190 CLASSICAL MODERN POETRY. 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 



Dweller in heaven, and ruler below ! 



Fain would I know thee, yet tremble to know ! 



How can a mortal deem how it may be, 



That being can not be, but present with thee ? 



Is it true that thou saw'st me ere I saw the morn ? 



Is it true that thou knew'st me before I was born ? 



That nature must live in the light of thine eye ? 



This knowledge for me is too great and too high ! 



That fly I to noonday or fly I to night, 

 To shroud me in darkness, or bathe me in light, 

 The light and the darkness to thee are the same, 

 And still in thy presence of wonder I am ! 

 Should I with the dove to the desert repair, 

 Or dwell with the eagle in clough of the air, 

 In the desert afar on the mountain's wild brink, 

 From the eye of Omnipotence still must I shrink. 



Or mount I on wings of the morning away, 

 To caves of the ocean unseen by the day, 

 And hide in these uttermost parts of the sea, 

 Even there to be living and moving in thee ? 

 Nay, scale I the cloud in the heavens to dwell, 

 Or make I my bed in the shadows of hell ; 

 Can science expound, or humanity frame, 

 That still thou art present, and all are the same ? 



Yes, present for ever ! Almighty alone, 

 Great Spirit of nature, unbounded, unknown ! 

 What mind can imbody thy presence divine ? 

 I know not my own being ! how can I thine ? 

 Then humbly and low in the dust let me bend, 

 And adore what on earth I can ne'er comprehend, 

 The mountains may melt and the elements flee, 

 Yet an universe still be rejoicing in thee. 



. HOGG. 



