When God's light came down
      From heaven, to crown
    Each act of the virgin page!

  Oh, how our souls are saddened,
    At the deeds which were done since then,
      By the angel race
      In the holy place,
    And on earth by the sons of men!

  Lo, as the years are fleeting,
    With their burden of toil and pain,
      We know that the page
      Of that primal age
    Will be opened up once again.

II.

  Progressing still, the bright-faced Seraph rose
  From Goodness to Perfection, till she stood
  The fairest and the best of all that waked
  The tuneful echoes of that lofty world,
  Where Lucifer, then the stateliest of the throng
  Of Angels, walked majestical, arrayed

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  In robes of brightness worthy of his place.
  And all the intermediate spheres were homes
        Of the existences
        Of spiritual life.
  Love, the divine arcanum, was the bond
  That linked them to each other—heart to heart,
  And angel world to world, and soul to soul.
        Thus the first ages passed,
        Cycles of perfect bliss,
  God the acknowledged sovereign of all.
  Sphere spake with sphere, and love conversed with love,
  From the far centre to sublimest height,
  And down the deep, unfathomable space,
  To the remotest homes of angel-life,
  A viewless chain of being circling all,
  And linking every spirit to its God.

ANGEL CHORUS.

    Spirits that never falter,
    Before God's altar
  Rehearse their paeans of unceasing praise;
    Their theme the boundless love
    By which God rules above,
    Mysteriously engrafted
    On grace divine, and wafted
  Into every soul of man that disobeys.

    Not till the wondrous being
    Of the All-Seeing
  Is manifested to finite man,
    Can ye understand the love

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    By which God rules above,
    Evermore extending,
    In circles never-ending,
  To every atom in the universal plan.

SECOND ANGEL.

  Oh, the love beyond computing
    Of the high and holy place!
    The unseen bond
    Circling beyond
  The limits of time and space.

  Through earth and her world of beauty
    The heavenly links extend,
      Man feels its presence,
      Imbibes its essence,
    But cannot yet comprehend.

THIRD ANGEL.

  But the days are fast approaching,
    When the Father of Love will send
      His interpreter
      From the highest sphere,
    That man fully may comprehend.

III.

  Oh, truest Love, because the truest life!
  Oh, blest existence, to exist with Love!
  Oh, Love, without which all things else must die
  The death that knows no waking unto life!
  Oh, Jealousy that saps the heart of Love,

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  And robs it of its tenderness divine;
  And Pride, that tramples with its iron hoof
  Upon the flower of love, whose fragrant soul
  Exhales itself in sweetness as it dies!
  A lofty spirit surfeited with Bliss!
  A Prince of Angels cancelling all love,
  All due allegiance to his rightful Lord;
  Doing dishonour to his high estate;
  Turning the truth and wisdom which were his
  For ages of supreme felicity,
  To thirst for power, and hatred of his God,
  Who raised him to such vast preëminence!

SECOND ANGEL CHORUS.

  Woe, woe to the ransomed spirit,
    Once freed from the stain of sin,
      Whose pride increases
      Till all love ceases
    To nourish it from within!
  Its doom is the darkened regions
  Where the rebel angel legions
  Live their long night of sorrow;
  Where no expectant morrow,
    No mercy-tempered ray
    From the altar of to-day,
  Comes down through the gloom to borrow
  One drop from their cup of sorrow,
    Or lighten their cheerless way.

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FIRST ANGEL.

  But blest be the gentle spirit
    Whose love is ever increased
      From its own pure soul,
      The illumined goal
    Where Love holds perpetual feast!

IV.

  Ingrate Angel, he,
  To purchase Hell, and at so vast a price!
  'Tis the old story of celestial strife—
  Rebellion in the palace-halls of God—
  False angels joining the insurgent ranks,
  Who suffered dire defeats, and fell at last
  From bliss supreme to darkness and despair.
  But they, the faithful dwellers in the spheres,
  Who kept their souls inviolate, to whom
  Heaven's love and truth were truly great rewards:
  For these the stars were sown throughout all space,
  As fit memorials of their faithfulness.
  The wretched lost were banished to the depths
  Beneath the lowest spheres. Earth barred the space
  Between them and the Faithful. Then the hills
  Rose bald and rugged o'er the wild abyss;
  The waters found their places; and the sun,
  The bright-haired warder of the golden morn,
  Parting the curtains of reposing night,
  Rung his first challenge to the dismal shades,
  That shrunk back, awed, into Cimmerean gloom;
  And the young moon glode through the startled void
  With quiet beauty and majestic mien.

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SECOND ANGEL.

  Slowly rose the daedal Earth,
    Through the purple-hued abysm
    Glowing like a gorgeous prism,
  Heaven exulting o'er its birth,

  Still the mighty wonder came,
    Through the jasper-coloured sphere,
    Ether-winged, and crystal-clear,
  Trembling to the loud acclaim,

  In a haze of golden rain,
    Up the heavens rolled the sun,
    Danae-like the earth was won,
  Else his love and light were vain.

  So the heart and soul of man
    Own the light and love of heaven,
    Nothing yet in vain was given,
  Nature's is a perfect plan.

V.

  The glowing Seraph with the brow of light
  Was first among the Faithful. When the war
  Between heaven's rival armies fiercely waged,
  She bore the Will Divine from rank to rank,
  The chosen courier of Deity.
  Her presence cheered the combatants for Truth,
  And Victory stood up where'er she moved.
  And now, in gleaming robe of woven pearl,
  Emblazoned with devices of the stars,
  And legends of their glory yet to come,

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