The Hills are Alive with Angels in Chariots of Fire, and Christ Walks on the Thames

 

 Billy Bragg sings Jerusalem at Greenbelt 2011

 And did those feet in ancient time.

Walk upon England's mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On England’s pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England’s green and pleasant Land

William Blake

Blake refers to the pleasing. apocryphal tradition that the young Christ visited Glastonbury with his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea. 

And though the answer to all Blake's questions is No--it is thrilling: the notion that those feet, in ancient time, walked upon England's mountains green, that the Holy Lamb of God was upon England’s pleasant pastures seen, and the Countenance Divine shone forth among our clouded hills.

What is no less thrilling but actually true is those feet still walk upon England’s mountains green, that the Holy Lamb of God is among England’s pleasant pastures seen, and that the Countenance Divine shines forth among our clouded hills.

We just do not slow down enough to see or recognize him walking beside us.

Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you

Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded

I do not know whether a man or a woman

—But who is that on the other side of you?

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

Visionaries and prophets on the other hand can always see the one walking beside. Always another walking beside us. Can see the hills around us ringed with angels in chariots and fire. Can see Jacob’s ladder between heaven and Charing Cross, as Francis Thompson saw it, or between Heaven and Oxford. Can see Christ walking on the water, not of Gennesaret but Thames, or the Isis and Cherwell.

Here’s one of my favourite poems by a Christian mystic, Francis Thompson.

The Kingdom of God

1

“IN NO STRANGE LAND”

O world invisible, we view thee,

O world intangible, we touch thee,

O world unknowable, we know thee,

Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

5 Does the fish soar to find the ocean,

The eagle plunge to find the air—

That we ask of the stars in motion

If they have rumor of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,

10 And our benumbed conceiving soars!—

The drift of pinions, would we hearken,

Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places—

Turn but a stone and start a wing!

15 ’Tis ye, ’tis your estrangéd faces,

That miss the many-splendored thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)

Cry—and upon thy so sore loss

Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder

20 Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

2

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,

Cry—clinging Heaven by the hems;

And lo, Christ walking on the water,

Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

Oh, may I always see Him walking beside me.