by William Penn (1644 - 1718)
The Comfort of Friends (O the rapes)
Language: English
O the rapes, fires, murders, and rivers of blood that lie at the doors of professed Christians! If this be godly, what's devilish? If this be Christian, what's paganism? What's anti-Christian but to make God a party to their wickedness? Time past is none of thine? 'Tis not what thou wast but what thou art. God will be daily looked into. Did'st thou eat yesterday? That feedeth thee not today. They that love beyond the World, cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle; the Root and Record of their Friendship. This is the Comfort of Friends, that though they may be said to Die, yet their Friendship and Society are, in the best Sense, ever present, because Immortal.
Authorship:
- by William Penn (1644 - 1718), appears in The Comfort of Friends [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "The Comfort of Friends (O the rapes)", 1997, published 1999, from Evidence of Things Not Seen, no. 16 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Ahmed E. Ismail
This text was added to the website: 2004-08-04
Line count: 18
Word count: 137