Carl Linnaeus the Believer

Quotes from his journals:

Pg 18

The forest abounded with flowers...their blossoms were all closed. Who has endowed plants with intelligence, to shut themselves up at the approach of rain? Even when the weather changes in a moment from sunshine to rain, though before expanded, they immediately close.

Pg 38

Arriving in the evening...I saw the sunset apparently on the summit of a high mountain.... This spectacle I considered as not one of the least of nature's miracles. Oh Lord, how wonderful are thy works!

Pg 51

7 June

This day was a Sunday, hence we rested here all day.

Pg 53

The bill is the most remarkable thing about this bird, the avocet; it is black, bent downwards, three times longer than the head. It is all the more remarkable since it is the only species to which the Creator has given a recurved bill, which it uses like a plow in the mud, to find its food.

Pg 95

At the risk of our lives we left the harbor in a furious sea.... The waves raged, the ship was thrown between the roaring billows, my companions became seasick, the rigging burst, our hearts filled with despair and we committed our fate to God's hands....

Pg 97

by William T. Stearn

... The most influential and useful of his contributions to biology undoubtedly is his successful introduction of... two word names for individual kinds with one word for the whole group of the objects but the other word limiting the name to a single member of the group....

In all he coined usable names for roughly 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants.... Botanical names published before 1753 have no standing in modern nomenclature unless they were adopted by him....

The basis of Linnaeus's achievement was a strong sense of order....

Reared in a pious atmosphere, spared from death on his travels, always strongly egotistic, Linnaeus could excusably believe himself God's chosen instrument for revealing in an orderly way the divinely ordered works of Creation, and he did not spare himself in that task.

ISBN 0-684 15976-7

Newborns Cry in Their Mother Tongue

German researchers say babies begin to pick up the nuances of their parents' accents while still in the womb.

The researchers studied the cries of 60 healthy babies born to families speaking French and German.

The French newborns cried with a rising "accent" while the German babies' cries had a falling inflection.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, they say the babies are probably trying to form a bond with their mothers by imitating them.

(Continued)

Do Not Go Gentle

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

From The Poems of Dylan Thomas, published by New Directions. Copyright © 1952, 1953

They also Serve Who Only Stand And Wait

Sonnet 19 by John Milton on his blindness. 

"When I consider how my light is spent,

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide

Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, lest he returning chide;

“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”

I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need

Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait."

Sceptical of the Asbury Revival?

Here's a snippet of a good article from a brother:

"Every revival has had some mess, so to speak.... Discern for yourself whether or not you know if there is enough mess to say it is not of God. I would just say do it with faithful scales and a true balance. If you are going to be skeptical about the good, be skeptical about the bad. If you are going to unreservedly look at the good then unreservedly look at the bad. Judge with righteous judgment... "

https://post.enduringword.com/skeptical-of-the-asbury-revival/

Winston Churchill's Speaking Ability

 Lord Balfour, the Conservative leader, talking of Winston Churchill's speaking ability said that he carried “heavy but not very mobile guns.” 

Encyclopedia Britannica 

A beautiful hymn on the Lord's Supper

 

Charles Wes­ley, Hymns on the Lord’s Sup­per 1745, num­ber 57.

Music: Bar­na­bas adapt­ed from the French Psal­ter, 1561

O the depth of love divine,

Th’unfathomable grace!

Who shall say how bread and wine

God into us conveys!

How the bread His flesh imparts,

How the wine transmits His blood,

Fills His faithful people’s hearts

With all the life of God!

Let the wisest mortals show

How we the grace receive;

Feeble elements bestow

A power not theirs to give.

Who explains the wondrous way,

How through these the virtue came?

These the virtue did convey,

Yet still remain the same.

How can spirits heavenward rise,

By earthly matter fed,

Drink herewith divine supplies

And eat immortal bread?

Ask the Father’s wisdom how:

Christ who did the means ordain;

Angels round our altars bow

To search it out, in vain.

Sure and real is the grace,

The manner be unknown;

Only meet us in Thy ways

And perfect us in one.

Let us taste the heavenly powers,

Lord, we ask for nothing more.

Thine to bless, ’tis only ours

To wonder and adore.