"'Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."
The room at Guinea Station where Lt. General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died. Sunday, May 10, 1863.
Click here to see a brief video of this room (large file).
"On Sunday May 10, 1863, in the bed pictured above, Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan Jackson passed from this earth. A devoutly religious man, when notified that he had not long to live, Jackson replied, "It is the Lord's Day. My wish is fulfilled. I have always desired to die on Sunday." His personal physician, Dr. Hunter McGuire, noted his final words. "A few moments before he died he cried out in his delirium, 'Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks' -- then stopped, leaving the sentence unfinished. Presently a smile of ineffable sweetness spread itself over his pale face, and he said quietly, and with an expression, as if of relief, 'Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees."
Captain James Power Smith who "all night long" kept his General "warmly wrapped and undisturbed in his sleep" would also later write: "And here, against our hopes, notwithstanding the skill and care of wise and watchful surgeons, attended day and night by wife and friends, amid the prayers and tears of all the Southern land, thinking not of himself, but of the cause he loved, and for the troops who had followed him so well and given him so great a name, our chief sank, day by day, with symptoms of pneumonia and some pains of pleurisy, until, 3:15 P.M. on the quiet of the Sabbath afternoon, May 10th, 1863, he raised himself from his bed, saying, " No, no, let us pass over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees"; and, falling again to his pillow, he passed away, over the river, where, in a land where warfare is not known or feared, he rests forever 'under the trees.'"
Chancellorsville Jackson Monument Inscription: "He rests forever under the trees"
http://brotherswar.com/Chancellorsville-7.htm
Comment: What had he to fear? Nothing. He was going home to be with someone he loved.
"But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You sieze the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white -then melts for ever;
Or like the borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm."
Our Rabbie
😵
Originally posted by black beetleNice one.
"But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You sieze the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white -then melts for ever;
Or like the borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm."
Our Rabbie
😵
Originally posted by Grampy BobbyMy favorite story about the place of story in religious philosophy (and one which I repeat often) is told by Rami Shapiro, in one of his books, Hasidic Tales. Shapiro is a Reconstructionist rabbi, but I think the “Reb Reuven” in the story was Orthodox—
"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."
-Blaise Pascal
One Shabbos afternoon, Reb Reuven called me into his study. He was sitting behind his desk and motioned me to take the chair across from him. A volume of the Zohar was lying open in front of him.
“Do you know what the Zohar is?” he asked.
“Of course,” I said. “It is a mystical commentary on Torah written by Moshe deLeon, a thirteenth century Spanish kabbalist who....”
“Nonsense!” he yelled at me, half rising out of his chair. “The Zohar isn’t just a commentary; it’s a Torah all by itself. It is a new Torah, a new telling of the last Torah. You do know what Torah is, don’t you?”
Suspecting that I didn’t, and afraid to invoke his wrath a second time, I waited silently, certain that he would answer his own question. I was not disappointed.
“Torah is story. God is story. Israel is story. You, my university-educated soon-to-be a liberal pain in the ass rabbi, are a story. We are all stories! We are all Torahs!...Listen, Rami,” Reuven said in a softer voice. “Torah starts with the word b’reisheet,* ‘Once upon a time!’”
_________________________________________________
* Conventionally translated as “in the beginning” or “with beginning” or “when God began…”.
Originally posted by vistesd"My favorite story about the place of story in religious philosophy (and one which I repeat often) is told by Rami Shapiro, in one of his books, Hasidic Tales. Shapiro is a Reconstructionist rabbi, but I think the “Reb Reuven” in the story was Orthodox—"
My favorite story about the place of story in religious philosophy (and one which I repeat often) is told by Rami Shapiro, in one of his books, Hasidic Tales. Shapiro is a Reconstructionist rabbi, but I think the “Reb Reuven” in the story was Orthodox—
One Shabbos afternoon, Reb Reuven called me into his study. He was sitting behind his ...[text shortened]...
* Conventionally translated as “in the beginning” or “with beginning” or “when God began…”.
vistesd, would there be a few more entertaining stories told by Rami Shapiro in his books you would enjoy telling us here?
Originally posted by Grampy BobbyI don't like this quote, it seems to me that nothing of God rests in this
"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."
-Blaise Pascal
outside of one trying to cover one's bets.
Kelly
"Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair."
"In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't."
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."
(All three quotations from Blaise Pascal)
"If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not,, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die.” CS Lewis
Originally posted by KellyJayKelly, everything rest in responding to His desire for us to be reconciled to Himself by our own uncoerced decision to accept His Grace Gift of Relationship in time and eternity. Pascal offers encouragement to those who may be wavering or unsure.
I don't like this quote, it seems to me that nothing of God rests in this
outside of one trying to cover one's bets.
Kelly
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Originally posted by Grampy BobbyGood one, at once thought provoking and frustrating all reasoned attempts to resolve.
“Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning,
we should never have found out that it has no meaning...” C.S. Lewis
It's a catch-22.
Have we found out the universe has no meaning?
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
-- Alan Wilson Watts, The Culture of Counter-Culture: Edited Transcripts
Originally posted by Grampy BobbyWhen you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's minds take in quickly
Think about your own life since earliest toddlerhood when you were attempting to get vertical, so that you could explore your world horizontally. Did you accomplish your growth to physical, social, intellectual and spiritual maturity alone?
what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that
is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.
Cicero