It is through
the body that we receive all the lessons of passion, of suffering, of
love, of beauty, of science. It is through the body that we are both
trained outwards from ourselves, and driven inwards into our deepest
selves to find God. There is glory and might in this vital evanescence,
this slow glacier-like flow of clothing and revealing matter, this ever
uptossed rainbow of tangible humanity. It is no less of God's making
than the spirit that is clothed therein.
We cannot yet have learned all that we are meant to learn through the
body. How much of the teaching even of this world can the most diligent
and most favoured man have exhausted before he is called to leave it!
Is all that remains to be lost? Who that has loved this earth can but
believe that the spiritual body of which St Paul speaks will be a yet
higher channel of such revelation? The meek who have found that their
Lord spake true, and have indeed inherited the earth, who have seen
that all matter is radiant of spiritual meaning, who would not cast a
sigh after the loss of mere animal pleasure, would, I think, be the
least willing to be without a body, to be unclothed without being again
clothed upon.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213