Hávamál

“ Don’t you really believe that the Holy Spirit is just as able to draw a soul to Jesus, if He will, by your whisper of the one word, ‘Come,’ as by an eloquent sermon an hour long? I do! At the same time, as it is evidently God’s way to work through these intellects of ours, we have no more right to expect Him to use a mind which we are wilfully neglecting, and taking no pains whatever to fit for His use, than I should have to expect you to write a beautiful inscription with my pen, if I would not take the trouble to wipe it and mend it. ”

“ All earth-incrusted now,
But He will make it glorious,
And set it on His brow:
'Tis but a tiny glimmer,
Lit from the light above,
But it shall blaze through endless days,
A star of perfect love.
—Frances Ridley Havergal. THOU ART THE WAY.
Thou art the Way: to thee alone
From sin and death we flee;
And he who would the Father seek,
Must seek Him, Lord, by Thee.
Thou art the Truth; Thy word alone
True wisdom can impart;
Thou only canst instruct the mind,
And purify the heart.
Thou art the Life: the rending tomb
Proclaims Thy conquering arm ”

“ For Thou keepest my foot from being taken, and deliverest me from the snares of death. O Lord God, lift upon me the light of Thy countenance, that I may lie down and sleep in peace, and dwell in safety under Thy protection. For Thou alone, O Lord, can help me. In Thy name will I lie down to rest and let my eyelids slumber. Thou, O Lord, wilt again awaken me with rejoicing, to the glory and praise [52] of Thine eternal majesty; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hinunter ist der Sonnen Schein.
Sunk is the sun’s last beam of light,
And now the world is wrapt in night. ”

“ And blessed be His glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory! Daily will I praise the Lord, and at eventime my mouth shall thank Him while I have any being. For when I cry with my voice, He hears me, and gives ear to my supplication. When I pray, He attends to my voice. The Lord is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore do I laud and magnify Thee, Eternal God, that Thou hast this day so mercifully kept me from every harm and evil. My heart is glad and my soul glorifies Thee for Thy goodness and mercy. ”

“ Therefore my soul doth magnify Thee, that Thou in Thy immeasurable grace hast kept me during the night now past. Blessed be Thou, Lord God Sabaoth, who art merciful unto all, that seek Thee and love Thy salvation. Blessed is Thy holy name in all the earth, who art our refuge and our help! Blessed are all Thy works which Thou doest for the children of men! I beseech Thee, protect me this day, that the Evil One may not harm me, and the hands of the wicked touch me not. ”

“ Thou knowest what hath befallen Us at the hands of them whom Thou knowest [pg 38] better than we know them. They have committed what hath torn the veil from such of Thy creatures as are nigh unto Thee. I beseech Thee to assist them to obtain that which hath escaped them in the days of the Dawning-Place of Thy Revelation and the Dayspring of Thine Inspiration. Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee, and in Thy grasp are the reins of all that is in heaven and all that is on earth." The voice and the lamentation of the true Faith have been raised. ”

“ If that moment had not been, though perhaps unconsciously, ‘kept for Jesus,’ but had been otherwise occupied, what a harvest to His praise would have been missed!
The same thing is going on every day. It is generally a moment—either an opening or a culminating one—that really does the work. It is not so often a whole sermon as a single short sentence in it that wings God’s arrow to a heart. It is seldom a whole conversation that is the means of bringing about the desired result, but some sudden turn of thought or word, which comes with the electric touch of God’s power. ”

“ Know thou that he is truly learned who hath acknowledged My Revelation, and drunk from the Ocean of My knowledge, and soared in the atmosphere of My love, and cast away all else besides Me, and taken firm hold on that which hath been sent down from the Kingdom of My wondrous utterance. He, verily, is even as an eye unto mankind, and as the spirit of life unto the body of all creation. ”

“ Thou canst transform sinners into true and holy men, when by Thy grace Thou forgivest sin and renewest us with Thy Holy Spirit. Therefore I pray Thee, by Thy power and love grant me grace, that I may worthily approach Thy altar, and not become guilty of Thy body and blood by unworthy eating and drinking, so that I may not receive death in place of life. Grant me grace, that I may know and test myself as a poor sinner, my heart filled with sorrow over mine iniquity, and may properly discern Thy tender and noble body, and Thy holy, precious blood. ”

“ Grant unto me, according to Thy goodness, that neither fear nor trembling come over me, and no terrors of the night overwhelm me. Be merciful unto me, for in Thee do I put my trust, and under the shadow of Thy wings do I find my refuge. I seek the Lord in the time of need; my hand is outstretched in the night without ceasing; for my soul has none other comfort ”

“ For ages and generations the hosts of heaven have wonderingly watched its vouchsafed unveilings and its sublime developments, and still they are waiting, watching, and wondering.
Creation and Providence are but the whisper of its power, but Redemption is its music, and praise is the echo which shall yet fill His temple. The whisper and the music, yes, and ‘the thunder of His power,’ are all ‘for thee.’ For what is ‘the good pleasure of His will’? ”

“ I implore Thee by Thy Name that hath caused to surge within every drop the oceans of Thy loving-kindness and mercy, and to shine within every atom the luminaries of Thy bountiful blessings and favors,—I implore Thee to adorn every soul with the ornament of Thy love, that none may remain on Thine earth who hath not turned towards Thee, or hath failed to detach himself from all except Thy Self. ”

“ Thou hast to be prepared to answer Dharma, the stern law, whose voice will ask thee at thy first, at thy initial step:
"Hast thou complied with all the rules, O thou of lofty hopes?"
"Hast thou attuned thy heart and mind to the great mind and heart of all mankind? For as the sacred River's roaring voice whereby all Nature-sounds are echoed back [10] , so must the heart of him 'who in the stream would enter,' thrill in response to every sigh and thought of all that lives and breathes."
Disciples may be likened to the strings of the soul-echoing Vînâ; mankind, unto its sounding board ”

“ Yet while language is still living it may regain something of its old power beneath the poet's healing fingers, and now and again a master of words will recall for us some dying form of speech. A writer of power is needed, surely to win us back the older and wiser use of the word sacrament as a spiritual symbol, the revelation of the unseen through the visible, the unfolding of the unknown through the known. ”

“ Wherefore thou hast been singled out by God through the tongue of thy Lord, the Báb, the brightness of Whose countenance hath enveloped, and will continue to envelop, the whole of creation. Render thanks unto the Almighty, and magnify His name, inasmuch as He hath aided thee to recognize a Cause that hath made the hearts of the inhabitants of the heavens and of the earth to tremble, that hath caused the denizens of the Kingdoms of creation and of Revelation to cry out, and through which the hidden secrets of men’s breasts have been searched out and tested. ”

“ Arise, dear soul, and carefully reflect who He is with whom thou speakest and before whom thou standest when thou prayest. Behold, thou speakest with God, thy Maker, and standest in the presence of Him, the eternal Majesty, whom thousand times thousand holy angels and arch-angels attend. Therefore, O Christian, enter thou into the closet of thy soul, and beware, lest thou failest to put from thee all sluggishness of heart, and liftest up to thy God a countenance free from blame. ”

“ Few poets—infatuated that they are!—soar upward while the least whisper of their name is heard on earth. On Sabbath evenings, my sisters sit by the fireside, between our father and mother, and repeat some hymns of mine, which they have often heard from my own lips, ere the tremulous voice left them forever. ”

“ And where the verdant pastures grow
With food celestial feedeth
God is Love and God is Light
God is Love, His mercy brightens
All the path in which we rove,
Bliss He forms, and woe He lightens,
God is Light and God is Love
Chance and change are busy ever,
Worlds decay and ages move,
But His mercy waneth never
God is Light and God is Love.
Thine eyes shall see the King
Thine eyes shall see! Yes, thine, who, blind erewhile,
Now trembling towards the new-found light dost flee,
Leave doubting, and look up with trustful smile. ”

“ I know by sorrowful personal experience that it is very possible to sing a sacred song and not sing it for Jesus. It is easier to have one’s portfolio all right than one’s heart, and the repertory is more easily arranged than the motives. [62] When we have taken our side, and the difficulties of indecision are consequently swept away, we have a new set of more subtle temptations to encounter. And although the Master will keep, the servant must watch and pray; and it is through the watching and the praying that the keeping will be effectual. ”

“ Great is thy blessedness, O Akká, in that God hath made thee the dayspring of His Most Sweet Voice, and the dawn of His most mighty signs. Happy art thou in that the Throne of Justice hath been established upon thee, and the Daystar of God’s loving-kindness and bounty hath shone forth above thy horizon. Well is it with every fair-minded person that hath judged fairly Him Who is the Most Great Remembrance, and woe betide him that hath erred and doubted. ”

“ Old and comparatively modern conceptions of the deities, pious efforts to veil or to explain away what seemed crude or profane, the puerilities of ritual, half-conscious strivings in the direction of monotheism or pantheism, clan or family prejudices, rough etymological guesses, and many other elements of doubt combine to confuse what can never have been clear. Savage legends, philosophic conjectures, individual predilections are all blended into the collection of hymns called the Rig- Veda. Who can bring order into such a chaos? ”

“ He perceived that a pure system of natural religion was innate in her sublime and contemplative mind; but the images which personified the attributes of Deity, in her national faith, had powerfully fastened on her ardent imagination, and blended their influence with all the habits, the feelings, and the expressions of her life. The splendid mythology of the Brahminical religion was eminently calculated to seduce a fancy so warm; and the tenets of her sect, to harmonize with the tenderness of a heart so sensible. ”

“ Consider how, according to the text of the Book, the Divine touchstone hath differentiated and distinguished between the pure and impure; still these people are not mindful, and in the sleep of heedlessness are occupied in gaining the mortal world and outward leadership.
O Son of man, days have already passed thee during which thou hast been occupied with the imaginations and superstitions prompted by thine egotism. How long wilt thou be asleep upon thy couch? Lift thy head from slumber, for verily the sun hath already reached mid-day; that it may shine upon thee with the lights of Beauty. ”

“ Therefore it was, though now faith waned among them with their waning energies, that this people, knowing no better creed, worshipped the threefold Fate without a name, whom they held to be master of gods and men. Therefore, also, long generations since, in this spot which we came to violate,—to them the most holy on the earth,—they set up effigies of a Heart, a Mouth, and Eyes, as symbols of his attributes. ”

“ I will sing psalms with the spirit, and I will sing psalms with the understanding also. 16Else, though thou bless God in spirit, how shall he who filleth the place of an illiterate man, say Amen after thy thanksgiving, seeing he knoweth not what thou sayest? 17For thou indeed givest thanks to God well, but another man is not edified by it. 18I thank my God, that I speak with different tongues more than you all: 19but in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may instruct others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. ”

“ There is a complete mental creation, answering to the material creation, not continuously evolved from it, but on a different or detached plane. The sun,—to take an example,—the source of light and heat, and thereby of physical nature, is in these fables always the symbol of God, of love and wisdom, by which the spirit of man is created. ”

“ When we take day and night, spring and winter, as they come and go, we shall find in the hymns thoughts such as would naturally spring up in the minds of any unsophisticated observers who felt that there must be something behind the visible world, some powers or persons directing the course of nature, possibly some power even beyond the powers, whom they called Devas or Bright ones. ”

“ What I had dreamt of as a child, mused upon as a youth, and what had haunted my eyes, Fata-Morgana-like, during my wanderings through the literatures of the Occident and Orient, I was to attain at last, and feast upon it my own bodily eyes. When passion thus, like a mighty wave, is rolling in upon us, we turn a deaf ear to the voice of reason and prudence. ”

“ From that which hath been said it becometh evident that all things, in their inmost reality, testify to the revelation of the names and attributes of God within them. Each according to its capacity, indicateth, and is expressive of, the knowledge of God. So potent and universal is this revelation, that it hath encompassed all things, visible and invisible. Thus hath He revealed: “Hath aught else save Thee a power of revelation which is not possessed by Thee, that it could have manifested Thee? Blind is the eye which doth not perceive Thee.” ”