The Eternal Father

Father! the sweetest, dearest Name
That men or angels know!
Fountain of life, that had no fount
From which itself could flow!

Thy life is one unw earing day;
Before its Now Thou hast
No varied future yet unlived,
No lapse of changeless past.

Thou comest not, Thou goest not,
Thou wert not, wilt not be;
Eternity is but a thought
By which we think of Thee.

No epochs lie behind Thy life;
Thou hold st Thy life of none:
No other life is by Thy side;
Thine is supremely lone.

Far upward in the timeless past,
Ere form or space had come,
We see Thee by Thine own dread light,
Thyself Thine only home.

Thy vastness is not young or old;
Thy life hath never grown;
No time can measure out Thy days,
No space can make Thy throne.

Thy life is deep within Thyself,
Sole Unbegotten Sire!
But Son and Spirit flow from Thee
In coeternal lire.

They flow from Thee; They rest in Thee,
As in a Father's breast, -
Procession of eternal love,
Pulses of endless rest!

That They in majesty should reign
Coequal, Sire! with Thee,
But magnifies the singleness
Of Thy paternity.

Their uncreated glories, Lord!
With Thine own glory shine;
Thy glory as the Father needs
That Theirs should equal Thine.

All things are equal in Thy life:
Thou joy st to be alone,
To have no sire, and yet to have
A coeternal Son.

Thy Spirit is Thy jubilee;
Thy Word is Thy delight;
Thou givest Them to equal Thee
In glory and in might.

Thou art too great to keep unshared
Thy grand eternity;
They have it as Thy gift to Them,
Which is no gift to Thee.

We too, like Thy coequal Word,
Within Thy lap may rest;
We too, like Thine Eternal Dove,
May nestle in Thy Breast.

Lone Fountain of the Godhead! hail!
Person most dread and dear!
I thrill with frightened joy to feel
Thy fatherhood so near.

Lost in Thy greatness, Lord! I live,
As in some gorgeous maze;
Thy sea of unbegotten light
Blinds me, and yet I gaze.

For Thy grandeur is all tenderness.
All motherlike and meek;
The hearts that will not come to it
Humbling itself to seek.

Thou feign st to be remote, and speak st
As if from far above,
That fear may make more bold with Thee,
And be beguiled to love.

On earth Thou hidest, not to scare
Thy children with Thy light,
Then showest us Thy face in heaven,
When we can bear the sight.

All fathers learn their craft from Thee:
All loves are shadows cast
From the beautiful, eternal hills
Of Thine unbeginning past.