4 December 2025

Despite having two services last Sunday, I just managed to hear the morning service on Radio 4 live from St. Salvator’s Chapel in the University of St. Andrews. The choir was exquisite. The Chaplain threaded the service together in such an informative way. It was more like a journey of discovery.

Professor Alison Jack gave an address in two parts on the Scottish poet Edwin Muir. We did some Muir at school famously studying and enjoying ‘The Horses’. Somehow I missed his connection with St. Andrews and his experience of being touched by Christianity which Jack opened up for us all.

I sought out his autobiography. When the family lived in St. Andrews, Willa, his wife, became ill. She was in a nursing home. Muir was walking home at the end of February 1939. He saw some boys playing marbles on the pavement. ‘The old game had ‘come round’ again at its own time, known only to children …’

I remember the outdoor games and their seasons. Marbles was certainly one. To Muir, it prompted a deeper thought. ‘It seemed a simple little rehearsal for a resurrection, promising a timeless renewal of life.’ This was to prompt an emotional recitation of the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and a personal revelation.

‘Now I realised that, quite without knowing it, I was a Christian, no matter how bad a one.’ As a consequence of this and discussions with ‘ministers and divines’, he read the New Testament many times and, in particular, the Gospels.’

A game of marbles and its seasonal reappearance on the street connected the poet to the mystery of the resurrection and an affirmation of faith. Professor Jack’s address opened up a welcome exploration of a poet’s inner life and the joy of reconnecting with Muir’s autobiography. A memorable act of worship.