The Passing Years
VII The Passing Years Although the meditations and poems in this section do not belong to the last years of Matheson's life, they show a clear consciousness of the advancing years. They range from the impassioned plea to "'give me back my youth'' in the opening prayer to rather more considered reflections on the greater vision and even the optimism that comes with old age contained in the three meditations.
It is perhaps worth explaining that the Biblical story which inspires 'Vision in Old Age'' is the account of Moses being led up Mount Nebo at the age of 120 to survey the promised land just before his death.
The two poems in this section beautifully express the Christian view that love never wearies or grows old and that death, far from bringing life to an end and snuffing out consciousness, in fact brings a clearer vision and heralds a new youth.
The Glory of Morning 'And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord'' Exodus 16:7
My God, give me back my youth; I can regain it in Thee. Let the shadows of my life be rekindled into morning's glow, let my heart be lit with Thine eternal youth. Thou hast promised us eternal life, and what is that? Not merely life for ever, but life for ever young. Thine eternal life can make me a child again, a child without childishness. O Thou, on whose bloom time breathes not, who art the same yesterday, and today, and for ever, bathe me in those fountains of the morning whence Thou hast the dew of Thy youth. Bathe me in the ocean of that love in which there is no variableness nor the least shadow of turning, that the pulses of this heart may be renewed. Then shall I have the bright and morning star, and the dayspring from on high shall rise within me. Then shall creation break forth into gladness, as in the day when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy; I shall see the glory of life when Thy morning is in my soul..
Moments on the Mount
Vision in Old Age "His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.'' Deuteronomy 34:7
Most of us have our brightest visions in the days of our youth. The time when men commonly stand on Mount Nebo is the hour of life's morning; it is then that the promised land appears most glorious, it is then that the prospective eye is least dimmed by experience.
But this man Moses was an exception to the rule; his vision came in old age. The days of his youth and manhood had been too prosaic for poetic flights. They had been days of danger, days of anxiety, days of burden-bearing, days of commonplace annoyances, more hard to endure because they were commonplace. It was only at the last that his child-life came. It was only amid the twilight shadows that there rose to him that vision which men are wont to behold at morning
— the vision of coming glory, the prospect of a promised land. His age of anticipation began where his age of experience ended, his inner man was renewed where his outer man was about to perish. In the vigour of manhood, in front of the burning fire of God, he had felt his vision dim; in the extremity of old age he had neither a doubt nor a fear. ''His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.''
; My soul, if thou couldst live this life of sacrifice, thou too wouldst have a vision in the hour of death. There is a life whose natural force is not
abated with the years; it grows stronger when other things fade.
''Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away; but love never faileth.'' It is the Nebo of old age, the height from which amid surrounding ruins the heart surveys its promised land. That height of certainty may be thine. If love be in thee, it will survive all things. Memory may fade, fancy may droop, judgment may waver, perception may languish, but the eye of the heart shall grow brighter toward the close. That which men have called ''the valley'' shall be to thee a mountain.
Thou shalt face the setting sun, and shalt see in it a new rising. The clouds that environ the intellect shall break before the childhood of the spirit, and amid the snows of winter thy time for the singing of birds shall come. Thou shalt gaze upon a world's dissolving views, and say,
''O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?''
Moments on the Mount
The Ripest Communion "Unto Thee, O Lord, do I liftup my soul.'' Psalm 35:1
There are three upliftings in the religious life — hope, faith, and love. Hope is the lifting up of the eyes; it is the time of youth. There is always a charm in unfinishedness when we are young; the unreached land is the desired land. Faith is the lifting up of the hands; it is the time of manhood. Every lifting of the man's hand is a seed sown in faith.
He is in all things a speculator; he trusts to the mercy of the coming day. Love is the lifting up of the soul; it is the time of age.
I have always felt that the autumn of life is the season in which we first view things as they are. Hope and faith are in the future; love is in the present. The eye looks forward; the hand stretches onward; but the soul never moves from its place; it admires here and now. To have the soul lifted up to God is what men commonly call death. The Psalmist says we can reach it without dying, can reach it today, this moment, by one flight of love. Love is the true lifting of the soul
— the true death. It brings me from time into eternity, from the changeful into the abiding.
It raises me into a world where there is no future, no tomorrow, no wish to look forward
— where the Divine presence is fulness of joy.
It makes me independent of memory, independent of hope, independent of change.
It restores to me the life of the butterfly; it magnifies the moment; it bids the sun stand still.
It is the end of all climbing, the close of all longing, the satisfaction of all aspiring, the goal of all seeking — the rest that remaineth to the people of God.
Son of Man, lift up my soul. There is no need to wait for death; death lifts not so high as love.
Love is the swiftest of all flights into Thy presence. I know why John lay on Thy bosom; because he had the most rapid wing. Hope is beautiful, but it cannot rest; it will not let Peter make a tabernacle for Thee. Faith is beautiful, but it cannot rest; it bids Paul press forward for the mark of Thy prize. But love reposes. It rests on Thy bosom because it is Thy bosom — because it can dream of nothing beyond. The uplifted eye has an expanse before it; the uplifted hand has a work before it; but the uplifted soul basks in Thy present glory. It says Thy will be done. It buries prayer in praise. It loses Thy rainbow in Thy Ararat. It forgets the thought of tomorrow in the rest of today. I shall say ''Now is the accepted time'' when Thou hast lifted up my soul.
Searchings in the Silence
The Fadeless Thing "What shall I do that Imay inherit eternal life?"'
Mark 10:17
Tell me a thing that never grows old All through the day, all through the day, Keeps without dimness its youth and its gold
All through the length of the day; Beauty grows pale with the flight of the years,
Gladness must fail when the heart has its fears; Is there a life where no shadow appears All through the length of the day?
2 There is a life that remains ever young All through the day, all through the day,
Singing at evening the song it has sung All through the length of the day; Love is the glory that never grows old, Telling the story a hundred times told, Keeping its light where the shadows have rolled, All through the length of the day.
3 Love has no record of time on its brow All through the day, all through the day,
Keeps the first freshness of life's morning vow All through the length of the day; Strong in its power 'mid the snow-flakes of age,
Full in its flower while the winter blasts rage, Bearing a fire that no damp can assuage,
All through the length of the day.
4 Give me, O Father, this best gift of Thine, All through the day, all through the day,
That in eternity's light I may shine All through the length of the day; Wearing my youth like an evergreen flower,
Guarding the truth of my bright childhood's hour, Shrining my soul in an unfading bower, All through the length of the day.
5 And when the forests of earth shall be bare All through the day, all through the day,
Gleamings of glory and peace shall be there All through the length of the day; Down in the valley the mount shall appear,
Sunlight shall rally the ranks of the year, Life at the portals of death shall be near,
All through the length of the day.
; Sacred Songs
The Hopefulness of St. Paul "Experience worketh hope'' Romans 5:4
Does it? I would have expected Paul to say just the contrary. If this is a world of sin and misery, ought it not to seem blacker as we pass through it? And yet the facts appear to make for Paul.
Who are they that take the gloomiest view of life? Is it the aged, the infirm, the wayworn? No; it is the young — the men who are setting out upon their journey. Youth is called the age of hope — and so it is; but it is not hope for this world. It is the dream of a fairy scene far away.
For things as they are, youth has no mercy; they are too prosaic, too common, too unclean. Paul himself was a pessimist in youth; his hopes were for other worlds than ours. To be with Christ was to be ''caught up in the air'' — borne beyond the scene. But, as the road advanced, the shadows faded. The song of the earth-birds became beautiful with the winding of the way. The fields of time grew greener with the westering of life's sun. The light of Damascus left the air and began to illuminate the housetops, and the experience that threatened to work despair became the parent of hope.
And so, my Father, Thy world is not so bad a place after all. It looks gloomier at the entering than at the ending gate. Thou hast a special harp for those that have walked upon the sea. In the days of my youth I sang to the scenes of fancy, but my latest harp shall be for reality. I shall sing
to the praise of the six days' creation when I have reached the Sabbath. Put Thy new song in my mouth, oh! my Father — the song of Moses
— and the Lamb, the song of the desert and the Cross. Reveal to me the gold beneath the dust, the fire within the flint, the flowers around the clay. Reveal to me the beauty of common things, nay, of painful things. Reveal to me the romance of real life, the heroism of daily toil, the power of prosaic sacrifice. Show me the prospect from the west gate of the temple — the gate near to the setting sun. I have looked long enough from the east — the delusive light of morning. I have been seeking a heaven beyond experience, and | the chords of my harp have been broken; they
. Shall be strung to a nobler strain when experience itself worketh hope.
Searchings in the Silence
Life in Death "His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.'' Deuteronomy 34:7
There is a life whose vital power Grows stronger as the hill descends; It sleeps in nature's morning hour; It wakes where nature ends.
2 I saw a mighty soul of earth Go down into the vale to die, And one by one the gifts of birth Reclaimed were by the sky.
3 I saw the daylight leave the walls; I heard the music fade away, And through the aisles of memory's halls
The echoes ceased to stray.
4 But in the temple's inner shrine There burned a glory sevenfold bright, And, like a lighthouse lashed with brine,
Faith streamed into the night.
5 Men said, ''He is unconscious now''; God said, ''For the first time he knows'';
The vision of the mountain's brow Is clearest at life's close.
6 O golden morn at closing day, O youth revived at gates of even, O spring-time born of year's decay, We hail thy pledge of heaven!
7 We hail the pledge that something lives When heart and flesh are faint and frail,
When earthly joy no pleasure gives And human pomp is pale — 8 That even then with undimmed gaze My soul amid the waste can stand, And by the light of larger rays Discern the promised land!
Sacred Songs
[IX One ~n Christ
IX One in Christ George Matheson's broad and liberal ecumenical sympathies extended not just to every branch of the Christian Church but embraced other faiths as well. He firmly believed that if Jesus
Christ was, indeed, ''all in all'', then Christianity should embrace and enfold all the great religions of the world. In the pages that follow his sense that all are one in Christ is explored in a poem that uses the image of islands being turned into one great land mass, in an extract from a work of academic theology and in a magnificent set of verses which I strongly recommend singing to the tune of 'Abide with me'!
Island Moments "The isles shall wait for me.'' Isaiah 60:9
The isles, the isles shall wait; They most of all shall weary, For they cannot find a gate Through the ocean vast and dreary; They hear the waters moan From dawn to dark around them, And they feel themselves alone In the bands where fate has-bound them.
2 The island lives shall wait, The lives by sorrow branded; The rocks beneath were great, And their ship of hope was stranded; And others passed them by, In the race of life excelling, Till besides the sea and sky There was none looked near their dwelling.
3 We all have island hours, We all have moments lonely, Wherein 'mid faded flowers We dwell in Patmos only; The silence brooding there, With the calm sea dividing, Is harder far to bear Than storms in fury riding.
4 And then, how sweet to know That o'er this cruel ocean An unseen bridge doth go Supporting love's devotion,
That one great heart doth span The intervening spaces, And link the isles of man To all the joyful races.
5 O Christ of mighty love, O Heart of human feeling, Still through the waters move To grant Thy bright revealing!
In hollow of Thy hand These waters Thou constrainest, And we have reached dry land Where Thou with us remainest.
— 6 If Thou abide with me, I too have joined my brother, For all are one in Thee And each is bound to other.
Thou takest up the isles, Thou bindest souls that sever, And all dividing miles Are bridged in Thee for ever.
Sacred Songs
2. Christianity and the Messages of the Past Is it possible that the religions of the past may themselves be included in the Christian message of reconciliation?
Is it conceivable that Christianity has furnished a ground for peace not only within but without its own fold? Paul says that in Christ ''all things stand together''; and it is a most remarkable statement. It seems to suggest that the angles of opposing faiths are rubbed off when they stand in the Christian temple, and that ideas once mutually conflicting can there rest side by side. Do not misunderstand me. I do not for a moment imagine that the first
Christians said to themselves, ''We shall found a religion which shall embrace the faiths of the world.'' I do not suppose that any one of these disciples had ever heard of Brahmanism, or Buddhism, or Parseeism. But this does not even touch the question.
These religions are representative of certain ideas which belong to human nature.
If a religion appears which professes to be a universal faith, it must show its universality by uniting these ideas. It must be a ladder reaching from earth unto heaven, each of whose ascending steps shall find a place for one of the systems of the past. Instead of being manifested to reveal the falsity of former views, it must, for the first time, vindicate the truth of all, — must discover a point in which beliefs hitherto deemed at variance may lie down together in unity, and receive from the heart of man a common justification.
It is popularly said that Christianity has conquered the faiths of the past. And so it has;
but in a very peculiar way. It has conquered as the Roman empire wished to conquer — not by submergence, but by incorporation. It would not be true to say that it has destroyed them; it would be more correct to affirm that it has kept them alive. They had all outgrown their youth, all survived their time, all failed to bring rest to the soul. The form remained; the sensuous life remained; but the spirit had passed away. If Christianity had not appeared, paradoxical as it may seem, I think these religious would have become supremely uninteresting; Christianity has made them vivid by making them living. In its many-sidedness it has a side for each of these.
It has let in its light upon them; it has given its breath to them; it has found a place for them in its own system. It has given them a logical order which has dispelled the contradictions of the natural order. Indian and Greek, Roman and Teuton, Buddhist and Parsee, Egyptian and Chinaman, can meet here hand in hand; because in the comprehensive temple of Christian truth there is not only a niche which each may fill, but a niche which, at some stage of its development, must be filled by one and all.
Therefore it is that the religion of Christ ought to have peculiar interest in the faiths of the past.
They are not, to her, dead faiths; they are not even modernized. They are preserved inviolable as parts of herself — more inviolable than they would have been if she had never come. China may keep her materialism, and India may retain her mysticism; Rome may grasp her strength, and Greece may nurse her beauty; Persia may tell of the opposition to God's power, and Egypt
may sing of His pre-eminence even amid the tombs: but for each and all there is a seat in the Christian Pantheon, and a justification in the light of the manifold wisdom of God.
The Distinctive Messages of the Old Religions
One in Christ "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ.'' Ephesians 1:10
Gather us in, Thou Love that fillest all!
Gather our rival faiths within Thy fold!
Rend each man's temple veil and bid it fall, That we may know that Thou hast been of old;
Gather us in!
2 Gather us in! we worship only Thee; In varied names we stretch a common hand; In diverse forms a common soul we see; In many ships we seek one spirit-land; Gather us in!
3 Each sees one colour of Thy rainbow-light, Each looks upon one tint and calls it heaven;
Thou art the fulness of our partial sight; We are not perfect till we find the seven;
Gather us in!
4 Thine is the mystic life great India craves, Thine is the Parsee's sin-destroying beam,
Thine is the Buddhist's rest from tossing waves, Thine is the empire of vast China's dream;
Gather us in!
5 Thine is the Roman's strength without his pride,
Thine is the Greek's glad world without its graves,
Thine is Judea's law with love beside, The truth that censures and the grace that saves; Gather us in!
6 Some seek a Father in the heavens above, Some ask a human image to adore, Some crave a spirit vast as life and love:
Within Thy mansions we have all and more; Gather us in!
Sacred Songs