For Thy mercy and Thy grace,
Constant through another year,
Hear our song of thankfulness;
Jesus, our Redeemer, hear.
Lo! our sins on Thee we cast,
Thee, our perfect Sacrifice;
And, forgetting all the past,
Press towards our glorious prize.
Dark the future: let Thy light
Guide us, bright and morning Star:
Fierce our foes, and hard the fight;
Arm us, Savior, for the war.
In our [...]

THE COLLECTOR
In our house, the first of January
heralds a resolute simplicity. No,
not just the clean calendar on the
kitchen door, nor the new date
on letters; not even the bundling out
of the dry tree with its trail
of needles to the back porch,
but a return to routine. Clearing
the Christmas clutter
signals renewal, a re-ordering;
it is a woman taking off [...]

When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines. ~Samuel Rutherford
When I read that sentence today, to say I chuckled wouldn’t be quite right, but it was somewhat near that. Mr. Rutherford caught me. When I’m in the cellar of affliction, my usual response is to enumerate the various [...]

One of the best little treasures found in my Christmas stocking is this sumptuous little book, The Loveliness of Christ, from the letters of Samuel Rutherford. The soft red leather binding is a feast for the eyes, and the contents I’ve read so far are a feast for the heart. I can understand why they’re [...]

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”–
That is how we speak at the manger in Bethlehem.
Our words rush out
at the sight of the divine child;
we try to put into language
what is implied in the one name: Jesus.
But at bottom these words are nothing
except a wordless silence of adoration
before the ineffable, before the [...]

[...]

O Source of All Good,
What shall I render to thee for the Gift of gifts,
thine own dear Son begotten, not created,
my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,
His self-emptying incomprehensible,
His infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.
Herein is wonder of wonders:
He came below to raise me above,
was born like me that I might become like Him.
Herein is love;
when [...]

Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock crow,
Jesus Christ was born:
Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world his hands had made
Born a stranger.
Priest and king lay fast asleep
In Jerusalem;
Young and old lay fast asleep
In crowded Bethlehem;
Saint and angel, ox and ass,
Kept a watch together
Before the Christmas daybreak
In the winter weather.
Jesus on his mother’s [...]

The people that in darkness sat
A glorious light have seen;
The light has shined on them who long
In shades of death have been.
To hail thee, Sun of Righteousness,
The gathering nations come;
They joy as when the reapers bear
Their harvest treasures home.
For thou their burden dost remove
And break the tyrant’s rod,
As in the day when Midian fell
Before the [...]