I launched. Souls, worlds did every thing possess
Which could a mortal and immortal bless.
To all the hope of happier state was given—
For all I keep one common boundless Heaven.
Ye all have freedom, and ye all do sin,
For ye are creatures: but ye all may win
Life everlasting—everlasting joy,
If ye do but the love of sin destroy:
This only is offence; for sin ye must
Not by my will; but weakness dwells with dust,
Unless ye have sinned ye cannot enter Heaven.
How shall a sinless creature be forgiven?
And by forgiveness only can ye claim
Hope in my mercy, trust upon my name.
I knew that ye would all to sin be given;
But I, even God, have paid your price to Heaven:
And if ye will not journey on that way—
The truth—the life—what do ye merit? say!
Death is the gate of life, and sin, of bliss:
Mark the dread truth! but mourn your deeds amiss.
Cast off your guilt! abandon folly’s path!
Turn to the Lord your God ere hell His wrath!
Turn from your madness, wicked ones, and live!
Take, take the bliss which God alone can give.
God, the Creator, me all beings own—
God, the Redeemer, I will still be known—
God, too, the Judge—the each—the three—the one.
Again the Everlasting cried—Repent!
To bless or curse I am Omnipotent.
And what art thou, created Being? Round
That world of worlds His arm the Almighty wound;
The bright immensity He raised, and pressed,
All trembling, like a babe, unto His breast.
There, in the Father’s bosom rose again,
Of filial love, the universal strain;
Strong and exultant—blissful, pure, sublime,
It rolled, and thrilled, and swelled in notes unknown to time.
Think ye that I, who thus do ye maintain;
Thus always cherish ye, or all were vain—
Ye all would drop into your native void,
If by my hand ye were not held and buoyed:
Think ye that I cannot uphold in Heaven,
In righteous state, the souls I have forgiven?
Is this a weightier task? with God, ’tis one
To guide a sunbeam or create a sun—
To rule ten thousand thousand worlds or none.
Go, worlds! said God, but learn, ere ye depart,
My favoured temple is an humble heart;
Therein to dwell I leave my loftiest skies—
There shall my holy of all holies rise!
He spake; and swiftly, reverent to His will,
Sprang each bright orb on high its sphere to fill.
Glory to God! they chanted as they soared—
Father Almighty! be Thou all-adored.
Thou art the glory—we, Thine universe,
Serve but abroad Thy lustre to disperse.
Unsearchable, and yet to all made known!
The world at once Thy kingdom and Thy throne—
Pity us, God! nor chase us quite away
Before Thy wrath, as night before the day.
In Thee, our God, we live; from Thee we came—
The feeble sparks of Thine eternal flame.
Thy breath from nothing filled us all at first,
And could again as soon the bubble burst.
In Thee, like motes in the sunbeam, we move;
Glow in Thy light, and gladden in Thy love.
And midst this praise, earth was the only one
Sullen remained in that grand union
Of joy and harmony. Word spake she none.
Earth only had been chidden.
Not alone.
High o’er all height, God gat upon His throne.
Downwards He bent; and, as a grain of sand,
He lifted up our globe. Then from His hand,
As ’twere in pity, bowled the ingrate sphere,
Which rushed like ruin down its dark career.
And high the air’s blue billows rolled and swelled
On many an island world mine eye beheld.
And where and what is he, this mighty friend,
Who to thee, human, thus his might doth lend?
Who bore thee harmless, as thou sayst, through space,
And brought thee front before thy Maker’s face?
I know not where he is. It is but at times
That he is with me; but he aye sublimes
His visits thus, by lending me his might
O’er things more bright than day, more deep than night.
And he obeys me—whether good or ill
His or my object, he obeys me still.
O Festus! I conjure thee to beware
Lest thus the Evil one thy soul ensnare.
What! may not a free spirit have preferred
A mortal to his heart—as thou thy bird
Lovest, because it singeth of the sky,
Although it is as far below thy soul
As I ’neath an archangel’s majesty?
God will protect the atom as the whole.
Him, then, I pray: the spirit full must share
The truths it feels with God Himself in prayer.
So guide us, God! in all our works and ways,
That heart may feel, hand act, mouth show Thy praise;
Thai when they meet, who love, and when they part,
Each may be high in hope, and pure in heart:
That they who have seen, and they who have but heard
Of Thy great deeds, may both obey Thy word!
Unto the wise belongs the sphere of light,
And to the spirit world-compelling might.
Yon sun, now setting in the golden main,
Shall count me his ere next he rise again.
Would that the earth had nothing fair to lure,
Nor being more to answer or endure!
But I foresee, fore-suffer. Bound to earth,
Wrecked in the deeps of Heaven, in Death’s expiring birth!
XXV
Scene—The Sun.
| Festus |
Soul of the world, divine Necessity, |
