PEACE by A P Cecil

O the peace for ever flowing

From God's thoughts of His own Son,

O the peace of simply knowing,

On the cross that all was done.

 

Peace with God - for Christ in heaven

Object is of faith to me:

Peace with God - the Lord is risen,

Righteousness now counts me free.

 

Peace with God - for Christ's in glory;

God is just and God is love;

O how blessed is the story,

That we're brought to God above!

 

Jesus, Saviour, we adore Thee,

Christ of God, anointed One!

We confess Thee Lord of glory,

Fruits of vict'ry Thou hast won.

Lord Adalbert Cecil (1841-1889)

More wanderings in London, plus an Ethiopian Meal (for two!)

PEACE

The Dayspring from on high has visited

Us, bound in night, so that He might release

From bondage so that we are rightly led:

To "lead our feet into the way of peace".

Because He came to take our sins away

And graciously accomplished His decease

Those who are subjects of redemption may

Depart according to His word in peace.

One touched His garments' hem upon the way

And found His virtue made her bleeding cease;

When she confessed His power the Lord could say,

"Daughter, thy faith has healed thee, go in peace".

Coxheath

19 April 2025

Monument to Alexander Cruden, compiler of the concordance.

Museum to the Order of St John

A Wander in London 

GRACE by E L Bevir

 (Numbers 17 and 20)

The Ruler in Jeshurun

Had seen the camp rebel,

No word of law nor menace

Could their loud murmuring quell:

Nor the dread trump proclaiming

Jehovah's awful name

Nor rolling clouds of Sina,

Torn by the lightening's flame.

Take the green rod of Aaron,

Near the Shekinah kept,

That blossomed in the night-time

While selfish Israel slept;

The flowers and fruit in clusters

Miraculously grew - 

O branch of grace and mercy

To lead the people through!

The fountain of fresh waters

Ever and ever flows,

The service in the highest

No interruption knows;

The great High Priest, untiring

Presents us to His God;

For ever bright and vernal

Buds the fair almond rod.

E.L.Bevir (1847-1922)

In the grounds of Paxton House; the river is the Tweed, the border between Scotland and England at this point.

GRACE - Auto Psalm

 

Once I was a gas-guzzler, belching fumes:

Grace has converted me to solar power.

I wandered through side-roads and cul-de-sacs:

Now grace gives satellite navigation.

My windscreen was translucent and shattered:

Grace replaced it, and broadened my vision.

My brakes could not restrain my headlong course:

Discs, pads, and fluid – grace replaced them all.

For my overheating engines and gears

Grace has abundance of coolant.

Newbattle Abbey: The abbey became a stately home, and then a college for adults returning to education.  My father had a couple of weeks here when in the Non-combatant Corps.  The poet Edwin Muir was warden, and the poet George Mackay Brown a student.

THE FATHER'S GRACE by J N Darby

             

Father, in Thine eternal power,
Thy grace and majesty divine,
No soul, in this weak mortal hour,
Can grasp the glory that is Thine!


E'en in its thoughts of sovereign grace
It leaves us all far, far behind;
The love that gives with Christ a place
Surpasses our poor feeble mind.


And yet that love is not unknown
To those who have the Saviour seen;
Nor strange to those He calls His own –
Pilgrims in scenes where He has been.


In Him Thy perfect love, revealed,
Has led our hearts that love to trace
Where nothing of that love's concealed,
But meets us in our lowly place.


But grace, the source of all our hope,
From Thine eternal nature flows;
Could to our lost condition stoop,
And now through Christ no hindrance knows;


Has flowed in fullest streams below,
And opened to our hearts the place
Where, in its ripened fruits, we'll know
The eternal blessings of that grace.


And here we walk, as sons through grace,
A Father's love our present joy;
Sons, in the brightness of Thy face,
Find rest no sorrows can destroy.


Nor is the comfort of Thy love,
In which we "Abba, Father" cry,
The only blessing that we prove:
Because that love is ever nigh,


A holy Father's constant care
Keeps watch, with an unwearying eye,
To see what fruits His children bear,
Fruits that may suit their calling high;


Takes ever knowledge of our state –
What dims communion with His love,
Might check our growth or separate
Our hearts from what's revealed above.


Oh, wondrous Love, that ne'er forgets
The object of its tender care;
May chasten still, while sin besets,
To warn and guard them where they are;


But ne'er forgets, but feeds them still
With tokens of His tender love;
Will keep till, freed from every ill,
They find their rest with Him above.


Oh, wondrous, infinite, divine!
Keep near, my soul, to that blest place,
Where all those heavenly glories shine
Which suit the brightness of His face.


Oh, lowliness, how feebly known,
That meets the grace that gave the Son!
That waits, to serve Him as His own,
Till grace what grace began shall crown!

1879


Looking south to the Moorfoot Hills from the Bing (a coal spoil heap near home now landscaped).

GRACE - Computer Psalm(!)

I had crashed like all other computers

But the mercy of God rebooted me.

Though my programmes were incompatible

He has linked me in grace to a mainframe.

Grace gave me a new hard-drive and software –

All I wait for is an upgraded screen.

Seeing my limited applications

It gave me richer functionality.

Where I had been merely a stand-alone

Grace connected me to a world wide web.

Swans and cygnets (last summer)

O GOD OF GRACE by G Gilpin

O God of grace, our Father,

All praise we give to Thee;

'Tis in Thy sovereign favour

All blessedness we see;

There only is the fountain

Whence living waters flow,

Which like a glorious river

Still gladden as they go.

 

As Thine Thou didst foreknow us

From all eternity;

Thy chosen, loved ones, ever

Kept present to Thine eye;

And when was come the moment,

Thou, calling by Thy grace,

Didst gently, firmly draw us

Each from his hiding-place.

 

Thy word, Thyself reflecting,

Doth sanctify by truth,

Still leading on Thy loved ones

With gentle, heav'nly growth.

Thus still the work proceedeth

(The work begun by grace)

In each, made meet, yet training,

To dwell before Thy face.

 

The Great Cumbrae Ferry

 

GRACE by Philip Doddridge

Grace! 'tis a charming sound

Harmonious to my ear;

Heaven with the echo shall resound,

And all the earth shall hear.

 Grace first contrived the way

To save rebellious man;

And all the steps that grace display

Which drew the wondrous plan.

Grace taught my wandering feet

To tread the heavenly road;

And new supplies each hour I meet,

While pressing on to God.

Grace all the works shall crown,

Through everlasting days;

It lays in heaven the topmost stone,

And well deserves the praise.

(Philip Doddridge 1702-1751)

Near Millport on Great Cumbrae