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BROWNING ROBERT
From "Christmas-Eve"
V
From the
heart beneath, as if, God speeding me,
I
entered His church door, nature leading me
In youth
I looked to these very skies,
and
probing their immensities ,
I found
God there, His visible power;
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VII
Thou art
the love of God -- above
His
power, didst hear me place His love,
And that
was leaving the world for Thee.
Therefore Thou must not turn from me
As I had
chosen the other part!
Folly
and pride o=ercame
my heart.
Our best
is bad, nor bear Thy test;
Still,
it should be our very best.
I
thought it best that Thou, the spirit,
Be
worshiped in spirit and in truth,
And in
beauty, as even we require it---
Not in
the forms burlesque, uncouth,
I left
but now, as scarcely fitted
For
Thee: I knew not what I pitied.
Bu, all
I felt there, right or wrong,
What is
it to Thee, who curest sinning?
Am I not
weak as Thou art strong?
I have
looked to Thee from the beginning,
Straight
up to Thee through all the world
Which,
like an idle scroll, lay furled
To
nothingness on either side:
And
since the time Thou wast descried,
Spite of
the weak heart, so have I
Lived
ever, and so fain would die,
Living
and dying, Thee before!
Bu if
Thou leavest me-----
XVII
Supreme
in Christ as we all confess,
Why need
we prove would avail no jot
To make
Him God, if God he were not?
(Browning, 1912, 11-42)
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