 | The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery |  |
ANGELIC CONTEST.
Hence, wisdom does not back with doubt recoil,
By reason's name made reasonlessly proud,
When told that Man a mystic platform proves
Where clashing angels, for contested souls,
With, or against, the dread Creator fight.
Here, Attributes eterne their cause have staked;
Here, Character divine itself unfolds;
And from it men and angels wisdom learn,
While all untouch'd by accident, or change,
Divinely perfect as their nature is,—
How love and Law in harmony prevail.
By reason's name made reasonlessly proud,
When told that Man a mystic platform proves
Where clashing angels, for contested souls,
With, or against, the dread Creator fight.
Here, Attributes eterne their cause have staked;
Here, Character divine itself unfolds;
And from it men and angels wisdom learn,
While all untouch'd by accident, or change,
Divinely perfect as their nature is,—
How love and Law in harmony prevail.
Thus from the Bible heaven-taught lore perceives
The true position to our earth assign'd.
For, though embedded in a brilliant mass
Of worlds on worlds beyond all number vast,
Like some mean province, where ephem'ral dust
Shaped into men to nothing hourly dies,
It hardly glimmers,—thinking Angels see
In pardon'd myriads of immortal souls
Glories which render heaven more glorious still!
Since for their adoration Christ reveal'd
A new Apocalypse of God to man.
Thus they who once unwither'd Eden walk'd
With man, a human paradise to share,
Now when the banner of a Fiend has waved
Defiance, yet on our dismantled earth
Of sin and treason cast a yearning gaze;
And watch, and wonder, worship and admire
Unfolded secrets of forgiving Love
Developed here. And when some lurid gleams
Lighted, perchance, the features of the lost
Archangel, with a hope that ruin'd Man
With God unreconciled must ever be,
And all His attributes to crisis brought,
How did their wings ecstatically wave,
And loud their endless gratulations sweep
The arches of eternity with praise,
God's masterpiece of perfect Grace to hail!
While he, the Anarch of temptation, sank,
To plot in darkness for his own despair.
The true position to our earth assign'd.
For, though embedded in a brilliant mass
Of worlds on worlds beyond all number vast,
Like some mean province, where ephem'ral dust
Shaped into men to nothing hourly dies,
It hardly glimmers,—thinking Angels see
In pardon'd myriads of immortal souls
Glories which render heaven more glorious still!
Since for their adoration Christ reveal'd
A new Apocalypse of God to man.
Thus they who once unwither'd Eden walk'd
With man, a human paradise to share,
Now when the banner of a Fiend has waved
Defiance, yet on our dismantled earth
Of sin and treason cast a yearning gaze;
And watch, and wonder, worship and admire
Unfolded secrets of forgiving Love
Developed here. And when some lurid gleams
Lighted, perchance, the features of the lost
Archangel, with a hope that ruin'd Man
With God unreconciled must ever be,
And all His attributes to crisis brought,
How did their wings ecstatically wave,
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The arches of eternity with praise,
God's masterpiece of perfect Grace to hail!
While he, the Anarch of temptation, sank,
To plot in darkness for his own despair.
Thus Fiends against, but Angels for, our souls
Are now contending: on the Cross sublime
Their fix'd and fascinated eyes they bend,
Which glisten o'er its glories; while they cry,
“Depth within depth, O God! how deep art Thou,
Ark'd in Thyself, unvision'd and unshared!”
The councils of divinity they scan
Nor fathom; yet such vast revealings flow
From our Emmanuel, that this world becomes
A focus, where redeeming Wisdom brought
The fulness infinite of Love to bear,
And taught the Seraphim a song, how new!
Are now contending: on the Cross sublime
Their fix'd and fascinated eyes they bend,
Which glisten o'er its glories; while they cry,
“Depth within depth, O God! how deep art Thou,
Ark'd in Thyself, unvision'd and unshared!”
The councils of divinity they scan
Nor fathom; yet such vast revealings flow
From our Emmanuel, that this world becomes
A focus, where redeeming Wisdom brought
The fulness infinite of Love to bear,
And taught the Seraphim a song, how new!
| The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery | |