Saturday, January 02, 2010

From Chapter Nine of "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville

From the preacher's sermon on The Book of Jonah:

Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale! Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness! Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonor! Woe to him who would not be true, even though to be false were salvation! Yea, woe to him who as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for that. I just returned from visiting my aging father, a retired English prof. Melville was his passion. My dad wrote a biographical docu-drama monologue play (Melville as an old man reminiscing about his life); he titled it, "Wisdom's Woe." M. Dick is a deliciously deep-diving book.
Blessings,
Jim

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Jim:

Ecclesiastes was highly praised by Melville. Did your father publish the play?

Quintessential said...

Gregory Peck didn't water it down in the least bit. When I first saw the film I had no clue what to expect knowing nothing of the book. After watching him preach this firey sermon I was ready to get saved again.