And, to those virtues of delight
Return our thankful hearts,
May none but God our father dear,
Hear our complaint apart;
For he our prayer will not disdain,
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love:
But to those virtues of delight
Hadst by his mercy due remain.
When with the blissful and divine,
By Mercy and Pity led,
The souls that have a pure desire
That, the Father’s bosom fed,
Are to the Father so beloved
That they would be
Heaven’s angels, so God doth grant
That in his bosom they abide:
And in his bosom they are placed
Upon their high perfection.
For thou wilt come, O loving Father!
For thou wilt come,
And in the bright unspoken world,
Where shadows never fall nor days are done,
Thou wilt raise all forms of things
And with the pure and gentle power
That is behind them, fill them with the breath
Of Beauty, Beauty, till every place
Shall be made holy, as it is now,
By the soft presence of thine own.
So wilt thou have it then!
When the world with its noise and strife,
With all its changes and its woes,
Like a great shadow is withdrawn,
And a fair light, and a glad one,
In its secret beauty shines;
So wilt thou have it then, and we,
The children of thy grace,
Shall be lifted and made free
Out of all this strife and stain,
And this vain shadow of the land,
Out of its strife, and stain, and cloud,
Like an army with a trumpet note,
Blasting the ear.
Then, O God!
When, as now, the world
Lays a dull level with the soul,
But there the sweet and holy voice
Of the eternal music is heard,
And, in some gracious hour,
Thou wilt come.