 | Poems |  |
12
WHAT THINK YE OF CHRIST?
Yes—Thou art God—I know:
Oh! if it were not so,
Life would be void and meaningless and dark:
Quench every phantom light,
Born of abysmal night:—
Leave—only leave this one divinest spark.
Oh! if it were not so,
Life would be void and meaningless and dark:
Quench every phantom light,
Born of abysmal night:—
Leave—only leave this one divinest spark.
Ah! but I hear them say,
“Prove first before you pray,—
Prove that this man is God, living though dead:”
I answer—“Who will prove
That men breathe, think, and love,
Prove that the golden sun shines brightly overhead?”
“Prove first before you pray,—
Prove that this man is God, living though dead:”
I answer—“Who will prove
That men breathe, think, and love,
Prove that the golden sun shines brightly overhead?”
Feeling and touch and sight,
Ask for no further light,
Ask for no proof: each is itself complete:
Yet narrow is their sphere,—
The boundary lines are near:
The shortness of man's days: the slowness of his feet.
Ask for no further light,
Ask for no proof: each is itself complete:
Yet narrow is their sphere,—
The boundary lines are near:
The shortness of man's days: the slowness of his feet.
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Deeds of a distant time,—
Things of another clime,—
Facts of this lower earth, lost to his obvious view,
Man proves: but all he knows
Must in the end repose
On the unprovable, beyond all proving true.
Things of another clime,—
Facts of this lower earth, lost to his obvious view,
Man proves: but all he knows
Must in the end repose
On the unprovable, beyond all proving true.
But that the Christ who trod
Our earth was one with God—
Is this so definite, minute a fact,
That on one narrow deed,
Man rests his holiest creed,
Or builds his hopes of Heaven on one recorded act?
Our earth was one with God—
Is this so definite, minute a fact,
That on one narrow deed,
Man rests his holiest creed,
Or builds his hopes of Heaven on one recorded act?
No—for the gazing soul
Sees Spirit, One and Whole,
Knowing no severance in Time or Space:
Faint though the glimpses be,
Pure is the light and free;—
Who shall divide or break the glory of God's face?
Sees Spirit, One and Whole,
Knowing no severance in Time or Space:
Faint though the glimpses be,
Pure is the light and free;—
Who shall divide or break the glory of God's face?
What if mankind has seen,—
Dark though the veil between,—
One certain flash of God's immortal light,
How shall the vision teach
His lips befitting speech?
How shall his finite words measure the infinite?
Dark though the veil between,—
One certain flash of God's immortal light,
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His lips befitting speech?
How shall his finite words measure the infinite?
Yet what his eyes behold
His language must unfold,
Earthborn his words may be, and true for earthly things:
Still with his soul they soar
On, upwards, evermore,—
Howe'er their fleshly birth chain their aspiring wings.
His language must unfold,
Earthborn his words may be, and true for earthly things:
Still with his soul they soar
On, upwards, evermore,—
Howe'er their fleshly birth chain their aspiring wings.
Doubt not it represents
Some sure experience,
This world-wide voice of men proclaiming Christ their Lord:
Nor chide the words, but strain
To grasp what they contain,
The vast and hidden force, the meaning unexplored.
Some sure experience,
This world-wide voice of men proclaiming Christ their Lord:
Nor chide the words, but strain
To grasp what they contain,
The vast and hidden force, the meaning unexplored.
Twist not what man believed
To notions preconceived,
Glibly exclaiming, “It was never so.”
Know we of God so much
That we can take and touch,
Then say “God never dwelt in one who lived below?”
To notions preconceived,
Glibly exclaiming, “It was never so.”
Know we of God so much
That we can take and touch,
Then say “God never dwelt in one who lived below?”
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Oh! but my soul is dark—
With tear-dimmed eyes I mark
What noble souls stand mournfully aloof,
Still craving proof of this
Wherein we find our bliss,—
Let doubting hearts reply—does this suffice for proof?
With tear-dimmed eyes I mark
What noble souls stand mournfully aloof,
Still craving proof of this
Wherein we find our bliss,—
Let doubting hearts reply—does this suffice for proof?
This that mankind could see
The bare, bright God in Thee,
See yet as clearly as they saw it then,
Knowing the Life Divine
Was truly one with Thine,
Truly was reached by Thee alone of men:—
The bare, bright God in Thee,
See yet as clearly as they saw it then,
Knowing the Life Divine
Was truly one with Thine,
Truly was reached by Thee alone of men:—
Cleaving in thought and act,
Close to this central fact,
This burning truth of man's Divinity,
Finding in this alone
Peace, joy, and bliss unknown,
Learning from this to live, cheered on by this to die.
Close to this central fact,
This burning truth of man's Divinity,
Finding in this alone
Peace, joy, and bliss unknown,
Learning from this to live, cheered on by this to die.
Oh! in this world's consent—
Nation with nation blent,
Age joining age in infinite acclaim,
Shall I not acquiesce,
Shall not my lips confess
Gladly as theirs the glory of Thy name?
Nation with nation blent,
Age joining age in infinite acclaim,
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Shall not my lips confess
Gladly as theirs the glory of Thy name?
What if each passing age
Be but another stage
In the great book written by God's own hand,
Time shall instruct me then,
And in the voice of men
God's lips reveal the plan that He has planned.
Be but another stage
In the great book written by God's own hand,
Time shall instruct me then,
And in the voice of men
God's lips reveal the plan that He has planned.
Ah! and when words we hear
Seem to bring Heaven near,
Bidding our souls look upwards and rejoice,—
When from the flooding heart
Tear-drops of gladness start,—
Hark, 'tis the thunder-roll of God's eternal voice.
Seem to bring Heaven near,
Bidding our souls look upwards and rejoice,—
When from the flooding heart
Tear-drops of gladness start,—
Hark, 'tis the thunder-roll of God's eternal voice.
Then dare I darkly doubt,
When from the world without
One mighty voice proclaims that Christ is God,
While echoes from within
Answer “He knew no sin,
And that is Life Divine though paths of earth be trod.”
When from the world without
One mighty voice proclaims that Christ is God,
While echoes from within
Answer “He knew no sin,
And that is Life Divine though paths of earth be trod.”
17
Let scholars' skilful pains,
Let doctors' subtle brains
Plan as they please, fix, formulate, define,—
Labouring to enfold
Vainly in earthen mould,
Light, the pure light, free, golden, and divine.
Let doctors' subtle brains
Plan as they please, fix, formulate, define,—
Labouring to enfold
Vainly in earthen mould,
Light, the pure light, free, golden, and divine.
Building on base of sand
Towers that cannot stand,
Lashed by the blasts of doubt—the waves of sin:
God's beacon-tower of grace
Stands on a surer base,
Stands on the longing of the heart within.
Towers that cannot stand,
Lashed by the blasts of doubt—the waves of sin:
God's beacon-tower of grace
Stands on a surer base,
Stands on the longing of the heart within.
Builded on such a rock
Vainly the tempest's shock
Thunders around it, vainly storm blasts rave;
Vainly in giant play
Wild sheets of blinding spray
Leap when the steadfast reef shatters each rolling wave.
Vainly the tempest's shock
Thunders around it, vainly storm blasts rave;
Vainly in giant play
Wild sheets of blinding spray
Leap when the steadfast reef shatters each rolling wave.
Undimmed the beacon light
Burns through the dreadful night,
Warning and guiding man who sails below:
This whelming billow hides,
High on the next he rides,
And sees gleam out once more the far eternal glow.
Burns through the dreadful night,
Warning and guiding man who sails below:
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High on the next he rides,
And sees gleam out once more the far eternal glow.
Round me the tempest gloom
Oft gathers dark as doom,—
The demon blast wails wildly as it lists,
Telling of hidden sand,
Thunder of waves on strand,
Foam-girded iron cliffs, viewless through stormy mists.
Oft gathers dark as doom,—
The demon blast wails wildly as it lists,
Telling of hidden sand,
Thunder of waves on strand,
Foam-girded iron cliffs, viewless through stormy mists.
Still from afar I see
Flashing for ever free
The kindly light which God's own love has given:
And in each gleam I read
Be this thine only creed—
In Christ God stoops to earth, through Christ man climbs to Heaven.
Flashing for ever free
The kindly light which God's own love has given:
And in each gleam I read
Be this thine only creed—
In Christ God stoops to earth, through Christ man climbs to Heaven.
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