Lonsdale Ragg

Dante Alighieri Apostle of Freedom Lonsdale Ragg

These words form the sequel of to-day's Epistle in which the temporary reflection of the Shekinah in Moses's face is contrasted with the permanent and complete illumination of the Spirit. They form the climax of a passage which, full of mystery and splendour, leads us up to those things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard-to that beatific Vision prepared for God's unfeigned lovers, who shall shine with His own likeness because and when they "see Him as He is."A month from to-day-on the day of the Holy Cross-we shall be celebrating the six hundredth "birthday" into the world beyond of the man whose eagle vision pierced, dazzled but unafraid, into the blazing glory of Paradise-Dante, the pilgrim of the world to come. St. Paul's inspired and inspiring words bring back to mind the swift upward movement of Dante's Paradiso, where the spirit mounts from sphere to sphere, from glory to glory, impelled and wafted by the sheer force of Love, till at last, in face of the Triune blessedness, it is plunged into an ineffable joy and wonder-ineffable because, as he says, "as it draweth nigh to its ideal, the object of its longing, our intellect sinketh so deep that memory cannot go back upon the track"-