We are thankful for creativity, and that is part of the reason that we are supporting Christian creatives as part of Capital Vision 2020.īut we are also inspired by his spirituality. Herbert used his creative gifts to glorify God and to minister to God’s people, telling his friend Ferrar to publish his poems only “if he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul.” He knew the love of Jesus, and the battles of the Christian life, and said he wanted to express them with “ utmost art” and the “ cream of all my heart.” Of my dear God with all my power & might. I threatened to observe the strict decree Perhaps the clearest poem about our security lying in God’s providing even our faith and our daily confession is The Holdfast. But through them all, there is the resounding note of solid confidence in God’s covenant with his people. Herbert called his poems the record of his conflict with God. That notebook established Herbert as one of the greatest religious poets of all time, though not one of these poems was published during his lifetime. It went through four editions in three years and was steadily reprinted for a hundred years, and is still in print today. Herbert’s friend, Nicholas Ferrar published it later that year, 1633, under the title The Temple. Tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom. Herbert, ailing, handed Duncon a notebook and begged him deliver it to Ferrar, saying: Herbert was a sickly man and lived only three years in his incumbency before succumbing to a nasty illness.Īs he drew near to the end, his close friend Nicholas Ferrar sent a fellow pastor, Edmund Duncon, to see how Herbert was doing. I can now behold the Court with an impartial eye, and see plainly that it is made up of fraud, titles and flattery, and many other such empty, imaginary and painted pleasures: pleasures that are so empty as not to satisfy when they are enjoyed. He recalled of his previous, secular job: There were never more than a hundred people in his church. In 1626 he submitted himself totally to God and to the ministry of a parish priest, being ordained as deacon and then as priest of a little country church at Bemerton in 1630. In 1619, he was elected Public Orator of the University, a prestigious post, but one which made him feel conflicted over his vocation. At Cambridge, he distinguished himself in the study of classics. Herbert was an outstanding student at Westminster preparatory school in London. He died a month before his 40th birthday on March 1, 1633.
George Herbert was born April 3, 1593, in Montgomeryshire in Wales. The Church of England designates February 27 as a feast day for the pastor and poet George Herbert.
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