Festus

God, the Archangel, Saints and Angels. Archangel

Let all the dead rejoice! their Saviour comes;
With clouds of angels circled like a sun,
Belted with light, and brighter than all light,
Lo! He descends and seats Him on His throne,
Alighting like a new made sun in Heaven.
The world awaits Thee, Lord! Rise, souls of men,
Buried beneath all ages from the first;
Ye numbered and unnumbered, loathed and loved,
Awake to judgment! Rise! the grave no more
Hath power upon ye than the ravening sea
Upon the stars of Heaven. Ye elements!
Give back your stolen dead. He claimeth them
Whose they both were and are, and aye shall be.

Son of God

I come to repay sin with holiness,
And death with immortality; man’s soul
With God’s Spirit; all evil with all good.
All men have sinned; and as for all I died,
All men are saved. Oh! not a single soul
Less than the countless all can satisfy
The infinite triumph which to me belongs,
Who infinitely suffered. Ye elect!
And all ye angels, with God’s love informed,
Who reign with me o’er earth and Heaven, assume
Your seats of judgment. Judge ye all in love,
The love which God the Father hath to you⁠—
For His Son’s sake, and all shall be forgiven.

Saints

Lord! let us render back to Thee the love
Which is Thine own: none else is worthy Thee.

Son of God

Behold this day I dwell with thee on earth,
E’en to the last; the next shall be in Heaven,
Where ye shall meet the Father, and remain
In the Eternal presence, He through me
Blessing all spirits overflowingly.

Saints

Dear Lord, our God and Saviour! for Thy gifts
The world were poor in thanks, though every soul
Were to do nought but breathe them, every blade
Of grass and every atomie of earth
To utter it like dew. Thy ways are plain
Only in Thine own light. And this great day
Unveils all nature’s laws and miracles⁠—
All to Thee all as one. Thy death was life;
Thy judgment is all mercy, Lord of Love!
The world’s incomprehensible no more
To man, but all is bright as new-born star.

Son of God

The Book of Life is opened. Heaven begins.

XXXVI

Scene⁠—The Heaven of Heavens.

	The Recording Angel, Lucifer, Festus, Angels.
The Recording Angel	All men are judged save one.
Son of God	He too is saved. Immortal! I have saved thy soul to Heaven. Come hither. All hearts bare themselves to me, As clouds unbind their bosoms to the sun, And thine was wealthy in the gifts of good. And, if its guilt and glory lay in love, Let light outweigh the darkness! Thou art saved.
Saints	Rejoice! Rejoice!
Festus	Could I, Lord! pour my soul out, In thanks, even as a river rolling ever, ’Twould be too scant for what I owe to Thee.
Son of God	Nay; immortality is long enough, As life, or as a moment is, to show Thy love of good, thy thanks to me and God. One heart-throb sometimes earneth Heaven⁠—one tear.
Festus	My Maker! let me thank Thee, I have lived, And live a deathless witness of Thy grace. And Thee, the Holy One, who hast chosen me, From old eternity, while yet I lay Hid, like a thought in God, unuttered⁠—Thou, Who makest finite full with the Infinite, As is a womb with an immortal spirit, Oh! let me thank Thee that I witness to Thee. And Thou, mid-God! my Saviour, and my Judge! Sun of the soul, whose day is now all noon⁠— Who makest of the universe one Heaven⁠— I praise Thee. Heaven doth praise Thee. God doth praise Thee. The Holy Ghost doth praise Thee. Praise Thyself!
Lucifer	Is he not mine?
God	Evil! away for aye! In the beginning, ere I bade things be⁠— Or ever I begat the worlds on space, I knew of him, and saved him in my Son, Who now hath judged; for, fraught with God-hood, He Yet feels the frailties of the things He has made; And therefore can, like-feelingly, judge them. For I abide not sin; and in my Son There is no sin⁠—not that He takes away. It is destroyed for ever and made nothing.
Son of God	Spirit, depart! this mortal loved me. With all his doubts, he never doubted God: But from doubt gathered truth, like snow from clouds, The most, and whitest, from the darkest. Go!
Lucifer	I leave thee, Festus. Here thou wilt be happy. To be in Heaven is to love forever God⁠—and thou must love here. Here thou wilt find All that thou canst and oughtst to love: for souls, Re-made of God, and moulded over again Into his sun-like emblems, multiply His might and love: the saved are suns, not earths; And with original glory shine of God. While I shall keep on deepening in my darkness, With not one gleam across the gloom of being.
Festus	Let us part, spirit! it may be, in the coming, That as we sometime were all worth God’s making. We may be worth forgiving; taking back Into His bosom, pure again⁠—and then, All shall be one with Him, who is one in all.
Lucifer	It may be, then, that I shall die. Farewell. Forgive me that I tempted thee!
Festus	I am glad.
God	Stay, spirit! all created things unmade It suits not the eternal laws of good That Evil be immortal. In all space Is joy and glory, and the gladdened stars, Exultant in the sacrifice of sin, And of all human matter in themselves, Leap forth as though to welcome earth to Heaven⁠— Leap forth and die. All nature disappears. Shadows are passed away. Through all is light. Man is as high above temptation now⁠— And where by Grace he alway shall remain As ever sun o’er sea; and sin is burned In hell to ashes with the dust of death. The worlds themselves are but as dreams within Their souls who lived in them, and thou art null, And thy vocation useless, gone with them. Therefore shall Heaven rejoice in thee again, And the lost tribes of angels, who with thee Wedded themselves to woe, and all who dwell Around the dizzy centres of all worlds, Again be blessed with the blessedest. Lo! ye are all restored, rebought, rebrought To Heaven by Him who cast ye forth, your God. Receive ye tenfold of all gifts and powers. And thou who cam’st to Heaven to claim one soul, Remain possessed by all. The sons of