Eternity Manifest in the Light of the Day

Childhood, Delight, Folly, Wisdom, in the writings of Thomas Traherne

Eternity Manifest

Thomas Traherne was a relatively obscure English parson of the seventeenth century. His writings were not known during his lifetime and it was only long after his death that anything was made of them. The book from which I am about to quote was only published in the early twentieth century. And yet Traherne was a man of immense spiritual and literary power.

Centuries of Meditations is a book of short reflections numbered from one to a hundred, which treat of various religious and devotional themes. One of which is the glory of childhood and the spiritual need of mankind to recover his lost innocence.

Traherne said that in infancy all things are bathed in a celestial light. Young children perceive this and are therefore filled with a kind of innocent joy in the things that adults have lost the ability to see. And, yet, if only we could rediscover it, we too could obtain a mystical vision of the glorious worlds that the Lord has given to us.

Speaking of childhood, Traherne writes:

Everything was at rest, free and immortal. I knew nothing of sickness or rents or exaction, either for tribute or bread. In the absence of these I was entertained like an Angel with the works of God in their splendour and glory, I saw all in the peace of Eden; Heaven and Earth did sing my Creator’s praises…All Time was Eternity, and a perpetual Sabbath…

The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to everlasting. The dust and stones of the street were as precious as gold…The green trees when I saw the first through one of the gates transported and ravished me, their sweetness and unusual beauty made my heart leap, and almost mad with ecstasy, they were such strange and wonderful things. The Men! O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And young men glittering and sparkling Angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling in the street, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; But all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places. Eternity was manifest in the Light of the Day, and something infinite behind everything appeared: which talked with my expectation and moved my desire.

Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations, III, 2-3

So what happened - to him and to us - to make us lose such a celestial and glorious vision, to make us forgetful of the ‘first Light which shined in my Infancy in its primitive and innocent clarity’?

Truly by the customs and manners of men, which like contrary winds blew it out: by an innumerable company of other objects, rude, vulgar and worthless things…by the impetuous torrent of wrong desires in all others whom I saw or knew that carried me away and alienated me from it: by a whole sea of other matters and concernments that covered and drowned it.

Ibid., Third Century, 7

But the marvellous truth is that we can ‘disrobe ourselves of all false colour, and unclothe our souls of evil habits’. We can become like little children and so enter the Kingdom of Heaven, even now, here on this earth. And one of the crucial things that we must understand is that this happens at least in part by a laying down, a putting off, of the vanities and the burdens that we take upon ourselves.

We take these things up in the hope of satisfaction and happiness. And yet they are the very things that bring strain to our souls, that bring anxiety and worry and so contrive to make us miserable.

If we were to lay them down and instead pray for and seek the vision of renewed innocence, we would see that ‘it had been the most easy thing in the world…to…believe that Heaven and Earth was God’s House, and that He gave it to me’.

This really speaks to me. I am the kind of person who takes things on in the mistaken apprehension that it is through following things through to the bitter end that I will know peace and joy: Education, Entertainments, Improvement of Mind and Health, Achievement in Labour, and…even my devotion to the Lord. These all become like taskmasters and slavedrivers to my soul. And before I realise it, they have beaten me and worked me and worn me down.

Many of these things are necessary, but it is part of our sad and fallen condition not to be able to keep things in proper perspective. I can’t be happy where I am. I always have to be pushing, to be ticking the boxes, to be achieving the next thing. And yet what difference does it really make if I do or do not achieve that next goal? Very little on the whole. And it is less than worthless if it adds up to a life of unhappiness and anxiety.

On the topic of devotion, there is a world of difference between sitting down in the morning and thinking, “I must say Morning Prayer now because it is my duty to do this and I have to get it done,” and recognising that I have come to be refreshed in God’s presence and to be renewed and restored in his love. How do I so consistently get this wrong and almost always miss the joy that is offered to me? I can’t help but conclude that I must be fundamentally broken and that my heart must beat in the wrong way. What can I do but recognise this and pray that God will have mercy upon me and to grant me his peace?

I wrote down in my journal this week: ‘Identify Vanity. Embrace Delight.’

Here is a hymn from an artist I’ve been listening to a lot recently, Wendell Kimbrough, ‘Come to Me’, taken from the words of Christ in Matthew 11, ^”Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.^”

You are weighed down, you are worried
Child I see you, child I know you
Bring your burdens, bring your labor
Come to me

Come to me,
come to me
Come to me
if you are weary
I will give you,
I will give you my rest

I am gentle, I am humble
Let me teach you, let me show you
Trade your burden, mine is easy
Come to me

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The Folly of Wisdom

 What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”

Ecclesiastes 2:15

Traherne attended Brasenose College, Oxford: ‘I saw that there were things in this world of which I never dreamed; glorious secrets, and glorious persons past imagination’. But, even in finding delight in ethics, physics, metaphysics, geometry, in seeing into the nature of the sea, the heavens, the sun, moon, stars, and elements, Traherne found vanity and folly: ‘We studied to inform our knowledge, but knew not for what end we so studied.’ In other words, even enquiry into the magnificence of the world that God has made and all the wonderful things in it is turned by our sin into vanity and meaninglessness. We study these things because at first we think we will find happiness and joy, but instead we turn this knowledge into an occasion for pride and utility. And in so doing, we rob ourselves of any joy we might obtain.

It is not sufficient therefore for us to study the most excellent things unless we do it in the most excellent of manners.

Traherne, Centuries, III.39

What does it mean therefore to study but to do it in the ‘most excellent of manners’?

It is the Glory of God to give all things to us in the best of all possible manners. To study things therefore under the double notion of interest and treasure, is to study all things in the best of all possible manners. Because in studying so we enquire after God’s Glory, and our own happiness'.

Ibid., III.40

We study things for the joy of interest and delight, but not only for that, but that under the light of the fact that all things are given to us a gift from God, that all things are bathed in celestial light, that they issue from the hand of their creator as a gift to us. The giftedness of creation means that we enjoy things under a double-aspect: the glory of the thing itself and the fact that it is a treasure that has been bestowed upon us by God.

…to study objects for ostentation, vain knowledge or curiosity is fruitless impertinence…but to study that which will oblige us to love Him, and feed us with nobility and goodness toward men, that is blessed.

Ibid.

Again, how all of this speaks to my vanity and folly. I can’t read a book without turning it into an instrument of misery, thinking to myself how it will be good for me to read such-and-such because I ought to have read it to be a respectable and knowledgeable person and that it will be good for me to get it out of the way because I need to read such-and-such a book next and quickly. I turn it into a burden and all the joy is gone from it.

But if I may take delight in it for the gift of God that is bestowed thereby maybe I can find a way to value it for what it really is.

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How to Choose

There is a further question, which is how to choose where to set one’s gaze. Once one has a vision of God and sees his creation for what it is - full of wonders both natural and created through the imagination of man, the image of God - where do we begin?

Traherne compares himself to a traveller visiting strange places and recognising that there were ‘innumerable millions of objects presented before him’ and that he would travel in vain ‘unless his undertakings were guided by some certain rule’.

What then should I do? Imitate a traveller, who because he cannot visit all coasts, wildernesses, sandy deserts, seas, hills, springs and mountains, chooses the most populous and flourishing cities, where he might see the fairest prospects, wonders, and rarities, and be entertained with greatest courtesy: and where indeed he might most benefit himself with knowledge, profit and delight: leaving the rest, even the naked and empty places unseen. For which cause I made it my prayer to God Almighty that He, whose eyes are open upon all things, would guide me to the fairest and divinest.

Traherne, Centuries, III.52

So many books to read, so many places to visit, so many things to do. How to choose? First, remember that you are a creature and that you cannot do them all. Second, think about what is best, most excellent, most profitable, and pray that God may guide you thereunto. The criteria is wonder, joy, delight, profit.

And so we shall be like the man described by the Apostle Paul in the Letter to the Philippians:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8-9

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Quote of the Week from Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations

I selected the following quotation out of many hundreds that could be brought forth because it really sums up what Traherne was trying to tell us: the glory of God is all around us, in his world and in his works. It is we who have the problem, we whose vision is so clouded that we have become blind to it. But, if we can cultivate a vision, and recognise that which is so plainly therefore before our eyes, then we can completely transform our existence. How wonderful is this message!

…to be much in the meditation of God’s works, and laws, to see their excellency, to taste their sweetness; to behold their glory, to admire, and rejoice and overflow with praises is to live in heaven.

Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations, III.92