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

Heroic guide of Judah's race
Who saw Jehovah face to face,
Sublime of men!—behold him now,
As there enshrined, within the cloud
Which wraps him like a burning shroud,
He boldly breathes the prayer, “O God, unveil Thy brow.

“Eternal! in the flaming sign
What though I saw dread beams combine,
When Sinai's bush was clothed with fire,
Or on Thy cloudy pillar gazed,—
Yet when the riven mountain blazed
With Thy descending pomp, I dared for more aspire!

And I have fasted, pray'd, and felt
For forty days my being melt
With wand'ring awe, as Thou didst trace
That ‘Pattern’ whose mysterious plan
O'erveil'd the future Christ for man,
And prophesied in types, the hidden truths of grace.

“And I have heard that thunder-tone
Which thrills high angels round the throne,—

The rollings of celestial Voice;
And seen unearthly lightnings play,
Which lit me up that rocky way
When Thy dread law decreed for life, or death, the choice.

“And now, I would no symbol see,
But gaze on full-orb'd Deity;
Thy glory let me witness now:
God of my soul! before I die,
Centre on Thee my thirsting eye,
And let Thy lustres bright through all my being flow!”

So prayed the meek, but yet the bold
Giant of grace, who would behold
The Self Eternal!—God reveal'd
Not in the shadow, nor the sign,
But in deep radiance all-divine,
Where dwells the viewless God, all gloriously conceal'd.

It was, indeed, a prayer sublime
Surpassing all conceived in time,
Or nature,—scaling that dread height
Where Attributes are searchless things,
And Seraphim reverse their wings,
And shrink, and shudder back, before Essential Light.

Yet, God is moved by mighty prayer;
And Moses found his answer there,
When ark'd within the cloven side
Of Horeb's sacramental rock,—
Jehovah “passed” him, while the shock
Of glory shook the soul, till awed Convulsion cried.

But we, who with reverted gaze
Can rend the veil of typic days,
May in the Church a glory view
Outshining far what Moses saw,
When God in thunder gave the law,
And lightnings red and fierce around Mount Tabor flew.

And is not this the prayer intense
Of all, who soar above what sense
And self and sin combine to claim,—
That more and more meek hearts may rise
To vision with prophetic eyes
What hidden splendours haunt Jchovah's hallowed name?

Divine ambition must be ours;
And faith so form the mental powers
Under Emmanuel's teaching grace,
That love in earth, and sea, and air,
May find reflected ev'ry-where
The glories which effulged before great Moses' face.

And how seraphic proves the spell
In those deep hearts, which love to dwell
Within the inner shrine of things!—
Who can all scenes in Christ behold,
And see, as in bright trance unroll'd,
The charms He there unveils, beyond what poet sings.

Standard and type for all who pray,
Be this the liturgy we say
To Him who hears the spirit cry,
“Thy deeper glories, God! unshroud;
Break, I beseech Thee, break the cloud,
And on Thyself unveil'd, oh, let me rest mine eye.”

The highest saint who heavenward soar'd,
Prophet, or priest, who God adored,
In this vast prayer their motto find:
Such Hearts will hunger, Lord of grace!
To look upon Thy perfect face,
And in that light supreme to love all human kind.