As nature with her old mosses and her new spring foliage hides the ruins which man has made, and gives to the fallen tower and broken cloister a beauty scarcely less than that which belonged to them in their prime so human love may be at work too,
‘Study to be quiet and mind your own business,’
Let us care for the weak-minded and insane, show compassion to the wretched, and hold sacred the suffering of humanity.
Christ risen from the dead, raises all this common work belonging to the order of nature, up to the level of the joy of Grace.
There was a time when it was usual to draw a sharp line between religious and worldly things. That time has happily gone by. We all acknowledge more or less that all life is one.
All the honest, unselfish work of the world is God’s work.
So wash Thou me, without, within,
Or purge by fire, if that must be,
No matter how, if only sin
Die out in me.
No longer law, but love, no longer the mere keeping from a certain list of forbidden things, but active forward-looking service.
For that is the only real question – not just where are you – but, which way are you facing and living?
…the consequence is that they are often facing towards sin all the time, and there being no such actual line, they find themselves in sin, unmistakably, almost before they know it.
Suffolk Vicar 