Born to Sweet Delight: Life Affirmed, Fate Defied

By John Barry Forsyth

A sweet young boy looks down upon a frog. It is a moment of delight for himin life, nature, and everything that speaks to him of goodness and truth. He cares not that his shoes are old and worn out. He is released from whatever it is of poverty or contradiction that he must face. His destiny has been defined for him; his life is affirmed. Fate will not overcome him.

Certain patriarchs and matriarchs, poets and sages, lovers and apostles, slaves and hymn writers, and prisoners and pilgrims make their contribution to this volume. Their lives were taken up with journeys of faith and passages of profound significance for them and many others. They struggled bravely against oppression and refused to surrender. They were ordinary men and women of complex emotion and conflicting thought. Yet their movement was always forward to a welcoming God, the one who had always been with them in some way or another. In whatever circumstance they found themselves, they had an enduring smile in their hearts if not on their faces. They affirmed life and defied fate.

Within these pages, you will find encouragement for your faith, biblical exposition from the Old Testament scriptures with reference points to the New Testament, stories of journey and song, sagas of struggle and resolution, chronicles of courage and caring, and histories of divine interventionall of them measured against an infinite glory and the weigh scales of delight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781973609247

John Barry Forsyth

John Barry Forsyth is an ordained Presbyterian Minister. He has served congregations in British Columbia, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Quebec in Canada. John Barry has degrees in history, education, and theology. At various times, he has been a teacher, counsellor, triathlete, and competitive swimmer.

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Copyright © 2017 John Barry Forsyth.

Cover Art: The Young Biologist by Paul Peel. Canada 1891.

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[Scripture quotations are from] New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations taken from the New English Bible, copyright © Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press 1961, 1970. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Passages marked KJV are taken from the King James Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-0925-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0926-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0924-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017918061

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/20/2017

Dedicated to the Memory of my

maternal grandparents

Richard Harry Willmott

Bertha Shipsey Willmott

John Barry Forsyth is an ordained Presbyterian Minister.

He has served congregations in British Columbia,

Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Quebec in Canada.

John Barry has degrees in history, education, and theology.

At various times, he has been a teacher, counsellor,

triathlete, and competitive swimmer.

Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1: Hold Infinity in your Hand

Wm. Blake

Chapter 2: Dearest Freshness Deep Down

Creation

Chapter 3: Departure into the Unknown

Abraham

Chapter 4: Mother of the Faithful

Sarah

Chapter 5: Awesome Places of Destiny

Jacob

Chapter 6: Misfortune Reversed

Joseph

Chapter 7: Descent into a Foreign Land

Moses ‒ Part One

Chapter 8: Standing on Holy Ground

Moses ‒ Part Two

Chapter 9: Women Protectors

Deborah, Lois, Eunice

Chapter 10: Determination Never to Leave

Naomi and Ruth

Chapter 11: No Wrong Doing For God

Job

Chapter 12: A Summons to Love

Song of Songs

Chapter 13: Journey for the Love of God

A Compelling Quest

Chapter 14: Contemplation of an Infinite Glory

Auschwitz Defied

Bibliography

About the Author

Foreword

Certain patriarchs and matriarchs, poets and sages, lovers and apostles, slaves and hymn writers, prisoners and pilgrims make their contribution to this volume. Their lives were taken up with journeys of faith and passages of profound significance for them and many others. They struggled bravely against oppression and refused to surrender. They were ordinary men and women of complex emotion and conflicting thought. Yet, their movement was always forward to a welcoming God, The One who had in some way or another always been with them. In whatever circumstance they found themselves, they had an enduring smile in their hearts if not on their faces. They affirmed life and defied fate.

Within these pages, you will find encouragement for your faith, biblical exposition from the Old Testament Scriptures ‒ with reference points to the New Testament, stories of journey and song, sagas of struggle and resolution, chronicles of courage and caring, and histories of divine intervention, all of them measured against an infinite glory and the weigh-scales of delight.

John Barry Forsyth

One

Hold Infinity in your Hand

Wm. Blake

Every Morn & every Night

Some are born to sweet delight.

God appears & God is Light

To those poor Souls who dwell in Night,

But does a Human Form Display

To those who Dwell in Realms of Day.

(Wm. Blake, Auguries of Innocence)

Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give Thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

(Psalm 37:3-6, King James Version)

To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour.

(College Survey, pg. 668)

These are the opening lines of William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence. William Blake was born in 1757 and died in 1827. From his earliest days, Blake was greatly aware of the presence of God indwelling and surrounding all things. An awareness of the divine presence illumined and emboldened his entire life. His brilliant mind and inquiring spirit sensed the spiritual significance in and with everything.

William Blake began to write poetry at the age of twelve. Over the course of his entire life, he produced some of the finest poetry in the English language. Blake was not highly educated nor was he born into wealth or circumstance. Nevertheless, his insights, wisdom and mystical awareness were deep, profound, and penetrating in a most remarkable and unique way. It has been said of William Blake that he was caught up into levels of being to which few of us penetrate. His wife once said, I have very little of Mr. Blake’s company. He is always in Paradise. (College Survey, pg. 662)

We have this summary of his William Blake’s remarkable abilities and singular perceptions:

Blake taught himself, beating out the lonely path of an original genius. He came to regard the world of the senses as a tapestry woven full of symbols, a mine of metaphors, in which every object and event points beyond itself to a transcendent meaning. (Survey, pg. 661)

In 1809, when Blake was fifty-two years old, an exhibition of his paintings was a complete failure. The prophetic message in his writings was seldom grasped and understood. He was struggling with poverty and a lack of recognition. Yet, he was able to speak these words to a pretty, society girl at a party, May God make this world to you, my child, as beautiful as it has been to me. Here is the account of their meeting:

She thought it strange that such a poor, worn man, dressed in shabby clothes, could imagine the world to be beautiful to him ‒ nursed as she was in all the elegance and luxury of wealth. In later years, she understood what Blake meant and treasured the few words he had spoken to her. (Wm. Blake, Everyman’s Poetry. pg xix)

Blake’s final demise is described this way:

After seventy years of obscure, toilsome, impoverished, solitary, and greatly joyous life he died almost unknown uttering cheerful songs to his Maker. (Survey, pg.662)

On the last day of his life he composed and uttered songs to his Maker, saying to his wife, My beloved, they are not mine ‒ no ‒ they are not mine. (Wm. Blake, Everymans Poetry. pg.vii)

Here are the closing lines of Auguries of Innocence (certain words are capitalized for emphasis: Soul, God, Light, Night, Human Form, and Day):

Every night and every morn

Some to misery are born.

Every morn and every night

Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,

Some are born to endless night.

We are led to believe a lie

When we see not through the eye,

Which were born in a night, to perish in a night,

When the Soul slept in beams of light.

God appears and God is Light,

To those poor souls who dwell in Night,

But does a Human Form display

To those who dwell in realms of Day.

(Survey, pg.669)

In Paul the Apostle’s second letter to the church at Corinth, he introduces the subject of mystical and ecstatic experiences. Paul, like William Blake much later on, had certain transcendent experiences which transported him into the heavenly realms and gave him particular insights and special knowledge of spiritual matters. Paul began his treatment of the subject with this statement:

I will go on to visions and revelations in the Lord. I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven ‒ whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. (12:1, 2)

The apostle Paul was answering a challenge which was being presented to him by some rival Christian leaders who questioned his authority and his credentials. In effect, his challenge to them could be expressed this way, What visions can you claim to have had as authority for your ministry? You say that you are apostles. What revelations have you received from God to authenticate your claims?

Paul’s reply is curious. He was unwilling to identify himself as the person whom he speaks of as having visions and revelations. Thus he writes, I know a person. (12:2). As we study the passage, it is obvious that Paul is referring to himself. But, he does so in a manner which is impersonal. He uses the third person instead of the first person. The apostle says that he was caught up to the third heaven. (12:2). But, he doesn’t give any details about the place of the body in such an experience:

Whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. (12:3)

Certain persons at that time claimed to have been lifted out of the body during intense, ecstatic experiences. Paul made no such claim. He was not interested in defining his experiences in such a dramatic, perhaps self-serving way. It was enough for him to simply say, God knows.

Paul’s particular ecstatic experience was remarkable, to be sure. He tells us that it happened fourteen years ago. (12:2). In the meantime, he did have other mystical, visionary encounters. Most notable, of course, was his vision of the risen Christ, on the road to Damascus which resulted in his conversion. As Paul journeyed, suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. He fell to the ground as Jesus himself spoke to him: Why do you persecute me? Jesus