Monday, June 20, 2011

Now To The King: Ode To Edward's King and Mine

by CWK

Now to the King, Eternal --
my soul’s chief treasure and delight --
Immortal, the only God, Who is invisible,
Who is robed in holy light,
Who is, but by grace, in Christ, Unapproachable.

Now, to the King be glory.
This is my joy, this is His story.

As I read the words,
As I read, a sweet fire kindled, and darkness fleeing
there came into my soul and was, as it were,
diffused a sense of the glory of the Divine Being:
a new sense, quite omnipotent, quite different
from anything I’d ever known before;
Christ, tender, wrathful, had knocked upon my door.

The sense I had of Divinity would of a sudden ignite;
as it were, a sweet burning in my breast,
and ardor of soul: a sweet and holy light,
that I know not, I know not, how to express.

Not long after I first began to experience
these things --
I walked abroad, alone, in a solitary place
in my father’s pasture, in Spring,
for contemplation.
And there gave my heart to
Divine saturation.

And as I was walking there,
and looking up on the clouds and sky --
God stepped down, grace drew nigh;
there came into my mind a sense so sweet
of God in his glory and majesty
that thence did glory and majesty meet.
And I bowed, and took the shoes from off
my feet.

So sweet that I know not,
nay, I know not how to express.

Majesty and meekness:
I seemed to see them both in a sweet conjunction.
Majesty and meekness conjoined
then filled my life with rich and fiery unction.
It was a sweet, gentle, and holy majesty;
and also a majestic meekness; an awful sweetness,
a high and great, and holy gentleness.

So sweet that I know not,
nay, I know not how to express.

After this, my sense of divine things increased:
gradually, slowly, gently, by ever lovelier degrees.
This sense did conquer and progress
til I had more of that inward sweetness.
This sense, intense, rent sin like a saber.
This sense caused me holiness to savor.

The appearance of everything was new;
a sweet calm, a vision of divine glory
dropped from heaven like the dew.
I did walk, and ponder, and prayers sing,
and glory appeared at last in almost everything.
God’s excellency, His wisdom, His purity and love,
appeared in everything on earth, everything above.
It radiated in the moon and sun and stars.
The love of Christ was shed abroad into my heart.
Divine glory settled on the clouds, blue sky, and flowers;
Days then to me did seem to flee like hours.

The trees and the grass and the water
had a sweet cast, and lovely intimations
of Divine glory shined
in all creation.

Such a worm as I,
knowing of grace a visitation --
I wept for hours over heart sins
in lowly soul prostration.
Then I drank, I drank Divine mercies like a draft,
with relief and adoration.

The trees, the grass, and the water had a sweet cast;
and lovely intimations
of Glory Divine Shined
in all creation.  

So sweet that I know not,
nay, I know not how to express.

No comments:

Post a Comment