Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
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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. | |