"Thy Lord is risen!"

Easter

by Geroge Herbert

Rise, heart, thy lord is risen. Sing his praise 

Without delays, 

Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise 

With him may'st rise: 

That, as his death calcinèd thee to dust, 

His life may make thee gold, and, much more, just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part 

With all thy art, 

The cross taught all wood to resound his name

Who bore the same. 

His stretchèd sinews taught all strings what key 

Is best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort, both heart and lute, and twist a song 

Pleasant and long; 

Or, since all music is but three parts vied 

And multiplied 

Oh let thy blessèd Spirit bear a part, 

And make up our defects with his sweet art. 

Easter Song

by Geroge Herbert

I Got me flowers to straw Thy way, 

I got me boughs off many a tree; 

But Thou wast up by break of day, 

And brought’st Thy sweets along with Thee. 

The sunne arising in the East, 

Though he give light, and th’ East perfume, 

If they should offer to contest 

With Thy arising, they presume. 

Can there be any day but this, 

Though many sunnes to shine endeavour? 

We count three hundred, but we misse: 

There is but one, and that one ever. 

Anonymity vs accountability

In the April online issue of Tabletalk, Tim Challies warns of the ethical dangers of anonymity, and urges the need for accountability within the church and in society at large:

We need accountability. Left to our own devices, we will soon devise or succumb to all kinds of evil. As Christians we know that we need other believers to hold us accountable to the standards of Scripture. Passages such as Ecclesiastes 4:12 remind us that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” The Bible tells us that “iron sharpens iron” (Prov. 27:17) and that we are to “stir up one another to love and good works…encouraging one another” (Heb. 10:24–25). Life is far too difficult and we are far too sinful to live in solitude. We need community. We need accountability. And God has anticipated our need by giving us the local church as the primary means of this accountability.

(Read the whole article here.)