Behind Each Solemn Scholar
Cosmic Mystery Series
WISDOM
BEHIND EACH SOLEMN SCHOLAR
Tune: ELLACOMBE (1) 76.76D
Melody from “Mainz Gesanbuch” 1833
DOVE’S DESCENT
Melody: William L. Wallace
Harmony: Marlene Phillips
- Behind each solemn scholar
Their lies a laughing clown.
Behind obsessing seekers
Dwells humour they can own.
When minds are full of problems
Which we cannot resolve
There lies a wider picture
Where certainties dissolve.
- When life is full of problems
That captivate our mind;
When life is full of grieving
And often seems unkind
By choosing wider viewpoints
We find within our heart
New ways to view the tragic
As but a single part.
- The ways of God are complex
Beyond what we discern;
Within God lies a Heaven
Of love we cannot earn;
In God’s love we rejoice now,
Find sunshine in the rain
And when our thinking narrows
Expand our view again.
- Let’s not abandon laughter
With all its healing ways,
Let’s not abandon smiling
Within our darkest days
But see beyond our grieving
A place of gentle peace.
For in our time of crying
Our pain can find release.
- Behind the suffering saviour
There lies a holy clown,
The one whom with abandon
Turns thinking upside down.
“The poor shall have the riches,
The humble find their pride,
The simple know their wisdom
For God is on their side”.
- O God of all the richness
Of humour and of pain
Give us the inner wisdom
Of laughing once again
For all our life’s great problems
Lie in a wider frame
One where your love is sovereign
And shall for ever reign.
Text and Melody © William Livingstone Wallace
Harmony © Marlene Phillips.
Click Here for Sheet Music – Ellacombe
Click Here for Sheet Music – Dove’s Descent
Click Here for MP3 – Ellacombe
Click Here for MP3 – Dove’s Descent
Click Here for Full Index to William L. Wallace’s Series Hymns “Cosmic Mystery”
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William (Bill) Livingstone Wallace is a retired New Zealand Methodist Minister and one of our most prolific contributors. Bill says that his work springs from communicating with the fire in his gut and his observation of both the internal and external aspects of the Cosmos. Since an early age, he has been both sympathetic to and critical of the church, announcing at the age of 13 his belief in evolution. In his youth, he struggled with the disconnection between art and spirituality in his own and other denominations and with the way in which all of the liturgies prior to the sermon were regarded as preliminaries and longer sermons were viewed as superior to more concise ones.
He holds a B.A. in philosophy and a Dip. Ed. and is the author of nine published collections of his hymns as well as other resources on our website. His aim is to help people be empowered by the divine within them and the Cosmos and to work to overthrow the forces of personal and institutional greed which destroy both the ecosystem and human society.
Click Here for a Full Biography of William L. Wallace
Click here for a complete list of his work on ProgressiveChristianity.org