Many things are there which my eye discerneth not

When I see a little church environed with trees, how many things are there which mine eye discerneth not. The labour of them which in ancient ages builded it ... its protection by laws, its subjection to kings, its relation to bishops, its usefulness and convenience for the entertainment of Christians, the divine service, the office of ministry, solemn assemblies, praises and thanksgivings, for the sake of which it was permitted, is governed, standeth and flourisheth.

Perhaps when I look upon it, it is desolate and empty almost like a heap of stones, none of these things appearing to the eyes which nevertheless are the spiritual beauties which adorn and clothe it. The uses, relations, services and ends being the spiritual and invisible things that make any material to be of worth.

He who cannot see the invisible cannot enjoy nor value temples. But he that seeth them may esteem them all to be his own and wonder at the divine bounty for giving them so richly.

Thomas Traherne Select Meditations III.83.

(The photograph - taken just before sunrise yesterday, the Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity and Remembrance Sunday - is of The Middle Church, Ballinderry, constructed at the direction of Jeremy Taylor.)

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