Readings and Ideas from the week of October 20. 2024

Sermon Notes
Jared Longshore on Job 37:14-38:21, listened on 10/20/2024
Job 1:3, 19:9 - Job from Edom, not a Jew, likely a king.
God asks rhetorical questions of Job that illustrate God's knowledge and power.
Salvation comes from outside of us in the form of two things:
- a brutally merciful repentance
- a new world of light, understanding and confidence
Job has peace and understanding even before God restores him.
Job has not sinned, but yet he was being cursed.
He was in a difficult place and he consistently asks for an answer.
God gives Job more, the ability to look past the difficulties and see how God's world is amazingly complex and much is hidden to our understanding.
We think too small and too carefully about what we know and not enough about what belongs to God that we cannot know or comprehend. That  unknowable stuff should give us a wider, much more complex frame that can show us the humor through the humility of being in God's presence as He completes His plans.
We take our problems and suffering too seriously and too small, even the most tragic, sorrowful, monstrous problem. Our sufferings are designed to make us look around more and see differently than we wanted to or could before.
We act like the life we interact with, read about eagerly, contribute to boastfully and foolishly is deep and profound, but barely scratches the surface of what God is up to.
So to view our trials and struggles as an opportunity to look up, look around and see and know God anew as good and loving, although He remains above all, someone who by His majesty amazes and renews us while we await our glorified state.
James 1:2-4- "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kids, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
The sufferings give us perseverance which forces us to re-adjust all the time to what God is doing in our lives conforming us more to Christ and less to our simplistic views of joy and comfort.
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Rodney in prayer:
"Many times we must say: Lord, I don't know the answer and I thank you for the question."

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"We are apt to think it inevitable that a man in Marner's position should have begun to question the validity of an appeal to the divine judgement by drawing lots; but to him this would have been an effort of independent thought such as he had never known..." George Eliot, Silas Marner p. 11-12

There is a process in the Pentateuch for having two witnesses to determine the outcome of the accused, not by drawing lots. While Christians are told to avoid dragging each other into civil courts, the outcome of accusations is not intended to rely on the drawing of lots, but by thorough investigation and cross-examination of reliable witnesses. George Eliot does not give much information into what sect of Christianity she is depicting so while this practice may have existed, it does not conform to church practice in history.
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We admire and like Elon Musk in our family so what I am discussing here is not to talk poorly of him but to use his recent comments to think about how we determine what our position on moral issues should be.
Recently, he was asked if he would ever consider "publicly supporting the pro-life movement."
He started his answer by noting that "this is a contentious topic if there ever was one, perhaps the most contentious."
He then went on to state that he believes that if "a baby can survive outside the womb, it cannot be aborted" because "that is murder."
On any issue or idea that requires reasoning, but certainly one that involves the life of a human being, to think that a person can reason their own way to righteousness and justice apart from submitting to God's Law-Word is arrogance.
Every child that is put in the womb is put there by their Creator. If the baby continues to grow and mature into a fully formed baby that is God's decision and perogative.  To assume that we have the right to prematurely end the life of any baby who is not in distress is to steal from God what He has created and determined. Sometimes mothers develop illnesses and conditions which they are in danger of dying of, certainly saving the life of the mother is important and is merciful. If the baby cannot also be saved, it is true tragedy and we sorrow over all babies who could not be brought into this world safely.
But to speak as if we can decide a head of time if the baby should live or not is assuming the position of God and we should take His view on the unborn child, not just whatever we reason through our own research or conscience.
I'm praying that Musk's eyes are opened to see differently on this topic and that he would see God as the Creator and Redeemer of babies and all people.

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"Fasting removes daily digestion so the body can clean and repair itself 20x times faster." Perhaps.
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"You are capable of creating the things you have in your mind." anonymous
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X Commentary on Trump "working" at McDonald's on Sunday, October 20, 2024
"But with Trump there is always a certain irony, a playfulness, where he knows you are in on the joke and you're both having fun. You both know who he is, who he is pretending to be, and it's not at all malicious." FischerKing 
"Trump is always authentic. He's always himself, even when acting. His true self has a lot of showmanship. And that's why we're in on the joke, It's like wrestling. Kamala and others pretend like it's real in a way that disgusts normal and aware people." Nathaniel Eliason
"Trump is having a good time as he loves people."
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"High IQ people practice impulse control and a longer time preference." Not sure about the IQ part, but wisdom comes in being able to wait and plan.
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James 1:18
"He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created."
Bible study notes- "Redeemed humanity is the pinnacle of God's creation...as well as the beginning of the redemption of the whole creation."
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First time ever that I can recall wishing to have been raised Amish or strict Mennonite to have the skills of homemaking, (especially needlework of all kinds, preserving and making of foods) and to have screen-free living as normal and expected. Of course, that's not all they practice, but it is a side benefit.

Readings and Ideas from end of September to mid October

Sermon Notes
Ben Merkle "Heaven" (series: Last Things #5)
Philippians 3: 20-21

Creation will be resurrected.
Romans 8:18-21
Psalm 102:26

We should have the eyes of our heart on heaven, because that is where Jesus is now and those who are already with Him. So we are citizens of heaven now, but the "meek will inherit the earth", (Matthew 5:5), so we anticipate the renewal and resurrection of this earth as our eternal home.

And in the meantime, we wrestle with sin, slowly being sanctified, completed only in the Resurrection.
The world is being renewed by the spread of the gospel, as the kingdom of heaven grows here on earth.
Christ's whole mission is the saving of the world. 
1 John 4:14
The earth will be made new and is the eternal dwelling place for God's people.
"A city that is coming from heaven to this earth." Revelation 21:1-4
The descension began at the ascension of Christ.
The bride who is being adorned for her husband.
Doug Wilson - "When the Man Comes Around" (Johnny Cash song)
"Church history is the bride walking down the aisle approaching her groom."
It is one long marriage ceremony, and the eternal life is the marriage feast.
Isaiah 25:6-8 is a foundational prophecy for the church.
Matt. 8:11 - a feast where Jesus sits down with His people, like the 'Mead Hall' of King Alfred the Great
The Lord's Supper is a taste of this marriage feast. 

John Donne(Laura's reading from this past week in Invitation to the Classics!)- "Death, thou shalt die."
Our culture wants us to be friends with death, but death is our enemy.
Things that ought to disgust and horrify us are being encouraged to accept death.
Proverbs 8:36 - "those who hate God, love death"
We serve a living God who ha conquered death in the Resurrection.
Revelation 21:27 - sin will be vanquished
Our minds and hearts will be fully perfected; mature.
1 Cor. 13:9-12
1 John 3;2

Right now, we must use faith to see what eventually we will know and see.
Sight to perfect our knowledge
Love to perfect our will.
Joy to perfect our conscience.
Philippians 1:6- faith, hope and love
Pray for God to increase our faith and hope.

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Sermon Notes
Doug Wilson Acts 3:19-26 (Acts of the Apostles #8)

Peter twice reminds the gathered crowds that they were responsible for the death of Christ.
It was a judicial murder.
Matthew 27:63, they knew Jesus had predicted His resurrection after death.
Jesus had also predicted the flattening of Jerusalem in one generation. (Matthew 24:34)
The city would be executed for the death of Jesus.
The resurrection guaranteed the destruction of Jerusalem because all of Jesus' predictions came true.
Some repented and some did not after Peter's preaching.
In the first part of the sermon, the facts of the gospel are preached.
In the second part of the sermon, the response needed is presented as repentance. 
If they repented, times of refreshing would come even to the doomed city. verse 19

Jesus promised to return again, but for now, He must remain in Heaven (verse 21) according to the prophets.
The people of Jerusalem are told to listen to Moses(verse 22) and the other prophets.
The warning of the coming destruction and the only way to be spared the judgment is to repent.

Genesis 3 is the first promise of restoration. 
Peter calls them "these days" and in verse 25, heirs of the prophets and of the covenants.
Prophecy (their status before God)- 2 ways:
- forth-telling - "God's law says this, but you are doing this"
- fore-telling - a prediction for future events

False prophets, those who do not tell the truth about current events, cannot be trusted to tell about future events.
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"A language changes because things happen to people. If we could imagine the impossible-- a society in which mothing happened-- there would be no changes in language. But except possibly in a cemetery, things are constantly happening to people: they eat, drink, sleep, talk, make love, meet strangers, struggle against natural perils, and fight against one another." (J. N. Hook and E.G. Matthews, Language is Like a River, quoted on p. 36 of The Writer's Rhetoric by Robert A. Anderson

The idea that things are constantly happening to people struck me when I read it because that is exactly how I view each week. Sunday seems like a reset from the events of the week before much of which come across as unplanned by me. I experience them but I would not have picked them. They happen to me and they change me. I recently was thinking over the difficult verse in James 1:2, Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, and wanting to practice making it true rather than just sarcastic disbelief over what could be being asked of me as a Christian.
I realized that the hang- up was over the two words, pure joy. I have been reconsidering how limiting my view was on what emotional responses could be counted in the joy category.
And I decided that being given something that is a trial is really an opportunity to change my perspective, to enlarge it, to learn something I didn't know before, to experience more sacrificial suffering, to show love and care in intense and practical ways, etc. When I am busy running my own affairs which include running the household affairs of my family, I look to solve problems, not ask for ones to afflict me. But who would ever pick the really hard problems to experience? No one except for using it as a victim status which is always so so tempting. To make sure that others no how hard your days have been recently, how much you've been given to endure usually at great cost to your own comfort and desires, and how much sympathy and kindness you deserve from others.
But avoiding the trials is the sure way to avoiding growth, maturity and wisdom. And keeping quiet about it long enough to grow from it and see how it has done its work on you so that if you do choose to share about it, you have something wise to offer others, not something to gain from others.
The verses that follow in the James 1 passage say this:
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

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"Two classes of people she had chosen to avoid, having been driven to such avoidings by her aunt's preferences; marquises and such-like, whether wicked or otherwise, she had eschewed, and had eschewed likewise all Low Church tendencies.
The eschewing of marquises is not generally very difficult." (Haha, this made me grin.)
Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?, p. 7

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"But all this would have been as nothing if the drawing-room had been pretty as it is the bounden duty of all drawing-rooms to be. But Alice Vavasor's drawing room was not pretty. Her father had had the care of furnishing the house, and he had entrusted the duty to a tradesman who had chosen green paper, a green carpet, green curtains, and green damask chairs. There was a green damask sofa, and two green arm-chairs opposite to each other at the two sides of the fireplace. The room was altogether green, and was not enticing." Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?, p. 9 (another grin)
Substitute the color green for grey. 
Welcome to modern living rooms!
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"She was determined she would not cry before Aunt Elizabeth, but it was hard to keep the tears back. She wished Daff wouldn't purr with such resounding satisfaction, as if everything were perfectly delicious from a grey cat's point of view." L.M. Montgomery, Emily Climbs, p.83

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"Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere."  Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act 3 Scene 1

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Luke 1:13-22
vs. 13 - "Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son..."
Was Zechariah still praying for a child as an 'old man'? Are there prayers that I have given up hope for?
vs. 14 - "He will be a joy and delight to you..."
Perhaps Z & E were spared the trauma of John's beheading because as older parents that had died long before John spoke against Herod and his wicked behavior.
vs. 17 - "And he will go on before the Lord...to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
John's birth announcement was also a word from God about the Promised One after centuries of no new prophecies.
vs.22 - ..."they realized he had seen a vision in the temple..."
After so many generations of silence, it must have been startling and surreal to realize God had sent a vision to Zechariah.

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"Use your web presence (if you have one) to show your goals, projects, desires and ideals very clearly. And to share more of what you are like, what you love and what you want." Simon Sarris

Part of our U.S. President's display for our history studies

Readings and ideas for the weeks of September 8 and 15, 2024

Note to myself: Two weeks of readings and ideas combined into one post.

Sermon Notes (listened to on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024)
Acts 2:37-47, Douglas Wilson
The response to Peter's preaching:
- random residents of Jerusalem were attracted to a spectacle
- the message of the gospel went right to their heart and they asked what they should do
- Peter answered that they should repent, be baptized and the gift of the Holy Spirit would be given
Peter was preaching to actual murderers of Christ and he offered free and total forgiveness for them and their children. He told them that the destruction of the city of Jerusalem was for certain and that needed to save themselves from the coming judgement.
3000 souls were converted and baptized, and continued in four things:
1. apostolic teaching
2. the breaking of bread
3. prayer
4. fellowship
The believers were devoted to share with one another in meals and goods, in turn they received favor from others who also feared them. God kept adding to their numbers.
At the pool of Siloam on the southside of the temple complex, the pilgrims first cleansed themselves, then went on up to the temple where they cleansed themselves again in the smaller baptistry areas called mikvahs built around the temple area.
The local believers sold their property and goods perhaps understanding the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the impending loss. The out-of-town pilgrims would have needed to be accommodated as they stayed longer in Jerusalem then perhaps they first intended.
What did Peter mean 'for you and your children'?
Luke 18:15, infants were brought, carried to Jesus as part of those who God promised His covenant to.
Deuteronomy 5 and 7 describes God's kindness to 'thousand generations' but the O.T. record of family generational faithfulness was poor. But God did not give up on His promises.
The new converts steadfastly devoted themselves because they had new life and needed nourishment. (Newborn babies are born hungry)
Four pillars of the 1st century church reiterated:
1. apostolic teaching- The Didache
2. fellowship - koinonea- intertwined lives
3. breaking of bread - likely communion/eucharist
4. corporate prayer
The point of Biblical rhetoric is to leave everyone without an excuse, but it is not for everyone to believe and agree to. The preaching of the gospel brings division, some believe and some unbelieve or remain 'undecided'.
The gifts of the Spirit are distinct from the fruit of the Spirit
1 Corinthians 1:7 - the church had all the gifts
1 Corinthians 3:1 - all the gifts, yet no fruit, because they were unspiritual.
Do not confuse a gift with fruit. Being a great teacher but without Christian character is not having the Spirit.
Gladness and simplicity of heart were results of the converts activity.
God exempts no one from the worship of Him. All are commanded to worship Him.
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"Towns produce vicious men because they produce corrupted men. The mountains, the sea, the forest produce men of the wild; they develop the wildness in them, but often without destroying their humanity." Les Misérables, Victor Hugo (p. 80)

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"Reading nonfiction prose well rewards us by helping us understand the context of ideas common to humanity."
...
"Reading poetry and other imaginative literature rewards us by helping us experience vicariously not only the way other people think, but also the way they feel as they think. We learn to see with the eyes and heart and mind of others..." How to Read Slowly by James Sire, p. 69

"The good reader does not begin by finding what he is looking for, but by finding what is there." p. 73
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From prep for our first upcoming Sunday School class on Matthew 1:
"If you look at this list of people very carefully you see some famous names. But you will also see that they are all sinners. How could sinners be in such a list? This is the list of the ones from whom Christ was born! This is just what is so wonderful, children. You know that there is a list also now that keeps on going. And your name is on that list for you are a covenant child. You too, belong to God. We know that we are sinners, but we know that sinners can be on that list, for Christ came to save sinners.
...
He was like unto His brethren in all things, sin excepted. He became one of us so that He might take our sins upon Himself and die for them. So when you read this list of sinners, remember that the list goes right on and we are on it. A list of those whom Christ was willing to call brothers."
(Covenantal Catechism, Book 4, The Gospels by Harry Van Dyken)
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"We are not our own; but God, who has given us life, and whose we are, has planted within us Conscience, to remind us continually that we owe ourselves to Him, and must order our ways to please Him, and that He is the Judge who will visit every offence surely and directly, if not today, then tomorrow." (Ourselves, Book 2, Charlotte Mason, p.6)
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John Calvin on Ezekiel 1
"He also prophecies against heathen nations, like Jeremiah, especially against the children of Ammon, the Moabites, the Tyrians, the Egyptians, and the Assyrians."
-to prophecy against a heathen nation is to require all nations to serve God. There is no room for pluralism. God calls people everywhere to worship Him. 
in the closing prayer from Lecture 1, he used the phrase "recall it to life"
It is very close to the phrase, Dickens uses repeatedly, in A Tale of Two Cities: "Recalled to life"
also in the prayer: "gathered into that happy kingdom"

Ezekiel 2:6- "do not be afraid of them or their words... do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them"  
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"He really did not know where he was any more. Like an owl that might suddenly see the sun rise, the convict had been dazzled and, so to speak, blinded by virtue. (emphasis mine, Les Miserables, Victor Hugo, p. 105)
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how went the funeral

Musings on a French-Canadian funeral
Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Patricia B. mother of Marise R., Gordon R.'s wife, Shane's first cousin
Because of Shane's work schedule, he could not attend, so the girls and I went in his place.
The funeral was held at a funeral home in Dieppe, NB and the parking lot was jammed full, so we followed others parking on the grass.
We went through the main entrance but amongst the arriving crowds we couldn't find a seat. We went back out the door and reentered through another entrance which took us to the reception area, bathrooms and a view of the main chape room. No seats were available.
The girls and I ended up sitting on a cushioned bench in the columbarium part where we could hear the service, but not see the platform or any of the service.
And the entire service was in French.
Others were sitting in this overflow area but could see the platform.
It became very quiet and then suddenly the service opened with a very unexpected musical selection, I Feel the Earth by Carol King. It was played at a boisterous volume and a few time-keeping hand-clapping kicked in for little bit before tapering. Apparently a relative got up and danced a few steps before sitting back down.
It was amazing and that spirit of life and joy was matched by the Master of Ceremonies, the deceased's husband who spoke to those in attendance with emotion and apparent humor as many of the different times he spoke in French elicited laughs. Many laughs.
There was a Catholic priest who also led the service through a funeral rite of sorts which included prayers in which those in attendance stood several different times. And two different congregational recitations occurred, one of which was undoubtedly The Lord's Prayer. Also another instance in which the congregation gave a repeated response to the priest's speaking.
Other pop hits were played included James Taylor, You've Got a Friend and two songs sung in French all pre-recorded. The last song was a solo recording on a guitar by a man. When the song ended, everyone clapped and gave the recorded performance, a standing ovation.

As a Catholic-Christian funeral, it was truly unusual for me. The laughter from the eulogies and master of ceremonies, the selection of music played, and the overall enjoyment of being together was provocative.
Why are funerals so somber and filled with pietistic silences, broken by whispering coupled with bad hymns and dirge-y organ music?
If Christians are the victorious ones, why are our funerals dismal and boring?
Why are our favorite songs not played even if they are not hymns?
Why is laughter not more common at a funeral service?
Do non-Christians honor their dead better than Christians who believe in the Resurrection?

Kitty at sunset

Readings and Ideas for the month of August

Spent most of the month planning Laura's Year 10, reading and researching books for her to read. I found so many ideas and historical references to learn more about. Another year of learning for me too!

..."a coin placed in the mouth of the deceased to pay Charon, ferryman in charge of the passage across the underworld's river Styx." (Resurrection of the Son of God, N.T. Wright p. 38)
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"There's matter in these sighs. These profound heaves.
You must translate; 'tis fit we understand them." (Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 1)
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"You have no record of standing up for anything that would require courage, character or any level of defiance." (unknown)
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Research Jacobite versus Jacobin from Online Etymology Dictionary
Latin - Jacobus
Late Latin - Jacomus - Middle English vernacular form - James
Old French - James, Jacques, Iacobus - diminutive (Jack)
Spanish - Jaime, also Diego
Italian - Giacomo
Welsh - Iago
Cornish - Jago
Greek - Iakobos
Hebrew - Ya' aqobh
Anglo-French - jake, jaikes
Middle English - Jakke, Jacke (Jackie)
Scottish - Jock 
Side note: Jack and Jill, Iakke and Gylle, Ienken and Iulyan

From same source:
Tory
"vaguely 'a conservative' or anyone who supports the continuance of established authority and institutions or has aristocratic principles (opposed to a 'liberal' or 'democrat')
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Anthony Esolen (X post from August 17, 2024)
"One of the things that Milton shows consistently is that evil makes you stupid. The converse, of course, is not true. Stupidity does not make you evil. It is still a vice, though, and it leaves you vulnerable. The devils are evil and stupid, though they have plenty of brains: they can out-talk the greatest of rhetoricians, and even out-talk themselves. But in their attempts to avoid the truth, they twist their brains into Gordian knots of self-contradiction. Milton SHOWS us these knots, expecting us to perceive them -- he does not ever tell us that they are there. That of course would spoil the drama and the fun. What kinds of people do the devils most resemble? Politicians, that's who: most of the time when we hear a devil talking, we hear somebody trying to persuade himself or others of what is not true, even while a great deal of truth may be tangled up in his speech. It is the precise opposite of Jesus's injunction, that our yes should be yes and our no should be no. Anyway, here's how Milton describes Beelzebub, after the council of devils seems ready to decide on a course that Satan does not approve: ... with grave Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed A Pillar of State; deep on his front engraven Deliberation sat and public care, And princely Counsels in his face yet shone Majestic, though in ruin; sage he stood With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear The weight of mightiest Monarchies; his look Drew audience and attention still as night Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake. I suppose the healthiest thing would be to admire true statesmen, of whom there are right now, in the United States, very few, and never to take the rest seriously, and sometimes to hold the silliest, vainest, slickest, and most ambitious up to ridicule. Every political commercial I have seen in NH, for local and state candidates of both parties, has persuaded me that I must be governed by ambitious buffoons of both sexes. But since you can't say, "That lady is a twit," without having everybody point at you, crying, "You're a bad man, you're a VERY bad man," the female buffoons are condemned to go without the occasional salutary dash of mockery, which might give them an occasional and fleeting glimpse of what they are. Anyway, between buffoon and buffoon, there's not a dime's difference. So you vote for the party you believe will do least harm, if only because it's the party that will do the least of anything at all..." Clarifying follow-up: "I don't mean that they did not have brains. They did -- plenty. But the evil twists those brains in knots. It doesn't mean that they can't conceive of things and achieve them. It means that they end up tangled in self-contradictions -- and blindness. Macbeth, Richard III..." ************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from ‘After Ten Years’ in Letters and Papers from Prison (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works/English, vol. 8) Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010. ) "Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being.  Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings." **********************************************************************************************************************************************************

"M. Myriel had to submit to the fate of every newcomer in a small town, where many tongues talk but few heads think." (Les Miserables, Fantine, Book 1, Chapter 1, An Upright Man, Victor Hugo)
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Especially for Kathleen: Isn't this almost every mother and son before son goes out to do something for the first time? 

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Psalm 106:24,25
"Then they scorned the Promised Land and would not believe His word,
But murmured in their tents and would not heed the voice of the LORD."

Speaking quietly to one another in their tents complaining about the dangers and problems of going into Canaan was a sign of unbelief and angered the Lord. Could He not deal with the armies of Canaanite nations the same as He dealt with Pharoah's army? Yet the people of Israel would not trust in the Lord.
Taking cues from the environment as opposed to believing God's Word has been a temptation for God's people for all time.
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"Traditions aren't just customs we follow, they're threads that weave our stories together." Glad and Golden Hours, Lanier Ivester and Jennifer Trafton
From my own experience of what tradition feels like, I would substitute the word "days" for "stories". Traditions are like threads that weave our days together. If I think about what last Tuesday was like, the traditions of each day hold the memories fresher in my mind. What we do in our house when we wake up and how the day progresses usually versus how it differs that particular Tuesday. In this case, last Tuesday, the girls and I drove to Dieppe for the funeral of a relative's mother on Shane's side of the family. The day started and ended in the same way because of the morning and evening traditions, but the activity of the day was a departure of what a typical day is like.

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Thinking further about a term someone made on X about foodstuffs having flavoring technology:
By making most of your own food and meals, you can avoid the addictive flavoring technology that makes you overeat what is often inferior calories. 

New Brunswick Day 2024

Shane and I went up alone to harvest the beleaguered garlic bed at the rural property two ferries away. The first ferry is about 6 kilometers from our house (and can be seen from our third floor loft room) and runs two ferries at a time so the wait is usually not that long for the short crossing to the peninsula. Today we were able to drive right on to the ferry on our side as the last car without any wait at all.  Then it's about a 15 minute drive to the next ferry across a wider river that only has one ferry. We waited for only about 4 minutes with a motorcycle crew and plenty of other vehicles with various greetings passing between drivers coming and going. The local farmstand and ice cream shop was busy with kayakers and locals on this summer holiday.
As we started the long crossing, the anchored boats on both sides of the river bobbed up in down in the bay water. As we approached the other side, I strained to look over at a friend's anchored sailboat seeing a figure in swimming trunks moving about on its deck. While I was trying to decide who the figure was, we were ready to disembark and as we drove off the ferry, who is waiting in line to get on, but the very friend whose sailboat looked occupied. Shane and I waved hello through our open vehicle windows and the cheerful greeting was passed back immediately.
How fun to see friends just like a local.  It made me realize how much living here again has felt like coming home even though I wasn't born and raised here. I don't know who we saw on his sailboat but with a large, grown family living nearby chances are it was a relative of his. I've been on that boat two summers ago and it was my first time sailing. He let all of us take a turn steering up and down the bay and it was definitely my Swallows & Amazons moment!

 After I cleared out the garlic bed and the plastic chicken wire protecting it, Shane cleaned up the overgrown grasses and wildflowers in and around the fence posts and garden bed.  I picked a couple of the wild blackberries that Shane pointed out were growing after I had lamented that there were no wild raspberry bushes on the property. I had no ill-effects from the berries so we must have identified them correctly as edible. Phew!
The large oak trees have started dropping their green acorns so autumn feels close at hand.

Readings and Ideas for the week of July 28, 2024

Sermon Notes

From the Joint Outdoor Service on July 24, 2024 
Toby Sumpter: A Mind to Work
Nehemiah 4:6, "so we rebuilt..."
1. Clean Hearts- keep short account of sin with one another (1 John 1:7)
2. Honest Work - diligent labor with no lies, complete sobriety and a good name (Psalm 15:2-5)
3. True Worship - worship like you mean it, coming before the Lord in complete honesty, clothed in the righteousness of Christ
Doug Wilson: Lessons for the Limelight
Nehemiah 4:6
1. The people had a mind to work. People can be lazy, but also so can be entire cultures. (Proverbs 13:4, 26:16, 22:29
2. They were competent in their work. Industry: cultivate it in yourself and encourage it in your culture.
3. They were working in the presence of hostilities. Co-belligerence with who can stand with us against enemies takes wisdom. There is danger in persecution but also in blessing.
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Psalm 44:2 (from the Daily Office, July30th)
With Your hand, You drove out the nations
     and planted our fathers;
You crushed the peoples
     and made our fathers flourish.
Noticed how God is seen as the primary actor here in giving the land of the original occupiers to His people, especially in using the verb planted.

Isaiah 2:3b-4a
The law will go out from Zion.
    the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
    and will settle disputes for many peoples.

John Calvin's commentary:
"Mount Zion...raised to the highest pitch of honour, when she shall become the fountain of saving doctrine, which shall flow out over the whole world." (p. 96)
"Who, then, would have thought not only that it would have a place there, but that it would also reign in all foreign places, and in the most distant regions?" (p. 97)
"We also infer that it was necessary that all the ancient ceremonies should be abolished, and that a new form of teaching should be introduced, though the substance of the doctrine continue to be the same; for the law formerly proceeded out of Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:20), but now it proceeded out of Zion, and therefore it assumed a new form." (p.98)

self-reflection with Elizabeth Bennett

As someone who has read this novel more than once, it was only on this recent reading this past month that this sentence reached out and emblazoned itself on my mind. 

How earnestly did she then wish her former opinions had been more reasonable, her expressions more moderate! ~Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

"her former opinions had been more reasonable"
No one can know the particulars about every situation they encounter and so we are given instruction in places like Proverbs on how to reason through matters. 

Proverbs 18:17 (ESV)
The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.

Listening to the first person to present the particulars of a situation and expressing full faith in their narrative is folly and yet while I know the adage, it can be so hard to remember in the moment and hold back from issuing an opinion.

"her expressions more moderate"
Using superlatives in assessing a relatively new situation or new person in your acquaintance is often the mark of childhood. 

In Elizabeth Bennett's case, she listened to a new acquaintance and believed everything he told her about someone she already didn't like. It was indeed a hearty helping of confirmation bias which usually comes from listening to hearsay.

As I thought about this more, it occurred to me that because she was a young woman eligible for marriage, some parental wisdom could have instructed her how to treat men who brag to women about their victimhood. Something like, be suspicious about men who show off their victimhood without dignity. Wickham passed around his victimhood for all the women to admire and pity.  But Elizabeth and her sisters were not trained to listen carefully and consider the source critically: why is this information being made known by this person? What motives could they have?
And by Darcy staying silent but still interacting with the social calendar and manners, he allowed a lie to take hold when a few words to Wickham could have prevented him from gaining any sympathizers.
At the root of all of this story, is the utter neglect of both parents in helping their daughters grow out of weaknesses in their character. Foolish parents are a curse to their children.
It also contributes to my ongoing thinking of good hedges that girls and young women need around them to both protect them and free them from unwanted attention from men and women who may try to exploit and manipulate them.

Readings and Ideas for the week of July 21, 2024

 Sermon Notes

Douglas Wilson, listened on July 21, 2024
Acts of the Apostles #1  (Acts 1:1)

Luke is Volume 1- what Jesus began
Acts is Volume 2 - what Jesus continues through the expansion of His body, the Church
Luke and Acts, written by the same man, dedicated to the same mystery man, Theophilus

Connect the Gospel of Luke to the book of Acts of anointed and appointed servants who are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in us.

Jesus is in Heaven, His Spirit is in us, therefore Christ remains in the world completing His work.
Acts 16:8 - "They" came to Troas, 3rd person
Acts 16:9 - Paul's vision of the Macedonian (Northern Greece) man asking for help, possibly Luke
Acts 16:10 - "We", Luke joins Paul somehow

Luke was a sophisticated writer who knew Greek well and a first-class historian. (Ex. Herod the Tetrarch, more precise than 'King Herod'). Also a medical doctor as per Colossians 4:14, beloved physician.

Unsure of who Theophilus was, it's remembered that others have dedicated their Christian writings to unbelieving magistrates or public people as an apologetic work to explain aspects of Christianity. (Example: Jean Calvin dedicated Institutes to King Francis 1, Catholic King of France)

Luke answers two main questions as his own apologetic work:
1. Who was this Jesus?
2. Who are these Christians?

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Rodney on preparing for breaking of bread:
The Word of God as bread feeds us. We know it feeds us because it gives to us what we do not have already, understanding and nourishment.

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A Meditation on Psalm 8
Psalm 8:1
God set His glory, His radiance above the heavens, beyond the reach of men. They can ignore Him, but they cannot dethrone Him.
Psalm 8:3-5
When we view that which has been created beyond our reach in the heavens, it teaches us to remember how fragile and small we are, yet we are told that we were created by the same Creator of the heavens and that further, we are remembered by Him with care and covered with glory and honor. What an astonishing and humble act of goodness we have been given.
Psalm 8:6-8
And if that thought wasn't enough, God, the Transcendent Creator gave to His image-bearers, the responsibility and privilege to rule over His works of creation that He put into place before men and women were even created. Therefore any act of caring for creation must be rooted in understanding that we are acting on God's behalf in His creation. So rather than covering ourselves with our own virtue in caring for the earth, we see ourselves as caring for God's creation at His command.

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A couple of weeks ago, I listened to Ken Boa on The Theology Pugcast talk about beauty and science. It was at times a little more complex on science topics, but overall it was an excellent historical and theological primer on how science reveals in increasingly complexity the beauty and order that can be found. I plan to listen to it again.
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The concept of noblesse oblige has come up twice in the last week or so. First in an episode of To the Manor Born, where the previous owner of the manor admonishes the new owner of his responsibilities to do good with his estate for the benefit of the community. And second in a post on X discussing the regulating of vice.

 

Readings and Ideas for the week of July 15th, 2024

Sermon Notes

Douglas Wilson, listened to on July 14, 2024 
On Loving the Standard (Biblical Child Discipline in an Age of Therapeutic Goo #9)          Deuteronomy 6:1-9

The greatest commandment is embedded in instruction on child-rearing. 

Loving the standard is a higher calling than simply obeying the standard.

Your actual theology is what you do. These statutes for Israel were to be lived out in the land He was giving them.

In Ephesians 6:1, Paul repeats the commandment and expands the promise: "Children, obey your parents, honor your father and mother, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth" which now encompasses more than the land of Israel.

Parents are to diligently teach their children, dominated by living out the Word of God. Love is indeed a thing that can be taught.
Whatever you are manufacturing in your life and heart is what you are exporting or giving to your children.

From your heart, to the mouth, to the environment of the home.
Consistent Christian living in the home with humility, not perfection, is the goal.
God is at work in us by His Holy Spirit and we work out what He works into us. If it doesn't grow organically, then it is not obedience.
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Doug Wilson used a phrase in this sermon (transgenerational transitions) that I had never heard him use before and it summed up what I have been thinking about as our children become young adults and we look to what comes next in the life of our family. 

I have been thinking of how in some families the faith of one generation is successfully passed on intact and enlarged and in other families, the faith is ignored or severely altered and produced disunity. I was also thinking of how living generations stay in fellowship and unity with one another even over distance.
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Luke 24:37-43

They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, He asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish and He took it and ate it in their presence.

I never noticed before how Jesus doesn't say that they are foolish for believing in ghosts. He instead offers His risen body as proof that He can't be a ghost because they can see and touch his real body and then the second test is that He eats with them. A few years back, I realized that I had been more affected by pop culture ideas like Ghosts aren't real but that the Biblical accounts do not point in that direction. On the The Theology Pugcast, they have talked about the spiritual beings that exist in a way that we often cannot see or explain satisfactorily. 

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Even our workspaces can be infused with refinement and delight while we carry on with the work of homemaking. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, this milkhouse description feels like a combination of spaces and places I've been in: summer kitchens, fern-crowded stone steps, earthen floor cellars, glass-paneled French doors, wet dairy floors, moss-covered sheds, and wooden shelved pantries.

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Two thoughts that came as I listened to the Book of Common Prayer service this morning:
Psalm 18:46 - "the foreign peoples"  
How can we have a concept of foreign peoples if we do not have nations that are bound together by an exclusive language and culture?
To look into: Was this concept of foreign peoples only understood after God dispersed the people by changing their languages in Genesis 10?

Ezekiel 20:12
"Moreover, I gave them my sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, so that they might know that I the Lord sanctify them." (NRSV)
"Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so that they would know that I the LORD made them holy." (NIV)
The sabbaths were given as a means of setting God's people apart from the other nations. A day in which ordinary work and trade was suspended in order to worship God and meditate on His works. It wasn't a punishment, it was a blessing.
And it was a sign between Israel and God signaling an agreement or covenant that God had made with the people to be their God.

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I saw this CM quote shared on Goodreads and wanted to add it here to refer to. Ourselves p. 40-41

The thing is, to keep your eye upon words and wait to feel their force and beauty; and, when words are so fit that no other words can be put in their places, so few that none can be left out without spoiling the sense, and so fresh and musical that they delight you, then you may be sure that you are reading Literature, whether in prose or poetry. A great deal of delightful literature can be recognized only by this test. 

And here's one of the test passages that she asks her readers to consider with some instruction:

Try if the first gives you a sense of delight in the words alone, without any thought of the meaning of them, if the very words seem to sing to you;--

"That time of year thou mayest in me behold

     When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

     Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

(Sonnet 73, William Shakespeare)

Running Journal

I want to record the efforts of one of the physically hardest things I've ever done: trying to run as a fitness activity. On June 12th, I ran the loop (0.54 km) at a local trail near the river cove for the first time ever without stopping. I didn't think I could even do that. It took me 4 minutes. Two days later, on June 14th, I came back and pushed myself to run two loops(1.1 km) and did it in a little over 8 minutes. As I drove over to the cove, I kept telling myself not to expect too much, it was likely a fluke that I could run like that and probably not repeatable. So when I ran the two loops, I felt relieved that maybe it wasn't a one-off but something I could do again without letting myself stop to walk. Three days later on June 17th, I came back and ran two loops again in just under 8 minutes. This time I reversed the loop and saved the steep bit for the end rather than starting going downhill. I wanted to challenge myself. It felt great to be able to run it either direction. Shane said not to worry about time, just practice running with stopping. Speed will come, he said. The next day, June 18th, I decided to stay in our neighborhood and try to run up to the traffic circle and back something that I hadn't been able to do yet. But with my new goal of only doing distances that I could run without having to stop and walk, I picked that 1km segment to work on. It took me just over 7 minutes to run. Running on the road is distracting and without the beauty of the nature trail, but it's easy to do logistically. The next day we left for Caton's Island so I didn't do any more running until the following week, on June 25th, when I returned to the cove to run two loops again in just under 8 minutes. I was wondering if I could still do it since I had taken a week off from this endeavor, but was pleased to accomplish it. The next day I came back and thought I should try for three loops(1.6 km/1 mile) and although it felt very tough, I managed to do it in a little over 13 minutes. Now I was starting to build confidence since I finally could run one mile without stopping even if the pace was quite slow. The rest of the week was busy prepping for the upcoming Yard Sale Day at my in-laws and also trying not to come down with the cold that was threatening. By the Tuesday afternoon of July 2nd, I came down with a sudden onset sinus cold that left me very tired and I could only manage walks with the girls that week and next. I felt discouraged that I was going to have start all over and I had no motivation to do any running. But finally on Saturday, July 13th, I just put on my sneakers and thought I would go over and see if I could do it after being sick. I ran really slow, but I did the three loops without stopping and it took me over 14 minutes. But I was happy that I hadn't lost the courage to do it. Two days later, on July 15th, I ran here in the neighborhood again because only Kate was awake and Shane had left on his own run. I decided to lengthen my traffic circle road run by coming back by a side loop with a bit of a hill and adding a bit more to the initial 1 km. The total ended up at 1.23km and I did it in under 9 minutes. It felt good to be running in places I had only walked. The next day, July 16th, I went back to the cove to see if I could improve my pace on three loops and maybe think about pushing for four. But it felt very hard to finish three in under 13 minutes, so I didn't push for more. Two days later, on July 18th, I left the house to drive to the cove and it was already raining quite steadily. Two people were out walking their dogs in the rain but the path wasn't very wet yet. I completed one loop and then the rain just turned to a downpour but it wasn't really bothering me. On the second loop as I ran, I kept being distracted by how hard it was raining and I knew I wasn't going to be getting very far. So I finished only two loops in over 8 minutes, but pleased that I had actually run in the rain and not given up for bad weather.

But today, on July 20th, I was able to push myself to do the four loops(2.17km). I did it in a little over 16 minutes. It seems unreal to me that I was actively running for a whole 16 minutes after never having run at all. I was very hot and very tired, but triumphant. A walker who came to the narrower footbridge at the same time I did, paused to let me run across so I thanked him. He said "You're doing a great job!" And I thanked him again and felt humbled that for the first time someone was cheering me on as the runner. That was in the middle of the third loop and maybe that's what I needed to attempt the fourth one, I don't know. But by just looking at the path right in front of me and not looking to see how far I had to go, I managed to start that fourth loop and then finish it knowing I had done something very hard for me. After stopping and sitting shakily with my water bottle and phone on the bench completely red-faced and exhausted, I got up to go visit the buck who kept crossing the path I was running on. He was eating the grass just over the first footbridge and he let me walk very close to him and take photos and a video of his fine antlers. Then after chatting with another dog owner, I remembered the raspberry patch I had found earlier this week and waded through the tall grass to pick some more. To be able to run and compete against myself in a place surrounded by beauty and created life really does give me the mental stamina to keep returning and keep trying to do my best. Here's my Strava post for today:

Readings and Ideas for the week of July 7, 2024

Water running under the footpath bridge at Matthew's Cove

In reading through Luke 24, I thought about how Jesus  seemed to be trolling to the two travelers when he asked, "What things?"
When I mentioned this to Shane, he said that  Jesus was asking Socratic (!) questions because Jesus knew all things including the thoughts and conversations of people when he interacted with them he needed to follow normal speech patterns in dialogue to make the conversation flow naturally. 
If you look at other dialogues Jesus has, you can see how he accomplished this and depending on who he is talking to, how gentle or admonishing he is.

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In researching a term used by Tolkien, I read this article which alluded to authors 'borrowing plot structures from classical dramas". 

https://lithub.com/jrr-tolkien-invented-the-term-eucatastrophe-what-does-it-mean/

Curious about what the writer meant about classical plot structures, I found this paper simply called The Classical Plot. And on the very second page, I found a reference using a quote from Aristotle to explain his definition of a plot. And the citation listed Aristotle's Poetics which having never read Aristotle, I was surprised to see it wasn't poetry discussions which I had wrongly assumed all this time.
So now I have Poetics on my list to read to help me understand plot structure better.

https://assets.cambridge.org/97805217/71764/sample/9780521771764wsc00.pdf

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I found this book in the Free bin by the exit doors of our local Habitat for Humanity store where I sometimes go to look for used books. I gave it a quick look through and thought it maybe had some interesting church history in a different format which the Reader's Digest editorial team had done justice to. I'm only two pages in and I have found the retelling of the founding of Christianity compelling in it's presentation.

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This week, I listened to an episode of The Literary Life Podcast with Dr. Vigen Guroian on Fairy Tales and Children's Literature. I was already familiar with his book Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination and had perused it several years ago, but hearing him discuss it in person was a great refresher on this topic.
The show notes linked to an article in Touchstone magazine, The Fairy Tale Wars which goes into more detail on some of the topics he touched on. And it references an article by Dickens that I also read entitled Frauds on the Fairies from October 1, 1853 and which the first paragraph honors the fairy tales passed down in various retellings.

It would be hard to estimate the amount of gentleness and mercy that has made its way among us through these slight channels. Forbearance, courtesy, consideration for poor and aged, kind treatment of animals, love of nature, abhorrence of tyranny and brute force--many such good things have been first nourished in the child's heart by this powerful aid. It has greatly helped to keep us, in some sense, ever young, by preserving through our worldly ways one slender track not overgrown with weeds, where we may walk with children, sharing their delights.

Dickens goes on to lament how illustrator Mr. George Cruikshank has altered versions of fairy tales so that he can incorporate moral lessons on "Total Abstinence, Prohibition of the sale of spirituous liquors, Free Trade, and Popular Education" to which Dickens protests that Cruikshank has "no greater moral justification in altering the harmless little books than we should have in altering his best etchings". 
One of my favorite lines in the essay was his recalling this bit of lore: " like the famous definition of a weed; a thing growing up in a wrong place". The opinions Cruikshank interpolates into the esteemed fairy tales may be good, but they are in the wrong place, Dickens argues. That use of the word interpolates carries the same meaning that Charlotte Mason warned about teachers and parents placing themselves and their thoughts in between the text and the student so that a disruption between the mind of the writer and the mind of the student occurs.
From School Education, p.177

Again, as I have already said, ideas must reach us directly from the mind of the thinker, and it is chiefly by means of the books they have written that we get in touch with the best minds.

Earlier on the same page, she remarks that the right books have their power of giving impulse and stirring emotion. Dickens considered that fairy tales are the slight channels in which inestimable amounts of gentleness and mercy have reached us. 
I'm not aware of Dicken's theology of how these good traits come to readers of fairy tales, but I do know that Charlotte Mason attributed this to the work of the Holy Spirit.

(Parents and Children, p. 270-271)

...but the great recognition, that God the Holy Spirit is Himself, personally, the Imparter of knowledge, the Instructor of youth, the Inspirer of genius, is a conception so far lost to us...

By trying to force our opinions, ideas and concerns of coaxing the child's character towards the good by the stories and books they are exposed to, we usurp the role of the Holy Spirit who knows exactly when and how to bring to mind the ideas necessary to instruct the conscience in the best and most meaningful way. By limiting our own flow of explaining and talk, we can instead share what Mason calls, an appreciate look or word and thus, we ensure that we leave a generous avenue for even the slightest nudge of the Holy Spirit to do His work when the child can benefit from it the most.
So much more could be said, but I will leave these unoriginal ideas here for now.