{"id":2683,"date":"2019-12-05T12:21:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T17:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/?p=2683"},"modified":"2019-12-05T12:21:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T17:21:27","slug":"the-book-of-life-exodus-3233","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/the-book-of-life-exodus-3233\/","title":{"rendered":"The Book of Life (Exodus 32:33)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2684\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/1\/1c\/Robert_W._Service.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2684\" class=\" wp-image-2684\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/files\/2019\/12\/Robert_W._Service.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"498\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert W. Service circa 1905<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Robert W. Service (1874-1958) was an Englishman who wandered widely and penned rollicking ballads of the Yukon gold rush days and poignant poems of the trenches of the First World War. He never claimed to be a poet. \u201cI\u2019m a rhymer,\u201d he said, and yet his stories give evidence of a solid education and, at times, hints of his Christian faith<\/p>\n<p>In May 1914 he described the beginning of each day as a clean page in the Book of Life. What we make of any given day will be seen on Judgment Day. The second stanza expresses the desire to re-write certain pages, and the third is a prayer for divine guidance so that his bearing reflects God\u2019s image so that every day may be golden.<\/p>\n<p><em>Another day of toil and strife,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Another page so white,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Within that fateful Log of Life<\/em><br \/>\n<em>That I and all must write;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Another page without a stain<\/em><br \/>\n<em>To make of as I may,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>That done, I shall not see again<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Until the Judgment Day.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Ah, could I, could I backward turn<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The pages of that Book,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>How often would I blench and burn!<\/em><br \/>\n<em>How often loathe to look!<\/em><br \/>\n<em>What pages would be meanly scrolled;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>What smeared as if with mud;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>A few, maybe, might gleam like gold,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Some scarlet seem as blood.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>O Record grave, God guide my hand<\/em><br \/>\n<em>And make me worthy be,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Since what I write to-day shall stand<\/em><br \/>\n<em>To all eternity;<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Aye, teach me, Lord of Life, I pray,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>As I salute the sun,<\/em><br \/>\n<em>To bear myself that every day<\/em><br \/>\n<em>May be a Golden One.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Collected Poems of Robert Service<\/em> (New York: G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons, 1921) p. 454<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robert W. Service (1874-1958) was an Englishman who wandered widely and penned rollicking ballads of the Yukon gold rush days and poignant poems of the trenches of the First World War. He never claimed to be a poet. \u201cI\u2019m a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/the-book-of-life-exodus-3233\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","category-prayerliturgy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2685,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2683\/revisions\/2685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lawrencefrizzell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}