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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

We Have Guidance to Accept and Follow - Hold on a Little Bit Longer




These are my impressions from choppy notes... the true source was wonderful
I would love comments

We've been given guidance to accept and follow
That we might stand closer within a divine circle
Thus, to feel faith upon our heads come aglow
That we might continually grow in a commitment cycle

May we assist each other in righteousness and truth
As each soul and heart needs constant nourishment
Let us not be hesitant, but stand tall and do
That hearts are stirred unto good, as they are meant

Who will recapture their testimony
And avoid the pitfalls of Satan?
Who will grow in brightness and certainty
To be counted present for amen?


Each of us can come to know the truth of all things
And recognize confirmations through the Holy Ghost
To the convincing unto warm tender feelings
For strength to remain faithful come pillar and post

May we ever have a desire to receive and to keep
That with eyes we'll see heaven's windows open
May our celestial pedigree ever run deep
That we ever feel there is so much to hope in

Then, through hard times, we will be stronger
We will be committed unto God's will
Then to hold on a little bit longer
That unto good works we've faith to fulfill

FROM PILLAR TO POST ( a new phrase to me was actually used by Elder Wickman )

found in http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pil1.htm
[Q] From Rice Mixon: “Please shed light on the origin and meaning of From pillar to post. I recently came across the version from pile to pillar.”

[A] An interesting variation, showing how little the idiom is now understood. A lot of people are unsure even of the meaning, which is to be forced to go from one place to another in an unceremonious or fruitless manner, occasioning much frustration and anger in the process.

There are two theories about its origin among the experts. (You didn’t think you were going to get a straightforwardly simple answer, did you?)

One suggests that the post was a whipping post and that pillar actually refers to the pillory. The suggestion is that a criminal being punished in medieval times would first be tied to the post to be whipped and then put in the pillory for public amusement. One thing in favour of this idea is that the original version of our idiom, which first appeared around 1420, was the other way around: from post to pillar. But if it were true, you’d expect to get at least one recorded usage of from post to pillory and none are known. I count this a folk etymology of an especially ingenious type.

However, the alternative — the one that most dictionaries rather cautiously subscribe to — sounds even more outlandish. It is said that it derives from the ancient game of tennis, the version that is now called real tennis (court tennis in the USA) to distinguish it from its upstart successor, lawn tennis. The original game was played by personages of high status in rather complex indoor courts and it is supposed that the pillars and posts were parts of it.

World Wide Words subscribers have since suggested yet a third possible source, based on similar idioms in other languages, that is more plausible than either.

Pepijn Hendriks pointed out that Dutch has a very similar metaphor, van het kastje naar de muur (“from cupboard to wall”), which is mainly used in the expression van het kastje naar de muur gestuurd worden (“to be sent from cupboard to wall”). Because cupboards are usually attached to walls, the expression evokes an image of not getting very far towards the resolution of a problem. He suggests that as cupboard and wall are virtually equivalent in terms of their perceived position, so pillar and post similarly suggest two objects of similar kind that are likely to be close together.

Dominik Weber commented that a German expression refers to being sent von Pontius zu Pilatus. (Pepijn Hendriks tells me this is also known in Dutch.) Pontius and Pilatus were of course the same person: in English Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator of Judea. Again, we have the idea of two closely equivalent or even identical references as the two halves of the idiom. Maria Escobar tells me that Spanish has the closely similar idiom ir de Herodes a Pilatos, to go from Herod to Pilate, as Jesus was before the Crucifixion.

These Dutch, German and Spanish idioms certainly suggest a model for the English phrase.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE to read please click on the title above... an interesting site
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pil1.htm

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