Surprised by Joy

Surprised by Joy

(The Shape of My Early Life)

Clive Stanley Lewis

Copyright 1956 By C.S. Lewis

Copyright renewed 1984 by Arthur Owen Barfield

Page 238

But what , in conclusion of Joy? for that, after all, what the story has mainly been about.  To tell you the truth, the subject has lost nearly all interest for me since I became a Christian.  I cannot, indeed, complain, like Wordsworth, that the visionary gleam has passed away.  I believe (if the thing were at all worth recording) that the old stab, the old bittersweet , has come to me as often and as sharply since my conversion as at any time of my life whatever  But I now know that the experience, considered as a state of my own mind, had never the kind of importance I once gave it.  It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer.  While that other was in doubt, the pointer  naturally loomed large in my thoughts.  When we are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter.  He who first sees it cries "Look!"  The whole party gathers round and stares.  But when we have found the road and are passing sign post every few miles, we shall not stop and stare.  They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that set them up.  But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold.  "We would be at Jerusalem."

Not, of course, that I  Don't often catch myself stopping to stare at roadside

On Mountain Meadows

Monument at Mountain Meadows ca 1900

  I have recently finished reading a new book,  "The Massacre at Mountain Meadows".  It was written by the Assistant Church Historian and the Director of the Latter-Day Church Museum of History and Art.  It gave me new insight in the the thinking of John D. Lee.  What does a man do who is commanded by his bishop and his stake president to slaughter 120 men, woman and children.  His bishop and stake president are his military commanders.

 We are told that if our L.D.S. Church Leaders ask to do something wrong and we follow their direction,  God will bless our actions.  Some men chose to follow their orders and participate and some men chose not to participate at the peril of their lives.   I wonder choice I would have made.

 The massacre was initiated by a misapplication of Brigham Young's Indian policy.  Due to the approach of the United States Army 1857 and the need to create a defense policy, Brigham Young had determined to use the Indians as hammer to smash the invading Federal Army.  The local Iron County militia, on its own initiative, determined to use this policy to rid themselves of a troublesome immigrant train headed to California.  It was hoped that the Indian's would be able to trap the immigrants and kill them quickly at The Mountain Meadows, in the southern portion of the Utah Territory.  This course of action failed, leaving the immigrant company entombed in a fort assembled of their wagons, forming a make shift corral. At the failure of the Indian's to massacre the immigrant party, a council was called at Parawon .  The council, formed of local citizen's, church and military leaders, advised that no further actions be taken and that an express rider be dispatched to Brigham Young for additional instruction.  Later that night contrary to instruction from the council, the bishop and stake president called out the local militia, under a pretense to bury dead, to kill the immigrant company.  Additional Militia forces were ordered to a neighboring valley to kill some immigrant's who has gone to retrieve grease to maintain their wagons.  The immigrant party was lead from their makeshift fort, under a white flag and murdered.  The men went out first, followed by the woman and children.  They were lead single file to an ambush. Their was roughly one militia member per immigrant

  In the 1870's the U.S. Government investigated the massacre.  The bishop and stake president went into hiding and were not located.  John D. Lee was placed on trial twice.  The first trial ended in a hung jury.  John was taken to the meadows placed on his coffin and shot.  Thus becoming a scapegoat.  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat)

  John was the only one to surrender and face trial.  All three men were excommunicated for their participation in the crime.  The 1870's were a difficult time for the L.D.S. Church and The Utah Territorial Government.  John's successful prosecution reduced some of this pressure.

  In the 1960's Juanita Brooks ground breaking biography of John D. Lee lead the leadership of the L.D.S Church to restore his membership.

  I keep think of King David cry, "will though leave my soul in hell".  John D. Lee  took upon himself the sins of his community.

ball turret Gunner

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

On Spiritual Death

  In Gethsemane, Christ was separated from his Eternal Father for a brief time. 

• This was an Eternal separation. 
• This was Spiritual Death.  

The Eternal Father, seeking a mediator for mankind  sent the Emmanuel (God is with us) to Earth.    

The Eternal Father desired his mediator to develop empathy. This empathy is developed through life's common experiences. 

 Our spiritual disconnection from the Eternal God is a consequence of sin.  

Jesus Christ, the son, being sinless, had not experienced Spiritual Death, or separation from The Father.  "The Eternal Father" wanted his son "The Emmanuel"  to experience Spiritual Death.

The son became "Yeshua Ben Joseph",  (the man)  that he might understand our condition, to better mediate our journey of redemption.

(see John Milton, Paradise Regained; Book I: 85-99)
[Thus we are instructed by the  Demon]

On His Blindness

by John Milton (1608 – 1674)
composed  about 1652

When I consider how my light is spent

E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide,

Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, least he returning chide,

Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,

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 milde yoak, they serve him best, his State

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and waite.

Milton, on losing his sight, is gaining his vision.

On the restoration of  Charles II and the the English Monarchy  Miltons' hopes of seeing the English people freeded from the dual yokes of Monarchy and Episcopalianism are dashed.  Thus ends a lifetimes work,  hopes and  dreams.  

To serve his country under the English Commonwealth, Milton has neglected his one talent.   

Is waiting on a stewardship from his one and  true king also a service to the same? 

To a watchful waiting,  Milton will now place this  talent. 
 
Through the instrument of a blind poet in the darkness of the night, The Eternal Father reveals his finest works.   Thus recieved, Paradise Lost  and Paradise Regained.


http://classicpoetryaloud.podomatic.com/entry/2007-11-20T03_34_02-08_00

http://www.answers.com/topic/on-his-blindness-sonnet-16-poem-5

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-28)

John Milton served Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonweath (1649 - 1660)

Oliver Cromwell (born April 25, 1599 Old Style, died September 3, 1658 Old Style)

Of Envy

 

"A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envieth virtue in others. For men's minds, will either feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and who wanteth the one, will prey upon the other; and whoso is out of hope, to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand, by depressing another's fortune."

Sir Francis Bacon; essay