With Apologies to Henry Lyte … A Christian Patient’s Prayer

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

When danger comes; be thou my sole defense
Guard me as weak, Lord, be my recompense
When frailty visits, and my body tires

God of the ages to you I aspire

I need thy presence when on life support
I need thy Spirit to be my consort
Who, but Thyself, my breath and stay can be?

Through blood and scalpel, Lord, abide with me

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless
But death still leers, and mocks as I confess
When night grows dark, and I find I want to flee

God of the Ages Oh abide with me

Hear Thou my prayer before my eyes do close
Restore my life to wage war against thy foes
Let Heav’n’s morning wait years yet for me
In life or death Oh Lord abide with me.

A Slight Revising of Vs. 3 of “O Holy Night”

The 3rd verse in “O Holy Night” sucks. The whole thing was written as a poem first by someone who eventually became socialist (Frenchman Placide Cappeau) and was then translated from the French and promoted here in the states initially by a Unitarian/Transcendentalist Yankee Minister (John Sullivan Dwight). Dwight’s socialist credentials were seen in his close work with the Brook Farm Commune before it folded in 1847.

The French Catholic Church, once learning the egalitarian roots of the song quit singing the song in their churches. However, Dwight believed the song fit his times with the issue of slavery having gained the ascendency among the Jacobins in Northern churches. Dwight translated the song from the French in 1855 when Yankee sentiments against the South was moving towards a crescendo.

The egalitarian lines that are offensive to the ears of Biblical Christians are found in the 3rd verse;

“Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is Peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother
And in His name, all oppression shall cease”

You can just hear Yankee Churches in the Transcendentalist North belting out this song during each Christmas season of the war, being warmed in their smug self-righteousness that they were doing a good thing by supporting the Yankee war effort to maim, rape, torture and kill the South.

This verse wraps all the devilry of the North in God approving and glorifying song. As such we hates it.

We would note that the slave can be our brother without his being oppressed by his slavery. The Scripture repeatedly teaches that slavery is Biblical. Second, though it is true that “In his name, all oppression shall cease,” it is not true that slavery is automatically oppression. There are times it might be. But it has not always been so. Certainly, slavery was not automatically oppression in the ante-bellum South as the slave exit interviews done in the 1930s unmistakably reveal.

However there is no reason to lose this song. It is not as thoroughly bad as the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It can be salvaged and remain a Church hymn. We just need to change a few words so that we can sing it once again during our current Christmas season.

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is Peace
Chains shall He break, for our state is Oppressor
And in His name, that oppression shall cease 

Advent Poetry

St. Nicholas; our Holy man of Advent
Patron of those afflicted with ill-temper
Anabaptist pacifism was not his bent

As expressed in his conciliar distemper

Arius denied Christ was God of God
Denied the deity of our Lord
There was no room for such a fraud

Thus Arius was floored

This kind of saintly bulldog behavior
Is no longer considered in good taste
Fisticuffs to defend our glorious savior
Is shocking to our clerical panty-waists

Yet, a time and season for all zeals
A time to strike and not to reason
When Orthodoxy with Heresy deals
Fell blows cannot be counted treason

For who can convince a rebel mind
By citing a multitude of verses?
Nicholas knew the dumb and blind
Are better won with pugilistic curses

Re-working Jewish Winter Songs

You better watch out
You better not deny
You better not doubt
I’m telling you why, St. Nicholas is coming to town

He’s clenching his fists
He’s mighty precise
Gonna knock out all heretic lights
Saint Nicholas ain’t playing around

[Pre-Chorus]

He sees what you are reading
He knows if you’re a fake
He knows if you are bad or good
So you better be good for goodness sake

He’s the Bishop of Myra
Tortured for His Lord
You better know for sure
Arius was floored
St. Nicholas ain’t foolin’ around

O you better not deny
Christ’s Deity
You better not spread
Trinitarian Heresies
Cuz St. Nicholas is coming to town

With Apologies To Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Ring out their warnings to keep away
from clergy “thought”
and Marxist twat
Denying peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought I, as the day had come,
The clergy would swallow Christendom
They belch and fume
Good men consume
Denying peace on earth, good-will to men!

Still ringing, singing so as to betray
The evil intent of Clergy dziggetai
Beware their sin
And counsel grim
Embrace peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, hexed vile text file
Their manifestos truth revile
And with the sound
Of truth uncrowned
Denying peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The sanity of Christ’s advent
And made me swear
At clergy everywhere
Who deny peace on earth, good-will to men

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth I said”
For clergy are headstrong
And confuse the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;”
Clergy will fail
Good men prevail
Bringing peace on earth, good-will to men.