The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Unusual words 12 Meed

I camne across the word meed, which means reward or wage in Arthur Bryant's biography of T B Macaulay (see p 70 of the 1979 Weidenfeld and Nicolson hardback).

The non-juror Ken receives as liberal a meed of praise as any man can earn from another: ...

It also appears in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

He could have endured poverty, and while this distress had been the meed of his virtue, he gloried in it; but the ingratitude of the Turk and the loss of his beloved Safie were misfortunes more bitter and irreparable.

And in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

The helpful inmate had departed, without one backward glance to gather up the meed of gratitude, if any were in the hearts of those whom she had served so zealously.

No comments: