|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 10
Therefore, of course, she appears too otherworldly to the stockbroker
and the provincial mayor, since she actually places the things of God
before the things of man and "seeks first His Kingdom."
(ii) "And all these things shall be added" to her. For she is Human
also, in that she dwells in this world where God has placed her, and
uses therefore the things with which He has surrounded her. To say that
she is supernatural is not to deny her humanity any more than to assert
that man has an immortal soul is to exclude the truth that he also has a
body. It is this Body of hers, then--this humanity of hers which
enshrines her Divinity--that claims and uses earthly things; it is this
Body that _dwells in houses made with hands_ and that claims too, in
honour to herself and her Bridegroom, that, so long as her spirituality
is not tarnished, these houses shall be as splendid as art can make
them. For she is not a Puritan nor a Manichee; she does not say that any
single thing which God has made can conceivably be of itself evil,
however grievously it may have been abused; on the contrary, she has His
own authority for saying that _all is very good_.
She uses, then, every earthly beauty that the world will yield to her,
to honour her own Majesty. It may be right to set diamonds round the
neck of a woman, but it is certainly right to set them round the Chalice
of the Blood of God. If an earthly king wears vestments of cloth of
gold, must not a heavenly King yet more wear them? If music is used by
the world to destroy men's souls, may not she use it to save their
souls? If a marble palace is fit for the President of the French
Republic, by what right do men withhold it from the King of kings?
But the world does withhold its wealth sometimes? Very well then, she
can serve God without it, in spite of her rights. If men whine and
cringe, or bully and shout, for the jewels with which their forefathers
honoured God, she will fling them back again down her altar stairs and
worship God in a barn or a catacomb without them. For, though she does
not _serve God and Mammon_, she yet _makes to herself friends of the
Mammon of iniquity_. Though she does not and never can serve God and
Mammon, she will and can, when the world permits it, make Mammon serve
her. For the Church is the Majesty of God dwelling on earth. She is
there, in herself, utterly independent of her reception. If it is _her
own_ to whom _she comes, and her own do not receive her_, they are none
the less hers by every right. For, though she will use every earthly
thing to her honour, though she considers no ointment wasted, however
precious, that is spilled by love over her feet, yet her essential glory
does not lie in these things. She is _all glorious within_, whether or
not her _vesture is of gold_, for she is a _King's Daughter_. She is,
essentially, as glorious in the Catacombs as in the Roman basilicas; as
lovely in the barefooted friar as in the robed and sceptred Vicar of
Christ; as majestic in Christ naked on the Cross as in Christ ascended
and enthroned in heaven.
Yet, since she is His Majesty on earth, she has a right to all that
earth can give. All _the beasts of the field are hers, and the cattle on
a thousand hills_, all the stars of heaven and the jewels of earth; all
the things in the world are hers by Divine right.
_All things are hers, for she is Christ's._ Yet, nevertheless, _she will
suffer the loss of all things_ sooner than lose Him.
III
SANCTITY AND SIN
_Holy, Holy, Holy!_--IS. VI. 3.
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners_. I TIM. I. 15.
A very different pair of charges--and far more vital--than those more or
less economic accusations of worldliness and otherworldliness which we
have just considered, concern the standards of goodness preached by the
Church and her own alleged incapacity to live up to them. These may be
briefly summed up by saying that one-half the world considers the Church
too holy for human life, and the other half, not holy enough. We may
name these critics, respectively, the Pagan and the Puritan.
I. It is the Pagan who charges her with excessive Holiness.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|