August 18, 2004
"A Rose From Brier"
"A Rose From Brier"
Dear Ones,
I have mentioned Amy Carmichael -- one of my heroines of the faith -- on this list and other lists, many times. Of her writings, her book Rose From Brier is one of my very favorites of all of my books. I wrote a book review of this book a few years back and am sending it as this week's "Jerusalem's Daughters" offering. Information for ordering this book, for anyone interested, is at the end of this article.
Grace and Peace,
Elaine
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hardly a life that goes deep but has tragedy somewhere within it; . . . "
writes Amy Carmichael in Rose From Brier.
Rose From Brier was written by Amy Carmichael, a woman totally committed to serving her Saviour, to finding and living out His will for her life. Following His leading, she became founder and director of Dohnavur Fellowship in South India, a ministry that provided a home for hundreds of Indian children rescued from ungodly Hindu temple practices. She was "Amma" -- the name for mother in the Indian Tamil dialect--to these children, and she brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with the help of her faithful workers who followed her in faithful discipleship as she followed Christ. Amy lived in India for more than fifty years; during the last twenty years of her life she was an invalid, having suffered injuries in a fall. The thoughts and poems in Rose From Brier were written from her confining sickbed during those later years of sickness and suffering.
In the Introduction to Rose From Brier, Amy writes, "Properly speaking, this is not a book at all, but only a bundle of letters [EH: written to the Dohnavur Fellowship Invalids' League and to individuals associated with the DF]. . . . But by the time such fragments are laboriously typed . . . , and printed, bound and given a name, they look like a book, and reading through them I am troubled to find them so personal and so intimate. . . . If I had waited...perhaps a less tired mind would have found a better way. But then the book would have been from the well to the ill, and not from the ill to the ill, which I think is what it is meant to be--a rose plucked straight from a brier."
With deeply insightful prose and poetry, she writes of "the awful trampling power of pain," but also of the opportunity that suffering allows for witnessing to the sufficiency of our Lord, as she expresses in these lines from one of her poems in the book:
Amy Carmichael views pain realistically, having suffering its batterings, and she doesn't downplay it in her descriptions: "To suffer intensely in soul or in body is to see pain for what it is, a dominating and a fearful thing." She was familiar with the trials and temptations that come with suffering--weariness, loneliness, despondency, feeling neglected and forgotten, the fear of pain, . . . "There are times," she writes, "when nothing holds the heart but a long, long look at Calvary." She exhorts us to consider our pain in the light of fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus: "There cannot be a pang in our flesh that was not, and sharper far, in that sacred Body on the Tree."
And these words of witness to her (and our) Savior's faithfulness strengthen us in our suffering: "Pain cannot shut the door to Thee, nor fatigue refuse Thee, nor languor dim the clear shining of Thy face. I could not by searching find the peace that Thou givest." (See John 14:27, Philippians 4:7).
As to the Christian's response to pain and suffering, she gently cautions us: "I think it must hurt the tender love of our Father when we press for reasons for His dealings with us, as though He were not Love, . . . and as though what He chose to allow could be less than the very best and dearest that Love Eternal had to give." And she gives this hope-filled reminder: "There is an end set to pain, to sin. The present order is not eternal."
To the question, "To what end is pain . . . ?", she offers no quick or easy answers, but encourages us with: "The further we are drawn into the fellowship of Calvary with our dear Lord, the tenderer we are toward others, . . . God never wastes His children's pain." And this: There is only one place where we can receive, not an answer to our question, but peace--that place is Calvary. An hour at the foot of the Cross steadies the soul as nothing else can. 'O Christ Beloved, Thy Calvary stills all our questions.' Love that loves like that can be trusted about this."
Permeating the book is her love for her Heavenly Father, and her thankful, confident trust--rooted in His Word and supported by His dealings with her--in His love for her. Ruth Bell Graham, in her comments on this book, describes it as ". . . a priceless treasury of helpful thoughts for those who are ill . . . And as pain is not always physical, it is a book for all who suffer. By far the best I have found."
Sample excerpts (Chapter 3) from Rose From Brier:
"Although through these months [of sickness and pain] acceptance has been a word of liberty and victory and peace to me, it has never meant acquiescence in illness, as though ill-health were from Him who delights to deck His priests with health. But it did mean contentment with the unexplained. Neither Job nor Paul ever knew (so far as we know) why prayer for relief was answered as it was. But I think that they must stand in awe and joy, as they meet others in the heavenly country who were strengthened and comforted by their patience and valor, and the record of their Father's thoughts of peace toward them. Hardly a life that goes deep but has tragedy somewhere in it; what would such do without Job? And who could spare from his soul's hidden history the great words spoken to St. Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness"? Such words lead straight to a land where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good."
"Gold--the word recalls Job's affirmation, "When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold", and [the apostle] Peter's "The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire"; and the quiet word in Malachi, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." I have often thanked God that the word is not gold there, but silver. Silver is of little account [here] in [India], and we feel more like silver than gold. But he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, so who need fear?"
"This picture of the Refiner is straight from Eastern life. The Eastern goldsmith sits on the floor by his crucible. For me, at least, it was not hard to know why the Heavenly Refiner had to sit so long. The heart knows its own dross. [I Kings 8:38 . . . "shall know every man the plague of his own heart]. Blessed be the love that never wearies, never gives up hope that even in such poor metal He may at last see the reflection of His face. "How do you know when it is purified?" we asked our village goldsmith. "When I can see my face in it," he answered."
* * * * *
Rose from Brier by Amy Carmichael can be ordered from:
Christian Literature Crusade
Mail Order Department
P. O. Box 1449
Fort Washington, Pennsylvania 19034
1-800-659-1240
_________________________________
I have mentioned Amy Carmichael -- one of my heroines of the faith -- on this list and other lists, many times. Of her writings, her book Rose From Brier is one of my very favorites of all of my books. I wrote a book review of this book a few years back and am sending it as this week's "Jerusalem's Daughters" offering. Information for ordering this book, for anyone interested, is at the end of this article.
Grace and Peace,
Elaine
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hardly a life that goes deep but has tragedy somewhere within it; . . . "
writes Amy Carmichael in Rose From Brier.
Rose From Brier was written by Amy Carmichael, a woman totally committed to serving her Saviour, to finding and living out His will for her life. Following His leading, she became founder and director of Dohnavur Fellowship in South India, a ministry that provided a home for hundreds of Indian children rescued from ungodly Hindu temple practices. She was "Amma" -- the name for mother in the Indian Tamil dialect--to these children, and she brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord with the help of her faithful workers who followed her in faithful discipleship as she followed Christ. Amy lived in India for more than fifty years; during the last twenty years of her life she was an invalid, having suffered injuries in a fall. The thoughts and poems in Rose From Brier were written from her confining sickbed during those later years of sickness and suffering.
In the Introduction to Rose From Brier, Amy writes, "Properly speaking, this is not a book at all, but only a bundle of letters [EH: written to the Dohnavur Fellowship Invalids' League and to individuals associated with the DF]. . . . But by the time such fragments are laboriously typed . . . , and printed, bound and given a name, they look like a book, and reading through them I am troubled to find them so personal and so intimate. . . . If I had waited...perhaps a less tired mind would have found a better way. But then the book would have been from the well to the ill, and not from the ill to the ill, which I think is what it is meant to be--a rose plucked straight from a brier."
With deeply insightful prose and poetry, she writes of "the awful trampling power of pain," but also of the opportunity that suffering allows for witnessing to the sufficiency of our Lord, as she expresses in these lines from one of her poems in the book:
Let me not lose the chance to prove / The fulness of enabling love . . .And, ever pointing to the Savior, she offers these consoling thoughts:
Lover Divine, Whose love has sought and found me, Thou dost not leave me When the night is round me; . . .And
Until this tyranny be overpast / Thy Hand will hold me fast; . . .
Amy Carmichael views pain realistically, having suffering its batterings, and she doesn't downplay it in her descriptions: "To suffer intensely in soul or in body is to see pain for what it is, a dominating and a fearful thing." She was familiar with the trials and temptations that come with suffering--weariness, loneliness, despondency, feeling neglected and forgotten, the fear of pain, . . . "There are times," she writes, "when nothing holds the heart but a long, long look at Calvary." She exhorts us to consider our pain in the light of fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus: "There cannot be a pang in our flesh that was not, and sharper far, in that sacred Body on the Tree."
And these words of witness to her (and our) Savior's faithfulness strengthen us in our suffering: "Pain cannot shut the door to Thee, nor fatigue refuse Thee, nor languor dim the clear shining of Thy face. I could not by searching find the peace that Thou givest." (See John 14:27, Philippians 4:7).
As to the Christian's response to pain and suffering, she gently cautions us: "I think it must hurt the tender love of our Father when we press for reasons for His dealings with us, as though He were not Love, . . . and as though what He chose to allow could be less than the very best and dearest that Love Eternal had to give." And she gives this hope-filled reminder: "There is an end set to pain, to sin. The present order is not eternal."
To the question, "To what end is pain . . . ?", she offers no quick or easy answers, but encourages us with: "The further we are drawn into the fellowship of Calvary with our dear Lord, the tenderer we are toward others, . . . God never wastes His children's pain." And this: There is only one place where we can receive, not an answer to our question, but peace--that place is Calvary. An hour at the foot of the Cross steadies the soul as nothing else can. 'O Christ Beloved, Thy Calvary stills all our questions.' Love that loves like that can be trusted about this."
Permeating the book is her love for her Heavenly Father, and her thankful, confident trust--rooted in His Word and supported by His dealings with her--in His love for her. Ruth Bell Graham, in her comments on this book, describes it as ". . . a priceless treasury of helpful thoughts for those who are ill . . . And as pain is not always physical, it is a book for all who suffer. By far the best I have found."
Sample excerpts (Chapter 3) from Rose From Brier:
"Although through these months [of sickness and pain] acceptance has been a word of liberty and victory and peace to me, it has never meant acquiescence in illness, as though ill-health were from Him who delights to deck His priests with health. But it did mean contentment with the unexplained. Neither Job nor Paul ever knew (so far as we know) why prayer for relief was answered as it was. But I think that they must stand in awe and joy, as they meet others in the heavenly country who were strengthened and comforted by their patience and valor, and the record of their Father's thoughts of peace toward them. Hardly a life that goes deep but has tragedy somewhere in it; what would such do without Job? And who could spare from his soul's hidden history the great words spoken to St. Paul, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness"? Such words lead straight to a land where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good."
"Gold--the word recalls Job's affirmation, "When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold", and [the apostle] Peter's "The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire"; and the quiet word in Malachi, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." I have often thanked God that the word is not gold there, but silver. Silver is of little account [here] in [India], and we feel more like silver than gold. But he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, so who need fear?"
"This picture of the Refiner is straight from Eastern life. The Eastern goldsmith sits on the floor by his crucible. For me, at least, it was not hard to know why the Heavenly Refiner had to sit so long. The heart knows its own dross. [I Kings 8:38 . . . "shall know every man the plague of his own heart]. Blessed be the love that never wearies, never gives up hope that even in such poor metal He may at last see the reflection of His face. "How do you know when it is purified?" we asked our village goldsmith. "When I can see my face in it," he answered."
* * * * *
Rose from Brier by Amy Carmichael can be ordered from:
Christian Literature Crusade
Mail Order Department
P. O. Box 1449
Fort Washington, Pennsylvania 19034
1-800-659-1240
_________________________________
| "A Rose From Brier" | SBGA | Elaine Housley |
Copyright © 2004 www.salvationbygracealone.com
"Jerusalem's Daughters" - Elaine Housley