"We are all one in comfort," says Julian, "all the gracious comfort was for all mine even-Christians." Sin separates, pain isolates, but salvation and comfort unite.
And lastly, in this mystical vision of the oneness of man with God in Christ, man is seen not only as united in himself in the diverse parts of his nature, and as one with his fellow man, but as joined to that which is below him. How often of one good and another, as of that fair and sacred "service of the Mother"—"nearest, readiest, and surest"—"in the creatures by whom it is done," do we hear Julian's confident word of Sacramental declaration: "It is Christ." "For God is all that is good, as to my sight, and God hath made all that is made: and he that loveth generally all his even-Christians for God, he loveth all that is. For in Mankind that shall be saved is comprehended all: that is to say, all that is made and the Maker of all. For in Man is God, and God is in all. And I hope," adds Julian, in words that are fitting to take for her courteous, her tender, "Good Speed" ere we pass to her book—altogether like her as they are, even to the careful, conditional "if" (for nothing, not even comfort, behoves to be "overdone much"), "I hope by the grace of God he that beholdeth it thus shall be truly taught and mightily comforted, if he needeth comfort" ([ix.]).
Deus ubique est, et totus ubique est. All things are gathered up in Man, and Man is gathered up in Christ; and Christ is gathered up in the Bosom of the Father. So the world of the lower creation makes promise: All things are yours; and the Church says over its offering, lifted up: Ye are Christ's; and from the stillness the voice of peace is heard: And Christ is God's. "All the promises of God in Him are Yea and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." All the promises of God: the blossom that floated to the ground; "the lily of a day" that "fell and died that night"; the "little Child, whiter than lily, that swiftly glided up into Heaven"—all the utterances silenced here—in Him are Yea and in Him Amen: Yea on earth and Amen for ever. "He turneth the shadow of death into the morning."
May 1901.
[1] Theologia Germanica, Chap. 1.
[2] Blake's Poems.
[3] Memorabilia of Jesus, by W. Peyton, p. 33.
[4] Gilchrist's Life and Works of William Blake, vol. ii.
[5] Amor de Caritade, by Jacopone da Todi (formerly ascribed to S. Francis of Assisi).
[6] "Quid me interrogas de bono? Unus est bonus, Deus."—S. Matt. xix. 17.