What is the dark abyss of fire, and what
The ravenous heights of air, o’er which I reign,
In agony of glory, to these seats?
The loathsome cavern of the oracle,
O’er which ye rise in templed majesty,
Filled with the incense of all worshippers,
And echoing with the eloquence of God,
Which rolls in sunny clouds around the heavens.
Yet must I work through world and life my fate;
And winding through the wards of human hearts,
Steal their incarnate strength. Death does his work
In secret and in joy intense, untold,
As though an earthquake smacked its mumbling lips
O’er some thick peopled city. But for me,
Exists nor peace nor pleasure, even here,
Where all beside, the very faintest thought,
Is rapture. I will speak to God as erst.
Father of spirit, as the sun of air!
Beginning of all ends, and end of all
Beginnings, throughout whole Eternity;
From whom Eternity and every power
Perfect, and pure cause, is and emanates!
Originator without origin!
End without end! Creator of all ages,
And sabbath of all Being; who hast made
All numbers sacred, who art all and one!
At whose right hand the wisdom of all worlds
Combined, is only fearful foolishness
Or inarticulate madness—and Thou, Lord!
Maker and Perfecter of all, the one!
Being above all Being, God the Life!
Who art the way whereon the world proceeds
From God, all-making, and whereby returns
The ever generated universe!—
Who rulest all worlds in the law of light,
Thy nature and their own; who art before
All ages, angels, blessed, times and worlds!
Word that in every world art safe to save
All souls, impregned with spirit, God-begot!
And Thou eternal spirit-Deity!
The sanctifier of the universe!
Being, and Life, and spirit, who dost make,
Destroyest, recreatest, makest God!
God one and Trine! Thou seest me here again;
Still, sunlike, though eclipsed, of blinding power
And fiery cause, and everness of ill;
Behold I bow before Thee; hear Thou me!
What wouldst thou, Lucifer?
There is a youth
Among the sons of men I fain would have
Given up wholly to me.
He is thine,
To tempt
I thank Thee, Lord!
Upon his soul
Thou hast no power. All souls are mine for aye.
And I do give thee leave to this that he
May know my love is more than all his sin,
And prove unto himself that nought but God
Can satisfy the soul He maketh great.
Thou God art all in one! Thy infinite
Bounds Being. Thou hast said the world shall end.
The world is perfect, as concerns itself,
And all its parts and ends; not as towards Thee.
So man is Likest and unlikest God,
Of all existence; therefore doth as much
Resemble Thee as any act a mind.
In him of whom I ask, I seek once more
To tempt the living world, and then depart.
And I will hallow him to the ends of Heaven,
That though he plunge his soul in sin like a sword
In water, it shall nowise ding to him.
He is of Heaven. All things are known in Heaven,
Ere aimed at upon earth. The child is chosen.
Another soul
The Holy one
Hath chosen out of earth;
And there is none
Throughout the whole
Like worthy of his birth.
Oh! who hath joy like mine? was I not here
When from Thy boundless bosom, as a star
Out of the air, that soul was kindled, Lord!
And given to me to guard and guide—while both,
Mid starry strains out of the depths of Heaven,
Fell at Thy feet in worship?—joy of joys!
To you, ye saints and angels, let me speak;
For ye I see rejoice with me. Ye know
What ’tis to triumph o’er temptation, what
To fall before it; how the young spirit faints—
The virgin tremor, the heart’s ebb and flow,
When first some vast temptation calmly comes
And states itself before it, like the sun
Low looming in the west, above the wave
Of wimpling streamlet, ere its waters grow
To size aortal. Than the Fiend himself
There is no greater evil. Less the shame
Of yielding, more the glory of conquering,
In him, to whom he goes, this soul elect.
From infancy through childhood, up to youth,
Have I this soul attended; marked him blest
With all the sweet and sacred ties of life;—
The prayerful love of parents, pride of friends,
Prosperity, and health and ease, the aids
Of learning, social converse with the good
And gifted, and his heart all-lit with love,
Like to the rolling sea with living light;—
Hopeful and generous and earnest; rich
In commune with high spirits, loving truth
And wisdom for their own divinest selves:
Tracking the deeds of the world’s glory, or
Conning the words of wisdom, Heaven-inspired,
As on the soul, in pure effectual ray,
The bright, transparent atoms, thought by thought,
Fall fixed for evermore. And thus his days,
Through sunny noon, or mooned eve, or night
Star-armied, shining through the deathless air,
All radiantly elapsed, in good or joy.
All this, for long, I marked. There grew, at length,
A change within his spirit; and I feared
A fatal and a final fall from good.
God’s love seemed lost upon him. He became
Heart-deadened. Watching, warning, vain, I fled
Hither to intercede with God our Lord,
To bless him with salvation. We may plead
Alway for those we love, by leave divine.
Nor knew I till this moment, with all Heaven,
That, in the righteous providence of God,
That soul was saved. Thou knowest, Lord! the mould
Of mortals, and the infinite end whereto
The souls Thou savest are predestinate;
Oh! be Thy mercy mighty to this soul,
Fiend-threatened; nor permit him who presides
O’er Hell’s eternal holocaust, too far
To tempt or tamper with the heart of man!—
My mercy doth outstretch the universe;
Shall it not be sufficient for one soul?
I am the wrath of God unto myself,
And made by Him to do my part Do thou
Thine! they are far enough apart I ween.
The heaven-strung chords of man’s immortal soul
Are not for thee to wither at thy will.
Bear witness, all ye blessed, to the word;—
Angels, intelligences, sons of God!
Ye who know nought but truth, feel nought but love,
Will nought but bliss, do nought but righteousness!
Whose life was ere the Heavens were conceived,
The stars begotten, or the ages born;
Ye many ordered hierarchies, which are
The love, truth, justice, majesty and might,
Dominion, glory, wisdom, bliss of God;
Ye through whose ministry of mercy—His
Immediate, ever instant, active, all
Spirits and worlds
