Trapped!

Anonymous French, A Courtier Standing Between Covetousness and Dissimulation (c. 1514) 

Jacob's Ladder 12

Frans Francken the Younger, Jacob's Ladder (1574) 

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel 23

Pietro Ricchi, Jacob Struggles with the Angel (c. 1655) 

Netherlandish Proverbs 16

"He has more in him than an empty herring." 

There is more to it than meets the eye. 

The Basel Dance of Death 19

Matthäus Merian, The Basel Dance of Death: The Noblewoman (1616)  

"My lady, cease your grooming, 
You must now dance with me here. 
I care not for your golden hair. 

What do you see in your shining mirror?" 

"Oh trouble and grief, what has become of me? 
Ì have seen Death in the glass. 
His dreadful form has terrified me, 

so that the heart in my body is cold." 

William Hogarth, Industry and Idleness 2

Almost as intense as my youthful aversion to hard work, built upon the false premise that labor existed only for the sake of amassing fortune and fame, was a similar distaste for the task of attending church, built upon the false premise that public worship existed only so that the blowhards could fulfill their quota of prancing about for the week. 

Once again, taking a moment with Hogarth helped me to reconsider my assumptions. Both working and praying become a joy when they are driven by understanding and by love—the problems arise when we work for greed and pray out of vanity. 

For all of my protests, I always knew that piety was a virtue, because I always knew how what is lesser can only be defined through what is greater. My selfishness, however, would keep me from putting this into practice, and there was no easier excuse for being spiritually lazy than pointing my finger at other people. Look at those hypocrites, pretending to be holy while they satisfy their own appetites! 

This does not, of course, disprove the presence of the Divine, and it only shows why we need those graces all the more. If another man is making a mockery of his duties, am I suddenly allowed to abandon my own? Let him have his worldly amusements, and I can still keep my peace of mind—don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

Every Sunday, I was furious with the decadent priests at the altar and the sanctimonious scoundrels in the pews, which did everything to damage me and nothing to improve them. God asks for charity from me, and yet that turns out to be the one thing I refuse to give. 

As much as I appreciate a heady theological argument, this simple image does more for me than any string of syllogisms. It is one thing to merely talk about the qualities of a good man, and quite another to show me the example of a good man. 

Francis, accompanied by his master's daughter, is not interested in putting on some holy show, or catching up on the latest gossip. He is just happy to sing from his hymnal, neither putting on airs nor rolling his eyes in boredom. That he is doing so in the company of a nice young lady is not lost on me, a fellow who wasted too many years chasing after girls who could talk the talk, but would never walk the walk. 

In the top right we have the vain woman and the sleeping man, so commonly found in any place of worship. Francis is wise enough not pay them any heed, since the modest task for the day is right before him. 

We can hardly overlook the figure of the pew opener, the old lady who would guide worshippers to their seats. While it is likely that very few have noticed her, it is clear that Hogarth has noticed her, and I would dare to propose that God has also noticed her humble service. 

Prayer is surely not so taxing when it is actually about devotion, and not reduced to a tedious social performance. 

Psalms 119:97 

O! How I love thy Law it is my
meditation all the day. 

William Hogarth, Industry and Idleness 2: The Industrious Prentice Performing the Duty of a Christian (1747) 

Aurora Triumphans

Evelyn De Morgan, Aurora Triumphans (c. 1886) 

Night and Sleep

Evelyn De Morgan, Night and Sleep (1878) 

Storm on the Sea 33

Andreas Achenbach, Storm at Sea off the Norwegian Coast (1837) 

Ruins 23

Carl Hasenpflug, The Ruins of Walkenried Abbey in Winter (1843) 

Memento Mori 16

René Bull, Dust to Dust (1913) 

Illustration from Edward FitzGerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam 

"Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and—sans End!" 

Vanitas 101

Hendrick Andriessen, Vanitas (c. 1640)

Conscience

Francois-Nicolas Chifflart, The Conscience (1877) 

Songs of Innocence 13

Holy Thursday (1789) 

William Blake (1757-1827) 

Twas on a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean
The children walking two & two in red & blue & green
Grey-headed beadles walkd before, with wands as white as snow
Till into the high dome of Pauls they like Thames waters flow

O what a multitude they seemd these flowers of London town
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own
The hum of multitudes was there but multitudes of lambs
Thousands of little boys & girls raising their innocent hands

Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song
Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heaven among
Beneath them sit the aged men wise guardians of the poor
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door 

The Continence of Scipio 15

Giovanni Battista Pittoni, The Continence of Scipio (1733) 

Mother of the World

Nicholas Roerich, Mother of the World (1924) 

Jacob's Ladder 11

Giorgio Vasari, Jacob's Dream (1558) 

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel 22

Frederick Taubes, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (1944) 

Netherlandish Proverbs 15

"The herring hangs by its own gills." 

You must accept responsibility for your own actions. 

The Basel Dance of Death 18

Matthäus Merian, The Basel Dance of Death: The Nobleman (1616) 

"Now come, you noble warrior.
You must attend to your manliness here
with Death, who spares no man.
Take leave, then you will be rewarded."

"I have frightened many men, 
who were bedecked in armor.
Now grim Death battles with me
and truly leaves me in great distress."