Differential Polyglot

Abou ben Adhem

by Leigh Hunt 

Abou ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

An Angel writing in a book of gold: 

Exceeding peace had made ben Adhem bold,

And to the Presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The Vision raised its head,

And with a look made of all sweet accord

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord." 

"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"

Replied the Angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerily still; and said, "I pray thee, then,

Write me as one who loves his fellow men." 

The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,

And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest! 

In the polyglottic sounds of world travel (Dr. Morris has had 8 around the world trips), so many languages, so many sights. God chose this poor farm boy to see the world just as it is his choice to establish the people and languages of the world. The things you want to forget, you remember, the things you want to remember, you forget, but, his grace, power and mercy is sufficient and I remember so many important things. Sights, sounds, smells that have differentiated the polyglot. Laziness, not necessity, determines progress. Technology has changed everything in the world except human nature. It may come as a shock to westerners that most of the world is still enslaved. In Indonesia, the marketplace of expensive handmade carpets, I saw entire families sitting on the ground, multiple threads coming down from spools, working in impossible conditions, weaving carpets for the rich and famous. Because of the lighting, most became blind at a very early age. You can tell the real tapestry-carpet by the workmanship knots on the back... not the beauty of the front and so it is with our lives ("don't judge a book by its cover, a wood by its veneer.").

This writer is convinced that the greatest weakness of mankind, past, present, future, our hesitation and reluctance to recognize a problem. We want to believe that everything is fine. 99% of the time you ask someone how they are feeling, even in the doctors office, they will say, "FINE." Friedrich Neitzsche ("God Is Dead" fame) said, "The abyss into which you look, looks back at you." There are signposts along the way as you slide into the abyss... so few take note of the signs. America, Americans, most of our fellow man, with all of our privilege-potentials, having jumped off the cliff, falling into the abyss are content to just look at one another and say, "So far so good." This comes from being brainwashed-dumbed down by a secular-satanic belief system which teaches the need for popularity and political correctness rather than following divine providence. Most of this has come in my lifetime from the technology of the monsters in your living room, television and computer. We want so much to believe that everything is alright...even our own body. No one knows your body like you. Warts-scars-abuse developed inside just as it shows up outside. We simply refuse to recognize the risks we take everyday, germs in the operating room, certain death from a speeding car in the opposite lane just six feet away, lightning, just one piece of anything lodged in your throat. Even though the creator of the Universe left us the manufacturers handbook (Holy Bible), men have simply refused to live at peace with one another... nations as well as neighbors. Every civilization is encircled by enemies. America is so broken, so mired by the abyss that it cannot respond to a crisis. Most American families have decided they would much rather send their sons and daughters to war than have fewer cars in the driveway and the highway.

Our ancestors challenge for a democracy has become just a demonic thrill... low men and women in high places. Voting has become a futile effort. You cannot defeat a plurality that lives off the government, the bureaucrats that work for the government, the nearly 50% of the population that get government checks. All animal life is blessed with protective instincts... the eagle and other avian life prepares the nest. On the farm we always knew when the sow was going to deliver her pigs because she would prepare her bed. God has given his own a protective shelter of redemption, grace and mercy. AND, its never how hard you have fallen into the abyss but how high you can bounce. God expects mankind to be tied to something larger than man-himself. He is well able to supply every need.

Most canvas painters-artists know that regardless of the person in the painting, the pastoral scene, no matter the fame of the person, the beauty of the landscape, the public knows and remembers every painting by the one that signs his name on the bottom-the artist. The painting of George Washington which Dolly Madison saved from the White House when our friends, the British, burned down the building (1814) is known as the Gilbert Stuart.