{"id":5320,"date":"2011-12-24T23:05:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T04:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=5320"},"modified":"2011-12-24T23:05:04","modified_gmt":"2011-12-25T04:05:04","slug":"ring-out-ye-crystal-spheres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/12\/ring-out-ye-crystal-spheres.html","title":{"rendered":"Ring Out, Ye Crystal Spheres!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4ovGapf6Pyo<\/a>\n<\/p>

This is the epilogue from Ralph Vaughan Williams\u2019 Christmas cantata \u201cHodie,\u201d which adapts the words from Milton\u2019s \u201cOn the Morning of Christ\u2019s Nativity<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

Ring out, ye crystal spheres,<\/p>\n

Once bless our human ears,<\/p>\n

If ye have power to touch our senses so;<\/p>\n

And let your silver chime<\/p>\n

Move in melodious time,<\/p>\n

And let the bass of heaven\u2019s deep organ blow;<\/p>\n

And with your ninefold harmony<\/p>\n

Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.<\/p>\n

Such music (as \u2019tis said)<\/p>\n

Before was never made,<\/p>\n

But when of old the sons of morning sung,<\/p>\n

While the Creator great<\/p>\n

His constellations set,<\/p>\n

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung,<\/p>\n

And cast the dark foundations deep,<\/p>\n

And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.<\/p>\n

Yea, truth and justice then<\/p>\n

Will down return to men,<\/p>\n

Orbed in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,<\/p>\n

Mercy will sit between,<\/p>\n

Throned in celestial sheen,<\/p>\n

With radiant feet the tissued clouds down steering;<\/p>\n

And heaven, as at some festival,<\/p>\n

Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is a special Christmas offering to all the young-earth creationists<\/a> out there. Presumably if your cosmology really is that of historic Christianity, you\u2019ll find nothing in the words to disagree with\u2026and if you don\u2019t get what it is referring to, then alas, it seems that you don\u2019t know enough about traditional cosmology<\/a> or the historical Christian faith to be discussing either. But I hope you have a merry Christmas anyway<\/a>!<\/p>\n

I also recommend Joel Watts\u2019 most recent post on the vast gulf between what young-earth creationists assert and what scientific data provides evidence of<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the epilogue from Ralph Vaughan Williams\u2019 Christmas cantata \u201cHodie,\u201d which adapts the words from Milton\u2019s \u201cOn the Morning of Christ\u2019s Nativity\u201c: Ring out, ye crystal spheres, Once bless our human ears, If ye have power to touch our senses so; And let your silver chime Move in melodious time, And let the bass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126,5,131,42,80,85,101,108],"tags":[1559,1852,4685,7456,7698,9934,10413,10787,14019],"class_list":["post-5320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-bible","category-christianity-religion","category-humor","category-religion","category-science","category-theology","category-young-earth-creationism","tag-cantata","tag-christmas","tag-hodie","tag-milton","tag-mormon-tabernacle-choir","tag-ralph-vaughan-williams","tag-ring-out-ye-crystal-spheres","tag-sarcasm","tag-young-earth-creationists"],"yoast_head":"\nRing Out, Ye Crystal Spheres!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is the epilogue from Ralph Vaughan Williams' Christmas cantata "Hodie," which adapts the words from Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity":\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/12\/ring-out-ye-crystal-spheres.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ring Out, Ye Crystal Spheres!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is the epilogue from Ralph Vaughan Williams' Christmas cantata "Hodie," which adapts the words from Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity":\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/12\/ring-out-ye-crystal-spheres.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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