Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By The Dream of Gerontius (1865) (Selected passages). II. Fifth Choir of Angelicals (“Praise to the Holiest”)

John Henry Newman (1801–1890)

PRAISE to the Holiest in the height,

And in the depth be praise:

In all His words most wonderful;

Most sure in all His ways!

O loving wisdom of our God!

When all was sin and shame,

A second Adam to the fight

And to the rescue came.

O wisest love! that flesh and blood

Which did in Adam fail,

Should strive afresh against their foe,

Should strive and should prevail;

And that a higher gift than grace

Should flesh and blood refine,

God’s Presence and His very Self,

And Essence all-divine.

O generous love! that He who smote

In man for man the foe,

The double agony in man

For man should undergo;

And in the garden secretly,

And on the cross on high,

Should teach His brethren and inspire

To suffer and to die.