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Except the
Lord Build
Anthony Esolen on Education & Houses of the Lord (A Graduation Address)
Ladies and Gentlemen, parents, friends, and graduates, hear the word of the Lord as the Psalmist speaks it to us:
Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it;
Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh but in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late,
to eat the bread of sorrows;
for so he giveth his beloved sleep.THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
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Anthony Esolen is the author of over thirty books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House). He and his wife Debra publish a web magazine, Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com), on poetry, hymnody, language, classic films, and music. He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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more on education from the online archives
27.2—March/April 2014
Higher Education Should Advance the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God by Anthony Esolen
24.5—Sept/Oct 2011
on Wondering or Wandering Through College Education by Anthony Esolen
more from the online archives
22.3—April 2009
Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by J. Daryl Charles
31.5—September/October 2018
The Secular State Without the Decalogue by James M. Kushiner
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—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
