Dead Poets & Asses

Jul25

Anatomise the dead poet and the dead ass, and you will find as much genius in one as in the other; therefore there is no genius! Who that valued his life would set his foot on such a bridge as the rickety “therefore”? But some men will venture upon any bridge that seems to lead away from God.
A very simple anatomy will find the reason; it is because “they DO NOT LIKE to retain God in their hearts” (Rom. 1:28). It is not because of intellectual superiority, but because of moral distaste. An internal cancer accounts for this invincible aversion.

Joseph Parker: Poet, Seer, Preacher

from: The Unknowable God

Fire vs. Theological Craft

Jul24

Enthusiasm sees God. Love sees God. Fire sees God. But we have escaped the revealing, sympathetic fire and have built our prudent religion upon the sand. On the sand! Think of it! So we go to it, and walk around it, and measure it, and break it up into propositions, and placard it on church walls, and fight about it with infinite clamor and some spitefulness.

My soul, amid all Unknowableness, Incomprehensibleness, and other vain and pompous nothings, hold fast to the faith that you can know God and yet know nothing merely about Him. You can know Him by love and pureness, and not know about Him by intellectual art or theological craft.

Joseph Parker: Poet, Seer, Preacher

Crutches for Wings: Lame

Jul23

Alas, he who mistakes crutches for wings! Yet this absurdity has so recommended itself to our coldness as to win the name of prudence, sobriety, and self-suppression. We have lost the broad and mighty pinions that found their way to heaven’s gate and the eye of burning love that looked steadfastly into the sacred cloud.

We have now taken to walking, and our lame feet pick their uncertain way over such stones as Unknown, Unknowable, Invisible, and Incomprehensible, and we finish our toilsome journey exactly where we began it.

Joseph Parker: Poet, Seer, Preacher

Ripping Open Graves

Jul22

God! God! God! Ever hidden, ever present, ever distant, ever near; a Ghost, a Breath, making the knees knock in terror, ripping open a grave at the very feet of our pleasure; a mocking laugh at the feast, filling all space like the light, yet leaving room for all His creatures; a Terror, a Hope—Undefinable, Unknowable, Irresistible, Immeasurable. God is a Spirit!