Thomas Pollock’s hymn, “We Have Not Known Thee as We Ought,” stands among the most honest devotional texts in the English Christian tradition. In five carefully ordered stanzas, Pollock leads us through the interior life of faith — knowing, fearing, loving, serving, and hoping — each marked not by self-confidence, but by humble confession and prayer.

The turning of the year is always bittersweet. We look back with gratitude, sometimes with sorrow — and we look forward with hope, sometimes with trembling. We stand between “what has been” and “what may yet be.” Few poems capture that holy tension like Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Ring Out, Wild Bells.” It appears as Canto CVI in his long work In Memoriam, written over many years in the wake of the early death of his closest friend, Arthur Hallam.

Christmas poems offer beauty beyond measure, also light, truth, and love. Hundreds of poets have given us verse honoring this event.

Cowper’s personal trials forged in him a deep trust in God’s sovereignty. Out of that furnace came this poem, which gave the English-speaking world one of the most quoted lines ever written: “God moves in a mysterious wayHis wonders to perform.”

Milton, blind at mid-life, wrestled with what you and I both know: that usefulness before God is not measured by activity, but by faithfulness.He feared his light was “spent,” yet Patience reminded him — “They also serve who only stand and wait.” When we can no longer labor as before, we can still trust, pray, and shine inwardly.The same God who s

This motto hung over the desk in our hallway at 658 Monroe Avenue for 50 years. --Every time I sat down at that desk it made me think, "Am I doing this for Christ?" --I carry that thought with me today and have given that plaque to many loved ones. --C.T. Thought about this and gave his life as a missionary to the lost souls of Africa. --He didn;thave to do this; he was rich and famous, but he knew those things would not last.

I knew such women when I needed them most, when I was filled with passion. ---They were like Britomart in purity and worship manifested in their beauty. ---Faithfulness and a meek and quiet spirit was their way. ---We see them in Dante's Beatrice, Dickens' Agnes, and Jepthah's daughter. They can only be found in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: (Psalm 110:3

Henry Vaughan’s voice rings across the centuries with clarity and consolation. In “They Are All Gone into the World of Light” he gives us a vision of death not as an end, but as a radiant passage. In “My Soul, There Is a Country” he directs us to our true homeland in Christ* (4BC - 30AD) the eternal fortress of peace.

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) is one of the most beloved devotional poets in the English tradition. A woman of deep Christian faith, she wrote with simplicity, tenderness, and unflinching honesty about both human grief and divine hope. In this post, we will look at two of her poems — “Remember” and “The Lowest Place” — to see how Rossetti’s words still speak into our own longing for consolation and our call to humility in Christ* .(4BC -30AD)

My Dad used to recite/preach this poem in our Pentecostal Church. ---The unspoken subtext was that those sitting there were the old dry bones. ---Many were quite reserved Holy Ghost people, living for Jesus, but not very actively. ---I will never forget Sister Charlotte, who suddenly cried out, --Hallelujah, Hallelujah!! HALLELUJAH!! and afterward apologized, "I didn't mean to disrupt the service, Brother Kalis, but the Spirit of the Lord came over me so powerful that I just

When most people picture Jesus, the image is often soft: a pale figure in a stained-glass window, gentle and almost fragile. But Ezra Pound, (1885-1972) one of the early modernist poets, saw Him differently. In 1909, he wrote a striking piece called “Ballad of the Goodly Fere.” It’s not a Sunday-school portrait. Instead, Pound gives us Jesus as a comrade — hearty, bold, alive. A man who laughed with His friends, spoke with fire, and faced death with the courage of a warrior.

He went away; he kept his earthly treasures, But oh, at what a cost! Afraid to take the cross and lose his riches— And God and heaven were lost. We should have read his there—the rich young ruler— If he had stayed that day; Nameless—though Jesus loved him—ever nameless Because—he went away.

In the world of English literature, few works hold the same enchantment as Edmund Spenser's (c1542-1599) The Faerie Queene. This epic poem consists of over 36,000 lines, making it one of the longest poems in English history. It serves as a rich narrative filled with knights, virtues, and intricate allegories. Comprising six books and utilizing the innovative Spenserian stanza, this poetic masterpiece explores moral archetypes and offers insights into the political dynamics o

Dad taught us all to be men of integrity, as well as the fear of the Lord. Around the time this photo was taken, he quipped: "I have 3 sons, a clergyman, a business man, and a screwball." He said that with love and was always glad to see me, although I wasn't yet as mature as my older brothers.