Philip James Bailey (Филип Джеймс Бэйли)
Festus – 44
Man's final doom conceive: the award to all Earth's tribes of souls by spirits elect, their chiefs Saintly, themselves through purifying rule Of chastening spheres, to proximate perfectness Long trained; all rational hosts, by boundless love, Brought round to service reasonable and just, Of life's beneficent lord. A million minds Fixed momently on him, and countless more, In rest, act, sin or strife, all seen at once, Show but as one to God, all man one soul. Blessed, when in spiritual sacrament as now All creature being, by God invited, taste His infinite essence, who all life within, Soul with soul pure communes. We glimpse the close; And swiftlier than an angel's wings outpace Time's plodding feet, things ripen unto their end. The Judgment of Earth. Son of Man, Archangel, Angels and Saints. Archangel. Let all the dead rejoice; their Saviour comes With clouds of angels circled like a sun Belted with light, and brighter than all light. Lo, he descends and seats him on his throne; Alighting like a new made sun in heaven. The world awaits thee Lord! Rise, souls of men, Buried beneath all ages from the first; Numbered, unnumbered, rise ye; death, no more, Hath power upon ye than the ravening sea Upon the stars of heaven. Ye elements Give back your stolen dead. He claimeth them Whose they both were and are and e'er shall be. Angel of Earth. See! to wipe from his word The dust of years, He comes, he comes, the Lord, Man--god, reappears; To bless and to save From death and the grave; To redeem and deliver, For ever and ever. Son of Man. I come to repay sin with holiness; And death with immortality; man's soul With God's spirit; yea, all evil with all good. Ye angels, ye elect, who with God's love Informed, shall rule with me o'er life, assume Your seats of judgment. Judge ye all in love, The love which God the all--father hath to you. Saints. First--born of deity, judge ye, saidst thou. Be Our Judge, Lord! Teach us others how to judge. Son of Man. Our father, heaven's supreme, the all--perfect one Hath me, the Son, born of humanity, filled With the spirit divine, and so of mercy and grace. Thus judge ye, God in you all judging; soul By soul before ye brought to cleansing pains Of self reproach consigned for all offence Conscious 'gainst God and man, ye so shall train By precept and example 'like divine, As shall all lowlier nature raise to sense Worthier of being, as pure and true to God, And fruitful sole of good; from sphere to sphere, Of every virtue, thus refined, and raised, Ye saints of choice with all ye rule, and serve, One vast equality so attained of bliss, With me shall enter heaven. Saints. Be it where God will; But now we render back to thee the love Which is thine own, none else is worthy thee. Who shall commemorate all thy chosen names Friend, servant, brother, joint--heir, owner, lord, Priest, advocate, physician, teacher, guide: Prime essence, virtue of all excellence? Son of Man. Whate'er the sign, the emblem, chartered law, Treaty or covenant, man in ages passed Hath boasted, of the spirit that should redeem From sin and ignorance, idols many and foul, His spirit to purify and lead to enjoy Visions of peace triumphant, glory and power; Know all are symbols only of truth; and know To creature thought, God in his wholeness seems Inestimable; and these conceived him best Partwise, as acting through main energies, Sevenfold, or trebly substanced, increate Aspects of being; but illusory; those, With more or less of majesty, as a cloud Sun--gilded, of the storm's tempestuous breath, Shows nobler than the minimous gust man's lips Force on air frore; so, more than all things God; All spirit, all substance, manifest or concealed. God know ye one pure spirit, and self--outrayed In infinite forms, instinct with deity, each Which time by time, to its central source returns Its end, its reason sole; intelligences, Angels all, sons of God, to him, of all Created, spirit and matter, sire and sum; For as in man's breath congealed, cross, starlet, flower Sphere crystalline, form, so into life all being, Harmonious and symmetric, God imbreathes. Behold, this day I dwell with ye on earth, Time doling for the accomplishment of things, Judicial, curative, rewardful; lawed Even to the last. The next shall be in heaven, Where ye shall meet the all--father, and remain In the eternal presence; the all in one, The sole true being of the universe. Saints. Dear Lord, our sire and saviour, for thy gifts, The world were poor in thanks, though every soul Should nought but breathe them; every blade of grass, Yea every atomie of the earth and air Thanks utter like to dew. Thy ways are plain Only in thine own light. And this great day, By one unfolded with thy spirit replete, Unveils all nature's laws and miracles All to thee all as one. Thy judgment all Wise mercy, Lord of love, the world's no more Illegible; all is bright as new--born star. All men have sinned; but not a single soul Less than the countless all can satisfy The ultimate triumph which to us belongs Who in mortality strove, and won; or failed As these, the unnumbered, till death after. See! Son of Man. The book of life is opened. Heaven begins.
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