Fight the Good Fight, by St Bede of Jarrow

By John Martin (1789–1854), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

‘The Celestial City and the River of Bliss’, painted in 1841 by John Martin (1789–1854), showing the angel leading St John across the landscape of heaven; see Revelation 21:1-22:5. At the heart of the renewed Earth, a New Creation, is the New Jerusalem, a city at peace with itself, where we will find again those whom we seem to have lost. Stretching endlessly beyond is a landscape like this world yet unlike — more real, more tangible, more vibrant; still a place of rivers, mountains and trees, and of many mansions, yet all without decay or toil. At the heart of the City lies the heavenly Temple which Moses had glimpsed briefly upon Mount Sinai, where Christ now sits at the right hand of God. See Exodus 24:9-11, Hebrews 8-9.

Fight the Good Fight

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LET us consider, therefore, the felicity of that heavenly habitation, in so far as it is possible to consider it; for to speak the truth, no words of man are sufficient to comprehend it.

Of that city is written in a certain place, thus: that grief, and sorrow and crying shall flee away.* What can be happier than that life where there is no fear of poverty — no weakness of disease; where none can be hurt, none can be angry; where none can envy, none can be impure; where none can be tormented with the desire of honour, or the ambition of power? No fear there of the Devil; no snares there of evil spirits; no terror there of hell; no death there, either of soul or body, but a life blessed in the gift of immortality. No discord there for ever, but all things in harmony — all things in agreement: because there will be one concord of all saints — one peace, and one joy. Tranquil are all things there, and quiet.*

by St Bede of Jarrow 672-735

Translated from the Latin of St Bede (?672-735), in ‘Mediæval preachers and mediæval preaching’ (1856) by John Mason Neale (1818-1866). Some minor emendations have been made.

* See Revelation 21:3-4: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away”.

* Tranquil and quiet, yet not disengaged from the struggles and sorrows of those they have left behind: as Bede says in this same sermon, “a vast and mighty crowd of parents, brothers, and children, secure now of their own safety, anxious yet for our salvation, longs that we may come to their sight and embrace”. Bede (who is drawing on Hebrews 12:1-2) assumes that, like spectators in an athletics stadium, they can see us and are emotionally invested in all that we do. See Run for Glory.

Précis

Bede went on to recall to his listeners the character of their heavenly homeland: how there was no grief or pain there, how it was free from temptation and falling alike, and how all was tranquillity there thanks to unbroken concord of mind and heart, and the absence of ambition and lust for power.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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