St. Maximos' Hut

I've just finished rereading O.E. Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth, a marvelous and sad novel of Norwegian immigrants on the Great Plains in the nineteenth century for an upcoming conference on the frontier. There's some great moments, wonderful asides (the "klokker," a combination cantor and sexton, is described thus: "During the seventeenth and eigthteenth centuries a candidatus theologix, when deemed too great a blockhead to receive ordination to the holy ministry, was often appointed klokker.")

In a key scene, a Norwegian minister comes to the settlement, several years after their arrival, and holds services. In his first sermon he describes first the history of the people of Israel and then the future that awaits them as follows (the ellipses are in the original - Rolvaag used them extensively):

In what manner had they thought to make use of the unbounded liberty which the Lord in His mercy had granted them? Here they were about to build a new kingdom--themselves to lay the foundations, themselves to raise the whole structure from the ground up. Had they begun to realize the greatness of that glorious responsibility which He had placed on their shoulders, and did they have sense enough in their heads to thank Him for it on bended knee? . . . He had spread before them here an opportunity the equal of which was unknown in human history; and here it would be tested out whether they could measure up to it--whether they were sprung from good stock or not--whether they were children of free men or slaves . . . . Were they not glad of the chance? . . . Oh, they ought to sing like the birds of the plain in the morning sunrise--and then thank God, thank Him in all humility! In truth, they had not come here out of captivity and bondage--that, too, they should bear in mind in giving thanks. But they had found here the fairest promise that the Lord God had ever given to any people . . . .

This seems like a fair question today as well.

(the quote is from pp. 426-427 of the University of Nebraska Press paperback.)