Chorus of Angels (from Lucifer)

Who sits above heaven's heights sublime,
Yet fills the grave's profoundest place,
Beyond eternity, or time,
Or the vast round of viewless space:
Who on Himself alone depends —
Immortal — glorious — but unseen —
And in His mighty being blends
What rolls around or flows within.

Of all we know not — all we know —
Prime source and origin — a sea,
Whose waters pour'd on earth below
Wake blessing's brightest radiancy.
His power — love — wisdom, first exalted
And waken'd from oblivion's birth
Yon starry arch — yon palace, vaulted —
Yon heaven of heavens — to smile on earth.

From His resplendent majesty
We shade us 'neath our sheltering wings,
While awe-inspired and tremblingly
We praise the glorious King of kings,
With sight and sense confused and dim;
O name — describe the Lord of lords,
The seraphs' praise shall hallow Him; —
Or is the theme too vast for words?

RESPONSE.

'Tis God! who pours the living glow
Of light, creation's fountain-head:
Forgive the praise — too mean and low —
Or from the living or the dead.

No tongue Thy peerless name hath spoken,
No space can hold that awful name;
The aspiring spirit's wing is broken; —
Thou wilt be, wert, and art the same!

Language is dumb — Imagination,
Knowledge, and Science, helpless fall;
They are irreverent profanation,
And thou, O God! art all in all.

How vain on such a thought to dwell!
Who knows Thee — Thee the All-unknown?
Can angels be thy oracle,
Who art — who art Thyself alone?

None — none can trace Thy course sublime,
For none can catch a ray from Thee,
The splendour and the source of time —
The Eternal of eternity.

Thy light of light out-pour'd conveys
Salvation in its flight elysian,
Brighter than e'en Thy mercy's rays; —
But vainly would our feeble vision

Aspire to Thee. From day to day
Age steals on us — but meets Thee never:
Thy power is life's support and stay —
We praise Thee — sing Thee, Lord! for ever.

Holy — holy — holy! Praise —
Praise be His in every land;
Safety in His presence stays —
Sacred is His high command!