Summer Suns are Glowing

 The link for this week's live streamed service is here.

It may be summer and many church programmes are in hiatus, but we still gather to worship on Sunday mornings at 10:00 am. Visitors are always welcome. During these hot days we are grateful that our new heat pump keeps the sanctuary at a comfortable temperature. Come and refresh your spirit -- and your body.

Since we're speaking of summer, I thought it a good time to publish Dr. Kirk's  analysis of a summer hymn. Although his book was never published, I'm fortunate to have a manuscript copy and happy to share it with you all on this forum.

Summer Suns are Glowing was written by William Walsham How. The recommended scripture reading is Ecclesiastes 11: 1-8.

Imagine a peaceful Sunday afternoon in the country. The sun shines down on quiet fields and gently rolling green hills. A congregation is at worship in a little church. If one were to gaze out through the windows it would be to see cattle grazing at ease in the surrounding pastures. There is a clearness to the light and a peacefulness of soul that evokes praise and thanksgiving to the loving God who has blessed with such an idyllic setting. 

 That, perhaps, is the picture suggested by the opening verse of Bishop How's hymn. We may be surprised that someone who had spent the greater part of his life ministering amid the grime of the East London slums should write these words, but such is the case. Even amid the streets of a great metropolitan area he could still picture the beauty of God's creation. Solomon spoke of God bringing him into 'the banquet house and his banner over me was love' (Song. 2:4) but here that banner of love is 'everywhere unfurled.' It covers the whole world and all its peoples. It is 'broad and deep and glorious as the heaven above.' That is the wonder of God's love. It cannot be measured. It is vast, unbounded, free, streaming to everyone who will accept it.

Human beings are not always prepared to acknowledge the goodness of God. We can be deliberately blind when surrounded with the blessings of life, accepting them as our due and refusing to return thanks to the Giver. We need help to love God more and so the prayer is offered that He will pour His 'pure radiance' upon us that our eyes may be enlightened. Not only do we not thank God for the good things of life but we also blame Him for the bad things that happen. . . . 'Where is God when I need Him?' The fact of the matter is that God is there all the time if we were only aware of it. 'When clouds are drifting dark across our sky' God is there behind the clouds, waiting and wanting to help us if we would turn to Him. God never forces Himself upon us. He waits in the shadows and if we would ask Him to lift the veil that hides Him from us, we would know His presence and we would receive the aid we need.

We are not always certain that God is with us. There are times when He seems to call upon us to live in the world without discerning His presence and we only recognize His nearness as we look back on what has happeneed. The important thing to remember is that He has given His promise to be with us and we should not doubt His willingness to keep that promise. At times God's apparent absence, the fact that He veils His light, may be that our faith may be tested. Struggle with doubt may be part of our Christian growth. Jesus accepted the man who prayed, 'Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief." (Mark 9: 24). We long for the light that God's presence sheds 'on our pilgrim way' and we know that 'life is dark without Thee.' If He goes before us, however, there will be sufficient illumination to direct our footsteps and even the darkness of death will be brightened for 'death with Thee is bright." our God is the One of whom the psalmist said, 'darkness is as light with Thee." (Ps. 139:12). And at the last we will come through the bright and the cloudy days to 'the endless day' when the 'Light of light (will) shine o'er us' for all eternity.  

                                                                                       -- Dr. Cecil Kirk 

The hymn may be found here on hymnary.org  or listen to it here.