Today was very busy and very draining for a variety of reasons. I will start with this afternoon, and then I'll get around to the morning because that's what I want to talk about the most. This morning was our tour of St. Pauls, and we were there for about an hour and a half before grabbing lunch in a square near the cathedral and hopping the Tube to explore a couple of museums.
First stop: Baker Street, because I have been wanting to go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum ever since we got here. It was small and fairly touristy, but delightful all the same. The rooms of 221b Baker Street are decorated in Victorian fournishings with all the traditional Holmsian accoutrements: deerstalker, pipe, violin, chemistry set, Dr. Watson's medical bag, and so on and so on. They were lovely, although I don't remember it being so narrow and so many stories, but I can reconcile myself to that. The upper floor was devoted to waxworks of the famous characters of the stories--Moriarty, Irene Adler, and so on. I took a great many pictures, none of great quality because the rooms were, authentically, quite dim (the floorboards creaked as well). The gift store was absorbing, but I resisted any purchases. Stumbled across a wonderful quote: "Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent." Is such a... a Chestertonian quote. And so true. I love it.
From thence we travelled to the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is an eclectic history museum--it has everything from theatre exhibits to collections of silver and snuff boxes to galleries on Asian culture and Medieval history (which happens to be split between the second and fourth floors). It's bizarrely laid out, but wonderful. I didn't get nearly enough time there.
After that came Evensong at St. Paul's, and fish and chips for dinner. The fish and chips place we went to literally served us a whole de-boned, breaded, and fried fish on top of a mountain of greasy chips. It was a great experience, but rather too much and too heavy for one person. We had to go and buy fruit for ourselves afterwards. Now we are watching "Ever After," which is one of the most fantastic movies of all time. If you haven't seen it, watch it.
So, back to this morning. Upon arrival at St. Paul's, the first thing we did was climb up the gigantic dome which boasts a spectacular view of London. It required climbing over a thousand stairs, which was just fine until we got to the first gallery, which looks down on the central area of the cathedral from the lowest part of the dome. It was lovely, but I have to confess that I am rather afraid of heights, so I experiened a certain amount of vertigo--but it was tolerable. Up another level, which took us to an outside walkway on the cathedral, and I was still fine. It was a nice view, but the attendant informed us that the best view was to be had in the Golden Gallery, near the very top of the steeple. So, we commenced to climb again. But this time, I was most certainly not fine. You see, the stairs previously had been solid stone or wood. From hereon out, they were all very steep iron spiral staircases, which you can see straight down through. And I almost immediately began to experience tremendous discomfort with the height. It was an effort to take even one step. I had to keep reciting Psalm 23 to continue. By the top, I was slightly dizzy and quaking. But the Scripture recitation did help, and I made it down just fine. Praise God. I haven't shaken that much in a very long time.
Once at the bottom, I rejoiced in the solidity of the ground and the openness of the cathedral, and settled myself down in front of a beautiful painting entitled "The Light of the World." It depicts Jesus, clad in priestly vestments, it seemed, standing in the midst of a dark forest and holding a lantern. Simple and peaceful. I took the opportunity to meditate on some Scriptures about Christ as the Light and to think about the sinner's plight in relation to that light. I think the forest is a wonderful metaphor for the post-fall human situation. We are all trapped in a forest with no guide, no hope of getting out, until God sends Christ to penetrate the darkest corners and lead out the lost to His kingdom. Our choice is to follow Him.
A few Scriptures were particularly meaningful to me:
John 3, which says "Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil."
Revelation 21, which says of the new Jerusalem "The glory of God illumines it," and that the Lamb is its lamp.
Mark 5, which promises that Jesus is the Light of the World, and that those who believe in Him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Luke 2:29-32, one of my favorite passages of Scripture, Simeon's response to the presentation of Christ in the Temple. "Sovereign Lord, as You have promised, You now dismiss Your servant in peace, for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared in the sight of all peoples: a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to Your people, Israel." Those verses never fail to move me--their expression of joyful fulfillment of something so deeply longed for is utterly, breath-takingly beautiful. The wonderful part was that later that day, the cathedral choir sang those verses during Evensong. What a blessing.
Finally, St Paul's was momentous for me because G.K. Chesterton wrote a marvelous novel named after its steeple entitled The Ball and the Cross. Walking by it made me feel like I was in Chesterton's London, not the London of 2011, and that is a marvelous feeling. Because it is a particularly poignant piece of prose (yes, I can alliterate!), I would like to share a quote from it with you all.
"That is the only real question -- whether the Church is really madder than the world. Let the rationalists run their own race, and let us see where they end. If the world has some healthy balance other than God, let the world find it.Does the world find it? Cut the world loose. Does the world stand on its own end? Does it stand, or does it stagger? The world has gone mad. The world takes the trouble to make a big mistake about every little mistake made by the Church. Now is the judgment of this world. The Prince of this World is judged."
Chew on that for a while. Good evening!
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