Part 12 (1/2)

What less could fitly crown Omnipotence Than Truth, the focus of all rays in Good?

Lo! there it s.h.i.+nes upon the Holy Rood, Breaking through clouds, a-ma.s.sing dark and dense From countless ages, Cains to Brotherhood-- With rays of pardon for the World's offense.

OUR LORD'S LAST PRAYER

”Forgive them, Sire! They know not what they do.”-- Ah, Christ! how at that face to face G.o.d-plea, The Demon and his legions, mocking thee With every generation, brought to view, Flashed with dismay, and, boltless lightening through The ages, thunder down Eternity, 'Till faint as the sound in sh.e.l.ls, far from the sea; For that thy prayer would be vouchsafed, they knew.

All grandeurs, gathered as a dazzling crown For thee, in barter for thy knee's least bend, The Demon dashed to fragments to Time's end.

There, born anew in spirit, we look down And, in the ocean of thy prayer, Amen'd, See but earth's monsters, with the demons drown.

THOUGHT IS TRUTH'S ECHO

Thought is truth's echo--not her glorious eyes Beholding G.o.d, nor her white arms of light, Lifted in wors.h.i.+p. Following truth, our flight At highest range is where our echo dies.

Oh all your power and beauty, earth and skys!

And, Soul and Mind! your Beauty and your Might-- Truth gathers in one flash and, catching sight Of G.o.d, lifts high in love's full sacrifice.

Twixt Truth and Thought, what Truth is oft is s.p.a.ce Wherein, with intuition for her wing, The soul mounts. It is there I hear her sing: ”Lo, Truth, so swift aloft, Thought dies in chase, Turns earthward, and the gifts her white arms bring, Are outshone by G.o.d's glory in her face!”

HEAVEN

Ah, what is Heaven? Such Glory that Sun-light Seems darkness, and Ma.s.s Music, sh.e.l.l-shut sound.

What we call senses here, there so abound, The soul appears a broadening heaven in flight, Feathered and downed with all the stars, whose white Is all hues mingled. Oh, the awe profound!

For every moment there, new Heavens astound The myriad senses, with G.o.d's Love and Might.

If ”Holy, Holy, Holy, Evermore?”

Be the one chant of angel and of Saint Before the Throne, it is their gaspings faint Between their transports to high Heavens from lower; For, what is love's eternal Firmament But Heaven on Heaven, that we may ceaseless soar?

HUMILITY

Was not humility the Earthward stair From highest Heaven, by which G.o.d came to men, To show the way aloft to human ken?

Ah, by what other pa.s.s, are men to fare Through mist and cloud, except the path, aflare With his blest steps from Heaven, and up again?