Rudyard Kipling

Natural Theology

Primitive

I ate my fill of a whale that died
And stranded after a month at sea. . . .
There is a pain in my inside.
Why have the Gods afflicted me?
Ow! I am purged till I am a wraith!
Wow! I am sick till I cannot see!
What is the sense of Religion and Faith:
Look how the Gods have afflicted me!


Pagan

How can the skin of rat or mouse hold
Anything more than a harmless flea?. . .
The burning plague has taken my household.
Why have my Gods afflicted me?
All my kith and kin are deceased,
Though they were as good as good could be,
I will out and batter the family priest,
Because my Gods have afflicted me!


Medieval

My privy and well drain into each other
After the custom of Christendie. . . .
Fevers and fluxes are wasting my mother.
Why has the Lord afflicted me?
The Saints are helpless for all I offer--
So are the clergy I used to fee.
Henceforward I keep my cash in my coffer,
Because the Lord has afflicted me.


Material

I run eight hundred hens to the acre
They die by dozens mysteriously. . . .
I am more than doubtful concerning my Maker,
Why has the Lord afflicted me?
What a return for all my endeavour--
Not to mention the L. S. D!
I am an atheist now and for ever,
Because this God has afflicted me!


Progressive

Money spent on an Army or Fleet
Is homicidal lunacy. . . .
My son has been killed in the Mons retreat,
Why is the Lord afflicting me?
Why are murder, pillage and arson
And rape allowed by the Deity?
I will write to the Times, deriding our parson
Because my God has afflicted me.


Chorus

We had a kettle: we let it leak:
Our not repairing it made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week. . .
The bottom is out of the Universe!


Conclusion

This was none of the good Lord's pleasure,
For the Spirit He breathed in Man is free;
But what comes after is measure for measure,
And not a God that afflicteth thee.
As was the sowing so the reaping
Is now and evermore shall be.
Thou art delivered to thine own keeping.
Only Thyself hath afflicted thee!

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Sonnet- I'm proud to be a Doctor

Thank Thee 0 Lord, for making me Doctor;
Thou show'd me life and how to preserve it;
Its greatness lies in its noble factor;
Make me to serve the sick in manner fit.

I heal the wounds of the afflicted ones;
Ameliorate the anguish in their hearts;
I shower on them love in many tonnes;
They render praise to God and me in carts.

In life, I need not take the begging-bowl;
Peace of mind and satisfaction, they give;
Bless me 0 lord, let me not do things foul;
A disease-free and perfect life, I live.
Good that I chanced to become a Doctor,
Guide me 0 Lord; with life, I shouldn't blunder.

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I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.

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You've Got The Life

You've got the life.
And love,
With joy.
Right there within you.
If you knew...
what it is you must do,
To...
See it through.
Committed.
As if afflicted with obligation.

You!
Don't turn around.
I am talking to you.

You've got the life.
And love,
With joy.
Right there within you.
If you knew...
what it is you must do,
To...
See it through.
Committed.
As if afflicted with obligation.

Come from under what's been done,
To you.
With a doing that's been done to you,
To prove...
You are the only one who can choose,
To eliminate procrastinating.
It is 'your' fate.
And with faith...
You have the key to what it takes to erase,
From your path...
Obstacles upon it others had placed.

You!
Don't turn around.
I am talking to you.
You've got the life,
To love.
With joy.
If you like.
Win or lose.
It's up to you.

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You can't comfort the afflicted with afflicting the comfortable.

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Sleep

Sleep has not visited me the whole night,
Will the dawn ever come?
O my companion,
Once I awoke with a start from a dream.
Now the remembrance from that vision
Never fades.
My life is ebbing as I choke and sigh,
When will the Lord of the Afflicted come
I have lost my senses and gone mad,
But the Lord knows my secret.
He who deals out life and death
nows the secret of Mira's pain.

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Examined From A Distance

When people fixed with allowed stubbornness,
Have gone overboard...
Inflicted with too much attention given,
While feeding their minds on poisonous adulation...
There will be those assisting without resisting this.
And as accessories refuse an active involvement,
Labelled to be seen but not apologetic.

There is a supporting of needs being fed to feed,
A mindlessness bent beyond control.
And remaining as ignorant as possible...
With senses numbed and flowing into engulfing seas.
And determined...
To supply whatever it is that is wished as a need,
In an atmosphere condoning betrayal and treason.
Deliveries done to quiet the dictates...
Of those spoiled with a getting sought,
With a vicious disregard for dignity and composure.
The soothing of a monster,
Becomes the number one priority!

When people fixed with allowed stubbornness,
Have gone overboard...
Inflicted with too much attention given.
Fantasizing on an achieving of fantastic outcomes...
Seems not to be in the arena,
Where truth and honesty frequently perform....
With every bat of an eyelash examined from a distance.

To that one who is...
Examined from a distance,
This can't be fun.
To be done and this witnessed,
Where can one run...
When it's done.
When it's done.
To be one that's afflicted,
Where can one run...
When it's done.
When it's done.

Examined from a distance,
This can't be fun.
To be done and this witnessed,
Where can one run...
To be one that's afflicted,
Where can one go...
When it's done.
When it's done.

There is a supporting of needs being fed to feed,
A mindlessness bent beyond control.
And remaining as ignorant as possible...
With senses numbed and flowing into engulfing seas.

Examined from a distance...
With senses numbed!
And flowing into engulfing seas.
Where can one run...
To be one this afflicted?
Where can one go...
When it's done.
When it's done.

Examined from a distance!
With senses numbed and flowing into engulfing seas.

Examined from a distance!
With senses numbed and flowing into engulfing seas.

Examined from a distance!
With senses numbed and flowing into engulfing seas.

To be one this afflicted?
Where can one go...
When it's done.
When it's done.

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Unable To Admit It

Accept your wounds and scars?
To forgive and forget the fact,
That upon me they have been afflicted?
No love that deep will I ever have,
For anyone who believes I can be left...
With tears wept to then leave me,
Grieving over 'their' pain and anguish.

Accept your wounds and scars?
To forgive and forget the fact,
That upon me they have been afflicted?
What makes you think to you I am addicted?
What has you convinced,
A relationship with you makes sense?
I've long been healed from your abuses.

Accept your wounds and scars,
To leave imprinted on my mind when you please?
You just don't get it do you?
When I said I loved you...
Nothing in that confession shared,
Said anything about abandoning the love I have for myself.
You are the fool unable to admit it...not me!
There is nothing about you that has stayed with me to crave.

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It makes you feel good to know that there's other people afflicted like you.

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The Death Of Aliatar

FROM THE SPANISH.


'Tis not with gilded sabres
That gleam in baldricks blue,
Nor nodding plumes in caps of Fez,
Of gay and gaudy hue--
But, habited in mourning weeds,
Come marching from afar,
By four and four, the valiant men
Who fought with Aliatar.
All mournfully and slowly
The afflicted warriors come,
To the deep wail of the trumpet,
And beat of muffled drum.

The banner of the Phenix,
The flag that loved the sky,
That scarce the wind dared wanton with,
It flew so proud and high--
Now leaves its place in battle-field,
And sweeps the ground in grief,
The bearer drags its glorious folds
Behind the fallen chief,
As mournfully and slowly
The afflicted warriors come,
To the deep wail of the trumpet,
And beat of muffled drum.

Brave Aliatar led forward
A hundred Moors to go
To where his brother held Motril
Against the leaguering foe.
On horseback went the gallant Moor,
That gallant band to lead;
And now his bier is at the gate,
From whence he pricked his steed.
While mournfully and slowly
The afflicted warriors come,
To the deep wail of the trumpet,
And beat of muffled drum.

The knights of the Grand Master
In crowded ambush lay;
They rushed upon him where the reeds
Were thick beside the way;
They smote the valiant Aliatar,
They smote the warrior dead,
And broken, but not beaten, were
The gallant ranks he led.
Now mournfully and slowly
The afflicted warriors come,
To the deep wail of the trumpet,
And beat of muffled drum.

Oh! what was Zayda's sorrow,
How passionate her cries!
Her lover's wounds streamed not more free
Than that poor maiden's eyes.
Say, Love--for didst thou see her tears:
Oh, no! he drew more tight
The blinding fillet o'er his lids
To spare his eyes the sight.
While mournfully and slowly
The afflicted warriors come,
To the deep wail of the trumpet,
And beat of muffled drum.

Nor Zayda weeps him only,
But all that dwell between
The great Alhambra's palace walls
And springs of Albaicin.
The ladies weep the flower of knights,
The brave the bravest here;
The people weep a champion,
The Alcaydes a noble peer.
While mournfully and slowly
The afflicted warriors come,
To the deep wail of the trumpet,
And beat of muffled drum.

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The Cross Foretold

Seven hundred years before Jesus Christ ever walked on the earth,
Isaiah prophesied that He would be born through a virgin birth,

There was much misunderstanding in the land by those who heard it,
As they simply didn’t understand it would be through The Holy Spirit.

He would be born in a little town near Jerusalem called Bethlehem,
His name will be Jesus, for He will save His people from their sin.

Isaiah went on to explain the cross in Christ’s life as he appealed,
Who has believed and to whom has the arm of The Lord been revealed?

He, having no beauty or majesty, and having no appearance of a king,
Was not desired, but despised, rejected and familiar with suffering.

Although there was nothing in His appearance for them to desire Him,
God’s desire for them was to make His Son one-day a guilt offering.

As Isaiah compared us to sheep going astray, each of us his own way,
Jesus would be afflicted and by oppression and Judgment taken away,

Taken away on a Roman cross to be pierced and afflicted with our sin,
And His appearance was so disfigured, that many were appalled at Him.

It was the nation of Israel, to whom this message was first revealed,
He was despised and rejected, but it’s by His wounds they are healed.

Isaiah assures his people that Jesus will be back to save their land,
It’s then they will see what they were not told and truly understand.

(Copyright © 05/2002)

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A good ad should be like a good sermon: It must not only comfort the afflicted, it also must afflict the comfortable.

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I'll also tell you that five hundred thousand people will die this year of cancer. And I'll also tell you that one in every four will be afflicted with this disease, and yet, somehow, we seem to have put it in a little bit of the background.

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Arthur Koestler

If one looks with a cold eye at the mess man has made of history, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he has been afflicted by some built-in mental disorder which drives him towards self-destruction.

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William Cowper

Olney Hymn 10: The Future Peace And Glory Of The Church

Hear what God the Lord hath spoken,
'O my people, faint and few,
Comfortless, afflicted, broken,
Fair abodes I build for you.
Thorns of heartfelt tribulation
Shall no more perplex your ways;
You shall name your walls, Salvation,
And your gates shall all be Praise.

'There, like streams that feed the garden,
Pleasures without end shall flow,
For the Lord, your faith rewarding,
All His bounty shall bestow;
Still in undisturb'd possession
Peace and righteousness shall reign;
Never shall you feel oppression,
Hear the voice of war again.

'Ye no more your suns descending,
Waning moons no more shall see;
But your griefs forever ending,
Find eternal noon in me:
God shall rise, and shining o'er ye,
Change to day the gloom of night;
He, the Lord, shall be your glory,
God your everlasting light.'

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There are psychological repercussions to illness and we need a little more help to get through the effects not only on the afflicted but on the family. And I think there's even a place for humor in that.

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Psalm 107

Those who wander far from God
And find no place to dwell
they begin to hunger and to thirst
As they approach the gates of hell

Then they cried out unto God
In the depths of their distress
He delivered them and set them free
And they thanked Him for His goodness

He satisfies the longing soul
He fills the hungry heart
He gives living water from above
And every soul a brand new start

Those who dwell in darkness
And refuse to hear their God
Their hearts are brought down very low
As they rebel against God's word

Then they cried out unto God
In the depths of their distress
He delivered them and set them free
And they thanked Him for His goodness

He has broken down the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron in two
The gates of hell shall not prevent
The Lord and what He has to do

Those who say there is no God
Are fools and are afflicted
Their sins will lead them near to death
Unless they are convicted

Then they cried out unto God
In the depths of their distress
He delivered them and set them free
And they thanked Him for His goodness

Gods children often times are caught
In storms that God did send
They discover that they need Gods help
As they come to their wits end

Then they cried out unto God
In the depths of their distress
He delivered them and set them free
And they thanked Him for His goodness

God hears the cries of those who call
He creates rivers in the barren place
But the proud mans voice is never heard
From them He turns His holy face

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No Mercy

No money and no mercy!
But the lady of the kingdom sits in darkness;
For she's now afflicted.

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It is a natural virtue incident to our sex to be pitiful of those that are afflicted.

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Afflicted

Clif Prowse, Derek Lee, Baya Rehaz

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Afflicted by love's madness all are blind.

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