The story of hymnwriter William Cowper is the stuff of legend. No less than G.K. Chesterton saw fit to devote a few paragraphs in Orthodoxy to lambast him because of Cowper’s well-known bouts with depression. (It was all Calvinism’s fault or course!). Cowper wrote hymns in order to fight for his sanity. So what if perhaps he went insane. As he did so he gave us hymns about the Lord Jesus Christ that have continued to minister to the sanity of other saints for generations.
It is the pain in Cowper’s life, and knowing of that pain, at least for me, that adds power to the beautiful words of so many of his hymns. Today I want to share one of my favorites. Plus, you can read about Cowper HERE. May we all, whether happy or sad, joyful or miserable, say with Cowper, ‘Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.’
H.L. Mencken said “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”
What would you then reply in return?
Good to hear from you Austin.
I’d probably throw out C.S. Lewis’ line that the Puritans were against “bishops, not beer.” It’s not like they were monks living in monasteries, or wanted other people to live in monasteries; they wanted to ban monasteries! All of the quotes on my post ‘C.S. Lewis Defining and Defending the English Puritans’ are decent replies.
Then I might reply by pointing out that Mencken lived 250 years after the Puritans and was a newspaper writer, not a historian.
Ya, good point with the last comment. You did talk about Robert Louis Stevenson who left his Presbyterian faith and left us with a commonplace quote about his statement at death. Was he happy?
Now how did the puritans die? Do we have any records of their last sayings?
I mean some of them like John Bunyan were imprisoned and that surely would give a brother the blues but what did he do? He wrote a book that changed the world. Talk about being proactive with your free time haha.
The reason why I made the effort to post the comment, is because, what right does one have to question the happiness of a puritan? There is no possible way to find that out except through their writings. To me and the puritanicals, I find nothing but joy unspeakable and full of glory, even so that it echoes through the voice and open of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, J.I. Packer, and Martyn Lloyd Jones.
Also, post on G.K. Chesterons comment on William Cowper influenced me too.
Those are all good points. The fact of the matter is that Christianity can only be for the world by being against the world. We can’t be for ‘happiness’ in the same way that the world is for happiness, since we know that fulness of joy is found only in the presence of God mediated by the Lord Jesus Christ.
People find ‘happiness’ in their sin and in their idols. We are crying out to them that there is a much more profound happiness to be found. As Lewis said, that there is an offer of a vacation at the sea while they are so busy making mud pies in the dirt and thinking that that is true happiness.
Chesterton said that the world thinks that Christianity is a virus when it is actually the antidote.
Just great, thanks. I’m going to research that C.S. Lewis Quote.
I paraphrased it. It is from his book (and sermon of the same name), The Weight of Glory.
That is a loaded title, it gives me chills. I will definitely put that book on hold at my local library. Thank you sir.