Light in Darkness

LIGHT IN DARKNESS.

ONCE in the simple thought of God
My old repose I sought,
But lo ! the well-known peace was now
No longer in that thought.

My spirit fluttered here and there,
Beset with nameless fears;
My eyes with very dryness burned,
While my heart shed inward tears.

I was as one who cannot sleep
Upon a bed of pain,
Too restless to be still and bear,
Too peevish to complain.

Then suddenly a silent gloom
Like a web was round me spun,
As grateful as a sudden shade
After a scorching sun.

The darkness grew, and, as it grew
More dark, it grew more still ;
And something dawned, less in my mind
Than deep within my will.

In that dark dawn, confused yet
I thought that I could see,
In radiant indistinctness clad,
The Holy Trinity.

My soul lay at the door of death,
Anguish and dread within;
For all I had and all I was
Seemed nothing then but sin.

How I could speak I cannot tell,
How I could dare to pray
Seemed wonderful; and yet my heart
To Jesus dared to say :

Show me the Father s Face, O Lord,
This was my venturous cry,
And close before me, as I prayed,
Methought Some One passed by.

And yet He was not One but Three,
Oh how fatherly He seemed !
A mercy half so merciful
I never could have dreamed.

The space of one swift lightning s flash
Was the Majesty outspread;
Then the angels songs the silence broke,
And the glorious darkness fled.

Deep in Thine own immensity
Thyself Thou hidest, Lord !
There always speaking to Thyself
Thine Uncreated Word.

Thy Wisdom, like a sea on fire
Is one with Thee in bliss ;
His unborn loveliness is Thine
Thine unborn glory His.

Thou and Thy Word perforce must breathe
One equal Breath of love.
A Breath that is being ever breathed,
One coeternal Dove.

Yet Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Into one Father run,
A Father in Their Unity,
A Trinity in One.

Father ! all we that toil on earth
One day at rest shall be ; -
Thou art our haven and our home,
O dearest Trinity !

- F.W. Faber

THE ETERNAL WORD.

AMID the eternal silences
God's endless Word was spoken;
None heard but He who always spake,
And the silence was unbroken.
Oh marvellous ! Oh worshipful !
No song or sound is heard,
But everywhere and every hour,
In love, in wisdom, and in power,
The Father speaks His dear Eternal Word!

For ever in the eternal land
The glorious clay is dawning;
For ever is the Father's Light
Like an endless outspread morning.

From the Father's vast tranquility,
In light coequal glowing,
The kingly consubstantial Word
Is unutterably flowing.

For ever climbs that Morning Star
Without ascent or motion;
For ever is its daybreak shed
On the Spirit’s boundless ocean.

O Word ! who fitly can adore
Thy Birth and Thy Relation,
Lost in the impenetrable light
Of Thine awful Generation?

Thy Father clasps Thee evermore
In unspeakable embraces,
While the angels tremble as they praise.
And shroud their dazzled faces.

And oh ! in what abyss of love,
So fiery yet so tender,
The Holy Ghost encircles Thee
With His uncreated splendor !

O Word ! O dear and gentle Word !
Thy creatures kneel before Thee,
And in ecstasies of timid love
Delightedly adore Thee.

Hail choicest mystery of God !
Hail wondrous Generation !
The Father’s self-sufficient rest!
The Spirit’s jubilation !

Dear Person ! dear beyond all words,
Glorious beyond all telling!
Oh with what songs of silent love
Our ravished hearts are swelling!
Oh marvellous ! Oh worshipful !
No song or sound is heard,
But everywhere and every hour,
In love, in wisdom, and in power,
The Father speaks His dear Eternal Word !

- F.W. Faber