{"id":21569,"date":"2026-01-26T17:31:57","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21569"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:31:57","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:31:57","slug":"dear-lord-and-father-of-mankind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21569","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Dear Lord and Father of Mankind&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dear Lord and Father of Mankind\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7brCJdqEcVM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I am bubbling with opinions<\/strong> on public issues in my state today, so I\u2019ve decided to express none of them. I\u2019m painfully aware that I\u2019m actually fairly ignorant of a lot of things that have me upset, so I\u2019ll do you (and my soul) the courtesy of just stifling myself. For the present, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, I post the old American hymn, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/hymnary.org\/text\/dear_lord_and_father_of_mankind\">Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.<\/a>\u201d Oddly, most of the videos of the hymn available on YouTube use the tune \u201cRepton,\u201d which the English churches prefer. But I like the American tune I\u2019ve always sung, a tune called \u201cRest,\u201d by Frederick Charles Maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The text is a superior one because, unlike so many hymn writers, its author, J<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/John_Greenleaf_Whittier\">ohn Greenleaf Whittier<\/a>, was an actual poet, and a good one. He was also a Quaker. The text is in fact an excerpt from a longer work called \u201cThe Brewing of Soma,\u201d a poem about an ancient Indian custom of brewing a drink called Soma, on which worshippers got drunk in an effort to make contact with the divine. Whittier goes on to tell the reader that we ought to seek God through higher methods \u2013 peace and patience and rest in faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m not a great admirer of Quaker theology, but they have something to tell me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am bubbling with opinions on public issues in my state today, so I\u2019ve decided to express none of them. I\u2019m painfully aware that I\u2019m actually fairly ignorant of a lot of things that have me upset, so I\u2019ll do you (and my soul) the courtesy of just stifling myself. For the present, anyway. Instead, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=21569\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;Dear Lord and Father of Mankind&#8217;<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[5840,3527],"class_list":["post-21569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-religion","tag-dear-lord-and-father-of-mankind","tag-john-greenleaf-whittier"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21569"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21571,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21569\/revisions\/21571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}