George Herbert and Richard Baxter

George Herbert, Priest, Poet, 1633, originally uploaded by johnhanscom.

George herbert

This week I read Nicole's post about George Herbert in which she shares his poem titled "Christmas".  I was amazed, as I had been meaning to investigate his poetry. Why my interest?
Richard Baxter.  I have discovered that much of my musing leads me to back to good old Richard Baxter and this makes me laugh.  Why?  Because Keith is doing his PhD on this man and he has been a part of our family for the last ten years.  Seriously.  His picture sits on our fridge and I have talked further about what Keith's PhD is about in other posts about Ricky Baxter.  He is not always my favourite person.
Keith uncovered some correspondence between Ricky and a woman called Katherine Gell, a wealthy woman, a committed Christian who had lost a child in his early infancy.  It is a remarkable collection of fourteen letters of which Keith discovered three that were thought to be extant which adds to the dimension of their relationship and what solace and comfort he offered her. Keith speaks about these letters and what his PhD is about in a conversation between himself and Michael Jensen and David Hohne in  The Common Room.
Katherine is deeply ashamed of the doubts she has about her salvation and the salvation of her lost child. She has read Ricky's "Saint's Everlasting Rest" and not found it encouraging as it made her conclude that she was "not in a state of grace".  His letters are a remarkable insight into the work of a pastor minstering to a woman who is depressed and deeply troubled by her spiritual state.
After a period of correspondence, Ricky gives her a copy of George Herbert's Poems as he thinks she might find them helpful.    When thanking him for his gift, she quotes from his poem "Affliction".  Katherine says she was "much affected in the reading and especially at that place 'let me not love thee  if I love thee not.'"  This poem put her "into a very good praying frame which I seldom am in".
Katherine was a wife, mother and keen to love her husband, her children and faced many similar pressures that we face today, and in this season of life depressed, and that she was not doing a very good job coping.  She was also keen to conceal her struggles from the outside world.  Sound familiar?  Katherine's questions and struggles resonate and arouse my interest considerably.
 I am keen to explore the impact that Ricky's correspondence may have had on her after the letters ceased, but I will have to go to England to do this.  Her papers and correspondence are with the Derby Archives. Dream on Sarah.
Back to George Herbert and Richard Baxter.  Ricky turned to Herbert's poetry on the death of his wife Margaret.    He says "I must confess, after all that next to the Scripture Poems, there are none so savoury to me as Mr George Herbert's - he speaks to God like one that really believeth a God, and whose business in the world is most with God."  "Affliction" is a long poem and I need to read it again and ponder its words.  I am looking forward to what poem Nicole shares next and whether she continues with George Herbert.