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A DRAMA OF EXILE.
Eve. O Saviour Christ, Thou standest mute in glory, like the sun. Adam. We worship in Thy silence, Saviour Christ Eve. Thy brows grow grander with a forecast woe,—Diviner, with the possible of Death! We worship in Thy sorrow, Saviour Christ. Adam. How do Thy clear, still eyes transpierce our souls As gazing through them towards the Father-throne, In a pathetical, full Deity, Serenely as the stars gaze through the air Straight on each other. Eve.O pathetic Christ, Thou standest mute in glory, like the moon. Christ. Eternity stands alway fronting God; A stern colossal image, with blind eyes, And grand dim lips, that murmur evermore God, God, God! while the rush of life and death, The roar of act and thought, of evil and good,—The avalanches of the ruining worlds Toiling down space,—the new worlds' genesis Budding in fire,—the gradual humming growth Of the ancient atoms, and first forms of earth, The slow procession of the swathing seas And firmamental waters,—and the noise Of the broad, fluent strata of pure airs,—All these flow onward in the intervals Of that reiterant, solemn sound of—God! Which word, innumerous angels straightway lift High on celestial altitudes of song And choral adoration, and then drop The burden softly; shutting the last notes Hushed up in silver wings! I' the noon of time, Nathless, that mystic-lipped Eternity Shall wax as silent-dumb as Death himself, While a new voice beneath the spheres shall cry, "God! why hast Thou forsaken me, my God?" And not a voice in Heaven shall answer it. [The transfiguration is complete in sadness.
