^ Eichard Jefferies is closely akin to Wordsworth in his over- powering consciousness of the life in nature. This consciousness is the strongest force in him, so that at times he is almost sub- merged by it, and he loses the sense of outward things. In this condition of trance the sense of time vanishes ; there is, he asserts, no such thing, no past, or future, only now, which is eternity. In The Story of my Heart, a rhapsody of mystic experience and aspiration, he describes in detail several such moments of exalta- tion or trance. He seems to be peculiarly sensitive to sunshine. As the moon typifies to Keats the eternal essence in all things, so to Jefferies the sun seems to be the physical expression or symbol of the central Force of the world, and it is through gazing on sun- light that he most often enters into the trance state.^
^ Francis Thompson in his " Orient Ode " seems to worship the Sun, but it is because he finds Christ in that symbol :
Lo, of thy Magians I the least
Haste with my gold, my incenses and myrrhs,
To thy desired epiphany, from the spiced
Eegions and odorous of Song's traded East.
Thou, for the life of all tliat live
The victim daily born and sacrificed;
To whom the pinion of this longing verse
Beats but with fire which first thyself did give,
To thee, O Sun — or is't, perchance, to Christ ? ^
5. The heat and light of the sun come to this world through the surrounding atmosphere. Without the envelope of closely clinging air that engirdles this globe like some diaphanous gar- ment, the heat of the sun and all the light of it would fall in-
* C. F. E. Spurgeon, Mysticism in English Lileralure, 68.
* E. Meyneil, The Life of Francis Thompson (1913), 210.
204 A SUN AND A SHIELD
effectually on the earth. When we climb a mountain we get nearer the sun ; would one not naturally think that it ought to get hotter there ? As a matter of fact it gets colder as we rise till we reach the peaks that are robed with perpetual snow. The reason is that we are piercing through that air which wraps and enwraps this little earth of ours. It is the atmosphere that mediates the sun, that catches and stores and distributes the heat. Were there no air, but only empty space, then the greenest valley would be like Mont Blanc, and the tropics would be ice- bound in a perpetual winter, though the sun in itself were as fiery-hot as ever.
May we not make use of this mystery of nature to illumin- ate a kindred mystery of grace? It is one of the ways of God to grant His blessings through an intermediary. You say that the sun is the source of heat and light ; why then should anything be intruded between earth and sun ? One can only answer, So the Creator works — without that mediating element all is lost. You say that God is the source of love and blessing ; why should anything intervene betwixt God and man ? One can only answer that it is the way of heaven to grant its richest blessing through a mediator. How often men and women have said, " I do not feel any need of Christ or Calvary. I believe in God, I reverence and worship God; but the sacrifice and the atonement just confuse me. They appear to be outside of me altogether ; I cannot make them real to my heart." But through every sphere of God's activity runs the great principle of media- tion. The presence of Christ is like the air, making available for our need the love of God. Eemove the atmosphere, and the sun will still shine in heaven. Take away Jesus, and God will still be love. Banish the air, and the sun will not lose its heat. Banish the Christ, and God will not lose His power. But with the air gone, the glory of the sun will never so fall as to bless our little world, and with Jesus banished, the mercy and love of God may stream on other realms but not on ours. Christ is the mediator of the better covenant. He stands — the vital breath — 'twixt God and us. Through Him the sunshine of heaven's love can reach us, and in the rays of that sunshine we are blessed.
^ What was said with truth of Bishop Fraser of Manchester was, in a less direct and practical way, true of Stanley : " He was
PSiVLM Lxxxiv. II 205
daily bringing down light from Heaven into the life of other people." No one could long come in contact with Stanley without feeling that he was walking in the light, and without being affected by its radiation. It was this background that gave dignity to his simplicity of character, that preserved the spiritual elements of his nature from materialism, that gilded his social intercourse with a tenderness, an unobtrusiveness, a sincerity, an evenness of temper, and a consideration for others, that permeated, purified, and strengthened the society in which he moved.^
II.
God is a Shield.
To the Psalmist God was not only a Sun radiating forth good but also a Shield protecting from evil — the source not only of life and joy but also of security. As the Sun, God may be considered as dwelling in inaccessible light ; whilst as a Shield He may be regarded as so protecting His people that they cannot be approached. Life may be looked upon as a battle-field, on which we have protection from God, if we are on His side ; for the battle is His. By the figure of a shield, this verse is connected with ver. 9 : " Behold, 0 God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed."