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| O ALL-SURPASSING Splendour!—one alone | |
| Of earthly race hath seen that vision fair; | |
| The present God, the rainbow round the throne, | |
| And the elect, descending through the air, | |
| His Tabernacle,—He their glorious light; | 5 |
| For in His presence there can be no night. | |
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| “All New,”—a higher world than had been made | |
| In the past-workings of omnipotence, | |
| Wills without sin,—Earth’s precious stones displayed | |
| Tell faintly some Divine magnificence | 10 |
| Of that regenerate sphere, the pure abode | |
| For sons and daughters of the Immortal God. | |
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| Those gates of pearl, those walls of burning light, | |
| Those twelve foundations, with apostles’ names, | |
| That golden pavement, burnished clear and bright, | 15 |
| Those mystic cherub wings with outspread flames, | |
| The Tree of Life, by God’s own river laved, | |
| Sustaining all the “nations of the saved.” | |
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| Ah, we sink down oppressed,—we cannot bear | |
| The contact now of that high element! | 20 |
| We must be changed, and pass this lower air, | |
| To learn Thy wonders, God Omnipotent. | |
| Lord of our world to come. Thy piercing light | |
| Transfigures all things to our longing sight. | |
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| And as we look through the dim-vistaèd years, | 25 |
| Watching Thee from Thy pure Incarnate Birth; | |
| Vision on vision of Thy form appears, | |
| Thou Who art fairer than the sons of earth; | |
| And if we faint,—it is but for Thy sake, | |
| To “Jesus only” would our souls awake. | 30 |
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