175. The Two Worlds
{319}
UNVEIL, O Lord, and on us shine
In glory and in
grace;
This gaudy world grows pale before
The beauty of Thy
face.
Till Thou art seen, it seems to be
A sort of fairy
ground,
Where suns unsetting light the sky,
And flowers and
fruits abound.
But when Thy keener, purer beam
Is pour'd upon our
sight,
It loses all its power to charm,
And what was day is
night. {320}
Its noblest toils are then the scourge
Which made Thy
blood to flow;
Its joys are but the treacherous thorns
Which circled round
Thy brow.
And thus, when we renounce for Thee
Its restless aims
and fears,
The tender memories of the past,
The hopes of coming
years,
Poor is our sacrifice, whose eyes
Are lighted from
above;
We offer what we cannot keep,
What we have ceased
to love.
The Oratory.
1862.