A Green and Pleasant Land

When death nears, everything is filled with wonder, as if viewed from the eyes of a young child. 

Being a patient on palliative care who has recently suffered spinal compression due to a large tumour between my shoulder blades – and suffered a bleed on the brain for good measure – I have to say that I leap out of bed each morning, thanking God for the breath of life He has given to me: A gift too wonderful for words. 

It’s different as a Christian, I suppose: being sure of the security one’s eternal soul being with Christ. 

The frailty of the human body and the certainty of bodily death (at some point in linear time) are of little consequence to me. 

We all fall into one of two camps:

Whether you believe that this physical life is all there is, or you believe your soul (the essence of you) has an eternal existence -makes a huge difference.

I have noticed that a society which largely falls into the first camp is suffering from a crisis of meaning, truth and identity; it is at war with itself: A sad state of affairs indeed. 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said the purpose of life is the maturing of the soul. I tend to agree. 

I still love life, but I love Jesus too. 

I know that this world did not come to be from nothing: ex- nihilo, but  from Him. 

To be clear, I do not worship the Earth but I appreciate the skill of the artist who painted it.  It is Him I worship: Yahweh, the triune God- father ,son and Holy Spirit. 

We all have gods and some of us want to play at being God. It is a responsibility that is far too much for any human being: except for the one who committed no sin but was crucified for our salvation. Even Jesus’ judge, Pontius Pilate, agreed that Jesus was innocent but deferred his decision to the baying mob before washing his hands of it. 

It was the life-mission of Jesus to rescue his fallen creation: men and women created in His image. That is the essence of the Christian movement and message. 

During my bout of spinal compression after which, I can (miraculously) walk, I tried to imagine the agony of that death and the knowledge of its brutality and the burden of our sins upon his innocent shoulders. 

I have knelt and repented of mine.

Jesus prayed in the garden of gethsemane on the eve of his crucifixion, you know. 

He prayed this:

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

It is a marvel of obedience to God, the Father, and to his mission to save every one of the 8 billion souls on this planet and the ones who have gone before and will be in the future.

It was not merely a physical death, but spiritual too: A separation from Father God. 

Having spent 16 hours in the back of an ambulance in abject agony, I have asked myself this: “if i had the power to stop the pain and knew beforehand of its coming, could I have done the same? No! 

To those who are stumped by the fact of worldly suffering, I say that Jesus came to suffer on our behalf and is never distant from our pain. We need but only to call upon His name. Here then is someone I can follow. 

Surely that is love, is it not? 

Christ was the redeemer of sin and the saver of souls. The only man who never sinned but gave up his life willingly for all.

I will continue to thank Him each morning that I awake. 

I have recently been paying attention to the actions of Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum. Agenda 2021 and Agenda 2030 are interesting documents indeed, revealing the plans of our earthly masters. They are revealing and concerning in equal measure. 

What they call, ‘Geoengineering’, designed by men to de-carbonise and cool the planet by reflecting the sun away from Earth and to dramatically reduce in number the 8 billion souls who live upon it and who are increasingly being treated as less than cattle. 

I presume that to mention it now , I will not be smeared as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ since even  the BBC have been openly talking about it. 

To the sane observer, these are the plans and actions of megalomaniacs, nihilists and sociopaths; Those who would play at being God, believing that they can change our weather systems and the planet itself.

It was the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung who said, “You can take away a man’s gods, but only to give him others in return.” 

These are concerning aims and , I believe, there are deeply unpleasant times to come. I will not be here to see them but my children will. 

Our ‘elite’ masters seem to be obsessed with the reduction of carbon dioxide, without which the land would be anything but green and pleasant. 

I often imagine a land covered in wind turbines and black solar panels, as appears to be their plan, akin to the ‘dark satanic Mills’ of Blake’s poem, Jerusalem, which later became better known as a hymn of the same name.

For now, I still enjoy walking in Englands green and pleasant land and especially in Dartmoor National Park in Devon, Southwest England. 

The winding Devon lanes that lead the way up to open moorland and panoramic vistas  build a sense of excitement and anticipation. 

Between the high Devon hedges are sections of dry stone wall, bracken and thick hazel.

Trees on either side form cathedral-like structures where they meet overhead and through which dappled sunlight falls to the ground  as through a leaky roof.

Blake himself said, “A good walk in the countryside is to me a door to all kinds of wonder.”

Now, in summer, I love to hear the twittering song of the ground nesting Skylark and the flinty chatter of the Stonechats that follow my stready progress along the tightly grazed paths between the bracken, gorse and the small and sparsely spread orange, berry-laden Rowan Trees.

On the downhill stretch I can see Magnificent views to a distant horizon of endless sea , visible between the high hills and heavily forested deep valleys. 

To my right,striking, bright green fields are lit by the sun, leading the eye  down to an old church, flying the cross of Saint George (slayer of dragons) atop its square turret. 

It is then that I feel proud and fortunate to have been born an Englishman. 

How could anyone distain the countryside or seek to ruin such natural beauty? 

I am at a loss to explain it, save for the pride and ambition of men. 

To me, this is the very essence of the England that I would be heartbroken to lose. 

You will know that it was 

William Blake who coined the phrase ‘England’s green and pleassnt land’  in his poem, Jerusalem, which later became the well known hymn of the same name. 

Blake is described as a Poet, painter, master engraver and visionary who ‘worked to bring about a change both in the social order and in the minds of men.’ 

He also wrote this brilliant observation:

‘This life’s dim windows of the soul

Distorts the heavens from pole to pole

And leads you to believe a lie

When you see with, not through, the eye.’

I am ,at times, guilty of Blake’s accusation: seeing with , not through the eye, though I often recite aloud my favourite psalm (psalm 23) in my appreciation of the spiritual as well as the physical. 

On this particular walk, my eyes moved my soul as they alighted on the following flora and fauna:

I like to notice the creatures, large and small that cross my path.

As I moved steadily downward, a very young, light fawn-coloured foal lay at ease in the short grass protected by a ring of standing aunts and older siblings. His mother layed down too, enjoying the sun as the foal rolled playfully.

My heart leapt with joy at the scene. 

I noticed the purple heather and the spiky yellow flowering gorse bushes that provide cover and food for all manner of creatures.

I saw the yellow flowers of narrowleaf mule-ears and was stopped in my tracks by the bright orange stripes of a Fox moth caterpillar; then the stumbling progress of the jet-black Pterostichus ground beetle. 

Moving on, I encountered Hedge brown and small heath butterflies that are not dissimilar in their colouring.

A lively grasshopper caught my eye, then  the strangely named, bloody-nosed beetle (Timarcha tenebricosa), also called the blood spewer or blood-spewing beetle.

The Labyrinth Spider (Agelena labyrinthica) crouched  in its funnel shaped web amongst the gorse. 

Red sorrel added patches of colour to the grassy paths. 

I came upon a clump of Sedum anglicum or English stonecrop which reminded me of a plate of strawberries and cream on top. 

The diversity of life found  here is quite extraordinary:

I saw the Purple flowering- common milkwort then stooped to inspect a green hairstreak butterfly, dead still and camouflaged against the gorse. 

There were tiny pink flowers of bedstraw and purple flowering verbena or vervain. 

Finally, on a grey, stony path ,  I saw the highlight of my walk: 

A camouflaged Grayling butterfly that cleverly keeps its wings closed when not in flight to remain unseen by predators. The Underwing is mottled-brown and it appears larger in flight when pale yellow-orange bands can be seen. 

My footsteps disturbed it as it took to a swooping flight and I remembered the words of William Blake: 

‘“He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity’s sunrise.”

A stiff breeze filled my ears on the way back as I began to breathe more heavily at the effort of walking up the steepening path. I took core to avoid disturbing the sleeping Dartmoor ponies. 

My walk was done too soon and my soul replenished. 

There’s no point worrying about Bill Gates and company. 

If God is sovereign over all things we do not need to fear, nor to be in control.  Though our burdens in life can sometimes be overwhelming, God has broader shoulders than yours and mine. 

Jesus says, in Matther ch11:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

It is an open invitation to all. 

My profound hope and sincere prayer is that some who read this will take up that offer. 

If i have Christ, what need I more? 

Some of us forget that we are but atoms and dust and begin to believe that we are the creators rather than the created. 

There is a unique sanctity in human life as created by God, who made all things

We have forgotten that we are the created and not the authors of creation. 

To those who would play at being God (Bill Gates and co), I say that they must remember their humble beginnings as the dust of the earth to which they will one day return. 

Also consider this: 

God puts us in our place  when he says in Isaiah (ch 55 vs8-9)

‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.’ 

There’s certainly something for us to think on. 

I hope that we all do, before despoiling our England: 

our green and pleasant land. 

Jim Lewis-Clarke

July2024