JOHANNES AGRICOLA IN MEDITATION
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842 There's heaven above, and night by nightI look right through its gorgeous roof;No suns and moons though e'er so brightAvail to stop me; splendor-proofI keep the broods of stars aloof:For I intend to get to God,For 't is to God I speed so fast,For in God's breast, my own abode,Those shoals of dazzling glory, passed,I lay my spirit down at last. 10I lie where I have always lain,God smiles as he has always smiled;Ere suns and moons could wax and wane,Ere stars were thundergirt, or piledThe heavens, God thought on me his child;Ordained a life for me, arrayedIts circumstances every oneTo the minutest; ay, God saidThis head this hand should rest uponThus, ere he fashioned star or sun. 20And having thus created me,Thus rooted me, he bade me grow,Guiltless forever, like a treeThat buds and blooms, nor seeks to knowThe law by which it prospers so:But sure that thought and word and deedAll go to swell his love for me,Me, made because that love had needOf something irreversiblyPledged solely its content to be. 30Yes, yes, a tree which must ascend,No poison-gourd foredoomed to stoop!I have God's warrant, could I blendAll hideous sins, as in a cup,To drink the mingled venoms up;Secure my nature will convertThe draught to blossoming gladness fast:While sweet dews turn to the gourd's hurt,And bloat, and while they bloat it, blast,As from the first its lot was cast. 40For as I lie, smiled on, full-fedBy unexhausted power to bless,I gaze below on hell's fierce bed,And those its waves of flame oppress,Swarming in ghastly wretchedness;Whose life on earth aspired to beOne altar-smoke, so pure!--to winIf not love like God's love for me,At least to keep his anger in;And all their striving turned to sin. 50Priest, doctor, hermit, monk grown whiteWith prayer, the broken-hearted nun,The martyr, the wan acolyte,The incense-swinging child--undoneBefore God fashioned star or sun!God, whom I praise; how could I praise,If such as I might understand,Make out and reckon on his ways,And bargain for his love, and stand,Paying a price, at his right hand? 60
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