Far More Exceeding.
καθ υτερβολην εις υπερβολην.—2 Cor. iv. 17.
‘From glory unto glory!’ Thank God, that even here
The starry words are shining out, our heavenward way to cheer!
That e'en among the shadows the conquering brightness glows,
As ever from the nearing Light intenser radiance flows.
‘From glory unto glory!’ Shall the grand progression fail
When the darkening glass is shattered as we pass within the veil?
Shall the joyous song of ‘Onward!’ at once for ever cease,
And the swelling music culminate in monotone of peace?
Shall the fuller life be sundered at the portal of its bliss,
From the principle of growth entwined with every nerve of this?
Shall the holy law of progress be hopelessly repealed,
And the moment of releasing see our sum of glory sealed?
The tender touch of moonlight, with an orbit quickly run,
The lustre of the planet, circling slowly round the sun,
The mighty revolutions of its million-heated blaze,
‘From glory unto glory’ lead our far-expanding gaze.
Then onward, ever onward, through the unexplored abyss
(Dark barrier between the suns of other worlds and this),
Until the measure-unit mocks the grasp of human thought,
And space and time commingle while the clue is feebly sought.
Till, in that wider ocean, deep calleth unto deep,
Star-glories with attendant worlds, forth-flashing as they sweep
Around their unseen centre, that point of mystic power,
In unimagined cycles, where an age is but an hour.
Then! onward and yet onward! for the dim revealings show
That systems unto systems in grand succession grow,
That what we deemed a volume but one golden verse may be,
One rhythmic cadence in the flow of God's great poetry.
That what we deemed a symphony was one all-thrilling bar,
Through aisles of His great temple resounding full and far;
That what we deemed an ocean was a shallow by the shore!
Then! onward yet, in eagle flight, through the Infinite we soar—
‘From glory unto glory,’ till the spirit fails; and then
Illimitable vistas still opening to our ken,
Mysterious immensities of order and of light,
Stretch far beyond our farthest thought, as thought beyond our sight.
But the starting-point in heaven shall be no ‘glory of the moon,’
No planet gleam, no stellar fire, no blaze of tropic noon;
From ‘glory that excelleth’ all that human heart hath known,
Our ‘onward, upward,’ shall begin in the presence of the Throne.
‘From glory unto glory’ of loveliness and light,
Of music and of rapture, of power and of sight,
‘From glory unto glory’ of knowledge and of love,
Shall be the joy of progress awaiting us above.
‘From glory unto glory’ that ever lies before,
Still wondering, adoring, rejoicing more and more,
Still following where He leadeth, from shining field to field,
Himself the goal of glory, Revealer and Revealed!
‘From glory unto glory’ with no limit and no veil,
With wings that cannot weary and hearts that cannot fail;
Within, without, no hindrance, no barrier as we soar;
And never interruption to the endless ‘more and more’!
For infinite outpourings of Jehovah's love and grace,
And infinite unveilings of the brightness of His face,
And infinite unfoldings of the splendour of His will,
Meet the mightiest expansions of the finite spirit still.
O Saviour, hast Thou ransomed us from death's unknown abyss,
And purchased with Thy precious blood such everlasting bliss?
Art Thou indeed preparing us, with love exceeding great,
And preparing all this glory in such ‘far exceeding weight’?
Then let our hearts be surely fixed where truest joys are found,
And let our burning, loving praise, yet more and more abound;
And, gazing on the ‘things not seen,’ eternal in the skies,
‘From glory unto glory,’ O Saviour, let us rise!
