When I left the house of bondage I left everything behind.
I wasn’t going to keep nothing of Egypt on me, an’ so I went
to the Lord an’ asked him to give me a new name. And he gave
me Sojourner because I was to travel up and down the land
showing the people their sins and bein’ a sign unto them. I
told the Lord I wanted two names ’cause everybody else had
two, and the Lord gave me Truth, because I was to declare
the truth to the people.
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom, prisoners
suffering in iron chains, for they rebelled against
the words of God and despised the counsel of the
Most High.
So he subjected them to bitter labor;
they stumbled, and there was no one to help. Then
they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he
saved them from their distress. He brought them
out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke
away their chains.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing
love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he breaks
down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.
Psalm 107:10-16
“He brought me forth also into a large place;
he delivered me because he delighted in me.”
Psalm 18:19
And what is this “large place”? What can it be
but God Himself, that infinite Being in whom
all other beings and all other streams of life terminate?
God is a large place indeed. And it was through
humiliation, through abasement,
through nothingness that David was brought into it.
Madame Guyon (1648-1717)
