Classic Poem

God ! whom I distantly revere,
Help me to know and feel thee near;
Awestruck thy works and laws I trace:
Would that my spirit felt thy grace!

In clearest deep-cut characters
Nature thy authorship avers;
Her miracles are thy design,
Her arts, her inspiration thine.

That page I see, that text I read,
No commentary's gloss I need;
A finer, subtler force impart,
Writing thy law upon my heart.

Oft have I gazed around and mused,
Seeing thee everywhere diffused,
Within, without, below, above,
Vast circumflux of power and love

But yet not mine thy love I call,
Not mine, if but a part of All;
The fly, the flower, the worm, the clod,
These all are circumfused with God

A voice my spirit's depths within
Cries, " Surely I am more akin —
Atom of man's divinity,
I claim with God affinity! " —

Nor claim I only as a man,
Or one of Japhet's lordly clan,
But from my individual soul,
The oneness of my personal whole.

The stars that gem the vault of night,
Make up one universe of light;
But not the less each several star
Shines separate and singular.

But higher far my claims aspire
Than orbs of gross material fire;
A microcosm in me lies,
Embracing all the entities,

In worlds beneath, above, around, —
From Heaven's high pole to earth's profound: —
I fathom seas, I measure suns,
And count how fast their radiance runs:

And all that has been, on my brain
By History's pen is written plain;
And all that might be, Verse makes mine,
Singing in sweet notes sibylline:

And all that's seized by eager sense,
Or held by strong intelligence,
Is mine, with many a mystery
Laid bare by new philosophy.

Vain boast! — This lore, oh Lord, I find
Thrown on the mirror of my mind:
A mirror moulded by thy skill,
Which thou canst blur or break at will

Help me to learn thy better lore!
For this I'd fain all else ignore;
That highest wisdom make thou mine
To know no other will than thine;

To see in Christ thy Godhead given
For man to mark twixt earth and heaven,
His faith transcending petty creeds,
And love that lived in loving deeds.

That life when man can imitate,
He'll triumph over Time and Fate;
And seeing sin and hatred driven
From earth, find earth transformed to Heaven.