The Old New Thoughts – A Poem by Annie Johnson Flint

Ecclesiastes 1:9  The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

I first posted this in 2012, but I felt it would be good to repeat it now. There has been a lot said recently about the Charlottsville, Virginia event and the removal of statues and people's opinions of those. In watching reruns of history playing themselves out, I thought about writing something, but I remembered this poem and after revisiting it, I decided that this was going to be my comment on those subjects. I think it is enough at this point.

The Old New Thoughts

“New thoughts for old,” the eager world is crying,
That ever seeks to tell or hear the new,
Though in its haste to change it grasps too often
Mad thoughts for sane, and false thoughts for the true.

All vanity—its seeking and its finding;
The thing that is, is that which hath been done.
False gods, false science, aye, and false religion,—
There is naught new beneath the ancient sun.

And these are old—the thoughts that loud world blazons,
The sons of Adam walk in circles still;
Old as the world, as man and man’s first sinning,
Old as the Demon pride that said, “I will.”

It is not new—the superman excelling
Who dares with impious foot the height supreme;
“Ye shall be gods, both good and evil knowing,”—
This is but Eden’s unforgotten dream.

Some few, bewildered with Earth’s many voices,
Grown weary of the circles where they plod,—
This modern Babel, clamorous, confusing,—
Some few there be who seek the thoughts of God.

High as the heavens above the earth outspreading,
Wide as His vast creation’s utmost span,
As countless as the stars the heavens filling,
The thought of good that God has thought for man.

And once—a shout through dreary silence ringing,
A star of hope above the world’s black night—
God’s oldest, greatest thought of all was spoken
In one clear Word of love and life and light.

Against that Word of glory and of power
Man’s frothy babblings pour themselves in vain.
His bubble thoughts in nothingness shall vanish;
God’s everlasting thoughts, unchanged, remain.

- Annie Johnson Flint

Psalms 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.