“At the thought of God my heart leaps for joy,
and I cannot help my music doing the same.
n
”Joseph Haydn
n
If God were only Wisdom-born-of-Power,
and from that coming forth that ever was
there came no equal Third”eternal Love”
the music of the spheres would sound like Bach’s
austere polyphony: toccata’s blast,
the mighty Father’s echo; fugue’s cold math,
the lifeless shadow of the living Word;
and passacaglia’s stern and frowning dance.
But Wisdom ever plays before the Lord,
delighting in the company of men;
and so the music’s master, with his hoard
of laughter-tempered learning, took a pen
and wrote this counterpoint”God be adored!”
in which the numbers skip like lambs. Amen.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Why the Death Penalty Is a Sore Point for Papal Authority
Pope Leo XIV marked World Day Against the Death Penalty, observed on October 10, with the following…
The Myth of St. Francis
At the beginning of his 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis speaks of “an episode in the…
Job and Her
It is said that Job lost everything, but she has lost more. All her possessions—the money, the…
