As a boy, he wanted...
Illustration
As a boy, he wanted to be a priest but, later, laziness and indifference kept him out of the seminary. He enrolled in medical school, which also proved fruitless. Soon he was hooked on opium which nearly wrecked both mind and body. Next he became a beggar in the slums, making a little money shining shoes and selling matches. Finally, through the assistance of a poor girl, he was introduced to some people who recognized his talent and inner goodness and helped him improve his life.
He died in 1907 at the young age of 48. In his few productive years, he became a poet and wrote one of the best-known religious poems in the English language. His name is Francis Thompson and his poem is: The Hound of Heaven.
Thompson saw himself as of little account, running from God, but God, like a pursuing hound, continued to chase him until Francis was brought to a knowledge of his everlasting love. Following that realization he simply had to tell the world of the eternal goodness of God in his famous poem.
St. Paul, many centuries before, found himself in a similar position, as he admits in this reading. He declares himself to have been, "once a blasphemer, a persecutor, a man filled with arrogance," but was treated mercifully by the grace of the Lord.
Like a hound chasing a rabbit, God runs after every soul to bring the good news of his love.
He died in 1907 at the young age of 48. In his few productive years, he became a poet and wrote one of the best-known religious poems in the English language. His name is Francis Thompson and his poem is: The Hound of Heaven.
Thompson saw himself as of little account, running from God, but God, like a pursuing hound, continued to chase him until Francis was brought to a knowledge of his everlasting love. Following that realization he simply had to tell the world of the eternal goodness of God in his famous poem.
St. Paul, many centuries before, found himself in a similar position, as he admits in this reading. He declares himself to have been, "once a blasphemer, a persecutor, a man filled with arrogance," but was treated mercifully by the grace of the Lord.
Like a hound chasing a rabbit, God runs after every soul to bring the good news of his love.
