Yesterday, To-Day, And For Ever: Book Xii. - The Many Mansions Poem by Edward Henry Bickersteth

Yet once more, Harp of prophecy, once more
Fondly I come soliciting thine aid;
By whose celestial minstrelsy inspired
The saintly Enoch walk'd with God and sang
At cloudy morning-tide of evening light.
Thine were the strains that floated o'er the waves
From Miriam's timbrel and from Moses' tongue;
And thine the suasive melodies, that made
The royal shepherd on his lute forecast
The golden morrow from the vex'd to-day.
Nor was he in thy tuneful lore unlearn'd,
Who interwove the lyrics of the Bride
And idyls of the Bridegroom. Taught by thee,
Isaiah gazed with eagle eye athwart
The conflicts of a thousand years thrice told;
And Jeremy, and rapt Ezekiel,
And all the prophets prophesied; and chief
The seer who, moated by the fretting waves
In Patmos, open'd his responsive breast
To the pure impulses, which only thou
Canst echo from eternity to time.
But not, as these great masters of the lyre,
Invoke I thee: for they at God's own voice
Came near and laid their fingers on thy chords,
And by the Spirit empower'd drew forth the tones
Immediate from the sacred fount of song.
And I would only sit beneath their feet,
And earnest catch the echo of their strain,
And with faint imitative notes attempt
To win the pilgrim's ear, who listening me
Haply may ask whence I such music drew,
And so become a votary of thine,
As I am. From a boy I loved to sit
The while thy numbers thrill'd my soul, and since
Life with its ruder noises and rough cares
Has somewhat dull'd mine ear, thine, prescient harp,
Thine oftentimes has been the only spell
Of virtue to arouse my laggard spirit.
And now once more in this my last assay,
Only this once, I ask thy heavenly aid
(My task is almost done, a task, and yet,
When thou hast breathed, a sweet necessity),
That I may catch, if few and far away,
Some glimpses of the infinite To be.

The judgement had an end. The great white throne
Was hidden in excess of light. And lo,
The earth, emerging from her flood of fire
Baptismal, by a new and heavenly birth
Arose regenerate. The dews of God,
As once in Eden, cool'd the ardent soil;
And rivers from innumerable springs
Flow'd intersecting every gorgeous clime
With living waters. Like a smile of light
The Sun of Righteousness is rising shed
Healing from His benignant wings; and earth,
Who came forth naked from her bath of flame,
Felt His rich blessing at her heart, and smiled
Responsive, and in blushing haste put on
Her beautiful robes of immortality.
Her late apparel was not found. But now
The azure hyaline, in which she moved,
Was not more pure than was her virgin dress.
No trace of her great sufferings remain'd;
No wrecks of time were strewn upon her shores;
No monuments of ruin; - saving one: -
Where Satan with his rebel peers had erst
Built on the mystic Babylon his throne,
There rose a solitary mountain peak,
The one volcano of that new-born world,
Thrust from beneath by struggling fires, and thence
Ever by day and night, world without end,
A thin white wreath of smoke went up to heaven,
And quickly melted in the golden beams
Which ever from the height of Zion flow'd:
Symbol of deeper things. The sea was not:
Its salt and barren waters were consumed
In that last fire; and all its fruitless wastes,
Once fruitless, now with profuse verdure clad,
In undulating hills and valleys, bared
Untrodden landscapes to the light. Nor deem
Because the ocean was no more, earth lack'd
Her noblest type of the profound and free,
Nor heaven its mirror. For the streams of life,
Flowing incessant, stored their crystal wealth
In countless pools and lakes and inland seas,
Wherewith the sportive breezes wantoning
Drave billows crested with their diamond foam
On emerald shores, or in whose lucid calm
The stars slept imaged. Earth from pole to pole
Was one illimitable Paradise;
Albeit Emmanuel's land was as that spot
In Eden, where the blossoming tree of life
Grew with the tree of knowledge intertwined,
The presence-chamber of the King of kings,
The temple of the world. And thence the saints
(As sometime from Armenian Ararat,
The sons of Noah) spread o'er every clime,
Good without fear of death embracing them,
All pleasure without pain refreshing them,
All sunshine without sorrow in their hearts,
All music without discord in their homes.

So they on earth: but where were we the while?
When from the judgement-throne Messiah rose
To glory, we arose with Him; the heavens
Pealing their jubilant welcomes as we pass'd;
And all the armies of the sons of God
Clapping their wings of fire before the Bride,
And shouting for the Bridegroom's voice, with sound
Of trumpets and melodious harps; until
The everlasting arches rang again,
And that Light-sea which floods the universe
Trembled with its impulsive waves for joy,
And Heaven in ecstasy of rapture ask'd,
What were those echoes of triumphant mirth
That thrill'd creation from the central throne
To its remotest bound. So pass'd we on,
Until the ramparts of the heaven of heavens
Stretch'd like a wall of fire along the expanse,
And those great portals carved of solid pearl
(Through which had flown no wing unhallowed, since
The Son of God ascending cleansed with blood
And seal'd the Holiest) now wide open thrown,
Nor henceforth closed, for foes were now no more,
With songs received our singing multitudes;
And through the provinces of bliss we swept
On towards the city of the living God.

Before us now it rose, builded aloft
Upon the heavenly Zion. Never eye
Of mortal man had seen, nor ear had heard,
Though ravish'd with the distant fame thereof,
Glory like this; the handiwork of God,
And fashion'd of heaven's choice material, light,
Through which the Light of Light translucent shone;
The mansion of Creation's Architect;
The palace of the Everlasting King:
Its gates of pearl, its edifice of gold;
Its very streets of pure crystalline gold;
Its walls on twelve foundations superposed
(Of which divine realities the earth
Can only lend its feeble semblances),
The jasper streak'd with many a tender dye,
The sapphire of celestial blue serene,
The agate once Chalcedon's peerless boast,
The fathomless repose of emerald,
The ruby, and blood-tinctured sardonyx,
The chrysolite like amber sheathing fire,
The beryl emulous of ocean's sheen,
The opal-tinted topaz clear as glass,
The soft pale purple of the chrysoprase,
The Meliboean hyacinth, and last
The lucid violet of amethyst.
But not of pearly gates, or golden streets,
Or bulwarks, or foundations built of jewels
Thought we that day, or linger'd to admire;
For we were on our way to meet our God.

The city had no temple; for itself
From wall to wall, from base to pinnacle,
Was one harmonious veilless sanctuary,
One Holiest of all: of which the shrine
Reveal'd amid the clouds of Sinai
Yielded the earliest pattern. This the house
Which Israel royal seer in symbol saw,
And by the Spirit's hand on his described.
This the beloved apostle, rapt in spirit
To some high watch among the lasting hills,
Beheld. Most blessed, beatific sight!
Here veil'd in radiant clouds, clouds only call'd
From the supreme of brightness they enfolded,
Was set the throne of Majesty in heaven.
In front seven ever-burning lamps of fire,
Which are the Spirits of God: and round about
Mysterious cherubim, instinct with eyes,
Fourfold in glory, symbolized in forms
Of lion-like imperial royalty,
Of patient sacrificed ministry,
Of human, more than human sympathy,
Of soaring eagle-plumed intelligence,
Most highest of all creatures, whereof each
Caught and reflected some peculiar rays,
Some distinct aspect of his Lord; but all
Uniting in one everlasting song,
Cried, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of hosts.'
And here around were four-and-twenty thrones
In wider circuit, like a starry belt,
And on them four-and-twenty hierarchs
In priestly' apparel, but with kingly crowns,
Sitting sublime. And in mid view, behold,
What seem'd the likeness of a sea of glass.
But not on glassy sea, or royal priests,
Or cherubim of glory gazed we then;
For we were on our way to meet our God,
Children about to see their Father's face.

Parent and child, O purest fount that flows!
Earth, fallen earth, had known thy heavenly spell:
In whose deep waters selfishness dissolved
And was not, like the sicknesses that fled
At touch of angel-moved Bethesda's pool,
Though tinctured then by many a noxious plant
That grew upon its trampled marge, of power
To dim but not destroy its healing life.
A babe upon its mother's breast, a child
Lock'd in a father's arms - oh, things that are!
Love coming forth of love and meeting love;
Love resting in its love and satisfied.
And knew the earth such mysteries? what now
When through the temple courts fragrant with praise
The Bridegroom led His own, His only Bride,
Into His Father's presence, His only Bride,
Were they the parted wings of cherubim,
Or opening clouds of glory which disclosed
Such lineaments of love unutterable,
Attemper'd as the spirit of each could bear?
No pain, no shrinking from excessive bright,
No sense of discord, no tormenting fear
(For filial love had cast out servile fear),
The Spirit's grace within us meeting grace
Unfathomable, and we His holy ones
Drinking our fill of perfect holiness.
Yet seem'd it every thought in one was lost, -
Whether the words were audible to those
Who stood around in endless ranks of light
I know not, but they echoed in my heart, -
It was my Father's voice saying, 'My child:'
And every power within me vibrated
To those divinest words, - whether I spoke,
Or whether others spoke, I never knew, -
'My Father, O my Father!' Beams of love,
That repercussion of His beams of love,
Fill'd every chamber of my soul with light,
As in pure waves face answers back to face;
Nor though eternity unfold the powers
Of knowledge, - and to know Him is to love, -
Can beatific blessedness transcend
The rapture of that welcome, that response,
'My child….My Father.' Heaven has nothing higher.

The angels gazed in silent ecstasy:
For now it seem'd as if Jehovah turn'd
The glory of His countenance full-orb'd
Upon the Son; that glory, which on us
Shone only as each child could bear its light,
Resting upon the Everlasting Son
In all unevil'd effulgence: not one beam
Of its unmitigated splendor lost,
But from His face reflected, beam for beam,
In the One Spirit's communion infinite,
Uninterrupted fellowship. And then
(Alas! the feebleness of words to tell
Those wonders passing wonder) but it seem'd
The Eternal Father slowly rising placed
A crown, which in itself was many crowns,
Upon the head of the Eternal Son:
And from amidst the throne a Voice was heard
Commanding Hallelujah. And forthwith
From cherubim and burning seraphim,
And from the hierarchal presbytery,
And from the Bride low at her Bridegroom's feet,
And from the principalities and powers,
And hosts of angels rank'd in endless files,
As sounds the roar of mighty multitudes,
Or rush of many waters in still night,
Or thunders echoing from hill to cloud,
Arose that pealing coronation hymn -
'Crown Him for ever, crown Him Lord of lords;
Crown Him the glorious Conqueror of hell;
Crown Him the Everlasting Prince of Peace;
Crown Him Jehovah, Jesu, Lamb of God,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen.'
But, ere the sound of their great anthem sank,
In waves of rapture on the walls of heaven,
The Son Himself appear'd on bended knee
Stooping before His Father's throne to kneel,
And place that diadem of many crowns
Upon that radiant footstool, then and there
Presenting us and all the ransom'd Church,
Yea and Himself as Man, to God submiss,
Filial obedience as conspicuous now
As had been filial power, His Father's gift.
This adoration paid as man, as God
He at His Father's bidding re-assumed
His session on the throne of Majesty,
Radiance with radiance interfused, great depths
Of light, known only to the Spirit of light.
And as in silent awe we knelt and gazed,
And gazing worshipp'd, we beheld no more
The glory of the Father, Son, and Spirit,
Each by itself distinct, but all Triune,
The Trinity in Unity express'd,
One Uncreated, One Almighty, One
Eternal, One Incomprehensible,
One Lord, One God. And God was all in all.

Time measured not such raptures. But at last
It seem'd as rising from the sapphire throne
Messiah led us forth at large to view
The city' Himself had builded and prepared
After His Father's counsel for His Bride,
A city, or a temple, or a home,
Or rather all in one. Enrich'd it was
With every exquisite design of love,
And every form of beauty. Not a film
Stain'd its bright pavement of transparent gold;
Not a harsh murmur vex'd its silences,
Or with the melodies of angels jarr'd.
No cloud darken'd its empyrean. Joy
Held court here in its own metropolis.
And through the midst the crystal river flow'd
Exhaustless from the everlasting throne,
Shaded on either side by trees of life
Which yielded in unwearying interchange
Their ripe vicissitude of monthly fruits
Amid their clustering leaves medicinal;
Of fruits twelve manner; for eternity,
Measured by ages limitless to man,
Has intervals and periods of bliss
And high recurring festivals that stand
On the sidereal calends mark'd in light.
Through these celestial groves the Lamb of God
Led us delighted. Every sight and sound
Ravish'd the sense: and every loving heart
Reflected joy to joy and light to light,
Like crystals in a cave flashing with fire,
And multiplied our bliss a million-fold.
O blessed royal priesthood! priests and kings
Under the Great High Priest and Prince of Peace,
Who now in tender grace assign'd to each
His priestly' abode within the House of God
(So Solomon around his temple built
The chambers for its stated ministries)
Where each might be alone with God, or mix
In converse with his fellow-saints at will,
Adorn'd with those peculiar gifts He knew,
Who knows us better than we know ourselves,
Would gratify those tastes and feelings most
Himself had planted: delicate delights;
If little, loving from their littleness,
Which nought but Love could ever have devised;
If rich and large, more precious from the love
That gave them than from excellence or cost;
The bounties of a Father's thoughtfulness,
The tokens of the Bridegroom's tenderness,
Gifts of the Spirit and with His love instinct.

Oft in my mansion would some elder saint
(For dignity was there humility)
Linger and tell his story, or ask mine:
Or I would listen from an infant's lip
A tale of such delightsomeness as pour'd
New meaning into words henceforth. And oft
A group of the beatified, enlink'd
In all the bonds of holy lineage,
Would cluster underneath the trees of life,
One eye kindling another, one deep thought
Waking another thought, and this another,
Until all bosoms overflow'd with love,
And all perforce would hasten to the throne,
And at their Father's footstool pour their hearts
In one full tide of common rapture forth.

Sweet was the intercourse of saint with saint;
No less of saints with angels. Now appear'd
The lustrous promise which ordain'd at first
That in Messiah's Bridal angelhood
Should find its perfected felicity:
Whether rejoicing in the Bridegroom's joy;
Or drinking in the beauty of the Bride;
Or with some ward, as Oriel oft with me,
Retracing in astonish'd retrospect,
How good from evil, light from darkness sprang
By counsel of All-wise Almighty love.

Nor wanted heaven its hours of such repose
As added zest to ministry, or walks
Of patient meditative solitude,
Thought following thought through links of argument,
The heart retiring in itself to muse
On God, His works and ways. Much as we knew,
Infinite marvels were unknown. As one
Who climbing some far height at break of day
Among the Alps or lonely Apennines
Sees ever at his feet new landscapes spread,
New vales, new glittering lakes, new summits piercing
The roseate sky with pinnacles of snow,
The air still purer crystal, and the arc
Of fresh horizons widening every step,
Yet at the highest touches not the fringe
Of heaven's blue curtains, and when seeing most
Sees but a narrow fragment of God's world:
So ever learning more we never stood
Nearer the limits of His love, whose name
Is always through all ages Wonderful,
And, as it has been, shall be: things reveal'd
Only discovering more beyond our ken:
There, as on earth, experience working hope,
Celestial hope who knows no blush of shame,
The child of patience. Hence they err'd, who taught
That in His presence faith and hope are lost
Who is the God of patience and of hope.
Things once invisible were visible;
Things hoped for present: but beyond them all
Illimitable fields untravell'd lay;
And over these faith saw God's rainbow cast,
And young-eyed hope wing'd many an airy flight.
With these dwelt love, by men call'd charity,
And of the peerless sisterhood herself
Was chief; her sweet pre-eminence then seen,
When unawares, as oft, the Prince Himself
Gladdening our lonely meditation came,
And from things past would teach us things to be,
Till in the sunshine of His smile in a glass,
But gazing face to face, and eye to eye,
Knew the Beloved as ourselves were known.

By such delicious solitude refresh'd,
Not loath we sought society again;
For here we never from His Presence went
Who is the glory of heaven's light: but chief
What time the trump of God, by Michael blown,
Summon'd our glad rejoicing multitudes
To holy convocation. And had hearts
Of weary pilgrims in the wilderness
Oft fainted for His courts of prayer, and found
His earthly tabernacles amiable,
Uttering their wants in broken sobs and sighs,
And listening the story of His love
From tremulous lips? Had many a spot appear'd,
Where two or three thus gather'd in His Name,
The house of God and very gate of heaven?
O far exceeding weight of glory, when
Angels and saints, commingling hosts of light,
No laggard heart, no voice unmatch'd or mute,
We knelt before our Father's visible throne,
And saw the Sevenfold Spirit as lamps of fire,
And read our names upon Messiah's breast,
And heard the music of His robe (the while
He pass'd the crystal sea bearing aloft
The incense of His meritorious love),
And saw Him touch the golden mercy-seat,
And worshipp'd, as the Oracle of God
Came, from amid Cherubic wings, proclaiming,
'This is My Son Beloved; hear ye Him.'
And when the Prince, the Prophet of His Church,
Spake of His Father in our ears, and show'd
The unfathomable glories of His Name,
Until the love which dwelt in the Triune
Dwelt in our hearts, - Emmanuel, God with us; -
And oftentimes, Chief Minstrel as Chief Priest,
While every heart was vibrating with love,
Himself sang Hallelujah, to the sound
Of thousand times ten thousand angel harps
Which instantly in perfect unison
Roll'd from the golden floor their waves of joy
Against the empyrean's crystal roof;
Than who could choose but swell the mighty tide
Of music with concerting harp and voice,
Until the courts of Zion were fulfill'd
With fragrance of delight and songs of praise?

From such a Sabbath festival it was
(After what blissful ages know I not),
Messiah from the Bridal city led
Down through the starry firmament His Bride,
Not unaccompanied with angel choirs
And gorgeous trains of seraphim and thrones,
Towards her native earth. Flushes of joy
Suffused her cheek with gladness. To compare
Celestial and terrestrial things, as when
The consort of some mighty Emperor,
Raised by his sovereign will to share his throne,
After long years revisits with her lord
The sweet home of her childhood, and with all
A child's first ecstasy and bloom of joy
Wanders from room to room, and walk to walk,
And each dear spot indelibly engraved
On memory's tablet, saying, 'Here it was
My father taught me first to lisp his name:
Here first my mother clasp'd my hands in prayer:
This was my favorite knoll; and in this glen,
Well I remember, thou didst speak to me
That summer evening what was in thy mind,
And win this timid heart, - O foolish heart!
Fearing to trust its happiness with thee,
My lord, and better than my lord, my love.'
Not otherwise, nor less delightful seem'd
To us returning from the heaven of heavens
Our birthplace earth. And easily we found
Each haunt to memory dear of pilgrim days,
Each hill and valley; for the flood of fire
Which wrapt the earth in its baptismal robe,
Had purged, not changed its lineaments: as once
The deluge of great waters overwhelm'd
All life, except the cradled Church, but left
Creation's landmarks and the river beds
Coasting the land of Shinar undisturb'd.
The wastes of ocean only were no more,
Nor wastes of sand, nor aught of barrenness;
And yet the earth through all her vast expanse
Of golden plains and rich umbrageous hills
Already seem'd too narrow for the growth
Of her great human family; no quick
The virtue of her Maker's law, when once
Sin's crushing interdict was disannull'd,
That primal law, 'Be fruitful; multiply
Your joys; replenish and subdue the earth.'
Blest mandate! blest obedience! Earth was full
Of goodness, full of glory, full of grace:
A perfect image of high heaven: the globe
One temple, all mankind for worshippers,
Israel for priests: and now the prayer we used
To pray, 'Our Father, Hallow'd be Thy Name;
Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth,
As by Thy angel ministries in heaven,'
Was turn'd into a thousand forms of praise,
And sung from hill to hill, from clime to clime,
Innumerable infant choristers
Swelling the deeper tones of youth and age,
In holy matins and in vesper hymns.

Great thoughts were stirring in the hearts of men,
And hopes too big for utterance: yet were none
Who deem'd their present rapture capable
Of such enlargement as was theirs, when now
Messiah, who had heretofore reveal'd
His Presence in Jerusalem alone,
Came with His Virgin Bride and angel choirs,
And tabernacled upon earth again,
And visited not only His own land,
But every country, every home, and left
Some token of His love in every heart,
The Son of Man among the sons of men.
Not least their rapture when as He was wont
He touch'd their eyes with heavenly balm; and lo,
They saw in heaven the city of His Bride,
Its gates of pearl, its streets of limpid gold,
Its walls on bright foundations built, and walks
By crystal streams shaded by trees of life,.
Nor, if the rebel Regent of the air
Once had such power to represent the world
Comprised as in a moment to His eye,
Marvel that He the rightful Prince had power
To show His children that Jerusalem
Of glory, which is mother of us all,
Descending out of heaven from God it seem'd,
Though distant far. And, while He show'd it them,
He told them of its undeclining light,
And blessed vision of His Father's face,
And royalty of service, promising,
Their earthly ministry approved, to' enroll
Their names among the citizens of heaven
And freemen of His sinless universe.
Haply such perfectness of earthly bliss
And such far vistas of celestial light
Had overcharged their hearts. But not in vain
The awful chronicles of time. And oft,
When dazzled with the glory and the glow
That stream'd from Zion's everlasting hills,
Messiah or His ministers would tell
Rapt auditors how Satan fell from bliss,
The story of a ruin'd Paradise,
The foughten fight, the victory achieved,
But only with the endless banishment
Of damned spirits innumerable and men
From heaven and heavenly favor which is life.
Nor seldom He, who strengthen'd human sight,
As with angelic telescope, to read
The wonders of the highest firmament,
Would bid them gaze into the awful Deep
Couching beneath; and there they saw the lost
For ever bound under His dreadful Eye
Who is eternal and consuming fire,
There in the outer darkness. And the view
So wrought in them, that perfect self-distrust,
With pity not unmix'd and tender tears,
Lean'd ever on their God for perfect strength.

That which men witness'd of the damn'd in hell,
By unction of the Spirit at God's command,
Was in our gaze at will, whene'er the smoke
In mighty volumes rising from the Deep,
Blown devious by God's breath athwart the void,
Dispersed. Nor turn'd we always from the sight,
Although it touch'd the inmost springs of grief,
And stirr'd our bosoms from their depths. Hell was:
The fact, and not our vision of the fact,
Was their unending anguish and our grief,
A grief which chasten'd but not jarr'd our bliss.
Should not the children share their Father's thoughts?
Should not the Wife her Husband's counsels learn?
Learn ever more and more? Let it suffice
That in the depth, as in the height above,
God was Supreme; His righteousness confess'd
In dread Gehenna as His love in heaven;
Absolute order reigning; of the lost
Some scourged with many stripes, with fewer some,
Subdued, submiss. This we beheld and knew,
And in the cloudless joys of heaven and earth
Haply this sight and knowledge were to us
The needful undertones of sympathy
With Him, who was in days of mortal flesh
A man of sorrows conversant with griefs,
The necessary fountain-spring of tears,
The sign of sacrament of pride abased
And creature humiliation without end.

Cloudless indeed our joys in earth and heaven,
Ceaseless our ministry, and limitless
The increase of that government and peace,
Messiah's heritage and ours. For as
Our native orb ere long too straight became
For its blest habitants, not only some
Translated without death, for death was not,
As Enoch, join'd the glorified in light;
But at the voice of God the stars, which roll'd
Innumerous in the azure firmament
By thousands and ten thousands, as He spake
Six words of power, the seventh, it was done,
Were mantled and prepared as seats of life:
And it was ours to bear from earth and plant,
Like Adam, in some paradise of fruits
The ancestors of many a new-born world;
Like Adam, but far different issue now,
Sin and the curse and death for ever crush'd.
And thus from planet on to planet spread
The living light. As when a white-robed priest
Himself, surrounded by his acolytes,
In some vast minster, from the altar fire
Lighting his torch, walks through the slumb'rous aisles,
And kindles one by one the brazen lamps
That on the fluted columns cast their shade
Or from the frescoed ceiling hang suspense,
Until the startled sanctuary is bathed
In glory, and the evening chant of praise
Floats in the radiance: so it was in heaven:
God's temple, the expectant firmament,
Hung with its lamps, innumerable stars;
The Priest, Messiah; earth, the altar flame;
Angels and saints, the winged messengers;
And that great choral eucharist the hymn
Of all creation's everlasting praise.

Such are the many kingdom's of God's realm;
And in these boundless provinces of light
We who once suffer'd with a suffering Lord
Reign with Him in His glory, unto each
According to his power and proven love
His rule assign'd. But Zion is our home;
Jerusalem, the city of our God.
O happy home! O happy children here!
O blissful mansions of our Father's house!
O walks surpassing Eden for delight!
Here are the harvests reap'd once sown in tears:
Here is the rest by ministry enhanced:
Here is the banquet of the wine of heaven,
Riches of glory incorruptible,
Crowns, amaranthine crowns of victory,
The voice of harpers harping on their harps,
The anthems of the holy cherubim,
The crystal river of the Spirit's joy,
The Bridal palace of the Prince of Peace,
The Holiest of Holies - God is here.