Eric Rasmusen’s Weblog

I saw this in Arlington, Virginia, just off of Fairfax Road.

I came across this good George Herbert poem in a liberal sermon discussed at Baylyblog. The funny thing is, the sermon, by a liberal theologian, was trying to use this hard-hitting Calvinist poem to support Universalism, probably because he didn’t read it carefully and noticed only that Love played a prominent role:

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
    Guilty of dust and sin.
    But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
    From my first entrance in,
    Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
    If I lack’d anything.

    "A guest," I answer’d "worthy to be here";
    Love said, "You shall be he."
    "I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah, my dear,
    I cannot look on thee."
    Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
    "Who made the eyes but I?"

    "Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them; let my shame
    Go where it doth deserve."
    "And know you not," says Love "who bore the blame?"
    "My dear, then I will serve."
    "You must sit down," says Love "and taste my meat."
    So I did sit and eat.

In a sermon a while back Pastor Whitaker mentioned a story about Admiral Stockdale in Vietnam from the book Good to Great, by Jim Collins. I’ve boldfaced the key idea: that suffering as a prisoner of war was perhaps the best thing in his life, a source of utility and not disutility. (more…)