THE KINGDOM. THE groans of Nature in this nether world, Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest: For He, whose car the winds are, and the clouds The dust that waits upon His sultry march, When sin hath moved Him, and His wrath is hot, Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend Propitious in His chariot paved with love: And what His storms have blasted and defaced For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair. Sweet is the harp of prophecy; too sweet Not to be wronged by a mere mortal touch: Nor can the wonders it records be sung To meaner music, and not suffer loss, But when a poet, or when one like me, Happy to rove among poetic flowers, Though poor in skill to rear them, lights at last On some fair theme, some theme divinely fair, Such is the impulse and the spur he feels, To give it praise proportioned to its worth, That not to attempt it, arduous as he deems The labour, were a task more arduous still. O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true, Scenes of accomplished bliss; which who can see, Though but in distant prospect, and not feel His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy? Rivers of gladness water all the earth, And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field Laughs with abundance; and the land, once lean, Exults to see its thistly curse repealed; And that one season an eternal spring. The garden fears no blight, and needs no fence, For there is none to covet, all are full. The lion, and the libbard, and the bear Graze with the fearless flocks: all bask at noon Together, or all gambol in the shade Of the same grove, and drink one common stream. Antipathies are none. No foe to man Lurks in the serpent now: the mother sees, The breath of heaven has chased it. In the heart But all is harmony and love. Disease Flows into her unbounded is her joy, : And endless her increase. Thy rams are there, The looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind, To see thy beauty, and to share thy joy, Saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see. Thus heavenward all things tend. For all were once Perfect, and all must be at length restored. Sɔ God has greatly purposed; who would else Come, then, and, added to Thy many crowns, By ancient covenant, ere Nature's birth; And Thou hast made it Thine by purchase since, And overpaid its value with Thy blood. Thy saints proclaim Thee King; and in their hearts Dipped in the fountain of eternal love. Thy saints proclaim Thee King; and Thy delay |