Is My Name Written There?

Copyright 2014 PJ Stassen

All Rights Reserved

The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.

-       Jean Cocteau, 1891-1963.

          When Cecil John Rhodes (1852-1902) set foot on African soil during the last years of the 19^th century, he could not have foreseen the fabulous wealth which later would be accrued by him in just one adventurous, challenging lifetime.  But, by the time he died in 1902, he was commanding some of the greatest fortunes ever amassed by men of his era, leaving the world with the fantastic legacy of the now renowned Rhodes Scholarships.  The long list of famous people who studied with a Rhodes Scholarship may be perused at Wikipedia.

          I was born in 1947, forty-five years after Rhodes' death, on the famous goldfields of the Witwatersrand, the discovery of which had originally led to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.  With people like J.B. Robinson and Barney Barnato, Rhodes also had had stakes in these rich goldfields around Johannesburg, but his true claim to fame appears to have hinged more around his developing of the diamond fields of Kimberley, hundreds of miles farther south in the Orange Free State. 
         People of my generation can still remember with great fondness the way in which thousands of 'sun & water worshippers' used to flock to Robinson Lake, the 'French Riviera' of the West Rand during the 1950's, at Randfontein, named after Sir Joseph Robinson (1st Baronet) the erstwhile mining magnate of the West Rand.  This was a popular resort sporting 'hot water springs' artificially engineered with the aid of hot water from the nearby deep level Robinson-mines.  The resort was later declared unsafe and 'decommisioned' due to high levels of industrial contamination. 
         Ask any prospector worth his salt … there is nothing like the fever and adrenaline rush of prospecting for gold nuggets or diamonds; once the heart becomes focused on that objective nothing will stop it.  Although widely discredited for his involvement in Dr. Leander Starr Jameson's abortive and scandalous Jameson Raid and the loss of the premiership of the Cape Colony, Rhodes nevertheless successfully pursued his ‘pearl of great price’ so painstakingly extracted from the ‘kimberlite’ in volcanic pipes unearthed at the Colesberg Koppie, and eventually died a fabulously wealthy man.  He lies buried in the Matopo Hills in Zimbabwe, far from his birthplace in England.  
         (Recommended books: Gold! Gold! Gold! by Eric Rosenthal and Diamonds, Gold And War: The Making Of South Africa by Martin Meredith).

         Now Jesus comes and compares the Kingdom of God to a precious pearl:

        The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.   Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant seeking goodly pearls:   and having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.  (Matthew 13:44-46 ASV, www.e-sword,net).

  

         Christians of the centuries have been pursuing Jesus, the ‘Pearl of Great Price’, with this one singular objective, i.e. of having their name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Contrary to what the atheist-evolutionists may say, there is such a BOOK after all :

        Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.  And they shall be mine, saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the day that I make; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.  (Matthew 3:16-17 ASV, www.e-sword.net). 

                                                                  YouTube                                                        

                                                            Is My Name Written There?

(Mary A. Kidder, 1820-1905/Frank M. Davis, 1839-1896) 

Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold‒

I would make sure of heaven, I would enter the fold. 

In the book of Thy kingdom with its pages so fair,

Tell me, Jesus, my Savior, is my name written there?

Lord, my sins they are, like the sands of the sea,

But Thy blood, O my Savior, is sufficient for me;

For Thy Promise is written in bright letters that glow,

“Tho your sins be as scarlet, I will make them like snow.”

O that beautiful city with its mansions of light,

With its glorified beings in pure garments of white;

Where no evil thing cometh to despoil what is fair, 

Where the angels are watching ‒ 

yes, my name’s written there. 

CHORUS (Verses 1 &2)

Is my name written there,

On the page white and fair?

In the book of Thy kingdom, 

Is my name written there?

CHORUS (Verse 3)

Yes my name’s written there,

On the page white and fair;

In the book of Thy kingdom, 

Yes, my name’s written there!

Bibliography

1.     Andrews, Allen (1969)   Quotations For Speakers And Writers.  Newnes Books.  Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd. London.

2.     Peterson, John W. (1966)   Great Hymns Of The Faith. ‘Is My Name Written There'?  Singspiration.  Zondervan Publishing House.  Grand Rapids, Michigan.