All Along the Watchtower by Nicholas In Faith
Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!”
is all their breath,
And for His death
they thirst and cry.
These words, referring to Palm Sunday and Good Friday, come from Samuel Crossman’s hymn, My Song is love Unknown, written in 1664. The melody to which it is sung in the UK now (I do not know if our American cousins use the same melody) was composed by John Ireland a few centuries later. It is a powerful hymn that draws us to meditate on Christ’s goodness and love. It is meant to solicit wonder and awe, gratitude and love.
I am reminded of the fable, I assume by Aesop, wherein the Sun and the Cold Wind have a competition to see who can force a man to take off his cloak. The Cold Wind blows hard upon him, but that causes him to draw his cloak more tightly around his body. The Sun shines with benevolence upon him, and immediately he casts his cloak off. The same principle, I imagine, is at work in the old proverb, “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar”[…]
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