I
‘GOD is the sole and self-subsistent one; | |
| From Him, the sun-creator, nature was | |
| Aethereal essences, all elements, | |
| The souls therein indigenous, and man | |
| Symbolic of all being. Out of earth | 5 |
| The matron moon was moulded, and the sea | |
| Filled up the shining chasm; both now fulfil | |
| One orbit and one nature, and all orbs | |
| With them one fate, one universal end. | |
| From light’s projective moment, in the earth | 10 |
| The moon was, even as earth i’ the sun; the sun | |
| A fiery incarnation of the heavens. | |
| When sun, earth, moon again make one, resumes | |
| Nature her heavenly state; is glorified.’ | |
| As, to the sleepless eye, form forth, at last, | 15 |
| The long immeasurable layers of light, | |
| And beams of fire enormous in the east, | |
| The broad foundations of the heaven-domed day | |
| All fineless as the future, so uprose | |
| On mine the great celestial certainty. | 20 |
| The mask of matter fell off, I beheld, | |
| Void of all seeming, the sole substance mind, | |
| The actualized ideal of the world. | |
| An absolutest essence filled my soul; | |
| And superseding all its modes and powers, | 25 |
| Gave to the spirit a consciousness divine; | |
| A sense of vast existence in the skies; | |
| Boundless commune with spiritual light, and proof | |
| Self-shown, of heaven commensurate with all life. | |
| And I to the light of the great spirit’s eyes | 30 |
| Mine hungry eyes returned which, past the first | |
| Intensifying blindness, clearlier saw | |
| The words she uttered of triumphant truth. | |
| For truly, and as my vision heightened, lo! | |
| The universal volume of the heavens, | 35 |
| Star-lettered in celestial characters, | |
| Moved musically into words her breath framed forth, | |
| And varied momently; and I perceived | |
| That thus she spake of God: I silent still | |
| And hearkening to the sea-swell of her voice: | 40 |
| ‘From one divine, all permanent unity comes | |
| The many and infinite; from God all just | |
| To himself and others, who to all is love, | |
| Earth and the moon, like syllables of light, | |
| Uttered by him, were with all creatures blessed | 45 |
| By him, and with a sevenfold blessing sealed | |
| To perfect rest, celestial order; all | |
| The double-tabled book of heaven and earth, | |
| Despite such due deficiency as cleaves | |
| Inevitably to soul, till God resume, | 50 |
| Progressive aye, possessing too all bliss | |
| Elect and universal in the heavens.’ | |
| |
II
And none can truly worship but who have | |
| The earnest of their glory from on high, | |
| God’s nature in them. It is the love of God, | 55 |
| The ecstatic sense of oneness with all things, | |
| And special worship towards himself that thrills, | |
| Through life’s self-conscious chord, vibrant in him, | |
| Harmonious with the universe, which makes | |
| Our sole fit claim to being immortal; that | 60 |
| Wanting nor willing, the world cannot worship. | |
| And whether the lip speak, or in inspired | |
| Silence, we clasp our hearts as a shut book | |
| Of song unsung, the silence and the speech | |
| Is each his; and as coming from and going | 65 |
| To him, is worthy of him and his love. | |
| Prayer is the spirit speaking truth to truth; | |
| The expiration of the thing inspired. | |
| Above the battling rock-storm of this world | |
| Lies heaven’s great calm, through which as through a bell, | 70 |
| Tolleth the tongue of God eternally, | |
| Calling to worship. Whose hears that tongue | |
| Worships. The spirit enters with the sound, | |
| Preaching the one and universal word, | |
| The God-word, which is spirit, life, and light; | 75 |
| The written word to one race, the unwrit | |
| Revealment to the thousand-peopled world. | |
| The ear which hears is pre-attuned in heaven, | |
| The eye which sees prevision hath ere birth. | |
| But the just future shall to many give | 80 |
| Gifts which the partial present doles to few; | |
| To all the glory of obeying God. | |
