At a Service of Thanksgiving yesterday for the life of a friend and relation, Jonathan, there were two well chosen pieces read by two of his children.
The first was from Ecclesiastes, written 400 – 200 years BC.
“Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. Let your garments be always white, and don’t let your head lack oil. … Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol*, where you are going.
I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.” (Ecclesiastes 9: 7 – 11)
* Sheol is the place where the dead went when the body died.
The second reading was by Henry van Dyke (1852 – 1933).
“I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says; “There, she is gone!” “Gone where?”
Gone from my sight. That is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There, she is gone!” There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout; “Here she comes!”
And that is dying.“
More than two thousand years apart, both try to explain the mystery of death. This was the last hymn yesterday.
I share your admiration for both readings particularly Ecclesiastes.
The Van Dyke is a huge improvement on Henry Scott Holland
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind
because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you.
For an interval.
Somewhere. Very near.
Just around the corner.
I know a lot of people who I wouldn’t want just round the corner and I am sure there are many who would not welcome me round the corner. Much better being over the horizon.