Wednesday, June 24, 2026

It is the 24th of June 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Let’s talk about poetry. Many of you might remember that this very program used to end with a piece of Christian prose or poetry- we did that for about two years until we switched over to the daily lectionary. I stand by that decision, but still miss the extensive poetry reading I used to do in preparation for this show.

 

But I get it- “poetry” is one of those things that makes some uncomfortable and others' eyes glaze over. I get it… Perhaps it was a run-in with metaphysical poetry or the ’60s Beat poets that did it to you. BUT, remember the largest book in our Bible is a book of poetry.

And today we remember one of the most prolific poets on American soil that you have, perhaps, never heard of. If he had his way, you would likely never have- he left instructions that his hundreds of devotional poems be unpublished and forgotten. It was only a discovery in the Yale Library last century that brought to light the man called “America’s finest colonial poet” and “one of the most striking writers in the whole range of American literature”. He was Edward Taylor.

 

Born in the 1640’s in Leicestershire, England, amidst the English Civil War, his parents died when he was young, and by the time he finished schooling, the Restoration required all would-be ministers to sign the oath of uniformity. Taylor, a dissenter, set sail for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1668. He was taken in by the eminent names at Harvard: Cotton Mather, Samuel Sewall, and Charles Chauncy. Upon graduating from Harvard, Taylor was at first keen to live the life of a minister and scholar, but in 1671 took a call to start a church in Westfield, Massachusetts- then on the far western boundary, in Indian country, of the colony.

 

Edward Taylor would serve there for the rest of his life- over 50 years, until his death on this day in 1729. There, he would marry twice, his first wife dying after bearing eight children, 5 of whom died young. Some of his poetry would reflect the love and sorrow that marked his private life.

 

His poetry was not written for public consumption as much as it was a spiritual discipline. He wrote, not for the sake of the art, but to prepare himself on Saturday evening for the coming Lord’s Day. His context- a Puritan Congregationalist in the 17th and 18th centuries- centers the significance of the reception of the Lord’s Supper for those Christians. His chief rival was the “Puritan Pope of the Connecticut River Valley”- Samuel Stoddard, the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards. Taylor believed that the reception of the Lord’s Supper should not be taken lightly, or by anyone who hadn’t examined themselves and found themselves to be truly converted and in a state of grace. He wrote over 200 poems as meditations in preparation for receiving the Lord’s Supper. In one mediation, he reflects on God:

 

The Purest Wheate in Heaven, his deare-dear Son
Grinds, and kneads up into this Bread of Life.
Which Bread of Life from Heaven down came and stands
Disht on thy Table up by Angells Hands.

He would also write a five-hundred-page metrical history of Christianity- a largely polemic poem attacking the errors of the past- this was a common theme amongst the Puritans- hence their “purity” in light of what they saw as a corrupt church.

 

His other poetry is largely Calvinistic with its emphasis on the sovereignty of God and his decrees. Fun fact: his “Upon the Sweeping Flood” was taken as the title of a short story and collection of Short Stories by Joyce Carole Oates.

 

Later in his career, he was assisted by his son-in-law, Isaac Stiles, whose son, Ezra, would become the famous president of Yale. Ezra would collect his grandfather's poetry and deposit it in the Yale Archives, where they were discovered and published for the first time in the 1930s. His meditation, “What Love is This,” would be set to music in 1978 and will serve as our last word for today. Today we remember the giant of Puritan poetry- Edward Taylor, who died on this, the 24th of June in 1729.

 

The Last word for today comes from Edward Taylor, and his meditation "What Love is This."

What love is this of thine, that cannot be
In thine infinity, O Lord, confined,
Unless it in thy very person see
Infinity and finity conjoin’d?
What! hath thy Godhead, as not satisfied,
Married our manhood, making it its bride?

Oh matchless love! filling heaven to the brim!
O’errunning it: all running o’er beside
This world! Nay, overflowing hell, wherein,
For thine elect, there rose a mighty tide!
That there our veins might through thy person bleed,
To quench those flames that else would on us feed.

Oh! that thy love might overflow my heart!
To fire the same with love: for love I would.
But oh! my straight’ned breast! my lifeless spark!
My fireless flame! What chilly love, and cold?
In measure small! In manner chilly! See.
Lord, blow the coal: thy love enflame in me.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 24th of June 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite poets all write limericks; he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who, this afternoon, will be in right field at Angels Stadium- section 538- with the other protesting fans… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.