IV.
TURRIS EBURNEA.
This scheme of worlds which vast we call
Is only vast compared with man:
Compared with God, the One yet All,
Its greatness dwindles to a span.
A Lily with its isles of buds
Asleep on some unmeasured sea:—
O God, the starry multitudes
What are they more than this to Thee!
Yet, girt by Nature's petty pale
Each tenant holds the place assigned
To each in Being's awful scale:
The last of creatures leaves behind
The abyss of Nothingness: the first
Into the abyss of Godhead peers
Waiting that Vision which shall burst
In glory on the eternal years.
Tower of our Hope! through thee we climb
Finite creation's topmost stair;
Through thee from Sion's height sublime
Towards God we gaze through clearer air.
Infinite distance still divides
Created from Creative Power;
But all which intercepts and hides
Lies dwarfed by that surpassing Tower!
