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Portrait
Guest
Dearly beloved friends,
Cordial greetings and a very good day. As we are approaching Easter, I would like to submit the following meditation for your perusal, sincerely trusting that it will be found helpful in these troublous times in which our lot is cast.
On Good Friday morning many of us will probably be singing that excellent Passiontide hymn, There is a green hill far away, written by the victorian Anglican hymwriter, Mrs. C.F. Alexander (1818-95). Mrs. Alexander wrote this hymn for young children to illustrate the words of the creed, ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate. was crucified, dead and buried’. At the time of composition she lived not far from Londonderry, Ireland, and was very familiar with the sight of the massive city walls and the green hills beyond. Perhaps it was this which may have suggested the opening lines of this simple but very moving hymn. Whatever, it was a jolly good idea of hers to begin it by painting a picture rather than by preaching a sermon, for she knew her first task was to arrest the child’s attention and capture his imagination. Methinks that she has arrested the attention and captured the imagination of many an adult also down through the years, perhaps leading to an embracing of Christ and the Gospel. Be that as it may, it was given to a devout Irish woman, in a children’s hymn, to express better than many a learned theological tome the purpose, the necessity and the challenge of that Blessed and Holy Sacrifice that redeemed our prodigal race. Look, dear friends, at the last three stanzas and you will find it all there: the purpose, the necessity and challenge of the cross. Personally speaking, it is difficult for me to read or sing the words of this hymn without tears welling up and feeling a deep love for our dear Saviour as I think about His sufferings “for us men and our salvation”.
During the middle of the First World War, dear friends, a well-known London doctor was busy one Sunday evening in his consulting room. Most of his patients illnesses were attibutable to the war, with worry, anxiety and fear being the principal reasons. As he listened to their explanations the sound of children’s voices came floating down the staircase:
“There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall”.
It was his young family upstairs gathered around his dear wife at the piano. Leaving his door open and his patients waiting, he rushed upstairs to join in singing the hymn. Then coming back down he said to his patients, “If we all believed that hymn there would be less worry and less fear”. How very true that is, dear friends, if only men believed the life-giving message of that hymn they would not only have “joy and peace in believing” but they would also be less stressed, less worried concerning their financial troubles, less fearful about the abounding iniquity with which they are daily surrounded and much less anxious as regards future adversities, which may or may not befall them.
Ours is a very troubled and stressful world, dear friends, and it does seem that wickedness and vice is on the increase everywhere and that men are becoming harder and more selfish. A ‘looking after me and mine’ mentality is more the norm now than it has ever been hitherto. Many people feel desperately lonely and unloved and wonder if they can cope any longer with life. Even in the West there is much poverty, with people having to choose between eating and heating during the cold winter season, or having to go to charity ‘food banks’ to tie them over until they get their welfare payments or next pay cheque. In times such as these how much we need to believe and cling to the message of Mrs. Alexander’s hymn, There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, for, as that good doctor said, “If we all believed that hymn there would be less worry and less fear”. In times like these we do indeed need a Saviour who will give us the hope and peace we so much need.
God bless and thankyou for taking the time to read this. May you have a very blessed and peaceful Easter, dear friends.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax:tiphat:
Cordial greetings and a very good day. As we are approaching Easter, I would like to submit the following meditation for your perusal, sincerely trusting that it will be found helpful in these troublous times in which our lot is cast.
On Good Friday morning many of us will probably be singing that excellent Passiontide hymn, There is a green hill far away, written by the victorian Anglican hymwriter, Mrs. C.F. Alexander (1818-95). Mrs. Alexander wrote this hymn for young children to illustrate the words of the creed, ‘Suffered under Pontius Pilate. was crucified, dead and buried’. At the time of composition she lived not far from Londonderry, Ireland, and was very familiar with the sight of the massive city walls and the green hills beyond. Perhaps it was this which may have suggested the opening lines of this simple but very moving hymn. Whatever, it was a jolly good idea of hers to begin it by painting a picture rather than by preaching a sermon, for she knew her first task was to arrest the child’s attention and capture his imagination. Methinks that she has arrested the attention and captured the imagination of many an adult also down through the years, perhaps leading to an embracing of Christ and the Gospel. Be that as it may, it was given to a devout Irish woman, in a children’s hymn, to express better than many a learned theological tome the purpose, the necessity and the challenge of that Blessed and Holy Sacrifice that redeemed our prodigal race. Look, dear friends, at the last three stanzas and you will find it all there: the purpose, the necessity and challenge of the cross. Personally speaking, it is difficult for me to read or sing the words of this hymn without tears welling up and feeling a deep love for our dear Saviour as I think about His sufferings “for us men and our salvation”.
During the middle of the First World War, dear friends, a well-known London doctor was busy one Sunday evening in his consulting room. Most of his patients illnesses were attibutable to the war, with worry, anxiety and fear being the principal reasons. As he listened to their explanations the sound of children’s voices came floating down the staircase:
“There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall”.
It was his young family upstairs gathered around his dear wife at the piano. Leaving his door open and his patients waiting, he rushed upstairs to join in singing the hymn. Then coming back down he said to his patients, “If we all believed that hymn there would be less worry and less fear”. How very true that is, dear friends, if only men believed the life-giving message of that hymn they would not only have “joy and peace in believing” but they would also be less stressed, less worried concerning their financial troubles, less fearful about the abounding iniquity with which they are daily surrounded and much less anxious as regards future adversities, which may or may not befall them.
Ours is a very troubled and stressful world, dear friends, and it does seem that wickedness and vice is on the increase everywhere and that men are becoming harder and more selfish. A ‘looking after me and mine’ mentality is more the norm now than it has ever been hitherto. Many people feel desperately lonely and unloved and wonder if they can cope any longer with life. Even in the West there is much poverty, with people having to choose between eating and heating during the cold winter season, or having to go to charity ‘food banks’ to tie them over until they get their welfare payments or next pay cheque. In times such as these how much we need to believe and cling to the message of Mrs. Alexander’s hymn, There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, for, as that good doctor said, “If we all believed that hymn there would be less worry and less fear”. In times like these we do indeed need a Saviour who will give us the hope and peace we so much need.
God bless and thankyou for taking the time to read this. May you have a very blessed and peaceful Easter, dear friends.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
Pax:tiphat: