Philip James Bailey (Филип Джеймс Бэйли)
Festus – 45
'Twas held of old by some heresiarch sage, Whose nobler name time bruits not overmuch, That evil and good, twin powers, as light and dark, Were destined to contest with varying mean, The world while e'er it lasts; but in the sum Of things, the final conquest is the Lord's. Reject not all the fable. In this believe: The grand intent of being, and its main stress, Is towards its best, the all--perfect. Rest in God! Heaven, highest and all enfolding, fills at last Its infinite bounds: reward of love divine, Salvation, not alone of this soul, view, Whose steps we have tracked through time, nor total man's Only, but of all spirits. Our God, in fine, Drawing his thousand--folded veil of light, Shows to the world, the astound and jubilant world, As that from first forefixed and justified, The universe cleansed of evil; hell for aye Abolished; the holy happy; all create Redeemed; themselves all bliss; all love, their God. Heaven. The Deity, Angels, Saints, Spirits Elect, Festus, Lucifer, The Restored Angels. The Recording Angel. All souls of men are judged save one, earth's chosen, And last of God's elect. Son of God. He, too from first 'Mong spirits predestined saved, though to the last Tried, longest disciplined, see ye entering! Come Immortal, I have saved thy soul to heaven. Come hither. All hearts bare themselves to me As clouds unbind their bosoms to the sun. Wealthy was thine in gifts of good; and, grant Its guilt most lay in lavished time and thought On uneternal ends, unuseful truth, Knowledge, mind--power, and worldly sway, thy tests, Let pass, for one whose life 'twas all to serve; Let light outweigh the darkness. Saints. Saints rejoice! Elect Spirits. Welcome, free spirit, long lost, long hoped to heaven, Where pure perfection reigns, the world of gods. Saints. Angel of all the covenants, law and love, Pattern of manhood, with whose kind conformed Each variously imperfect souls of men Are made and constituted, we thank thee now For this full harvest. Festus. Could I, Lord, pour my soul out In thanks, even as a river rolling ever It were too scant for that I owe thee. Son of God. Nay, Immortal life were long enough, as life On earth, or as a moment is, to show Thy love of good, thy thanks to him who saves. One heart--throb sometimes earneth heaven, one tear. Festus. Maker of worlds and souls, let all thee thank Who have lived, and deathless witness of thy grace, Me too; thee, holy one, who hast chosen me From old eternity, while yet I lay Hid like a thought in thee unuttered, God; Creator, saviour, judge; sun of the soul, Whose day is now all noon, eternal noon; Who makest of the universe, one heaven; We praise thee, heaven doth praise thee; praise thyself. Lucifer. Is not this man mine? God. Evil! hear thou my words. In the beginning, ere I bade things be; Or, finite filling with the infinite, Ere ever I begat the worlds on space; I knew of him, and saved him in my Son, My first--born, God's humanity preconceived, Who now hath judged, for with the Spirit divine Fraught, heaven's humanity impersonate, he, Feels yet the frailties of things made, and them Like feelingly can judge. What deity chose To make, divine humanity therefore saves: For I abide not sin, and in my Son, The spirit of pure humanity deified, There is no sin; not that he takes away: It is destroyed for ever, and made nothing. Spirit of evil, this mortal loved me; With all his doubts he never doubted God; But from doubt gathered truth, as snow from clouds, The most and whitest from those darkest. Such, His aim was, such his trust to gain for good. With many a shortcoming, his most strong desire Was to do good among men; to show life's end In knowing, loving God, and making known, His boundless grace; him vindicating from charge Of partial choice, mind prejudiciable; wrath Unjust of endless reprobation aimed 'Gainst sinners unpermitted to repent. And for that peace he chose for man, albeit Power he himself and life lost; for that good He chose 'gainst ill, and evil forgave by ill, Most wronged, and myriads with him, see all here. Lucifer. Now know I who for certain are the elect, The sons of God, predestined all to bliss. I leave thee, Festus. Here, thou wilt be happy, To be in heaven is God to love for ever, And him thou must love, here. Here thou wilt find All thou canst love and ought'st; for souls reborn Of deity, made and moulded over again Into his sunlike emblems, multiply His might and love; the saved are suns, not earths; And with original glory shine of God; While I keep on, aye deepening in my darkness, With not one hope--gleam cross the gloom of being. Son of God. Father, I pray to thee again one prayer, One only, it is my latest. God. It is heard. Festus. Let us part, spirit. It may be in the coming, That as some sun extinguished once, may yet, In the ends of heaven restituent, shine again Light--crowned; so we all, sometime worth God's making, May yet be worth forgiving, taking back Into his bosom pure again; and so blessed To all eternity with the increase of truth, And spirit of just obedience, that all mind Shall one be, in fine, with him who is one in all. Lucifer. It may be then I shall cease to be. Farewell. Forgive me in that I tempted thee. Festus. I am glad. God. Stay, spirit; it suits not the eternal laws Of good, that things create be all unmade, Nor yet that ill be immortal. In all space Is joy and glory, and the gladdening stars, Exultant in the sacrifice of sin, And creatural defect unfilled by faith, Leap forth as though to welcome earth to heaven; Leap forth and die. All nature disappears. Shadows are passed away, through all is light. Man is as high above temptation now, And where by grace he alway shall remain, As ever sun o'er sea; and sin is burned In hell to ashes, with the dust of death. The worlds themselves are but as dreams within Their souls who lived in them; and thou art null, And thy vocation useless, gone with them. Therefore shall heaven rejoice in thee again, And the lost tribes of angels, who in thee Wedded themselves to woe, first, and who dwell Around the dizzying centres of all worlds, Blessed with the blessedest be again; for thus Salvation to the lost accrues, far passed Thine ultimate thought, but wholly in scope of mine. Draw nigh, ye angels, who, long time, with hope Inspired of heavenly pardon, and with will Of betterment, and of penitence moved, have striven My grace to attract, and bring your spirits again To the orderly progress of all good, approach. Lo! ye are all restored, rebought, rebrought To heaven, by him who cast ye forth, your God. Your ransom, also boundless, hath been paid; The pure humanity of the all--being God Can let nought suffer woe for aye; not those Who most have wronged him, and the souls he loves. For his murderers Christ on earth forgiveness asked; And that he would I will. The sage of Auz, Unjustly accused; the sage of Athens, doomed Iniquitously, plead pardon; nor shall man Be juster nor more merciful than his God. The fount love fills from is too deep for mere Creation to exhaust, draw he, draw ye, Angels, eternally. Your primal fall, All nature's, is an everlasting lapse, A bottomless descent till stayed by grace: Which grace is mine. The issuant universe Returns but to its source as dewdrops seek Exhaled by sun, cloud--massed, their parent sea. God's gifts are aye of increase. For this cause Receive ye tenfold of all gifts and powers. And thou who camest to heaven one soul to claim, Remain possessed by all. The sons of bliss Shall welcome thee again and all thy hosts; Of whom thou first in glory as in woe Last, most, in bright as darkness late, shalt shine. Take, Lucifer, thy place. This day redeemed Art thou to archangelic state. Bright child Of morning, once again thou beamest fair, O'er all the starry armaments of light. Lucifer. The highest and the humblest I of all The beings whom thou hast made, eternal Lord! God. Thus art thou vanquished, adversary of good, And thus restored. Death slain, sin quelled, all ill Convert, no foe left, conquest is no more. And you, ye saints, rejoice! that reign of old Foretold, millennial, ceased, love all, the truth Shall dwell in, and fulfill, all spirit create, Hallow and quicken, that longed for reign with heaven's Identical, of humanity pure, alone Subsidiary to God's, must disappear. The spirit of just humanity divinized, No more distinct from deity yields at once To him its mediate being; and by the loss Of separateness all gaining, man with God Unites, as even in firmamental light, One, universal, vanisheth every star; So creatures all in deity; all create Intelligence circled in the boundless wheel; All ends in the initial centre crowned. Lo! death and hell have passed away; the extremes Of space no longer blurred with the foul reek Of spheres sin--tormented; heaven pure and calm, Cored in God's infinite unity, see the whole. Angels. Oh marvellous mercy, God e'er blessing all. Saints. Behold they come, the legions of the lost, Transformed already by the bare behest Of God our Maker, to the purest form Of seraph lustre. God. These have but fulfilled The faults of imperfection, nor without Evil, so named of man, can things create, Act of themselves, or interact. Not theirs Perfection; worse and better rounds all life, Seeking or shunning, all intelligent act. All elements of life act downwards; this Destructive, sole, aspires; so mind create Self 'stranged from God, through death, death first and last, To him returns; through ill all good consummed. Be all received. The Restored Angels. But thine be all the praise And ours submissive thanks; thine, who so mad'st The universe that its good and ill alike Praise thee, the Soul supreme. Saints. O say ye risen From life unblessed, how came the end we see? The Restored Angels. Protecting souls, how, hear. Ye doubtless marked From these rejoicing heights where never war's Dark storm--cloud blots the blue serene of day Eternal, hell's late feud. When evil had done Its worst, and we 'gainst God's divinest power Had fought and failed in ruin of the kind ends Thou, Lord! hadst planned for man; and seeing how vile How vast our wreck; how hopeless showed ill's strife 'Gainst good divine; and minding us of meed Like boundless, wisdom--promised to all soul Fixed on self betterment penitently, there rose On us a twilight dawn of reason, eclipsed Long, woefully, but e'er brightening, till we viewed In heaven's true light, gradual, our wretched deeds Soul torturing now, and all the unholy frauds, We had, self--blinded, mocked our sight with; saw Unworthy of rational virtues, so endowed As we, with means of growth in excellence; powers Incapable not to range with these on high, Who, through good, rule; one sole step ta'en, and held. That step we took, and resolutely confessed, Repentant in ourselves of all the passed, The evil we had done and meant. The wail Thou heard'st, Lord, piteous judge! and over all Came peace; then, God most blessed us and forgave: Oh! he hath triumphed over all the world, In mercy, over earth, and death, and hell. God. For that my grace is greater than the world, My essence vaster than the universe; All recreated life exalted now To union with its Maker; all may see Their being's divine foundations in myself; And know that though on all the fine I fixed Of finitude; upon all the soul's results; Woes self--begotten; self--conceived deserts, And misconstructions of the Merciful One; When come the end of all, which none but I Know nor can know, it is mine,--the whole, made pure By perfect annihilance of ill, to enfold In mine own infinite being, and in all The life of love imbreathe, the life of God. Evil, to soul create, means opposite Of what to her in outward guise shows good, In act or thought: thus death to all which live; Corruption and decay. But in my sight Evil nor was nor is. I made the world, Called it by mine own name and named it good; The infinite whole as circumscribed in me. All things I made to be good, and good is bliss. Free choice to prove and need of grace, needs not Fireflames eternal, feigned by zeal o'erstrained In God's behalf. Free--will most perfect, pure, Hath still a limit, my will; which all ellipse Of thought create outcircles; if with mine Co--apt, infinite virtually; opposed, Fate's indefeasible right revives. So deem, Hate against me--what else is sin?--eterne, In conscious spirit, its author I, must mean Such being were best not being, and so in God, Defectible judgment, folly in wisdom. Far From nature's mind glorying in reason, fly Such base unhallowed thoughts! The worlds I made That I in them might joy, and they in me. Life I have made enjoyment. Should I make The sense of all but boundless being, woe? Though fails the imperfect left to itself to weigh Perfection's warnings, or the fateful proofs Of its incompetency itself to rule, And thus by ill corrupt, wrong willing, sin, Suffering in time--state righteous penalties Proportioned to sin's voluntary offence, Yet justice increate yields final grace, From him who founded all, of all defect, All perfect source, sole answerable Cause. Now, too, that heaven is all, know, no such thing As absolute evil exists, nor could exist, Ever. In him who wronged, 'twas better, choice To have of good and ill with life than not; Though after justly fined for wrongful choice; Better it was for him who suffered ill, To enjoy life than not be; regard, too, had, To the heavenly recompense, that for innocence, For tested virtue this. Now, evil gone Out of the world that was, like one dark wave Merged in a sea of light, grace all sustains. Apart from natural causes and the range Of requisite freedom, evil is not. Free mind, Free within certain bounds, imperfect, fails In due conception, justly inadequate, Of my divine intents,--to creatures known As fate, doom, destiny, so good and ill War spiritual wage which lasts while time lasts. Here Good, losing nought, is made divine, and ill Sloughing its selfish personalty becomes, Transfigured in ascent, the all redeemed, Commensurate with soul kind; and mind finite, Distinct from, yet with deity perfused, The whole is peace; divisive nature ends. Truth only unitive, marks the spirit's path; An endless radius from a boundless point Of pure perfection. All created mind, Whate'er its power, how far soe'er it fly This parent point, hath limit to its force; And, active thought its essence, must revolve Around some central spirit. Angels. God! God. Henceforth All thought of the now hallowed world of life, Tends to communion with the infinite One; Communion vital, virtual and divine; Wherein is bliss supreme. The Holy Spirit. O sacred Son Of deity, God's humanity, joy with me. The tears of nature's birth, time's death--pangs passed, And justice glorified in all love made, I, Wisdom, parent of all souls, rejoice, With thee, as thou with me, next to God's throne. Sole king and conqueror of the spirit world Who by thine infinite sacrifice, and in time's Severance from divinity, didst conclude In ample verge, the universe of soul;-- Thy throne, the crown of heaven, thy crown thy name, Thy name the ever blessèd Lord of life; Bliss--giver thou, who art the bliss of all, Be thy soul satiate with this victory. Son of God. All hallowing deity, all parent power, Of God prime effluence, it is for thee I fought Time's universal war; that all by thee Soul--sanctified might in spirit through thee return To their all central source; for thee I gain This heavenly victory; for thyself this peace Celestial, recreative. The Holy Spirit. Lo! I have seen The mountain of creation, all whose sands Were starworlds, called eternal by made mind, Rays finite of the all central infinite, Like to a night--born islet, mid the main, Sink in the abyss of being, as it rose. Angel of Earth. Be glad, O world of worlds. Rejoice, all life, And mourn no more. Death, evil, suffering cease. Ouriel. Lift up your starry voices, all ye spheres, Let all creation from its inmost heart, Sound forth one song of ceaseless, boundless praise! Festus. How joys the soul redeemed, joys, as when first, On the horizon of God's awful eye, Some world he hath willed into existence beams, And gladdens in his glance, whose look is love! Luniel. What infinite wonders we have witnessed here; And now the greatest this, of all most blessed:-- Triumphant, all embracing good, the whole Concordant, one made with the One supreme: For as in things material, force all rules, In matters spiritual, weakness wins; as once Of old, on the angel visioned plain, thou sawest, Wrestler with God, and prince; so, once again, It is God's humanity prevails o'er God. Festus. Unsearchable are God's ways, God's works. Angel. But not Dubious when shown. In this most luminous life, Shined through by deity, and wherein the worlds, God's vast and palpable thoughts transpicuous range, The outcome, child, behold of all good deeds, Though profitless misdeemed on earth; all aims Which faultless in themselves failed; hopes well based, Frustrate, not fruitless in the eternal plan; Not futile; but to the soul advantageous. Here roots of duty set in natural mould Of heart--love, social virtues, freely bloom; And fragrant, though, below, they ofttimes showed Blighted, and irresponsive to just hope. These are the flowers that now unwithering wreathe The immortal brows of saints, and shed far round Perfume of holy hilarity. And as marked On earth, through some dark cloud--cleft, travelling swift, The light--shaft downward shot from the sun's broad eye, Illumed successive mount, spire, city or sea; So points God's finger, brightening all the dark Of being, fate's favourite secrets, one by one To spirits benign, of reason sanctified, And to saints prepared, permitted, truths profound, In wisdom's breast hid; all the problems dark And intricate, of existence solved; we, taught Thus, by Omniscience. Angel. Here, too, in the soul All tendencies of good, all rarest powers And faculties of spirit, made holy, pure, Potent to imbue receptive mind with sense Of beauty spiritualized and sanctified, Have full fruition, scope unlimited; end Boundless; all plans prolific of the weal Of worlds, and sanctioned by God's sign of good, Their harvest through the appointed ages reap. Guardian Angel. That sinners be made holy, sin itself By righteousness condoned, and vital bliss Out of deadliest suffering wrought,--though to finite mind From God divergent,--strange, astounds not soul United with divinity; for what More contrary can show than heaven thus full Of boundless being, all glorified with bliss, And the black void whence all things, at his word, Leapt into life, and starred the skies with light? That flame should heavenward rise, or waters fall, Or ice evolve heat, mind no more confounds, Than that who, fallible, stood, should sometime fail. Why that who fell, should rise? All evil but gives Just scope for God's more grand benevolence, Who forms all natures, and at will transforms, Happy in making happy, O Spirit elect Of heaven and earth, and using to best ends This life--world and its universal powers. Thus, too, with the angels once estranged, at last, Atoning by obedience just to God, Oh doubly blessed and trebly worshipped name! Of all in heaven or earth, or under earth, Self--exiled, penitent, from affairs mundane, For selfish rule, inexpiable else; For cruel, reckless deed, or impious thought; Misconstrued love, and means of grace thrust back; They, their asbestine expurgation passed, Exalted by progression infinite, Through conduct, aspiration, and intent, Thrice recreate, see now rise; and round God's throne, Where o'er the infinite and immaculate skies, Yon rainbow bends its everlasting beams; Not drops of water, but translucent spheres Quick with eternal life, wherein abide The spirits of time all glorified, they, translate, Bright guardians e'er shall stand; like dear to God Both man and angel kind; and so, in the end, Unnumbered times, duration unbethought, When passed, our God, his name be ever blessed By all, and hallowed, reigning mediately In all the worlds of space, in all the powers Of spirit aggrandized, holy, happy made, Shall the whole infinite animate and bless Where'er soul lives, wherever stretch his skies. Festus. So great his mercies are, so vast his love, So infinite is his wisdom, all things seem Possible, be they only good and kind. All kind affections ripening here in heaven, A thousand fold beneath God's smile, and blessed Of all, all blessing, perfect life attained, Nature expands into divinity. Guardian Angel. Hither with me. Festus. But where are those I love? The dear religions of my heart, all true, All perfect, all consoling while they ruled? Guardian Angel. Yon happy troop. Festus. Ah, blessed ones, come to me. Are ye all here too with me? Angels. All. Festus. It is heaven. Angel. All spirits in heaven one holy company make, Self--ruled and penetrate with divinity. Guardian Angel. Heaven, God's special seat, was with him from the first, And must be e'er; but this thou seest, the soul's Guerdon, creation's crown, was last of things Made, and is ever largening. Through divine Beneficence, its foundations bright were laid In reason's holiest verities, in mind's Acts absolutest of good; from selfhood strained; In nature's excellences made pure; in life's World--winning charities hallowed, and the chords Sentient, of sympathy, through every sphere, Spiritual and animate stretched, the vital worlds Of virtue, and light intelligible; lines these Of God's design demonstrant, so adapt To duty's parallels of choice, and act Responsible; so commensurate each degree Of just obedience there to bliss here, earned Celestially, that not to see the fair Congruities of the eternal world with time's Conditions, where'er placed, were nor to know, Nor be. As in heaven this central infinite, The vast concerted laws of general being, Do in God's ear, hallowed and harmonized, Blend spiritually, and that peace express Created mind can neither sum nor sound, So on man's soul and natures like to his, Of good and ill mixed, not infallible, falls The calm most sweet, of orderly judgment born, They share, who enter heaven; those first who come By grace divine forechosen, from all law free, Vouched for of God, who, careful, guides the paths Of saints on earth with this hand, as with that, The worlds; and these through training laws who passed All tests, triumphant, tests, the touch of God, Whereby he proves the virtue of souls, but passed Their powers tries none, nay always far within; So, in all temptations justified; and this One backward glance makes clear, think thou on thine; For, here, man's course, whate'er refining spheres He pass through, shows with strictest relevance To the passed, no error possible, every age Brightening till soul, all verifying time, All grades of being accomplished, all desires, All aspirations crowned, each with the One In absolute union rests. Festus. All see I now; And heaven within the spirit, the whole divine. Before God's all felicitating love All earth love pales; how pure so e'er or dear, And worship, sense of immanent deity, Labouring within the spirit to burst forth Into supreme expression of all truth, Circles the soul as with a glory cloud. Angels. All praise, all love, all worship Lord be thine! Festus. Who can survey the world's vast ways and woes, He hath passed through, times extinct; all orbs like earth, The sun--born seed and increment of light; Founded in strata deep and dim of stars; Beyond those skies, the camp of light, where gleams The bannered sun, God's oriflamme; beyond Each sun--star space knows, beaming out his life Godwards, in glorious gratitude of light; Passed all time's mutable opposites, act and rest; The mighty sequences of light and night; Systems, scarce form deforms, so pure, so nigh To the unconditionate sphere, this dome divine The infinite bound which circles being finite, And absolute centre of mere cause; nor feel Soul worship, humbliest, unitive with him, Maker of good, destroyer of all ill, Saviour of all perfectible essence, God, The highest bliss of being, being knows? Wherefore let us him ceaselessly adore; Active or meditative, as wisdom wills; Praise him, ye chosen of the earth and skies, Ye visible raylets of the invisible light; Blend with the universal heaven, your hymns; Immortal leaflets of love's holy flower, Breathe forth your perfume of eternal praise. Angel. Come, let us join our souls unto the song Of glory, which the saved all sing, to God. The Saved. Father of goodness, Son of love, Spirit of comfort, Be with us! God who hast made us, God who hast saved, God who hast judged us, Thee we praise. Heaven our spirits, Hallow our hearts; Let us have God--light Endlessly, Ours is the wide world, Heaven on heaven; What have we done, Lord, Worthy this? Oh! we have loved thee; That alone Maketh our glory, Duty, meed. Oh! we have loved thee! Love we will Ever, and every Soul of us. God of the saved, God of the tried, God of the lost ones, Be with all! Let us be near thee Ever and aye; Oh! let us love thee Infinite! Festus. So, soul and song, begin and end in heaven, Your birthplace and your everlasting home. Angels. In heaven extolled are now all souls of earth, And each particular essence at thy word, O God! rejoins the pure and pious skies. All government, sway, and empire is at last United here, the kingdom sole of heaven, Meant from the first for universal rule. In boundless bliss all creatural power is now Essentially and evermore absorbed. Henceforth the only offspring of the word Of all sustaining grace, shall teach the souls, Victors through God, eternal virtue's truth; Adding celestial might to every thought Hallowed by thee, by thee all thought inspired. The gods are one God and all power is his. High over all and deep in all dost thou Ever rule one thing by another; still On all thy throne is based, and round all thou Stretchest the line unlimited of heaven. Divine and holy is thine every work, Eternal only as ordained by thee, Unknown but to thyself, who dost remain Steadfast in love though heaven and earth rebel. All sway is thine, Lord! heaven and earth are one In universal glory: world by world Night renders up to thee the fruit of light, Sown in her bosom, reaped and ripened here; Unutterably happy to approach Perfection in the Infinite, how far, How high soever, still to thee allied. All blessing God; who with thy boundless love Dost deify the heavens and make the soul Of man expand with immortality, Now we with him in fourfold joy rejoice, And all the heavenly hierarchies of light, Ineffable, adore thy grace supreme. All sanctifying Lord of love and might, Let whole creation testify to thee, As vice to virtue, darkness to the light, Hell thus to heaven, and man to deity!-- Glory to thee our God, who all to prove, Of earth the law, of heaven the grace above, Dost make the great I am, the all I love. Son of God. All--father! all thou hast made is saved. The whole, As being deified is in thee, the all--one. The Holy Spirit. God all in all, the all--perfect, heaven's complete. Time there hath been when only God was all: And it shall be again. The hour is named, When angel, saint, man, every spirit create, Though more or less imperfect, tested, tried, Made pure, and unbelievably uplift Above their present state--drawn up to God, Like dew into the air--shall be all heaven; And all souls shall be in God, and shall be God, And nothing but God, be. Son of God. Let all be God's. And us within his essence whence we came, Born, and proceeding, oned and samed, return. God. World without end, and I am God alone; The Aye, the Infinite, the Whole, the One. I only was--nor matter else, nor mind, The self--contained Perfection unconfined. I only am--in might and mercy one; I live in all things and am closed in none. I only shall be--when the worlds have done, My boundless being will be but begun.
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