I just finished rereading Shadow of the Moon for the 4th or 5th time in the past 20 years. The Far Pavilions is a very long book, but Shadow of the Moon is only 351 pages. I feel privileged to have one of the original copies, a Book Club Edition, printed in 1957. I'm not sure where I picked it up, but it previously belonged to someone named Kathryn Newkirk, had been read by people whose initials were E.D and N.C. (all written in pencil on the very front page), and later the book had been in a Kansas library sometime before it reached my hand (the library stamp is still in the front of the book).
Shadow of the Moon is a novel and a love story which tells part of the story of the Indian Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Because I am very interested in history, and because I have read about M. M. Kaye and her knowledge of this part of history, I find the book fascinating. The author was born in India and was the granddaughter, daughter, sister and eventually the wife of British men who all served in India, some of them during this mutiny.
I don't remember learning much in school about India and the history of India. Of course everyone my age - and I hope students still learn this! - learned that at one time "the sun never set on the British Empire" and that India had been under the political control of British rule for many years before she gained her independence. Both this story and The Far Pavilions trace part of the history of the British Raj in India, and try to give both sides of this very violent and bloody story.
I highly recommend both of these books. Even my son, Peter, enjoyed reading The Far Pavilions when he was in High School, although I have yet to convince my daughter, whose nose is always in a book, that she should read it, too! :):)
We have a visitor here in Kherson, a former team mate. Paul is here giving a series of lectures on Grace Based Preaching and Teaching, for our church leadership and any one else who is interested.
Yesterday morning, during the morning worship service at church, part of one of the Psalms was read and after reading along in my English Bible, Psalm 90 caught my attention. Especially these verses:
Lord, you have been our dwelling-place throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn men back to dust, saying,
"Return to dust, O sons of men."
For a thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning—
though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered.
We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
The length of our days is seventy years —
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass,
and we fly away.
Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you.
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
This morning as he was teaching, some of the verses Paul took us to were Isaiah 57:20,21.
which cannot rest,
whose waves cast up mire and mud.
"There is no peace,"
says my God,
"for the wicked."
As Paul read the verses from Isaiah, the words seemed to jump off the page at me. But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest and I immediately thought of what I had been reading in Shadow of the Moon. I also thought of the turmoil the world is in today. War in various countries around the world, many of them religious wars that have spilled over into the political realm.
M. M. Kaye brought out something that I had not known before. Simple words that are easily passed over and not noticed within the whole scope of the story: The last of the Europeans and Christians left alive in Delhi (p. 253) - and from this point she goes on to describe how they were all violently slaughtered by the raging mob. By far the largest part of the reason behind the mutiny and mass slaughter of so many people, both European and Indian, was due to religion. When all is said and done, when everything is brought down to its most central cause, the problem was the battle between light and dark, good and evil, Christian and non-Christian.
There is no peace in our world. The words of Isaiah are just as true today as they were when first written. Nothing has changed. Nothing that is, except the greatest event in history: the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Him and Him alone lies our peace. The battle will continue to rage - evil against good, the light against the darkness - until Christ returns.
So once again I am left with a feeling of having touched a minute part of the vastness of eternity. A feeling of connectedness to history, to those billions who have gone before me. I am struck by how small my world is, how little I know what has gone before. This story from India is just a drop in the bucket. It is recent history, yet I know so little about it. Ancient and previously unknown civilizations are rediscovered from time to time by archaeologist even now. People we have never had any clue about lived and died here on this earth. We tend to think that 'we' are the important ones, that no one before us was ever as smart, as well educated, as 'advanced' as we are, as important as we are. Yet - we know so little.
Truly we "are like the new grass of the morning - though in the morning it springs up new, by evening it is dry and withered."
Father God in heaven, "teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Help me to keep this life of mine, this time in history, the events around me, both far and near, all in their proper perspective. Help me to keep my eyes focused on You and Your sovereign plan.
2 comments:
I'd love to borrow those books sometime. I promise I'd take very good care of them!
The Far Pavillions *IS* awesome :-)
I'm-a have to get it someday and re-read it.
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