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| GOD, 1 who at sundry times in manners many | |
| Spake to the fathers and is speaking still, | |
| Eager to find if ever or if any | |
| Souls will obey and hearken to His will,— | |
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| Who that one moment has the least descried Him, | 5 |
| Dimly and faintly, hidden and afar, | |
| Doth not despise all excellence beside Him, | |
| Pleasures and powers that are not and that are,— | |
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| Ay amid all men bear himself thereafter, | |
| Smit with a solemn and a sweet surprise, | 10 |
| Dumb to their scorn, and turning on their laughter | |
| Only the dominance of earnest eyes?— | |
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| God, who, whatever frenzy of our fretting | |
| Vexes sad life to spoil and to destroy, | |
| Lendeth an hour for peace and for forgetting, | 15 |
| Setteth in pain the jewel of his joy:— | |
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| Gentle and faithful, tyrannous and tender, | |
| Ye that have known Him, is He sweet to know? | |
| Softly he touches, for the reed is slender, | |
| Wisely enkindles, for the flame is low. | 20 |
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| God, who when Enoch from the earth was hidden | |
| Saved him from death, and Noë from the sea, | |
| Chose Him a people for His purpose bidden, | |
| Found in Chaldæa the elect Chaldee,— | |
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| God, who, His promise thro’ the ages keeping, | 25 |
| Called him from Charran, summoned him from Ur, | |
| Gave to his wife a laughter and a weeping, | |
| Light to the nations and a son for her,— | |
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| God, who in Israel’s bondage and bewailing | |
| Heard them and granted them their heart’s desire, | 30 |
| Clave them the deep with power and with prevailing, | |
| Gloomed in the cloud and glowed into the fire, | |
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| Fed them with manna, furnished with a fountain, | |
| Followed with waves the raising of the rod, | |
| Drew them and drave, till Moses on the mountain | 35 |
| Died of the kisses of the lips of God;— | |
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| God, who was not in earth when it was shaken, | |
| Could not be found in fury of the flame, | |
| Then to His seer, the faithful and forsaken, | |
| Softly was manifest and spake by name, | 40 |
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| Showed him a remnant barred from the betrayal, | |
| Close in his Carmel, where the caves are dim, | |
| So many knees that had not bent to Baal, | |
| So many mouths that had not kissèd him,— | |
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| God, who to glean the vineyard of his choosing | 45 |
| Sent them evangelists till day was done, | |
| Bore with the churls, their wrath and their refusing,— | |
| Gave at the last the glory of His Son:— | |
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| Lo, as in Eden, when the days were seven, | |
| Pison thro’ Havilah that softly ran | 50 |
| Bare on his breast the changes of the heaven, | |
| Felt on his shores the silence of a man: | |
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| Silence, for Adam, when the day departed | |
| Left him in twilight with his charge to keep, | |
| Careless and confident and single-hearted, | 55 |
| Trusted in God and turned himself to sleep: | |
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| Then in the midnight stirring in his slumber | |
| Opened his vision on the heights and saw | |
| New without name or ordinance or number, | |
| Set for a marvel, silent for an awe, | 60 |
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| Stars in the firmament above him beaming, | |
| Stars, in the firmament, alive and free, | |
| Stars, and of stars the innumerable streaming, | |
| Deep in the deeps, a river in the sea;— | |
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| These as he watched thro’ march of their arising, | 65 |
| Many in multitudes and one by one, | |
| Somewhat from God with a superb surprising | |
| Breathed in his eyes the promise of the sun. | |
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| So tho’ our Daystar from our sight be taken, | |
| Gone from His brethren, hidden from His own, | 70 |
| Yet in His setting are we not forsaken, | |
| Suffer not shadows of the dark alone. | |
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| Not in the west is Thine appearance ended, | |
| Neither from dark shall Thy renewal be, | |
| Lo, for the firmament in spaces splendid | 75 |
| Lighteth her beacon-fires ablaze for Thee: | |
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| Holds them and hides and drowns them and discovers, | |
| Throngs them together, kindles them afar, | |
| Showeth, O Love, Thy multitude of lovers, | |
| Souls that shall know Thee and the saints that are. | 80 |
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| Look what a company of constellations! | |
| Say, can the sky so many lights contain? | |
| Hath the great earth these endless generations? | |
| Are there so many purified thro’ pain? | |
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| Witness the wonder when Thy saints assembled | 85 |
| Waited the message, and the message came; | |
| Ay with hearts tremulous and house that trembled, | |
| Ay with the Paraclete that fell in flame. | |
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| Witness the men whom with a word he gaineth, | |
| Bold who were base and voiceful who were dumb:— | 90 |
| Battle, I know, so long as life remaineth, | |
| Battle for all, but these have overcome. | |
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| Witness the women, of His children sweetest,— | |
| Scarcely earth seeth them, but earth shall see,— | |
| Thou in their woe Thine agony completest, | 95 |
| Christ, and their solitude is nigh to Thee. | |
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| What is this psalm from pitiable places | |
| Glad where the messengers of peace have trod; | |
| Whose are these beautiful and holy faces | |
| Lit with their loving and aflame with God? | 100 |
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| Eager and faint, impassionate and lonely, | |
| These in their hour shall prophesy again: | |
| This is His will who hath endured, and only | |
| Sendeth the promise where He sends the pain. | |
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| Ay unto these distributeth the Giver | 105 |
| Sorrow and sanctity, and loves them well, | |
| Grants them a power and passion to deliver | |
| Hearts from the prison-house and souls from hell. | |
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| Thinking hereof, I wot not if the portal | |
| Opeth already to my Lord above: | 110 |
| Lo, there is no more mortal and immortal, | |
| Nought is on earth or in the heavens but love. | |
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| Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices | |
| Call to the saints and to the deaf are dumb; | |
| Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices, | 115 |
| Glad in His coming who hath sworn, I come. | |
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| This hath He done, and shall we not adore Him? | |
| This shall He do, and can we still despair? | |
| Come, let us quickly fling ourselves before Him, | |
| Cast at His feet the burthen of our care, | 120 |
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| Flash from our eyes the glow of our thanksgiving, | |
| Glad and regretful, confident and calm, | |
| Then thro’ all life, and what is after living, | |
| Thrill to the tireless music of a psalm. | |
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| Yea, thro’ life, death, thro’ sorrow and thro’ sinning, | 125 |
| He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed: | |
| Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, | |
| Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ. | |
