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I asked a number of people
if they could say what Amen means, and almost all told me it was a
kind of full-stop. One young scholar assured me it was an old Hebrew
word meaning " It is finished." " That's why it's
tacked on at the end of some of our hymns," he added. But he
misses the point. Amen means " So be it. Verily, it is so !"
Sometimes it indicates our consent or agreement. A week ago I found
myself singing in church : Take my life, and let it be Consecrated,
Lord, to Thee. . . . And when we sang the Amen, I wondered at my own
courage. Did I really dare to say, "So be it "?
From "The Friendship Book of Francis Gay" Tuesday August 14 1962
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