Spring

This spring the colours seem to have been brighter and bolder than ever. The laburnums and lilacs have been brilliant in its proper sense, and the hawthorn, or may, has been exceptional – at least here in these parts:

If you came this way in may time, you would find the hedges
White again, in May, with voluptuary sweetness.

The same is true of the different greens of the leaves, and the varying shades of the flowers, there is a special vividness and beauty not seen for several years at least. The reason seems to be the cold that we had earlier on; the sharp frosts holding back the growth until a more appropriate time; the hard winter giving way to a multi-coloured spring. There seems to be something of a spiritual application here.

Odds and ends

Just recently I have been too busy to write anything here, so here's a few odd bits. Just recently I read Revelation 15, which reminded me of this:

And I saw with the eye of faith,
like a sea of burning glass
that flashed and shimmered and shone with light,
the place where the victors pass;
they stand on that radiant shore,
those who overcame the beast
by their word and the blood of the Lamb,
and their praises never cease.

For they play on the harps of God
a tune never heard before,
the song of Moses who served the Lord,
who stood on the Red Sea shore:
and they sing the song of the Lamb,
and their praises fill the sky,
they rise and echo across the sea
to the throne of God on high.

‘Great and marvellous are your works,
O Lord, we bring you our praise,
God the Almighty, the King of saints,
faithful and just your ways!
Are there any who will not bow
in reverence at your throne
and bring their worship to your great name,
God who is holy alone?

All nations shall come and adore
from the east, west, south and north;
for now your judgments are clearly seen,
you have shown your fame and worth.’
And I longed to be with them there
by that bright celestial sea,
singing praise to the Father and Lamb
in glory eternally!

I am also reading Ian Randall's 'Evangelical Experiences', which studies developments in spiritualty during the inter war years. It is interesting to see divergences from basic orthodoxy in the denominations, and the way in which 'liberal evangelicalism' generally moved more and more towards out and out liberalism. Also in his study of whar he calls 'Separatist Spiritually' the movement towards an evangelically based form of unity - Poole-Connor and Lloyd-Jones, for example. This, to me, raises the question whether it is right to denominate those whose priority is unity as 'separatist'. Every group that has its own identity and ethos is 'separatist' for that very reason, it just depends where you draw the line of separation. 'Gospel unity' seems to me a very desirable thing.

The Longest Sentence?

Is this the longest sentence in the English language? It comes from John Howe’s ‘The Blessedness of the Righteous’, based on Ps.17:15: ‘As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.’

‘And what do we think of the ravishing aspects of his love, when it shall now be open-faced, and have laid aside its veil; when his amiable smiles shall be checkered with no intermingled frowns; the light of that pleasing countenance be obscured by no intervening cloud! when goodness, which is love issuing into benefaction, or doing good – grace, which adds freeness unto goodness – mercy, which is grace towards the miserable – shall conspire in their distinct and variegated appearances to set off each other, and enhance the pleasure of the admiring soul! when the wonted doubts shall cease, and the difficulty vanish, of reconciling once necessary fatherly severity with love! when the full sense shall be unfolded to the life of that description of the divine nature, “God is love”; and the soul be no longer put to read the love of God in his name, as Moses was when the sight of his face could not yet be obtained; shall not need to spell it by letters and syllables; but behold it in his very nature itself, and see how intimately essential it is to the Divine Being, - how glorious will this appearance of God be!’

At least it must be one of the best!