George Bernard Shaw, Hilaire Belloc, and G.K. Chesterton
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Doug Ealy kindly shared a poem by the great G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) with me a few hours ago. \u00a0I enjoyed the poem so much \u2014 curiously, I can\u2019t recall reading it before, although I\u2019m an unabashed Chesterton fan \u2014 that I think I\u2019ll share it with you<\/em>. \u00a0It\u2019s titled \u201cThe Aristocrat\u201d:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Devil is a gentleman, and asks you down to stay<\/span>
\nAt his little place at What\u2019sitsname (it isn\u2019t far away).<\/span>
\nThey say the sport is splendid; there is always something new,<\/span>
\nAnd fairy scenes, and fearful feats that none but he can do;<\/span>
\nHe can shoot the feathered cherubs if they fly on the estate,<\/span>
\nOr fish for Father Neptune with the mermaids for a bait;<\/span>
\nHe scaled amid the staggering stars that precipice, the sky,<\/span>
\nAnd blew his trumpet above heaven, and got by mastery<\/span>
\nThe starry crown of God Himself, and shoved it on the shelf;<\/span>
\nBut the Devil is a gentleman, and doesn\u2019t brag himself.<\/span><\/p>\nO blind your eyes and break your heart and hack your hand away,<\/span>
\nAnd lose your love and shave your head; but do not go to stay<\/span>
\nAt the little place in What\u2019sitsname where folks are rich and clever;<\/span>
\nThe golden and the goodly house, where things grow worse for ever;<\/span>
\nThere are things you need not know of, though you live and die in vain,<\/span>
\nThere are souls more sick of pleasure than you are sick of pain;<\/span>
\nThere is a game of April Fool that\u2019s played behind its door,<\/span>
\nWhere the fool remains for ever and the April comes no more,<\/span>
\nWhere the splendour of the daylight grows drearier than the dark,<\/span>
\nAnd life droops like a vulture that once was such a lark:<\/span>
\nAnd that is the Blue Devil that once was the Blue Bird;<\/span>
\nFor the Devil is a gentleman, and doesn\u2019t keep his word.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over dinner last night, friends told us a story from the area of Bear Lake, which straddles the Utah\/Idaho border to the north of us. \u00a0I think they said that it happened in Garden City there, but I could be wrong.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The folks in one of the wards on the shore of the lake had petitioned for some time for a new church building to replace their old one. \u00a0Finally, permission came. \u00a0The old chapel would be razed in order to make room for its replacement.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
A contractor arrived and, in just a week, had completely torn the old building down, temporarily leaving just a short flight of heavy concrete stairs going down to what had once been a basement.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ward in question met elsewhere that weekend \u2014 and until their new building was finished. \u00a0However, somebody posted a sign on the now empty site of the old chapel:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry we missed you. \u00a0\u2014 Enoch\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Doug Ealy kindly shared a poem by the great G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) with me a few hours ago. \u00a0I enjoyed the poem so much \u2014 curiously, I can\u2019t recall reading it before, although I\u2019m an unabashed Chesterton fan \u2014 that I think I\u2019ll share it with you. \u00a0It\u2019s titled \u201cThe Aristocrat\u201d: \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Three](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/06\/Shaw_Belloc_e_Chesterton.jpg\")
<\/a>