The Candle of the Lord

The conception of timelessness has echoed through Quaker history to our own day. It lies behind John Woolman's conception of the place of prayer as a precious habitation, and behind Thomas Kelly's insistence that it is possible for us to be in the glory of the presence of God while at the same time we are very busy in the everyday world outside. Thus Tom Kelly exhorted us to live on two planes at once, to pursue our daily lives balanced between Time and Eternity. Later on, Edward Dowsett of New Zealand developed this idea still further by combining it with a quotation from T.S. Eliot and stating his belief that " 'to apprehend the intersection of the timeless with time' is the task of the Quaker."

Thus we return to the First World Conference of 1920, with its challenge that in our everyday lives we should live as if the Kingdom of God had come, and as if Love were the supreme rule of life. If we are going to live as if the Kingdom of God had come, we must be prepared to live balanced between Time and Eternity, drawing strength from the timeless to enable us to cope with the exigencies of time. Have we evolved a working pattern which will cope with such a challenge? Are we ready to live that life, here and now, as if the Kingdom of God had come? Are we ready to believe that indeed the Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord, through which the Divine Life may flow into this weary world in an infinite ocean of light and love?