Poetry – The Lloyd C Douglas Page

An excerpt from Lloyd C. Douglas, “The Demotion of Death,” Christian Century, 1/27/1921.

The following is from Lloyd Douglas’s essay, “The Demotion of Death,” which appeared in the January 27, 1921 issue of The Christian Century. He is talking to an audience largely of ministers, reminiscing about how harrowing funerals used to be. He writes:

“Little by little that which is mortal has abated its erstwhile interest for him who has lost his dearest friend; and gradually the whole event is being invested with the spiritual and immortal.

“The home of bereavement is, more and more, emulating that high spiritual courage which Christianity teaches. No other person is so aware of this as the minister, to whom this fact is increasingly made manifest. Whatever may be the peculiar advantages of our profession, none is so fraught with great value as the opportunity we have to see how other people conduct themselves in time of trouble! Of course, the layman knows something about this. He stands by his best friend in an hour of trouble and sees, that day, a glimpse of the radiant glory of the human soul in one of its high moments – and the remembrance of it will outlast all the other observations of his life! This may happen to the layman once, twice – a few times, perhaps – in a lifetime. In our business, such revelations are so frequent that they come to be classed as ‘all in the day’s work.’ I do not mean that we ever get used to it, or that the frequency of such experiences dulls our consciousness of the absolute grandeur of the human soul when empowered by this high spiritual courage; but we see it so often that we understand it is not a rare gift bequeathed to an occasional rare spirit, but rather that it is a sort of built-in capacity of the normal soul!

“And – sometimes – when I see that men and women are able to go under fire; and accept the losses of the very dearest possessions of their lives; and how they face, with a sense of victory and mastery, bereavements that fairly tear up the intricately knotted affections of years – smiling through it all – I stand in a kind of reverential awe before this virtue that lifts men out of the category of terrestrials and shows them to be sons of God!”

[Douglas will conclude this essay in my next post.]

by Ronald R Johnson

From the Michigan Daily (the student paper of the University of Michigan) sometime in October 1919.

For the past few months, I have been sharing Douglas’s preaching and published articles during the 1919-1920 school year. He also wrote anonymous limericks in the Michigan Daily, the student paper at the University of Michigan. These were all meant as advice to incoming freshmen. “The Newcomer” tells about himself and an “Old Timer” (an upperclassman) offers advice. The first of these limericks was printed sometime in October 1919 and it was titled, “Concerning Confusion”:

The Newcomer Says:

I like the looks of my new books;
They cost me three weeks’ wages;
Therefore I fain would ascertain
What’s written on their pages.

But every day, where I now stay,
The racket is increasing –
A dreadful din, a mandolin –
And chatter without ceasing.

Oh how, indeed, is one to read
In such wild agitation?
I’ve lost my poise in all this noise:
Please deal with this vexation.

The Old Timer Replies:

You’ve told the truth, oh wretched youth;
The tumult here is awful!
We also used to feel abused,
Declaring it unlawful.

But every year, this earthly sphere
Grows noisier than ever:
Our peace of mind we’ve left behind,
To be recaptured never.

‘Twould be unkind to train your mind
To think in peace and quiet,
Then shout someday, ‘Get in the fray
You cloistered monk – and try it!’

So: to have noise, we’ve hired some boys
To furnish great confusion;
They think that they are here to stay
But this is mere delusion.

If you can toil in this turmoil,
And practice concentration,
You will agree someday with me
That it was your salvation.

Editor’s Note: The above verses with some others which will appear in later issues of The Daily were written by a prominent man of Ann Arbor who is very much interested in student affairs but who, in his own words, wants his ‘anonymity carefully preserved.’ They were written for the purpose of printing them in a booklet for the freshmen. As the latter plan did not materialize, he has given them to The Daily for publication.

I will share the rest of his limericks over the next few posts.

Tag: Poetry

The Demotion of Death, Part 3

Douglas’s Anonymous Limericks (Part 1)