The Heart in Pilgrimage E-Book

Leland Ryken

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 264

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A Beautiful Collection of 50 Classic Devotionals Christians throughout the ages have written devotionals as a way to bend their souls toward God and teach about him, communicating rich truths and encouraging readers to grow in grace and godliness. In this collection of 50 devotionals and creeds by figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, literary expert Leland Ryken introduces readers to insightful selections of their classic writings. Each entry contains a devotional passage from a historical figure, analysis by Ryken, and a concluding Bible passage that sums up the devotional passage and its analysis. Literary-inclined readers and first-time devotional readers alike will relish this one-of-a-kind anthology carefully compiled to help them encounter God in fresh ways. - Written by Leland Ryken: A literary expert with over 50 years of teaching experience - Perfect for Daily Devotions: With a ribbon marker to keep your place in the book, each entry includes a historical devotional passage, analysis by Ryken, and a concluding Bible passage  - Features 50 Devotionals and Creeds from Church History: Features writers such as John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, George MacDonald, Thomas à Kempis, Jane Austen, and J. I. Packer

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“Having already opened the eyes of the body of Christ to its treasury of devotional poetry in The Soul in Paraphrase, Leland Ryken now widens our vision to take in the depth and breadth of two millennia of devotional prose. Running the gamut from the giants of the genre (Augustine, John Donne, Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, Brother Lawrence, Blaise Pascal, Julian of Norwich, Bernard of Clairvaux) to writers we do not usually identify with devotional writing (Florence Nightingale, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George MacDonald, Jane Austen, George Washington Carver), The Heart in Pilgrimage conducts its readers on a spiritual journey that is well worth taking.”

Louis Markos, Professor in English and Scholar in Residence, Houston Baptist University; author, The Myth Made Fact: Reading Greek and Roman Mythology through Christian Eyes

“This collection gives the gift of informed access to a great mixed chorus of voices with often surprising words that prick our imaginations and our hearts of faith. Even as we read and celebrate a glorious heritage of devotional expression, we are drawn ultimately to worship the glorious Lord God of the Scriptures who created us human beings and redeemed us through his Son.”

Kathleen B. Nielson, author; speaker

“This is an edifying volume of diverse devotional texts skillfully excerpted and each followed by a brief overview. The texts span centuries, and Ryken’s editing makes them very accessible. The texts are marked by artful and clear expression, and all invite readers to open their hearts to God and experience his grace.”

James C. Wilhoit, Professor of Christian Education Emeritus, Wheaton College

“Whenever I am asked to recommend a volume that combines literary study with sound Christian teaching, I recommend Leland Ryken. His new collection of rich devotional literature will move to the top of my list of recommended works. The Heart in Pilgrimage is a treasury of wisdom and beauty to which readers will return again and again.”

Karen Swallow Prior, author, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books

“Like cool water to a parched throat, Leland Ryken has produced a soul-quenching gift with this collection of devotionals. Filled with beautiful writing devoted to an even more beautiful subject, The Heart in Pilgrimage delivers the truths of the Christian faith through masterful expression, promising to awaken fresh affections for the Lord among believers of every stripe.”

Collin Huber, Senior Editor, Fathom Magazine

The Heart in Pilgrimage

The Heart in Pilgrimage

A Treasury of Classic Devotionals on the Christian Life

Leland Ryken, editor

The Heart in Pilgrimage

Copyright © 2022 by Leland Ryken

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2022

Printed in China

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations in the devotional commentary by Leland Ryken are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Scripture quotations in reprinted devotional passages have been left in their original form and translation.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-7779-6 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7782-6 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7780-2 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7781-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ryken, Leland, editor.

Title: The Heart in Pilgrimage: A Treasury of Classic Devotionals on the Christian Life / Leland Ryken, editor.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021055063 (print) | LCCN 2021055064 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433577796 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433577802 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433577819 (mobipocket) | ISBN 9781433577826 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Devotional literature. | Spiritual life—Christianity. | Christian life. | Theology.

Classification: LCC BV4801 .F54 2022 (print) | LCC BV4801 (ebook) | DDC 242/.2—dc23/eng/20220128

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021055063

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021055064

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-10-19 03:11:54 PM

This book is dedicated to all Crossway personnel

who have blessed me through the years

with their competence and dedication to Christian publishing.

Contents

Editor’s Introduction

1  Finding Rest for Our Restless Heart

Augustine

2  How Jesus Is Our Hero

Gerard Manley Hopkins

3  Exhortation to Christlike Living

Florence Nightingale

4  For Whom the Bell Tolls

John Donne

5  Communing with God through Nature

George Washington Carver

6  Preface to Galatians

Martin Luther

7  Waiting on God

Andrew Murray

8  The Foundational Principles of the Christian Life

The Westminster and Heidelberg Catechisms

9  The Imitation of Christ

Thomas à Kempis

10  Two Prayers

Samuel Johnson

11  Jesus Our Guide and Guardian

John Henry Newman

12  Bidding Prayer

Lessons and Carols

13  True and Substantial Wisdom

John Calvin

14  What Christians Believe

The Apostles’ Creed

15  Following the Steps of the Master

Harriet Beecher Stowe

16  A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

William Law

17  Practicing the Presence of God

Brother Lawrence

18  The Saints’ Everlasting Rest

Richard Baxter

19  What Makes the Bible the Greatest Book

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

20  Holy Living

Jeremy Taylor

21  Earthly and Divine Beauty

Jonathan Edwards

22  Morning Prayer

Book of Common Prayer

23  Reflections on the Supreme Loveliness of Christ

Dostoyevsky, Edwards, and Watson

24  On Loving God

Bernard of Clairvaux

25  The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

Jeremiah Burroughs

26  Nature as God’s Signpost

Nathaniel Hawthorne

27  Thoughts on the Mission and Greatness of Jesus

Blaise Pascal

28  Holy Dying

Jeremy Taylor

29  Trusting and Praising God in Extremity

William Bradford

30  Evening Prayer

Jane Austen

31  What the Bible Means to a Believer

The Geneva Bible and King James Version

32  The Almost Christian

John Wesley

33  The Estate of Marriage

Martin Luther

34  Death as a Welcome Sleep

John Donne

35  Morning and Evening

Charles Spurgeon

36  The Mystery of Providence

John Flavel

37  The Believer’s New Name

George MacDonald

38  Reflections on Mortality and Immortality

Prayer Book’s Burial Service

39  The World as the Theater of God’s Glory

John Calvin

40  Holiness

J. C. Ryle

41  Death Is the Gate of Life

Lilias Trotter

42  Three Puritan Exhortations to Remember God’s Visitations

Bunyan, Baxter, and Pringle

43  A Believer’s Last Day Is His Best Day

Thomas Brooks

44  Charity and Its Fruits

Jonathan Edwards

45  Reflections on Providence

The Westminster Confession and Heidelberg Catechism

46  The Pursuit of God

A. W. Tozer

47  The Care of the Soul Urged as the One Thing Needful

George Whitefield

48  Edification from Last Wills and Testaments

Shakespeare, Park, and Keayne

49  All Things Shall Be Well

Julian of Norwich

50  Knowing God

J. I. Packer

Notes on Sources

Person Index

Scripture Index

Editor’s Introduction

This book is an anthology of prose devotional classics. Each passage is accompanied by an explication of a devotional text. This book was conceived and composed as a companion volume to The Soul in Paraphrase: A Treasury of Classic Devotional Poems (Crossway, 2018). In this introduction, I hope to delineate the nature and purpose of this book, explain the criteria by which the passages were selected, provide an anatomy of types or genres under the umbrella of prose devotional, and explore the techniques by which a prose devotional can rise above the conventional devotional to attain the status of a classic.

The Nature and Purpose of This Book

This book is a collection of fifty devotionals composed by forty-six authors over a span of seventeen centuries. The selections are evangelical in viewpoint. Under that umbrella, they encompass a wide range of denominations and traditions. The arrangement of these selections is neither chronological nor topical, but is instead designed to achieve a pleasing variety and spontaneity. Monotony and predictability are a besetting weakness of conventional anthologies of devotionals, and as editor of this volume I worked hard to counteract this syndrome.

What is a devotional? The defining traits of a prose devotional are the same as those of a devotional poem, except that the medium is prose rather than poetry. A devotional is definable by its subject matter first of all. It takes specifically religious and spiritual experience for its subject. Examples are the person and works of God, personal salvation and sanctification, trust in God, relating to God day by day, meditations on specific Christian doctrines, and godly living.

A second avenue toward defining the devotional genre is by its effect on a reader. A devotional is not primarily an exposition of doctrine, and it does not appeal to our intellect the way a theology book or sermon does. Instead it is affective in its operation, appealing to our emotions and heart more than our minds. The purpose of a devotional is not to inform or educate but to bend the soul toward God and persuade a reader to embrace godliness in daily life. A devotional also provides paths by which to attain such godliness.

Because of these considerations, I have drawn passages very sparingly from sermons, and when I have taken passages from sermons, I have chosen material that meets the criteria of devotional writing as defined earlier. A direct statement of doctrinal truth, or the exposition of a specific Bible passage, belongs to the realm of expositional writing rather than devotional writing, which is designed to move us and awaken the motion of our soul toward God.

The purpose of this anthology is first of all to provide a rich devotional experience. Because the selections attain the status of a classic through superior technique and beauty of form, a secondary goal is literary enjoyment and artistic enrichment. I have also envisioned an educational purpose to my enterprise in the sense that I have aimed to acquaint my readers with the canon of famous devotional works of the Christian tradition.

Each selection is accompanied by what literary scholars call an explication. An explication is an explanation and analysis of a text, especially in the form of close reading. The twofold purpose of such commentary is to enhance a reader’s understanding and enjoyment of a text. In composing my explications, I have undertaken to show what makes each selection great, and to outline avenues toward appreciation and spiritual application. In this endeavor, I have viewed myself as a tour guide, pointing things out and saying, “Look.” The range of what I have put into my explications is broad and varied, but everything answers to my goal of putting my readers in possession of the text and enhancing their experience of it. The best way to combine the devotional passages with the explications is first to read the devotional, then read my explication as a way of reaching a fuller understanding and enjoyment of what has just been read, and then read the devotional a second time, using the tips from my explication as a lens through which to view the passage.

Criteria for Selection of Passages

The primary criterion by which I selected the entries in this anthology was that a passage needed to provide an uplifting devotional experience. A classic devotional needs to meet a spiritual criterion first of all. But what raises a devotional above ordinary expository prose? As an entry point to answering that question, we can listen to Charles Spurgeon. The fountainhead from which the modern daily devotional book flows is Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening. Spurgeon himself tells us how it all started. As he looked at the available devotional guides, he was dismayed by their dullness, predictability, monotony, and lack of fresh insight and expression.

What, then, are the traits that raise a devotional above such limitations? It is not superior truthfulness that makes the difference. Conventional expository devotionals couched in everyday prose are not deficient in their religious truth. They are deficient at the level of form and expression. The following anatomy of how a devotional rises above the level of the mundane will be abundantly illustrated by the selections in this anthology.

First, a classic devotional possesses excellence of literary form and expression. More often than not, this literary and rhetorical excellence is stylistic in nature, tending toward eloquence and polish. These qualities should not be dismissed as “only the form” of a devotional passage, or a kind of decoration. The verbal beauty and rhetorical skill are part of the total effect of a passage. Truth stands out with greater clarity and impact for being expressed in masterful form, as the Bible itself illustrates. Masterful expression also stays in one’s memory instead of being quickly forgotten.

But literary polish is not the only avenue toward attaining distinctiveness. Some of the selections in this anthology are at the opposite end of the stylistic continuum from elegance. They achieve distinctiveness by their simplicity or everyday realism or quaintness or sheer unusualness. A classic needs to overcome the cliché effect of the overly familiar and expected, and there are many ways to achieve it. Readers of this anthology will be pleased to see how many avenues exist toward the attainment of freshness and vigor.

There is another trait that most of the entries in this anthology possess, and that is an element of surprise or paradox. More often than not, there is something present in a classic devotional that challenges a conventional outlook—some element of dissonance that requires analysis and perhaps adjustment in our thinking. The commentary that I have provided in my explications will make this aspect plain.

Two remaining criteria are complementary to each other. As already stated, one of my goals is to acquaint my readers with the familiar canon of classic devotional works. Wherever possible, I have titled the selections in such a way as to retain the title of an author’s signature work—the book or shorter piece with which the author is linked in our minds. Additionally, a few of the selections are present by virtue of their importance in Christian history—selections such as Martin Luther’s preface to his commentary on Galatians and Governor Bradford’s exhortation to the Pilgrims who survived their first winter (during which half of the arriving party died).

But although familiarity was thus one criterion, I have also been innovative. I hope that in looking at the table of contents of this anthology my readers will be surprised at some of the authors and texts that made the cut. I deliberately tapped unexpected sources for some of my entries—sources such as the burial service from the Prayer Book, the opening questions and answers of famous catechisms, the bidding prayer from Lessons and Carols, last wills and testaments, and the prefaces to two famous English Bibles.

Genres of Devotional Writing

My readers will navigate this anthology more smoothly if they are aware of how many different genres are represented in devotional writing. My purpose here is to provide an anatomy of these genres.

Just as lyric poems fall into the two categories of reflective and affective or emotional, so do prose devotionals. Most of the devotionals in this anthology are reflective pieces. A reflection does not follow the standard pattern of expository writing, where a thesis is presented and then supported with data. A reflection is a process of thinking on a subject that has been introduced. Usually the author or speaker in the passage is foregrounded in such a way that we are aware of a person thinking through an issue or experience and sharing a sequence of thoughts about it. The labels contemplation, meditation, and exploration are good synonyms for reflection.

Secondly, although prose devotionals are less likely to be affective or emotional than lyric poems are, this is less true than we might think. Many of the devotionals in this anthology have a strong emotional undertow. The idiom is sometimes exclamatory, but even when it is not, we find ourselves deeply moved by the content. It was the intention of the authors that the wellsprings of emotion would be awakened within us. We rightly think of a devotional reading as giving us a spiritual uplift, which is a way of saying that we are moved by it.

Some devotional genres are not intended to be devotionals, but we can assimilate them as devotionals by reading them in a certain way. For example, several of the selections in this anthology are prayers. A prayer is addressed to God, not to us, but we can nonetheless read it as a reflection on the godly life. The burial service for the dead in the Anglican Prayer Book is not designed to be read as a devotional, but in fact it is a moving meditation of human mortality and immortality. Again, creeds are formulated for the purpose of codifying Christian beliefs, but they can be pondered in a meditative way that transforms them into a devotional exercise.

An event or person can be a form of devotional—a real-life inspiration and prompt to godly living. My explications in this anthology usually provide information about the author of the devotional passage, and often these biographical nuggets become part of the total devotional effect.

The foregoing list of devotional genres is not exhaustive. Additional ones will emerge as this anthology unfolds. The important principle to carry with us is that a text becomes devotional if we approach and absorb it in a certain way.

How Does a Devotional Become a Classic?

This anthology, starting with its title (The Heart in Pilgrimage: A Treasury of Classic Devotionals on the Christian Life), elevates the idea of a classic to a position of prominence, so something needs to be said about what a classic is. A written text becomes a classic first of all because of its excellence. A classic in any field is the best within that field. Although this excellence is inherent in the work, and is not conferred upon it by an external committee, a classic is nonetheless acknowledged in culture at large to belong to an elite group. This quality extends to the authors as well as their works. The authors included in this anthology are a roll call of famous writers and people, even though a few are unexpected inclusions in the ranks of devotional writers. To people familiar with the canon of devotional classics, the titles in the table of contents are likewise famous and therefore classic. These evocative titles are a tempting menu, beckoning us to partake of a feast.

The stylistic features that elevate a devotional piece to the status of a classic fall into the overlapping categories of literary qualities and rhetoric. Verbal beauty and skill with sentence structure come immediately to mind as literary and rhetorical qualities. Even though the passages in this anthology are prose, they often employ poetic techniques such as imagery and metaphor. The imagination is always in quest for originality and freshness of expression, and in fact modern poet T. S. Eliot claimed that poets dislocate language into meaning, doing out-of-routine things with words to overcome the cliché effect of customary ways of expressing truth.1 A leading ingredient of the explications in this anthology is delineation of the literary and rhetorical techniques by which the authors have achieved their superior impact.

A touchstone by which we can recognize a devotional classic is memorability. We remember the texts printed in this anthology in a way that we do not remember a conventional expository text. It is not a matter of difference in truthfulness but in expression. The memorability of a classic text resides partly in its aphoristic tendency, achieved by such means as a well-turned phrase or a skillfully constructed sentence.

The concluding note in this introduction needs to be a reminder of the function of literature in the human economy. Nineteenth-century American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed that we all stand in need of expression.2 We want our affirmations and experiences to be given a voice. Notwithstanding this need for expression, claimed Emerson, adequate expression is rare. Literary authors are sent into the world for the purpose of expression. This points to how we should read the devotionals in this anthology: the authors say what we too want to say, but they say it with greater skill and depth than we can.

1

Finding Rest for Our Restless Heart

Augustine

You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is your power, and infinite your wisdom. Man desires to praise you, for he is a part of your creation. He bears his mortality with him and carries the signs of his sin as proof that you resist the proud. Still, he desires to praise you. . . . You stir him to take delight in praising you, for you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you. . . . I will seek you, O Lord, and call upon you. I call upon you, O Lord, in my faith which you have given me. . . .

What, therefore, is my God? What, I ask, but the Lord God? . . . Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent; most merciful and most just; most secret and most truly present; most beautiful and most strong; stable, yet not supported; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud, and they know it not; always working, ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things. . . . You owe men nothing, yet pay out to them as if in debt to your creature, and when you cancel debts, you lose nothing thereby. . . .

Oh! that I might repose in you! Oh! that you would enter into my heart and inebriate it, that I may forget my ills, and embrace you, my sole good! . . . Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. So speak, that I may hear. . . . Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge it, that you may enter in.

These are the opening words of one of the most famous books in all of history—the Confessions of Augustine (354–430). The book as a whole is Augustine’s recollection and meditation on the spiritual course of his life. It is the story of a great sinner rescued through a miraculous conversion. The main theme of this quest story is the restless soul, and the passage printed here describes the goal at which Augustine arrived at the end of his quest.

The first thing we notice is that Augustine has embodied his meditation in a prayer addressed directly to God, lending an intimacy to the thoughts that he expresses. The author is not addressing us but God, and in doing so he becomes our representative, saying what we too feel and want to say.

Then we note the intensity of emotion that infuses this devotional passage. Everything is at the white heat of feeling, channeled into an upsurging fountain of praise. The passage uses the same techniques that we find in the praise psalms of the Bible, including ascribing praise to God and listing his praiseworthy attributes and acts. In the second paragraph of the selection, the things ascribed to God keep pouring forth, as though nothing can stop the author’s impulse to celebrate the being and works of God. The parallelism of phrases lends artistry and impact to what Augustine says.

Of course the greatest triumph of the passage is the famous aphorism about how our heart is restless until it finds its rest in God. It is amazing what all is packed into this sentence. It encapsulates the universal human situation. To be restless without God is not one person’s experience but all people’s experience. We can confirm the accuracy of Augustine’s assertion by taking stock of ourselves.

We should also note the three-part logical sequence that undergirds the statement about the restless heart. In brief, we have (1) a situation described, (2) an explanation for the situation, and (3) a twofold result of these things. The motion of the soul that Augustine describes begins with an action of God, namely, stirring or prompting the human soul to want to praise him. Why does God instill this innate Godward impulse? Because he created people for the purpose of being united to him. So we have a fact stated (the restless soul) along with an explanation underlying the fact (God created us that way). We end this sequence of thinking with a twofold result of the situation that has been declared: (1) the human heart or soul is restless if it rebels against the God-ordained pattern of creaturely praise of the divine, and (2) the human heart finds rest if it accepts the divine order.

The entire passage relies heavily on the rhetorical form of paradox. This is most obvious in the second paragraph, which abounds in seeming contradictions, such as God is always working and also ever at rest, but there are latent paradoxes in the famous statement about rest and restlessness. The quest of the human soul to find God is also a quest on the part of God to claim the restless soul, inasmuch as he created the situation that Augustine describes. It is also paradoxical that the restlessness that engulfs the unbelieving soul is a blessing, not a curse.1

The theme of the restless soul finding rest in God is the subject of one of Jesus’s most famous sayings: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–29).

2

How Jesus Is Our Hero

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Our Lord Jesus Christ is our hero, a hero all the world wants. You know how books of tales are written, that put one man before the reader and show him off handsome for the most part and brave and call him My Hero or Our Hero. Often mothers make a hero of a son; girls of a sweetheart and good wives of a husband. Soldiers make a hero of a great general, a party of its leader, a nation of any great man that brings it glory. . . . But Christ . . . is the hero.

He too is the hero of a book or books, of the divine Gospels. He is a warrior and a conqueror; of whom it is written he went forth conquering and to conquer. He is a king, Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews, though when he came to his own kingdom his own did not receive him, and now, his people having cast him off, we Gentiles are his inheritance. . . . He is a thinker, that taught us divine mysteries. He is an orator and poet, as in his eloquent words and parables appears. He is all the world’s hero, the desire of nations.

But besides he is the hero of single souls. . . . He is the true-love and the bridegroom of men’s souls: the virgins follow him whithersoever he goes; the martyrs follow him through a sea of blood, through great tribulation; all his servants take up their cross and follow him. And those even that do not follow him, yet they look wistfully after him, own him a hero, and wish they dared answer to his call. Children as soon as they can understand ought to be told about him, that they make him the hero of their young hearts. . . .

There met in Jesus Christ all things that can make man lovely and loveable. In his body he was most beautiful. . . . He pleased both God and men daily more and more by his growth of mind and body. But he could not have pleased by growth of body unless the body was the special work of the Holy Ghost. He was not born in nature’s course, no man was his father. . . . But his body was framed directly from heaven by the power of the Holy Ghost, of whom it would be unworthy to leave any the least botch or failing in his work. . . . His constitution too was tempered perfectly. . . .

I leave it to you, then, to picture him, in whom the fullness of the godhead dwelt bodily, in his bearing how majestic, how strong and yet how lovely . . . in his limbs, in his look how earnest, grave but kind. In his Passion all this strength was spent, . . . this beauty wrecked, this majesty beaten down. But now it is more than all restored, and for myself I make no secret I look forward with eager desire to seeing the matchless beauty of Christ’s body in the heavenly light. . . . He was your maker in time past; hereafter he will be your judge. Make him your hero now. Take some time to think of him; praise him in your hearts.1

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) is known to the world as a preeminent devotional poet of the Victorian era, but poetry was Hopkins’s avocation. His main life’s work was as a Jesuit priest and teacher. This devotional on Jesus as our hero is part of a sermon that Hopkins preached on November 23, 1879, at a Catholic church in Bedford Leigh, a suburb of Manchester, England.

The key that unlocks this meditation is to see that it is cast in literary terms, growing out of its author’s life as a literary person. Literary scholars know all about the way in which the New Testament Gospels are hero stories, but simply to label them that way is to take the discussion into the study and classroom.

Hopkins shows us in everyday terms how our concept of a hero applies to Jesus. He reminds us of our own experiences of heroes, whether in our reading of stories or in our actual lives. As we read the passage, we assent to everything that Hopkins says about our own creation of heroes and how this fits Jesus perfectly. As Hopkins lists the ways in which Jesus meets the criteria of hero, a portrait of our Lord and Savior cumulatively takes shape. By the time we end Hopkins’s exploration of how Jesus fits our concept of a hero, our admiration and love of Jesus are fully awakened. The passage is a masterpiece of hidden persuasion. The appeal at the end to think about Jesus and make him our hero and praise him in our hearts is a perfect action plan and conclusion to the meditation.

Mark 7:37 strikes the same note about Jesus as Hopkins’s meditation does: “And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well.’”