The Spiritual in the Earthly
John xx. 15 v.
“Supposing Him to be the gardener.”
We often mistake Christ for the gardener — attribute to mere physical beauty what comes from faith alone. We speak of the glories of Nature; most of its glories belong to man. We find a sense of infinitude in the breath of the new-mown hay; yet, truly, it is not in that, but in thee. It has been said: “Thou weavest for God the garment by which thou seest Him “; more justly might the words be spoken of Nature. Her song is the echo of thy song. She answers in refrain to thee — to thy sorrows and to thy joys. Often have men exhorted thee to follow the teachings of Nature, and to look on the things beyond as an idle dream. Nay, but thy vision of Nature depends on thy vision of grace. In vain shalt thou seek in the flower the grace which is not in thy soul. It is from the things beyond the earth that earthly beauty flows. The voice which thou nearest in the garden is the voice of the Lord. That which uplifts thee in the flower is just what the gardener has not planted. It is the life below the stem, the mystery beneath the root. It is the sense of a presence which has escaped the eye, of a power which has eluded the botanist. It is the feeling that the gardener has planted something which he has not seen — a seed from the life eternal, a blossom from the breast of God.
Oh, Thou, whose Easter morning shines in many disguises, help me to recognise Thee everywhere. Let me not ascribe to the gardener the work that is done by Thee. I often speak of the noble lives led by men who do not know Thee; teach me that Thou knowest them. Tell me that Thy presence is wider than our creed, Thy temple bigger than our sanctuary, Thy love larger than our law. Convince me that Thou enfoldest that which does not enfold Thee. Let me learn that Thou art the one “excellent name in all the earth.” Men call their excellent things by other names; they take Thee to be the gardener. Hasten the time when they shall take the gardener to be Thee; they shall be nearer to the truth of things. Hasten the time when “in the tiesh they shall see Grod” — see Him in the forms of earth, see Him in the duties of the hour, see Him in the paths of life, see Him in the progress of the day. Make Thyself known to them in the breaking of the earthly bread; in the planting of the earthly flower let them gaze on Thee.