Thou glorious Lord! mine eyes at last unsealed
Behold Thee now—
In sudden radiance to my soul revealed,
Light, sight, art Thou.
One moment—and the night has passed away,
Unbarred the prison;
And I pass forth to God’s eternal day,
The dead arisen.
One moment—and I see Thy glorious Face
Look down on me,
Unutterable love that fills all space,
Where’er I be.
Here, nearer than myself, and far away
And everywhere,
Thou shinest, Light of that celestial day,
“The Lord is there.”
Thou showest me the land of living springs,
The land that lies
Beneath the shadow of Thy mighty wings,
The glory of Thine eyes.
And all is lit with love that hath no end,
Illimitable love—
Wherein for ever wheresoe’er I wend
I live and move.
Such, O my God, that moment of delight—
The sudden light that shone
Upon the fields of Bethlehem at night—
Thou givest me Thy Son.
* * * * *
And now the silence of the dead is past;
My ears have heard
The voice of Him who is the First and Last,
The living Word.
But not in one short moment hath He told
His heart to me,
The everlasting love that was of old,
That evermore shall be.
My ears have heard the first entrancing chord
Of that unending song,
The joyful psalm, the music of the Lord,
So sweet, so long.
The song that through the everlasting days
The Lord’s belovèd hears;
His Light has filled illimitable space,
His Voice, eternal years.
O glorious moment of the opened eyes,
Himself revealed!
O endless years of songs of Paradise
For ears unsealed!
Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series), 1899
