The Coming of the Soul

In God's hands lie the souls of men,
At God's feet spreads the infinite,
Filled with its wheeling worlds, as when
He made the earth and made the light.
And like a dove of white each soul
Flies forth across the abysmal sea,
Where golden suns and systems roll,
To find the life that is to be.

The myriad millions of the just,
The seraphim, in fiery rings
Bow down, and every world of dust
Is brightened with the flash of wings.
And when each soul flies forth from them
Through deeps of gloom, and seas of light,
A music, as of Bethlehem,
Flows forth, and floods the hollow night.

The crystal gates of light unbar,
A holy silence fills the sky:
New waves of splendour from each star
Break at the feet of God and die.
And far in some dark world of His,
Half-circled in its light and gloom,
A mother shares God's awful bliss:
Her child has quickened in the womb

And evermore before God's face,
Like snow within a driving wind,
There move the souls white-clothed in grace,
Whose earthly pain is left behind.
And evermore from God's right hand
New souls fly forth, like sparks of light
From clear white fires by whirlwinds fanned,
And fall into the outer night.

And through the roar of winds and earths
Forever circling round His throne,
And through ten thousand splendid births
Of day and night, zone after zone;
Through wastes of light and dread abyss,
There floats the new-born infant's cry,
And thus the furthest world of His
Makes gladder yet the inmost sky.

And angels bearing frankincense
Of holy thoughts, and myrrh of pain,
And kingly gifts, prefiguring whence
The soul arose, fly forth; and twain
Stand at the lowly mother's head,
And twain about her feet, that they
From silent censers twain may shed
A sunlight gathered from God's day.

In God's hands lie the souls of men,
Like doves that crowd within a nest;
At God's knees throng in order then
The myriad millions of the blest;
And all the world in rings of light
Burn on their way about His feet;
And He creates as seems Him right,
And calls to death, when death is meet.