Oh tell me, man of sacred lore,
Where dwells the Being you adore?
And where, oh man of thought profound,
Where can the Eternal One be found?
Throughout the realms of boundless space
We seek in vain His dwelling-place.
He dwells where'er the beams of light
Have pierced the primal gloom of night;
Beyond the planet's feeble ray,
Beyond the comet's devious way;
Where'er, amid the realms afar,
Shines light of sun or twinkling star.
Above, below, and all around,
Th' encircling arms of God are found.
Where'er the pulse of Life may beat,
His forming hand and power we meet;
While every living germ of earth,
That sinks in death or springs to birth,
Is but a part of that great whole,
Whose Life is God, and God the Soul.
From plant to man, below, above,
The power divine still throbs in Love.
He is the Life that glows and warms,
In tiniest mote of living forms,
Which quickening nature brings to birth,
To float in air or sink in earth;
And every shrub and plant and flower,
That lives an age or blooms an hour.
Has just as much of God within,
As human life or seraphim;
For all that bloom, and all that shine,
Are only forms of Life Divine;
And every ray that streaks the east,
And every beam that paints the west,
With every trembling gleam of light,
With every gloom that shades the night,
Are but the trailing robes divine
Of One whose garments ever shine.
