A Foolish Figure

I really am going to get from Havergal to Sherlock, and it will be a logical progression.  But that means this post will be really rambly.   Just bear with me.

We sang this hymn by Frances Ridley Havergal in church this morning.  I love it so  much.  Not, perhaps, as poetic as some (I LOVE YOU, COWPER!!!!!!) but simple and straightforward:

( Take my life )
My favorite line in the song is "Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose."  On the one hand it's a scary thought--giving up something I treasure as much as my intellect--but on the other hand, but on the other, it's a wonderful reminder that being a Christian is not giving up your intellect period.  It's using it for God. 

Anyway, I was thinking about that line, and I remembered this wonderful letter from William Pitt the younger to William Wilberforce, after Wilberforce was converted to Christianity, and seriously considered leaving politics, and living his life out in retirement.  I am posting the whole thing, because it is a wonderful letter (why does no one write like that anymore?  WHY?) , and because with my kindle, I was able to copy the whole thing out of a book, instead of typing it...which would have taken too long, and because there is something so charming (to me, anyway) in the notion that an 18th century soon-to-be Prime Minister of England called one of his friends "Bob."  The only really important quotation is the lj-cut text: "If a Christian may act in the several relations of life, must he seclude himself for all to become so? Surely the principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple, and lead not to meditation only but to action."  But if you love old letters, as I do, you can read the whole thing below it. 

( If a Christian may act in the several relations of life, must he seclude himself for all to become so? Surely the principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple, and lead not to meditation only but to action.  )In the movie Amazing Grace, the directors dramatized the meeting Pitt asked for in the letter, and he says that line "Surely the principles..."

I said this would eventually ramble it's way around to Sherlock, no?  Well, if you watched Amazing Grace, you might know the connection already.  Hehe.  Benedict Cumberbatch played William Pitt the younger in Amazing Grace and he plays (to my mind the BEST EVER) Sherlock  Holmes in the new BBC TV series, Sherlock. (and Ioan Gruffudd played Wilberforce.   *sigh*   SO MANY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE IN THE SAME MOVIE!)

You know, that's not the first time my fangirlishness has managed to worm its way into church.  I was sick at home one Sunday a few weeks ago, so I watched the church service from my home church, which they started streaming live recently.  One of the pastors grew a goatee, which I hadn't seen, of course, since I'm away at school.  There was only one thing that came to mind when I saw it (so I had to print-screen it):



Tell me he doesn't look like Mirror!Spock with that goatee! 

It was sooooooooooooooooooooo distracting.

Oh well...

So, if you read my very exciting and very long inaugural post, you may remember the sad couplet I composed at the death of my fuzzy lop, Galadriel Elanor Gamgee:

She died and was laid in the grave
She, who we in mem'ry do save.

Well, one of my favorite poets of all time, William Cowper, also had a rabbit.  And he, too, composed a poem in honor of said rabbit after it died.  I think this poem is so funny and adorable at the same time.  Remember when you read it that this was composed by an eighteenth century gentlemanly-type:

( Epitaph on a Hare )

Seriously, tell me that's not the cutest poem EVER!

Cowper was a Christian who suffered from "melancholy"---severe depression.   It ran in his family, apparently.  Anyway, at times he was convinced that he was reprobate, which led to some very sad poetry.  This poem is one of the most tragic works of literature that I have read, but an excellent poem nonetheless.  (BTW:  If the last stanza rings a bell, you may have watched the Ang Lee Sense and Sensibility):

( The Castaway )
That final couplet makes me want to cry. 

But I will not end on such a chillingly sad note.  Cowper was not always so depressed.  He did believe that God is on his throne, and he expressed as much in many wonderful hymns, including my favorite hymn of all time:  

( Light Shining out of Darkness )