Except the Lord Build by Anthony Esolen

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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.

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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

Poetry Above Compulsion

Higher Education Should Advance the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God by Anthony Esolen

24.5—Sept/Oct 2011

Pupils Delighted

on Wondering or Wandering Through College Education by Anthony Esolen

32.4—July/August 2019

To Spread His Glory

Four Theses on Christian Education by Donald T. Williams


more from the online archives

14.2—March 2001

The God of Princes

on the Political Use of Religion by Wilfred M. McClay

22.3—April 2009

Wasted by Watching

Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by J. Daryl Charles

31.5—September/October 2018

Taking Liberties

The Secular State Without the Decalogue by James M. Kushiner

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