Christian Art | George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | Our Life Is Hid With Christ In God
George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | Our Life Is Hid With Christ In God (Colossians 3:3)
My words and thoughts do both expresse this notion,
That Life hath with the sun a double motion.
The first Is straight, and our diurnall friend,
The other Hid, and doth obliquely bend.
One life is wrapt In flesh, and tends to earth.
The other winds towards Him, whose happie birth
Taught me to live here so, That still one eye
Should aim and shoot at that which Is on high:
Quitting with daily labour all My pleasure,
To gain at harvest an eternall Treasure.
George Herbert | The Temple | The Church | Our Life Is Hid With Christ In God (Colossians 3:3)
George Herbert meditates on dual nature of human life, aligning life’s movements with the sun’s dual motion. This interplay of the physical and spiritual mirrors central theological concerns of the 17th century, particularly the relationship between earthly existence and pursuit of eternal salvation.
The poem opens with an analogy between life and the sun, introducing the idea of ‘double motion’. The sun moves in two ways: directly visible in its daily, diurnal path, and indirectly in its less perceivable, oblique course. Herbert parallels this with human life, which operates on two levels. The first is physical, grounded in earthly existence, while the second is spiritual, aimed toward God. The contrast between the ‘straight’ and ‘hidden’ motions captures the tension between the visible, tangible aspects of life and the invisible, divine purposes that guide the soul.
Herbert uses simple yet precise language to articulate this theological duality. The ‘life…wrapt in flesh’ represents human mortality and material concerns, tethered to earth. In contrast, the spiritual life ‘winds towards Him’, emphasizing the soul’s journey back to God. The verb ‘winds’ suggests a gradual, deliberate ascent, highlighting effort required to align one’s life with divine will. This juxtaposition of two lives emphasizes their coexistence and mutual influence.
Reference to Christ’s ‘happie birth’ situates the poem within the Christian narrative of redemption. The incarnation, Christ taking on human form, provides the model for how to navigate this dual existence. Herbert suggests that Christ’s life teaches believers to keep ‘one eye’ fixed on heavenly goals, even while engaging in the labour of daily life. This imagery of aiming and shooting evokes both precision and intention, reflecting Herbert’s view that spiritual discipline requires constant focus.
Herbert’s exploration of the tension between labour and pleasure reveals his theological priorities. The line ‘Quitting with daily labour all My pleasure’ suggests that earthly enjoyment must be sacrificed for spiritual reward. The ‘harvest’ metaphor draws on biblical imagery, particularly the parable of the sower, where life’s actions yield eternal consequences. The ‘eternal Treasure’ is both the culmination of this labour and the ultimate goal of the Christian life—union with God.
Formally, the poem is tightly structured, with balanced lines that reflect the harmony Herbert seeks between the earthly and divine. The rhyme scheme and rhythmic flow reinforce the contemplative tone, guiding the reader through Herbert’s logical progression. The poem’s structure itself mirrors its theme, with its ordered form suggesting the divine order inherent in life’s dual motions.
The tone of the poem is instructive yet reflective, offering a personal account of the poet’s spiritual journey. Herbert presents himself as a model for the reader, embodying struggle to balance temporal duties with eternal aspirations. The final lines emphasize resolution and hope, suggesting that by aligning one’s life with God’s purposes, earthly toil becomes meaningful.
Herbert’s poem is a concise yet profound reflection on the dual nature of human existence. By aligning the movements of life with the sun’s dual motion, he explores the tension between temporal labour and eternal reward, offering a vision of life rooted in divine purpose and ultimate fulfilment.
Herbert’s poem focuses on themes of divine grace, human frailty, and the role of a preacher as a vessel for God’s light and truth. The poem is built around the metaphor of a preacher as a glass window through which God’s grace and truth can shine. It explores how the preacher’s life and message must be unified effectively to convey God’s word to others [ … ]
Saint Cyprian’s reflections on prayer provide a timely reminder of the essential posture a Christian must adopt when approaching God: one of humility, modesty and inward sincerity. He addresses not only the physical form of prayer but the disposition of the heart, drawing together scripture and practice in a coherent and edifying whole [ … ]
On Tuesday, His Grace turns to the theme of Jesus’ hidden years. His Grace asks the students to consider questions concerning what really happened: ‘Who, for instance, was Joseph? Was he indeed a carpenter, or has Joseph’s true role in the society in which he lived been misconstrued and forgotten to us? Though it be a beautiful, simplifying image to grasp, which offers to us much that is of value in Catholic faith… ‘A wise elder, which carpenter could mean, or a great engineer, an architekton, which in the Greek does not mean carpenter. But carpenter in the Hebrew could mean a wise man…’ His Grace turns the pages of his Bible back and forth, as if to itemize the paucity of information. Then he says: ‘What I think I can say to you with confidence is that it is of profound significance that we simply don’t know what Jesus was doing for most of his earthly life. There are some very different possibilities. One idea cherished by the Church is that Jesus worked with his father Joseph as a carpenter. Another possibility is that Jesus lived and prayed and studied closely with John the Baptist. They were cousins, and very close, almost the same, in age. Luke’s Gospel tells us clearly that Jesus and John knew each other from within the womb before they were born. So there may have been something quite important happening there. You see, we don’t know – it is an impossible mystery to us – just how much Jesus had to learn. This is because, if Jesus knew everything, humanly speaking, even as a tiny baby, then how can we say he is fully human? We simply can’t probe too far into this mystery, but we can draw extraordinary truth and healing from this thought, which becomes of immense relevance in our own lives. Jesus came to know and to understand himself not merely as a son of God, but as God the Son, and so as self-identical with his Father. It is not an adoptive relationship. Jesus is God. Now so much is hidden here. But this is a great gift. If you think about it, how do we come to know that we are loved by God, that we have our relationship with God? What are we born with in here’ – his chest – ‘and what do we have to learn? This is to say, what is gifted to us by other Christians at our baptism? ‘Jesus must have studied, and experienced profound revelation about who and what he truly was, and, so it seems to be, these studies cannot have been confined to the Semitic world. But this is the important point: there is a hiddenness about all of this. No matter which schools and which sects our Lord might have encountered all these years, this to us is as a desert space. What this means is that we can enter into the hidden life of Jesus, and there we can discover our own being with God, our own sonship. Our own particular being loved by God can come to us, if we can enter within this great unknown – into this desert space, where we are loved by Jesus. I firmly believe that there may be a great Lenten mystery in this period of our Lord’s life.’ A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 1 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 2 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 3 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 4 | King James Audio Bible | KJV A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 5 A Bishop’s Lenten Homily | Holy Week | Extracted From The Gospel According To Tomàs | Faith And Hope And Love And Sexuality | Part 6
