Classic Poem

SCENE — Colonnade and Lawn.

F ESTUS and C LARA .

C LARA . What is it thou wilt tell me?
F ESTUS . I have seen
What ne'er again may be, nor e'er till now hath been.
C LARA . Where didst thou see — and what?
F ESTUS . In space. He took me there,
Of whom I oft have told thee. Midst in air
Was God. I 'll tell thee that he told the spheres;
For the great family of the universe
Round Him were gathered as a fire: but we
Held back; and, saving God, none did us see.
Though round his throne in sunny halo rolls
A ceaseless, countless throng of sainted souls.
C LARA . Say on, love! Let me hear.
F ESTUS . A sound, then, first
I heard as of a pent-up flood just burst:
It was the rush of God's world-winnowing wing;
Which bowed the orbs as flowers are bowed by breath of spring.
And then a voice I heard, a voice sublime —
To which the hoarded thunders of all time
Pealing earth's death knell shall a whisper be —
Saying these words — Where will ye worship me?
Ay, where shall be your Maker's holy place?
The Heaven of Heavens is poor before His face.
How shall ye mete my temple, ye who die?
Look! can ye span your God's infinity?
Hear, mighty universe, thy Maker's voice!
Let all thy myriad, myriad worlds rejoice!
Lo! I, your Maker, do amid ye come,
To choose my worship and to name my home.
This heard each sphere; and all throughout the sky
Came crowding round. Our earth was rolling by,
When God said to it — Rest! and fast it stood.
With voice like winds through some wide olden wood.
Thus spake the One again: Behold, O Earth!
Thy parent, God! it is I who gave thee birth.
With all my love I did thee once endow;
With all my mercy — and thou hast them now.
But hear my words! thou never lovedst me well,
Nor fearedst my wrath: dreadst thou no longer Hell?
Dream'st thou that guilt shall always mock those fires?
That deathless death which Hell for aye expires?
Should all creation its rebellion raise,
I speak, and this broad universe doth blaze —
Pass like a dew-drop 'neath mine angry rays —
Blaze like the fat in sacrificial flame:
And that burned offering, when I come to claim,
Its scorching, quenchless mass, all, I will pour
Upon thy naked soul: — canst thou endure?
He spake; and, as the fear-fraught words flew past,
Earth fluttered like a dead leaf in their blast.
Am not I God? Answer me! Hope not thou,
Impenitent, to ward my righteous blow.
Yet, come again! my proffered mercy hear!
Rejoice and sing! sweet music in thine ear
And peace I speak: seek but to be forgiven:
Repent! and thou shalt meet thy God in Heaven.
Go! Cleanse thy brow from blood, thy heart from crime,
And on thy Saviour call while yet is time!
Now to this universe of pride and sin
I speak, ere yet I call mine angels in.
Draw nigh, ye worlds! — and, lo! their light did seem
Before His eye paled to a pearl's dull beam.
Attend! said God — o'er all He lift his hand. —
Where will ye set my tent? where shall my temple stand?
And all were dumb. Distracting silence spread
Throughout that host as each were stricken dead.
I made ye. I endowed ye. Ye are mine.
Then trembled out each orb: Thine, God! for ever Thine!
All that ye have, within myself have I;
God, am complete; full inexhaustibly.
I dwell within myself, and ye in me,
Not in yourselves; I have infinity.
The every thing in all things is my throne;
Your might is my might, and your wealth mine own:
'Tis by my power and sufferance that ye shine:
I live in light and all your light is mine.
Be dark! said God. Night was. Each glowing sphere
Dulled. Night seemed every thing and everywhere,
Save that in utter space a feeble flare
Told that the pits of hell were sunken there.
Shuddered in fear the universe the while,
Till God again embraced it with a smile.
And all things made were glad. Come now and hear,
Ye worlds! said God, the truth I thus make clear:
My words are mercy, wherefore should ye fear?
And straight, obedient to his sacred will,
One great concentrate globe they crowd to fill;
Systems and suns pour forth their glowing urns;
Full in the face of God the glory burns.
Hearken, thou host! thy trembling hope to raise,
I to all Being thus make plain my ways; —
God, the Creator, bade creation rise,
And matter came in void like clouds in skies;
Lifeless and cold it spread throughout all space,
And darkness dwelt and frowned upon its face:
Chaos I bade depart this work of mine,
And straight the mighty elements disjoin.
Then light I lit; then order I ordained,
And put the dance of atoms to an end.
Matter I brake, and scattered into globes,
And clad ye each in green and growing robes:
Your sizes, places, forms, I fixed with laws,
And wrought the link between effect and cause.
Then formed I lives for each, which might inherit
Will, reason, form, and power — not deathless spirit.
Then I made spirits, things of heavenly worth,
Deathless, Divine. Round these, from every earth,
I gathered forms and features fit for love,
Trust, pleasure, power, and all I could approve.
To every spirit I disclosed my name,
My love, my might, and whence all Being came:
To deathless souls I righteously decreed
Accountability for thought, word, deed.
Then every orb complete, along the sky,
In glory, beauty, order, harmony,
I launched. Souls, worlds did every thing possess
Which could a mortal and immortal bless.
To all the hope of happier state was given —
For all I keep one common boundless Heaven.
Ye all have freedom, and ye all do sin,
For ye are creatures: but ye all may win
Life everlasting — everlasting joy,
If ye do but the love of sin destroy:
This only is offence; for sin ye must
Not by my will; but weakness dwells with dust,
Unless ye have sinned ye cannot enter Heaven.
How shall a sinless creature be forgiven?
And by forgiveness only can ye claim
Hope in my mercy, trust upon my name.
I knew that ye would all to sin be given;
But I, even God, have paid your price to Heaven:
And if ye will not journey on that way —
The truth — the life — what do ye merit? say!
Death is the gate of life, and sin, of bliss:
Mark the dread truth! but mourn your deeds amiss.
Cast off your guilt! abandon folly's path!
Turn to the Lord your God ere hell His wrath!
Turn from your madness, wicked ones, and live!
Take, take the bliss which God alone can give.
God, the Creator, me all beings own —
God, the Redeemer, I will still be known —
God, too, the Judge — the each — the three — the one.
Again the Everlasting cried — Repent!
To bless or curse I am Omnipotent.
And what art thou, created Being? Round
That world of worlds His arm the Almighty wound
The bright immensity He raised, and pressed,
All trembling, like a babe, unto His breast.
There, in the Father's bosom rose again,
Of filial love, the universal strain;
Strong and exultant — blissful, pure, sublime,
It rolled, and thrilled, and swelled in notes unknown to time.
Think ye that I, who thus do ye maintain;
Thus always cherish ye, or all were vain —
Ye all would drop into your native void,
If by my hand ye were not held and buoyed:
Think ye that I cannot uphold in Heaven,
In righteous state, the souls I have forgiven?
Is this a weightier task? with God, 't is one
To guide a sunbeam or create a sun —
To rule ten thousand thousand worlds or none.
Go, worlds! said God, but learn, ere ye depart,
My favored temple is an humble heart;
Therein to dwell I leave my loftiest skies —
There shall my holy of all holies rise!
He spake; and swiftly, reverent to His will,
Sprang each bright orb on high its sphere to fill.
Glory to God I they chanted as they soared —
Father Almighty! be Thou all-adored.
Thou art the glory — we, Thine universe,
Serve but abroad Thy lustre to disperse.
Unsearchable, and yet to all made known!
The world at once Thy kingdom and Thy throne —
Pity us, God! nor chase us quite away
Before Thy wrath, as night before the day.
In Thee, our God, we live; from Thee we came —
The feeble sparks of Thine eternal flame.
Thy breath from nothing filled us all at first,
And could again as soon the bubble burst.
In Thee, like motes in the sunbeam, we move;
Glow in Thy light, and gladden in Thy love.
And midst this praise, earth was the only one
Sullen remained in that grand union
Of joy and harmony. Word spake she none.
C LARA . Earth only had been chidden.
F ESTUS . Not alone.
High o'er all height, God gat upon His throne.
Downwards He bent; and, as a grain of sand,
He lifted up our globe. Then from His hand,
As 't were in pity, bowled the ingrate sphere,
Which rushed like ruin down its dark career.
And high the air's blue billows rolled and swelled
On many an island world mine eye beheld.
C LARA . And where and what is he, this mighty friend,
Who to thee, human, thus his might doth lend?
Who bore thee harmless, as thou sayst, through space,
And brought thee front before thy Maker's face?
F ESTUS . I know not where he is. It is but at times
That he is with me; but he aye sublimes
His visits thus, by lending me his might
O'er things more bright than day, more deep than night.
And he obeys me — whether good or ill
His or my object, he obeys me still.
C LARA . O Festus! I conjure thee to beware
Lest thus the Evil one thy soul ensnare.
F ESTUS . What! may not a free spirit have preferred
A mortal to his heart — as thou thy bird
Lovest, because it singeth of the sky,
Although it is as far below thy soul
As I 'neath an archangel's majesty?
God will protect the atom as the whole.
C LARA . Him, then, I pray: the spirit full must share
The truths it feels with God Himself in prayer.
So guide us, God! in all our works and ways,
That heart may feel, hand act, mouth show Thy praise;
That when they meet, who love, and when they part,
Each may be high in hope, and pure in heart:
That they who have seen, and they who have but heard
Of Thy great deeds, may both obey Thy word!
F ESTUS . Unto the wise belongs the sphere of light,
And to the spirit world-compelling might.
Yon sun, now setting in the golden main,
Shall count me his ere next he rise again.
Would that the earth had nothing fair to lure,
Nor being more to answer or endure!
But I foresee, fore-suffer. Bound to earth,
Wrecked in the deeps of Heaven, in Death's expiring birth!