December 21
O Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the word of
Companions of the Way (Morning)the Lord.
THE infinite spirit and power, that identifies itself with the finite and human in the person and life of Christ has been revealing and realising itself in the whole course of history, identifying itself with the finite and human as the indwelling principle of the thought and life of every individual Christian soul, penetrating all the social relations of communities and nations, and inspiring the corporate unity of the Christian Church; and it is still finding its ever-growing manifestation in that progressive spirit and life of humanity, that ever-advancing life of truth and goodness, which, never hasting, never resting, is, we believe, under all the transient and everchanging aspects of human things, moving onward to its consummation. The eye that looks on the surface of things may fail to see it, the ear that is dulled or deadened by the tumult of human passion may fail to hear the heavenly voice; but it is here, never far from any one of us, a divine element surrounding us when we know and think not of it, a divine light rippling round blind eyes, a heavenly music seeking entrance into deaf ears; and nothing but our own moral opacity and dulness hinders it from penetrating, suffusing, identifying itself with our own very life and being.
JOHN CAIRD