| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 13 |
Page 3 |
Night throws its heavy veil over the lovely things of this world, hiding them from our view. Yet its deep shadow is no stain on the splendour of the day. It is no thief of time, no waster of golden hours, no obscurer of beauty. It reveals as much loveliness as it hides, for no sooner is the sun set, leaving earth’s splendour of landscape, garden and forest swallowed up in gloom, than there bursts upon our vision the other splendour of the sky filled with glorious stars. A noble sonnet by Blanco White describes the experience of our first parent as he watched the sinking of the sun to his setting at the close of the first day.
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame–
This glorious canopy of light and blue?
Yet, ‘neath a curtain of translucent dew,
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came,
And lo! Creation widened in man’s view.
Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed
Within thy beams, O sun! Or who could find,
Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood revealed,
That to such countless orbs thou mad’st us blind!
Page 3