Classic Poem

Ere yet mankind was made; ere yet
The sun, and she that rules the night,
Were in their heavenly stations set,
God's Sons were playing in his sight.

Age after age those armies vast
In winding line had upward flown,
Yet ne'er their shadows higher cast
Than on the first step of the Throne.

And downward through the unsounded space,
If those had sunk who soared above,
They ne'er had found the buried base
Of Godhead's condescending Love —

Then he, the God who made them, proved:
For high and higher as they soared,
Hymning the Eternal Son beloved,
The God from God, and Lord from Lord,

He showed them, in that Form decreed,
Their God made Man — man's hope and trust —
" The Woman," and " The Woman's Seed,"
He showed; the Unbounded bound in dust.

As when from some world-conquering height
The shepherd sees, ere risen the sun,
His advent clothe the cloud with light,
Before them thus that vision shone:

And while in wonder half, half fear,
That Child, that Mother fixed their eye,
He bade those heavenward hosts revere
Their God in his humility.

Set was that Infant as a sign:
In endless bliss confirmed were they
Who hailed that hour the Babe Divine;
Self-sentenced those who turned away.