July 9th, 2001
James Russell Lowell once penned an 18 stanza poem called, "The Present Crisis," seemingly to challenge slavery in our country. This has come down to us as a 4 stanza hymn in my youth and now in 3 altered stanzas in the current hymnal used in our church entitled "Once to Every Man and Nation."
This title is taken from the opening lines of the 5th stanza in what I understand is the original phrasing of the poem as printed in "Masterpieces of Religious verse."
Each stanza in the original has 5 lines but the tune used only allows for 4 so one is omitted. In case you don’t know the words, here they are:
"Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide;
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
(and this is the omitted line in the hymns)
Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.
In pondering that hymn it became apparent that it is an over simplification of the issue. Would that we as a person or a country have to make such a decision only once. In fact we make these kinds of decisions daily if not hourly, not of course on the specific issue of slavery, but always for the God or evil side. The struggle of the soul to know God’s truth and be set free to serve him is a never ending challenge.
We wrestle with our response to this challenge at First Baptist. We invite all to bring their insights into our thinking.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
201 Oak St.
Mauston, WI 53948-1333 608-8474555
Past Weeks Thoughts: