Knowledge & Vital Piety

John Wesley founded Kingswood School in 1748 in Bristol, England.  At its inaugural ceremony a newly penned hymn composed by his brother Charles was sung.  The fifth verse encapsulates the aim of the school and also summarizes my own ideal of Christian education and discipleship for any age.

Unite the pair so long disjoined,
Knowledge and vital piety:
Learning and holiness combined,
And truth and love, let all men see
In those whom up to thee we give,
Thine, wholly thine, to die and live.

It is my earnest desire to work to unite knowledge and vital piety.  From time to time I hope to post my musings on a diversity of topics at the junction of learning, faith, and life.  For those of you who may be curious, the text of the entire hymn is as follows.

A Prayer for Children

1 COME, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
To whom we for our children cry;
The good desired and wanted most
Out of thy richest grace supply;
The sacred discipline be given,
To train and bring them up for heaven.

2 Answer on them the end of all
Our cares, and pains, and studies here;
On them, recovered from their fall,
Stamped with the humble character,
Raised by the nurture of the Lord,
To all their paradise restored.

3 Error and ignorance remove,
Their blindness both of heart and mind;
Give them the wisdom from above,
Spotless, and peaceable, and kind;
In knowledge pure their minds renew,
And store with thoughts divinely true.

4 Learning’s redundant part and vain
Be all cut off, and cast aside,
But let them, Lord, the substance gain,
In every solid truth abide;
Swiftly acquire, and ne’er forego,
The knowledge fit for man to know.

5 Unite the pair so long disjoined,
Knowledge and vital piety:
Learning and holiness combined,
And truth and love, let all men see
In those whom up to thee we give,
Thine, wholly thine, to die and live.

6 Father, accept them through thy Son,
And ever by thy Spirit guide!
Thy wisdom in their lives be shown,
Thy name confessed and glorified;
Thy power and love diffused abroad,
Till all the earth is filled with God.

(Source:  https://www.ccel.org/w/wesley/hymn/jwg04/jwg0473.html)