Hymn

Come away to the skies, my belovèd, arise
And rejoice in the day thou wast born;
On this festival day, come exulting away,
And with singing to Zion return.

We have laid up our love and our treasure above,
Though our bodies continue below.
The redeemed of the Lord will remember His Word,
And with singing to paradise go.

Now with singing and praise let us spend all the days
By our heavenly Father bestowed,
While His grace we receive from His bounty, and live
To the honor and glory of God!

For the glory we were first created to share,
Both the nature and kingdom divine,
Now created again that our lives may remain
Throughout time and eternity Thine.

We with thanks do approve the design
Of that love that hath joined us to Jesus’ Name;
Now united in heart, let us never more part,
Till we meet at the feast of the Lamb.

There, Oh! there at His feet, we shall all likewise meet,
And be parted in body no more;
We shall sing to our lyres, with the heavenly choirs,
And our Savior in glory adore.

Hallelujah! we sing to our Father and King,
And His rapturous praises repeat:
To the Lamb that was slain, Hallelujah again!
Sing all Heaven and fall at His feet!

~ At­trib­ut­ed to Charles Wes­ley, 1755. Wes­ley wrote this hymn for his wife’s birth­day, tit­ling it “On the Birth­day of a Friend.”

Progress and Renewal

"[T]hose who operate from an Enlightenment perspective typically associate progress with renewal and view disillusionment as a symptom of decay. Those who operate within a framework of Judeo-Christian values, on the other hand, characteristically view a belief in progress as a symptom of decay and a sense of disillusionment the first step toward a realistic appraisal of the world without which renewal is impossible."

~David F. Wells, No Place For Truth, p. 56

Real Men Read Austen

Many of those familiar with great literature know that Jane Austen is among the greatest novelists of all time--perhaps the greatest female English-language novelist ever. There seems to be, though, a widespread perception that she wrote novels aimed at and appealing to only women--sort of a 19th century version of chick lit. A quick look on Allconsuming.net shows that the overwhelming majority of those who say they've read Emma appear to be women. I, too, was under the same impression for years, but I have to say now that I was wrong. Austen's books are just as appealing and enjoyable--and instructive--for men as they are for women. I've read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, and I'm currently reading Emma.

Peter Leithart comments on this at the beginning of a lecture on Austen's art, a lecture he gave in 2001 at the Christian Worldview Student Conference. Men should be more willing to read Austen for a number of reasons. First, she's actually less romantic and more grounded in a realistic view of the world than, for example, Dickens was. Second, she's funny. She writes with a sharp wit and a keen sense of irony that makes her dialogue and narrative commentary tremendously entertaining--just read the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice for proof of this. Third, because she's a woman and tells her stories from the women's point of view, reading her novels can be a helpful way to learn how women think--and that's useful to any man. Fourth, men can learn a lot about the character of honorable and dishonorable men from studying her male characters. Mr. Knightley (Emma), on one hand, is a gentleman who uses his wealth and position selflessly for the benefit and protection of those less fortunate than him. Wickham (P&P), on the other hand, is a scoundrel who seems charming at first but reveals his deceitful, self-serving nature in the end. Any man who wants to be a gentleman should study the kinds of male characters that Austen writes, and think about why each one is portrayed as he is, good or bad.

So, there you have it. Jane Austen's books aren't just for girls. Real men read Austen.

As always, electronic versions of Austen's works, in text and audio, are available from Project Gutenberg and Librivox.org, respectively.

Why Care About Your Appearance? Part 1

Anyone who knows me very well will know that I care about my appearance, especially as it pertains to clothes and shoes. Learning about style and finding good clothing affordably is one of my main hobbies. I spend quite a bit of my free time reading about clothing and style, both in books and online. I'll freely admit that I like to look good--and I like knowing I look good.

I hope that anyone who knows me well also knows that I deeply love the Lord Jesus, and desire to honor and glorify him above all else. Any object, love, or passion that would compete with the Lord for my deepest affection is to be despised and given no place in my heart and mind.

Yet to some, these might seem to be competing passions. After all, isn't vanity supposed to be a sin? Of what value is the outward appearance, when the Scripture says, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart"? Peter indicates that true beauty should and does consist in holiness and godliness, not in clothes and the outward appearance. So what business does a Christian have caring so much about how he or she looks? At the very least, acquiring more clothing than the barest necessities must be "laying up treasures on earth, where moth[s]…corrupt."

In addition to this primary, spiritual issue, there are other reasons why people look askance at a man who cares about his appearance. After all, isn't that kind of…unmanly? It's supposed to be a womanly thing to preen and primp and spend hours in front of the mirror and shopping for clothes. Any man who obviously puts effort into his appearance is usually thought to be less than desirably masculine at best, and a complete fop or homosexual at worst.

Well, I want to take the next several days and weeks to do a series of blog posts answering these objections and explaining why I think it's a legitimate thing for a Christian man to care about how he looks--even a positive good. In doing so, I'll have to go into the nature of vanity, pride, and beauty, think about what it really means to be a man and a gentleman, and examine social conventions and mores that shape our perceptions of style and manners. I'm looking forward to hashing these things out in writing, and I hope it will be a worthwhile exercise.