University of Virginia Library


326

XVII
THE GRADUAL

Great are the beights and great also are the deeps; the cohorts of witnesses are numberless; but beyond all is the place of benediction, and to this we look for the power and the glory also.

Benison

Thou Who dost bless us, Whom we bless, hereby
Before all men, I rise and testify
That by Thy grace alone I look to live;
That Thy dear gifts above the crowns of earth
Are precious and are mine by right of birth,
So here I freely take, as Thou dost give.

There is a certain confusion of thought concerning the Divine complacency in the dedication of our human love. Even in the spheres that we seek for, it is not entirely a question of complacency, but of the natural conjunction of things which from the beginning were meant for one another.