Wordsworth: Wicliffe

Sunday, December 31, 2023
    Commemoration of John Wycliffe, Reformer, 1384
Meditation:
    Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
    —Revelation 12:10-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
Once more the Church is seized with sudden fear,
And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed:
Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed
And flung into the brook that travels near;
Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can hear,
Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind,
Though seldom heard by busy human kind,)
“As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear
Into the Avon, Avon to the tide
Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
Into main Ocean they, this Deed accurst
An emblem yields to friends and enemies
How the bold Teacher’s Doctrine, sanctified
By Truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.”
    ... William Wordsworth (1770-1850), The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Philadelphia: Troutman & Hayes, 1851, p. 357 (see the book)
    See also Rev. 12:10-11; Matt. 24:9; Luke 11:47-48; 21:17; John 1:17; 4:24; Acts 5:29; 7:55-60; 2 Cor. 1:19-20; 4:2; Eph. 2:8-9; 1 Thess. 2:14-16; 2 Tim. 2:15
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your truth pours into the world through Your people. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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