Come Unto Me – Charlotte Dawkins 3/5/2008
‘Come unto me’, those heavily laden
Down trodden, forgotten.
‘Come unto me’, my yolk is light,
A delight, don’t take flight…
‘Come unto me’, all in need,
Just believe, you’ll achieve,
Whence, you come unto me.
What kind of literature is this?
Rhyming poetry is a form of writing that is easy to listen to because it has a predictable pattern. A lesser-known literary form is “chiasmus”
Have any of you heard of chiasmus?
Chiasmus was sometimes used by Hebrew writers. It is an arrangement of words or ideas placed in certain order and then repeated in reverse order.
Example:
Isaiah 55:8
For (A) my thoughts are not (B) your thoughts, neither are (B) your ways (A) my ways, saith the Lord.
Matthew 10:39
He that (A) findeth his life shall (B) lose it: and he that (B) loseth his life for my sake shall (A) find it.
In the next few chapters we will hear Alma’s final PPI with his three sons, Helaman, Shiblon and Corianton.
What is a PPI?
Alma also used this form of writing style when telling his conversion style to his Son Helaman.
Pass out Chiasmus Diagrams
Based upon this layout, what is the main message of this chapter? (harrowed up for the memory of his many sins, petitions Christ for mercy).
Have a student read:
Jeffrey R. Holland:
“Christ is the power behind all repentance….Alma had been touched by the teaching of his father, but it is particularly important that the prophecy he remembered was one regarding ‘the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.’ (Alma 36:17.) That is the name and that is the message that every person must hear….Whatever other prayers we offer, whatever other needs we have, all somehow depends on that plea: ‘O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me.’ He is prepared to provide that mercy. He paid with his very life in order to give it” (However Long and Hard the Road [1985], 85).We must humble ourselves before we can recognize the need for the Savior’s help in our lives.
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