Quiet and Peaceable Life
People's Place Book No.2
John Ruth
- John
- L.
- Ruth,
- a
- Mennonite
- storyteller/historian,
- captures
- the
- spirit
- of
- Old
- Order
- Mennonite
- and
- Amish
- groups
- in
- his
- essays,
- along
- with
- photographs,
- poetry,
- and
- quotations.
- If
- the
- "plain
- people"
- of
- North
- America
- are
- to
- be
- understood
- in
- terms
- of
- their
- own
- concerns,
- we
- must
- consider
- sympathetically
- their
- own
- expressions
- and
- the
- biblical
- cadences
- they
- echo.
- Having
- maintained,
- with
- the
- tolerance
- of
- their
- society,
- a
- simple
- life
- as
- "the
- quiet
- in
- the
- land,"
- these
- folk
- still
- prize
- such
- passé
- virtues
- as
- modesty,
- humility,
- and
- obedience
- to
- God's
- will,
- as
- interpreted
- by
- a
- disciplined
- community
- of
- faith.
- Their
- values,
- difficult
- to
- appreciate
- in
- a
- world
- bemused
- by
- progress,
- are
- seldom
- if
- ever
- articulated,
- except
- as
- curiosities,
- in
- our
- mass
- media.
- --John
- L.
- Ruth,
- in
- A
- Quiet
- and
- Peaceable Life.
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