The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery :: :: University of Virginia Library

As some pale Bard from fever-dreams awakes,
Haunted by shades and shadows undefined
Yet fearful, making dark imagination shrink,
Once more to look upon a heaven of stars
Through the high lattice beaming, and to bathe
His wearied temples in the fresh-wing'd air
Exulting,—so from these stupendous glooms
And themes of awe, where Reason stands abash'd,
Back to the brightness and the bloom of earth
We hasten. Here, what living glories throng,
Prophetic numbers might indeed rehearse;
And vision scenes o'er which the harping Seers
Enchanted roll'd their richest strains of song;
And in some lulling dream of Latter Days
For this world destined, feel what Luther felt,
On Pisgah-heights of prophecy enrapt
As oft he mused, and hail'd millennial times.

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But, now, expressionless the heart recoils!—
Under a weight of glory melt all words
To muteness, when that imaged Kingdom comes
On earth to be, what thus the Bible types,
And tells of Purity's celestial reign.
Then shall Redemption's perfect work respond,
And reach to all which revelation sings
In forms of Matter, or in facts of Mind,—
Yet to evolve. Creation's groan shall cease;
And life, and sense, and earth, and air, and sky
The vast enthronement of their Lord reveal,
By the felt magic of His reign inspired
And hallow'd. Glory in the sun will beam
With sevenfold brilliance; and the placid Moon
Glide through the mazes of her moving stars
With lustre deeper than rapt David saw
By midnight harping: not a fruit, or flower
Which bares its beauty to the prying breeze,
That will not in th' o'erflowing love and light
Of Earth's millennial consummation share.

And when Christ reigns, far more than Adam saw
The Earth shall witness in this bridal hour.
But oh! if Matter thus resplendent be,
Who can pourtray inaugurated Mind?
For if e'en now the Church our world instructs,
Though in her weakness,—when with Christ she reigns
Entire creation from That Church may learn
Perfect instruction, in the things profound
Of God. And as her Lord gradations knew,
And to the heights of His predestined rank
Ascended, so may God's elect advance
By faint reflections of His threefold sway,
As Prophets, Priests, and Kings of other worlds
And systems; and this inorganic earth
A palace of material splendours prove,
Where Beauty visible its throne shall set,
And o'er all worlds our own as model shine.

Thus, on the footing of God's Word inspired
Our hope we plant, and there this promise find,
That throned Emmanuel with avenging ire
Proud Antichrist shall blast, and then consume.
The Jew shall yet his bright Jerus'lem see,
And draw salvation from the Sides he pierced
When Christ on Calv'ry bore the bitter Cross;
While hymning Gentiles their hosannahs join
The Lamb around; and resurrection-saints
Call'd from the dust to greet their living Lord,
A thousand years of coronation-bliss
With Christ in glory shall on earth partake.
Till when at length, on sin, and Satan's host
And earth rebellious, final Judgment sets
That Seal tremendous, which for ever shuts
The perish'd in their prison-house of Woe
And wrath unutter'd, earth and heaven shall reach
A beauty endless, in baptismal fires
Recast, and shine with more celestial bloom
Than Sense can dream or Inspiration tells.

Hence all creation will Messiah bring
To full perfection, in its brightest form;
And back restore it to the heart of God
From whence it wander'd. There, his kingdom ends,
And Mediation down its sceptre lays
When nought between us and the Godhead comes.
Then face to face adoring man will view
The infinite; nor means, nor modes be used,
Nor sacraments, nor teaching symbols cast
'Tween God and soul their intervening shade.
In Deity the Church will be enshrined,
His Attributes her perfect temple prove,
Till God in mind the mind of God beget,
And life eternal be Himself enjoy'd.