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The Christian Book of Mystical Verse
A Collection of Poems, Hymns, and Prayers for Devotional Reading
By A. W. Tozer Moody Publishers
Copyright © 1991 The Moody Bible Institute
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-60066-800-5
CHAPTER 1
ADORATION OF THE GODHEAD
ETERNAL POWER!
Eternal Power, whose high abode
Becomes the grandeur of a God:
Infinite lengths beyond the bounds
Where stars revolve their little rounds:
Thee while the first archangel sings,
He hides his face behind his wings:
And ranks of shining thrones around
Fall worshipping, and spread the ground.
Lord, what shall earth and ashes do?
We would adore our Maker too;
From sin and dust to Thee we cry,
The Great, the Holy, and the High.
Earth, from afar, hath heard Thy fame,
And worms have learned to lisp Thy Name;
But Oh the glories of Thy mind
Leave all our soaring thoughts behind.
God is in heaven, and men below:
Be short our tunes; our words be few:
A solemn reverence checks our songs,
And praise sits silent on our tongues.
Isaac Watts, 1674–1748
LORD OF ALL BEING
Lord of all being, throned afar,
Thy glory flames from sun and star;
Center and soul of every sphere,
Yet to each loving heart how near.
Sun of our life, Thy quickening ray
Sheds on our path the glow of day;
Star of our hope, Thy softened light
Cheers the long watches of the night.
Our midnight is Thy smile withdrawn;
Our noontide is Thy gracious dawn;
Our rainbow arch, Thy mercy's sign;
All, save the clouds of sin, are Thine.
Lord of all life, below, above,
Whose light is truth, whose warmth is love,
Before Thy ever blazing throne
We ask no luster of our own.
Grant us Thy truth to make us free,
And kindling hearts that burn for Thee,
Till all Thy living altars claim
One holy light, one heavenly flame.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809–1894
ADORATION
Almighty One! I bend in dust before Thee;
Even so veiled cherubs bend;
In calm and still devotion I adore Thee,
All-wise, all-present Friend!
Thou to the earth its emerald robes hast given,
Or curtained it in snow;
And the bright sun, and the soft moon in heaven,
Before Thy presence bow.
Thou Power sublime! whose throne is firmly seated
On stars and glowing suns;
O, could I praise Thee, could my soul, elated,
Waft Thee seraphic tones,
Had I the lyres of angels, could I bring Thee
An offering worthy Thee,
In what bright notes of glory would I sing Thee,
Blest notes of ecstasy!
Eternity! Eternity! how solemn,
How terrible the sound!
Here, leaning on thy promises, a column
Of strength, may I be found,
O, let my heart be ever Thine, while beating,
As when twill cease to beat!
Be Thou my portion, till that awful meeting
When I my God shall greet!
Sir John Bowring, 1792–1872
THE UNITY OF GOD
One God! one Majesty!
There is no God but Thee!
Unbounded, unextended Unity!
Awful in unity,
O God! we worship Thee
More simply one, because supremely Three!
Dread, unbeginning One!
Single, yet not alone,
Creation hath not set Thee on a higher throne.
Unfathomable Sea!
All life is out of Thee,
And Thy life is Thy blissful Unity.
All things that from Thee run,
All works that Thou hast done,
Thou didst in honour of Thy being One.
And by Thy being One,
Ever by that alone,
Couldst Thou do, and doest, what Thou hast done.
We from Thy oneness come,
Beyond it cannot roam,
And in Thy oneness find our one eternal home.
Blest be Thy Unity!
All joys are one to me, —
The joy that there can be no other God than Thee!
Frederick William Faber, 1814–1863
THE HOLY TRINITY
O Blessed Trinity!
Thy children dare to lift their hearts to Thee,
And bless Thy triple Majesty!
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
Holy, unfathomable, infinite,
Thou art all Life and Love and Light.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
God of a thousand attributes! we see
That there is no one good but Thee.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
In our astonished reverence we confess
Thine uncreated loveliness.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
O simplest Majesty! O Three in One!
Thou art for ever God alone.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinityl
The Fountain of the Godhead, in repose,
For ever rests, for ever flows.
Holy Trinityl
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
O Unbegotten Father! give us tears
To quench our love, to calm our fears.
Holy Trinityl
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
Bright Son! who art the Fathers mind displayed,
Thou art begotten and not made.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
Coequal Spirit! wondrous Paraclete!
By Thee the Godhead is complete.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
We praise Thee, bless Thee, worship Thee as one.
Yet Three are on the single Throne.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
In the deep darkness of prayers stillest night
We worship Thee blinded with light.
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
O Blessed Trinity!
Oh would that we could die of love for Thee,
Incomparable Trinity!
Holy Trinity!
Blessed Equal Three,
One God, we praise Thee.
Frederick William Faber, 1814–1863
MAJESTY DIVINE!
Full of glory, full of wonders,
Majesty Divine!
Mid Thine everlasting thunders
How Thy lightnings shine!
Shoreless Ocean! who shall sound Thee?
Thine own eternity is round Thee,
Majesty Divine!
Timeless, spaceless, single, lonely,
Yet sublimely Three,
Thou art grandly, always, only
God in Unity!
Lone in grandeur, lone in glory,
Who shall tell Thy wondrous story,
Awful Trinity?
Speechlessly, without beginning,
Sun that never rose!
Vast, adorable, and winning,
Day that hath no close!
Bliss from Thine own glory tasting,
Everliving, everlasting,
Life that never grows!
Thine own Self for ever filling
With self-kindled flame,
In Thyself Thou art distilling
Unctions without name!
Without worshipping of creatures
Without veiling of Thy features,
God always the same!
In Thy praise of Self untiring
Thy perfections shine;
Self-sufficient, self-admiring,
Such life must be Thine;
Glorifying Self, yet blameless
With a sanctity all shameless
It is so divine!
'Mid Ihine uncreated morning,
Like a trembling star
I behold creation's dawning
Glimmering from afar;
Nothing giving, nothing taking,
Nothing changing, nothing breaking,
Waiting at time's bar!
I with life and love diurnal
See myself in Thee,
All embalmed in love eternal,
Floating in Thy sea:
'Mid Thine uncreated whiteness
I behold Thy glory's brightness
Feed itself on me.
Splendours upon splendours beaming
Change and intertwine;
Glories over glories streaming
All translucent shine!
Blessings, praises, adorations
Greet Thee from the trembling nations
Majesty Divine!
Frederick William Faber, 1814–1863
THE VISION OF THE GODHEAD
Unchanging and Unchangeable, before angelic eyes,
The Vision of the Godhead in its tranquil beauty lies;
And, like a city lighted up all gloriously within,
Its countless lustres glance and gleam, and sweetest
worship win.
On the Unbegotten Father, awful well-spring of the
Three,
On the Sole Begotten Sons coequal Majesty.
On Flim eternally breathed forth from Father and from
Son.
The spirits gaze with fixed amaze, and unreckoned ages
run.
Chorus:
Myriad, myriad angels raise
Happy hymns of wondering praise,
Ever through eternal days,
Before the Holy Trinity,
One Undivided Three!
Still the Fountain of the Godhead giveth forth eternal
being:
Still begetting, unbegotten, still His own perfection
seeing,
Still limiting His own loved Self with His dear coequal
Spirit,
No change comes o'er that blissful Life, no shadow
passeth near it.
And beautiful dread Attributes, all manifold and bright,
Now thousands seem, now lose themselves in one self-
living light;
And far in that deep Life of God, in harmony complete,
Like crowned kings, all opposite perfections take their
seat.
And in that ungrowing vision nothing deepens, nothing
brightens,
But the living Life of God perpetually lightens;
And created life is nothing but a radiant shadow fleeing
From the unapproached lustres of that Unbeginning
Being;
Spirits wise and deep have watched that everlasting
Ocean,
And never o'er its lucid field hath rippled faintest motion;
In glory undistinguished never have the Three seemed
One,
Nor ever in divided streams the Single Essence run.
There reigns the Eternal Father, in His lone prerogatives,
And, in the Father's Mind, the Son, all self-existing, lives,
With Him, their mutual Jubilee, that deepest depth of
love,
Lifegiving Life of two-fold source, the many gifted Dove!
O Bountiful! O Beautiful! can Power or Wisdom add
Fresh features to a life, so munificent and glad?
Can even uncreated Love, ye angels! give a hue
Which can ever make the Unchanging and Unchangeable
look new?
The Mercy of the Merciful is equal to Their Might,
As wondrous as Their Tove, and as Their Wisdom bright!
As They, who out of nothing called creation at the first,
In everlasting purposes Their own design had nursed,
As They, who in their solitude, Three Persons, once
abode,
Vouchsafed of Their abundance to become creation's
God, —
What They owed not to Themselves They stooped to owe
to man,
And pledged Their glory to him, in an unimaginable
plan.
See! deep within the glowing depth of that Eternal Light.
What change hath come, what vision new transports
angelic sight?
A creature can it be, in uncreated bliss?
A novelty in God? Oh what nameless thing is this?
The beauty of the Fathers Power is o'er it brightly shed,
The sweetness of the Spirit's Love is unction on its head;
In the wisdom of the Son it plays its wondrous part,
While it lives the loving life of a real Human heart!
A Heart that hath a Mother, and a treasure of red blood,
A Heart that man can pray to, and feed upon for food!
In the brightness of the Godhead is its marvellous abode,
A change in the Unchanging, creation touching God!
Ye spirits blest, in endless rest, who on that Vision gaze,
Salute the Sacred Heart with all your worshipful amaze,
And adore, while with ecstatic skill the Three in One ye
scan,
The Mercy that hath planted there that blessed Heart of
Man!
All tranquilly, all tranquilly, doth that Blissful Vision last,
And Its brightness o'er immortalized creation will it cast;
Ungrowing and unfading, Its pure Essence doth it keep,
In the deepest of those depths where all are infinitely
deep;
Unchanging and Unchangeable as It hath ever been,
As It was before that Human heart was there by angels
seen,
So is it at this very hour, so will it ever be,
With that Human Heart within It, beating hot with love
of me!
Chorus:
Myriad, myriad angels raise
Happy hymns of wondering praise,
Ever through eternal days,
Before the Holy Trinity,
One Undivided Three!
Frederick William Faber, 1814–1863
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Christian Book of Mystical Verse by A. W. Tozer. Copyright © 1991 The Moody Bible Institute. Excerpted by permission of Moody Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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