Two Peasant Women in the Peat Fields

Two Peasant Women in the Peat Fields

1883 Oil on Canvas

Vincent Willem van Gogh

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

God’s Grandeur By Gerard Manley Hopkins

Andrew Peterson also took the time to write on these lines here.

Along the Canal

 

Along the Canal

1862 Oil on Canvas

Willem Koekkoek

"Holland and the Professor" by Eric Tippin
&
"Delft" by Hilaire Belloc

An Aging John Adams

   

Portrait of John Adams

1826

Gilbert Stuart

"The simplest, most ordinary things, that in other times had seemed incidental, could lift his heart and set his mind soaring.    

      'I never delighted much in contemplating commas and colons, or in spelling or measuring syllables; but now . . . if I attempt to look at these little objects, I find my imagination, in spite of all my exertions, roaming the Milky Way, among the nebulae, those mighty orbs, and stupendous orbits of suns, planets, satellites, and comets,  which compose the incomprehensible universe; and if I do not sink into nothing in my own estimation, I feel and irresistible impulse to fall on my knees, in adoration of the power that moves, the wisdom that directs, and the benevolence that sanctifies this wonderful whole.'

     The view from his window in the morning after one of the worst March storms on record filled him with ecstasy, dispite the damage done to his trees. It was "the most splendid winter scene ever beheld," Adams wrote. 

       'A rain had fallen from some warmer region in the skies when the cold here below was intense to an extreme. Every drop was frozen where it fell in the trees, and clung to the limbs and springs as if it had frozen upon a crust on the surface which shone with the brightness of burnished silver. The Icicles on every sprig glowed in all the luster of diamonds. Every tree was a chandelier of cut glass. I have seen a Queen of France with eighteen millions of livres of diamonds upon her person and I declare that all the charms of her face and figure added to all the glitter of her jewels did not make an impression on me equal to that presented by every shrub. The whole world was glittering with precious stones.'

      'This phrase 'rejoice ever more' shall never be out of my heart, memory, or mouth again as long as I live, if I can help it.'"

--From John Adams by David McCullough

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

 

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
1633 Oil on Canvas
Rembrandt van Rijn 

"Study the subject in particular as placed before you this day. I dare be sure your heart has sometimes been tossed to and fro like the waves in a storm. You have found it agitated like the waters of the troubled sea when it cannot rest. Come and hear this day that there is One who can give you rest. Jesus can say to your heart, whatever may be its ailment, "Peace, be still!"

You have doubts? You think yourself in a unique circumstance? Can Christ conquer any man's heart, even yours, and give any one rest, even you? Can He? Even if your conscience within is lashed by the recollection of countless transgressions, and torn by every gust of temptation? Even if the remembrance of past hideous immorality is grievous unto you, and the burden intolerable? Even if your heart seems full of evil, and sin appears to drag you where it will like a slave? Even if the devil rides to and fro over your soul like a conqueror, and tells you it is vain to struggle against him, and that there is no hope for you? I tell you there is One who can give even you pardon and peace. My Lord and Master Jesus Christ can rebuke the devil's raging, can calm even your soul's misery, and say even to you, "Peace, be still!" He can scatter that cloud of guilt which now weighs you down. He can bid despair depart. He can drive fear away. He can remove the spirit of bondage, and fill you with the spirit of adoption. Satan may hold your soul like a strong man armed, but Jesus is stronger than he, and when He commands, the prisoners must go free. Oh, if any troubled reader wants a calm within, let him go this day to Jesus Christ, and all shall yet be well!

But what if your heart be right with God, and yet you are pressed down with a load of earthly trouble? What if the fear of poverty is tossing you to and fro, and seems likely to overwhelm you? What if pain of body be racking you to distraction day after day? What if you are suddenly laid aside from active usefulness and compelled by infirmity to sit still and do nothing? What if death has come into your home, and taken away your Rachel or Joseph or Benjamin and left you alone, crushed to the ground with sorrow? What if all this has happened? Still there is comfort in Christ. He can speak peace to wounded hearts as easily as calm troubled seas. He can rebuke rebellious wills as powerfully as raging winds. He can make storms of sorrow abate, and silence tumultuous passions, as surely as He stopped the Galilean storm. He can say to the heaviest anxiety, "Peace, be still!" The floods of care and tribulation may be mighty, but Jesus sits upon the waterfloods, and is mightier than the waves of the sea (Ps. 93:4). The winds of trouble may howl fiercely round you, but Jesus holds them in His hand, and can stay them when He lists. Oh, if any reader of this message is broken-hearted and careworn and sorrowful, let him go to Jesus Christ, and cry to Him and he shall be refreshed. "Come unto Me," He says, "all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28)."

-An excerpt from J.C. Ryle's Holiness: It's Nature, Hindurances, Difficulties, and Roots

Fingal's Cave, Island of Staffa, Scotland

Fingal's Cave, Island of Staffa, Scotland

1884-1885 Oil on Canvas

Thomas Moran

Felix Mendelssohn - The Hebrides, Op. 26, "Fingal's Cave"

     In the winter of 2010 I attended a performance of the Liverpool Philharmonic, and they opened with this song by Mendelssohn. I remember being floored by its magnitude and beauty. A month or two later, I was in Campbeltown, Scotland very near the Hebrides and it was as varied and colorful as the above painting and song indicate.

-Eric Tippin