stems around at the top of your basket. 
  7. Weave additional yarn around the top edge to cover the top edge till smooth. 
  8. Wire loops at both ends of the basket using covered wires.
  9. Bend another wire for the handle and twist this through the wire loops at both ends to shape the basket handle. 
  10. Cover the basket handle with more yarn.
Left, Cut an oval from heavy cardboard for the bottom of your chenille stem basket.
Center, Use a nail to punch holes along the outer edges of the cardboard bottom.
Right, Bend the ends of each chenille stem around and up through the holes. The
length of these fuzzy wires will predetermine the height of the sides of your basket.

Left, The wires inserted into each nail hole. Right, see what the bottom looks like.

Left, I decided to glue a second layer of cardboard on the bottom of my basket to make it stronger.
Center, At this point you may wish to wire the bottom of your basket with an extra wire or chenille
stem if you intend to display it on an Easter egg tree. To wire the bottom push a stem up through
and back down into two holes strategically located in the bottom cardboard. Right, 
Now continue
 to weave yarn in and out of every other chenille stem. The yarn you choose to use for this
weave will greatly shape and affect the appearance of the basket; so choose carefully.

Left, I chose to switch out my yarn types to make a stripe. Center, the bent oval stem for the top
edge of my basket is the same size as the cardboard bottom, however, you could adjust this to be
larger or smaller to change the shape of your basket. Right, I covered this with yarn before and 
after attaching it.

Left, See the chenille stems wrapped around the wire edge. Right, see that I wrapped the edge of
the basket again with yarn to cover the exposed stems.

More Weaving Crafts:

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Print, Cut and Color a Vintage Rocking Bunny

Directions for Making This Vintage Easter Toy: Paste the cutout on cardboard. When the paste is dry, cut around the outline of the rocking bunny toy. When the toy has been cut out, bend it back along the dotted line in the middle, between the ears. Color the toy. Cut out the flaps and bend these at the lines. Paste the two braces at either end of the rockers between the two bunnies on the inside of the toy. Now you have a fun rocking bunny for your Easter table top!


Thursday, June 3, 2021

Simple Cross Stitch Patterns for Baby

       The historical Cross stitch patterns illustrated below are very suitable for decorating articles which belong to young children; for instance, the row of pigs could be embroidered on a bib, or, with the addition of some other animals, might form a border that could be applied to a nursery table cover or curtain.
      A rabbit sitting between two plants might be used just as they are for decorating some small article, or they could be repeated to form a border design, and in that case other animals might be introduced as well as the rabbit.
      The two borders and the flower sprigs could be embroidered on any article for which cross stitch is a suitable decoration. The sprigs could be adapted to a collar design, repeated to form a border, or used as an all-over spot pattern. Any plant with a definite outline can be translated into cross stitch, and if it were small enough, could be added to these designs to decorate a spring themed baby quilt, a small sampler to hang in a nursery or to hand stitch a few decorative pillows for a rocker located in the cozy corner of the baby's nursery.


Sunday, April 11, 2021

A Ballad Of Trees and The Master

 A Ballad Of Trees And The Master
by Sidney Lanier


Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to
Him;
The little gray leaves were kind to Him;
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.

Out of the woods my Master went,
And He was well content.
Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
When death and shame would woo
Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him
last:
'Twas on a tree they slew Him-last
When out of the woods He came.

Friday, April 9, 2021

In the cross of Christ we glory...

        In the cross of Christ we glory, because we regard it as a matchless exhibition of the attributes of God. We see there the love of God, desiring a way by which He might save mankind, aided by His wisdom, so that a plan is perfected by which the deed can be done without violation of truth and justice. In the cross we see a strange conjunction of what once appeared to be two opposite qualities - justice and mercy. We see how God is supremely just; as just as if He had no mercy, and yet infinitely merciful in the gift of His Son. Mercy and justice, in fact, become counsel upon the same side, and irresistibly plead for the acquittal of the believing sinner. We can never tell which of the attributes of God shines most glorious in the sacrifice of Christ; they each one find a glorious high throne in the person and work of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Since it has become, as it were, the disc which reflects the character and perfections of God, it is meet that we should glory in the cross of Christ, and none shall stay us of our boasting. Spurgeon.

Austin Stone Worship Live

Thou art my King- 
My King henceforth alone;
And I, Thy Servant, Lord, am all Thine own.
Give me Thy strength; oh! let Thy dwelling be
In this poor heart that pants, my Lord, for Thee!
                                                      Gerhard Tersteegen.

Sunday, April 4, 2021

Color Retro Easter Characters

Description of Coloring Page: Easter lamb jumping a fence, a hip Easter chick dressed for a Easter Parade, and a retro Easter Bunny wearing a plaid Sunday blazer...


Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Color this Easter basket, chicks and a girl in a bonnet...

Description of Coloring Page: a little girl in her Easter bonnet, chicks, decorated eggs, Easter basket

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Color this boy in a bunny costume...


Description of Coloring Page: vintage Easter themes, carrots, boy meets Easter rabbit, outdoors, imagine meeting the Easter rabbit...

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Color these fancy "egg heads" for Easter!

Fancy "egg heads"

Description of Coloring Page: Egg heads include a traditional Dutch girl in costume, a pirate, a mysterious magician and an egg decorated with springtime flowers. 

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Christ Rose By His Own Power

       He rose in the night; no hand at the door, no voice in his ear, no rough touch awaking him. Other watchers than Pilate's soldiers stood by the sepulchre; but those angels whom it well became to keep guard at this dead man's chamber door, beyond opening it, beyond rolling away the stone, beyond looking on with wondering eyes, took no part in the scenes of that eventful morning. The hour sounds; the appointed time arrives. Having slept out his sleep, Jesus stirs; he awakes of his own accord he rises by his own power; and arranging, or leaving attending angels to arrange, the linen clothes, he walks out on the dewy ground, beneath the starry sky, to turn grief into the greatest joy, and hail the breaking of the brightest morn that ever rose on this guilty world. That open empty tomb assures us of a day when ours too shall be as empty. Having raised himself, he has power to raise his people, panic-stricken soldiers flying the scene, and Mary rising from his blessed feet to hasten to the city, to rush through the streets, to burst in among the disciples, and with a voice of joy to cry, He is risen, He is risen! prove this is no vain brag or boast, "I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." Rev. Dr. Guthrie.

Chris Tomlin "Jesus"

What Is Death?
"What is the soul? The seminal principle from the loins of destiny,
This world is the womb: the body, its enveloping membrane:
The bitterness of dissolution, dame Fortune's pangs of childbirth.
What is death? To be born again, an angel of eternity."
                                                                                Buzurgi. (The Persian Poet.)

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Easter Games by Lina Beard, 1905

       In the game they play at Washington, on the hills sloping from the White House, the child whose egg reaches the foot of the hill in an unbroken condition takes the one worsted in the journey down. Another game for two is played by knocking the eggs together ; each child holds an egg firmly in his hand so that only the small end is visible, and then the two eggs are struck against each other until one is cracked, when the victorious player adds it to his stock, or devours it on the spot. I would not like to state the number of eggs eaten on these occasions, but there is a boy (not a girl) who once consumed fourteen and lived to tell the tale.
       Sometimes the egg which breaks another is called "the cock of one," and when it has broken two it is " cock of two," and so on. When an egg which is cock of one or more is broken, the number of trophies won by the victim is added to the score of the conquering egg and it becomes " cock of three " or more. Here is a game which comes from Germany, and al- though in that country it is played exclusively by boys, there is no reason why the girls should not participate in it as well. Two baskets are necessary for this game, one large and shallow filled with soft shavings, the other shallow also, but smaller, and filled with eggs. The plan of the game is that one player is to run a given distance, while another safely throws the eggs from one basket to the other, she who completes her task first being the winner. When the baskets are prepared, and the distance the eggs are to be thrown decided upon, the two contestants draw lots to determine who shall run and who shall throw. This settled, the player who throws takes the basket of eggs, and one after another quickly tosses them the length of the course and into the basket of shavings, which is placed on the ground at the end of the course opposite the thrower. In Germany this basket is held by an assistant, but anyone occupying that position might receive some severe blows from the hard eggs thrown by unpracticed hands, and it answers the purpose just as well to place the basket on the ground. Meantime the other player runs the distance (decided beforehand) to an appointed goal, marks it as a proof of having touched it, and should she succeed in returning before all the eggs are thrown, the victory and prize are her reward; otherwise they belong to the thrower.
       The game finished, a prize is presented to the successful contestant. Should any of the eggs pitched by the thrower fail to light in the basket, they must be gathered up and thrown again before the runner returns, as the eggs must all be in the basket before the thrower wins the game.
       "Bunching eggs " comes from Ireland, and is played in very much the same manner as the game played with a slate and pencil, and known to all children as " tit, tat, toe, three in a row." A pan or large dish filled with sand or sawdust is set upon a table, around which the children stand, each supplied with eggs; the eggs of each player must be all of one color, and unlike those of any other player. The object of the game is for each player to so place her eggs, standing them upright in the sand, or sawdust, as to bring five in a row touching each other.
       In turn each player puts down an egg, sometimes filling out a row for herself, at others cutting off the line of an opponent; and the one who first succeeds in obtaining the desired row sings out--

"The raven, chough, and crow,
Say five in a row."

       Another pretty game from Ireland called " Touch " is played in the following manner:
       Six eggs of the different colors green, red, black, blue, white, and gold are placed in a row in the sand used for the other game. One of the players is blindfolded and given alight wand or stick, with which she must touch one of the eggs, while at the same time she recites these lines:

Peggy, Patrick, Mike, and Meg,
See me touch my Easter egg ;
Green, and red, and black, and blue,
Count for six, five, four, and two.
If I touch an egg of white,
A forfeit then will be your right ;
If I touch an egg of gold,
It is mine to have and hold.

       As is told in the rhyme, the eggs each have a different value. Green counts six ; red, five ; black, four; and blue, two ; and the gold egg is worth more than all put together, for when a player touches that, she wins the game and a forfeit of. an egg from each of the other players. The white egg is worth less than nothing, since it not only has no value but whoever touches it with the wand must pay a forfeit.
       Each player is in turn blindfolded and makes her trial, keeping account of the value of the eggs she has touched. When the sum of twenty has been reached by anyone the game is ended, without the aid of the gold egg. The position of the eggs are changed after each trial, that the person about to touch them may not know where it is best to place her wand.

Sunday, March 31, 2019

The Mountain Top

The Mountain Top
by Lilian Leveridge

The summer sun lay golden on the 
mountain,
And soft about us blew
The elfin winds, the wild, free winds, that 
morning 
I wandered there with you.

As us and up to higher levels tending
We slowly passed along,
Upon the slippery steeps I did not waver--
Your hand was firm and strong.

We gained the heights. The all-encircling
vastness
Our quickening pulses thrilled.
With all the glory, all the wordless wonder,
Our kindred souls were filled.

Above us and around us stretched the heav-
ens,
And far and far away,
In misty, opalescent shadows melting,
The dim horizon lay.

Up from the town, to mellow music softened,
There rose a murmurous din,
As o'er the waves, wind-kissed and sunbeam-
silvered,
We watched the boats come in.

But longer than the fair and pleasant pic-
ture,
In sunlight round us spread,
Within my heart will live the vibrant music
Of gracious words you said:

"We may not reach the goal of our en-
deavor
Before the sun goes down;
Yet you and I will upward press, and ever
Be worthy of our crown.

"No toil is lost no energy is wasted,
Our striving is not vain,
E'en though we win no shining wreath of lau-
rel,
No proud, far heights attain.

"Thy are not dead, the seeds of hope we
scattered
Along the barren years,
Though yet there springs no blossom of re-
joicing, 
No golden fruit appears.

"Not in the prize, though lovely and allur-
ing, 
Our best reward must be.
Is not the strength that comes alone from
struggle
Enough for you and me?

"Enough to have uplifted by our message
One life for one brief hour;
Out of one heart a weed to have uprooted,
And planted there a flower;

"Enough if we a helping hand have given,
Have strengthened faltering feet,
Have shed about us ever the aroma
Of kindness rare and sweet."

Enough! and yet the distant beacons beckon,
The shining steeps allure.
We long to breath--the impulse is of
Heaven--
Those airs serene and pure;

To stand beside the noble souls who con-
quered,
Who would not be downcast,
Who, after all the heartache and the failures,
Have won success at last.

Some day--who knows?--after the toil and 
patience,
The conflict long and tense,
There yet may come to us life's crowning
glory
Of richest recompense.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Melchizedek

Melchizedek
He was the Priest of the Most High God. - Genesis 14:18

Out of the mist of ages comes, unknown,
His crown'd and mitred mien,
Who evermore, a Priest upon His throne,
Shall live and reign serene:
The King of righteousness His sceptre shews,
While palms and olives near the Prince of Peace
disclose.

And Father Abraham bends and bows before
One greater far than He;
Forth come the Bread and Wine, prefiguring
more
Than feeble sense may see:
The offer'd tithes His sacrifice proclaim,
And His High-priesthood own of everlasting
Name.

Thus Abraham saw Christ's day. The man of
woes
Is Salem's mystic king;
The King of Righteousness whose names disclose
Of Peace the Prince and spring:
The wine-press, for our thirst, who comes to
tread,
And for our hungering souls to break the Living
Bread.

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

The Ascension of Christ

       He last interview he had with them was in Jerusalem; and he took the little band of believers out of the city, down through the Eastern Gate, down through the valley of Jehosaphat, over the brook Kedron, past that garden where he sweated drops of blood, past Calvary, over the brow of the hill, and went out past Bethany, where Martha and Mary and Lazarus (the resurrected man) lived; and perhaps right there, under a cluster of little olive trees, he met his disciples for the last time to bid them farewell, and gave them his parting message. Now He says: "I go home; I go back to the throne; (He had been out of the grave forty days); now I ascend to God." And while he was blessing them - for you know he came blessing, the first thing he said on that memorable mountain when he preached that wonderful sermon (there were nine blessings right out of his heart, he could not go on until he got them out): "Blessed are the poor;" "Blessed are the peacemakers;" Blessed, blessed; and he recited those wondrous things and blessed them. And while he was blessing them he began to ascend; and he rose higher and higher; and his voice grew fainter and fainter, and at last it died away in the clouds; and the clouds received him out of their sight.
"We love because He first loved us."
1 John 4:19. Free clip art here.
       I can imagine up in the clouds there was a chariot from the throne, to take him back home; his work was finished; he rides like Elijah in that golden chariot, and sweeps away through the heavens to the throne. Look at Him on his way to that world where all honor him, and all love him! And as he went sweeping upon his way home, he did not forget his little church; he could see them, but they could not see him; and I can see Peter and John looking up, in hopes that there will be a break in the clouds so that they may see him once more. And while they stand there, gazing up into heaven, you can see tears trickling down their cheeks, their hearts have almost gone out of their body; and he looks back and sees them; and he says to two of the angels who were conveying him home, "Go back, and tell those men that I will come back again." I don't know but they were the two, Mary saw in the sepulchre; and they said:
       "Ye men of Gallilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Thank God he is coming back! It is only a question of time. And in such a day and hour as we think not, he will rend the heavens and come back. Lift up your hearts, for the time of your redemption draweth near. "We don't worship a dead Savior! He has passed through the heavens, gone up on high, led captivity captive and taken his seat at the right hand of God.
       Paul saw him, and Stephen saw him, standing at the right hand of God. He is there, my friends. Thanks be to God, he is not here. They laid him in Joseph's sepulchre; he is risen and up yonder. D. L. Moody
Of gold, and gems, and jewels rare,
Earth hides a countless store,
If we may trust the sages
Deep read in nature's lore;
And many a pearl lies buried
In ocean's shining caves,
But sacred treasures sleep within
Our pleasant hill of graves.