In the Beginning was the Word ! What matchless power,
Shaping itself through Chaos with the swiftest thought !
Behold ! God in his place
Spoke unto Chaos face to face,
In the Beginning.
And the worlds by that mighty breath
Blossomed in space,
From Chaos and from Death,
In the Beginning.
And the germ s’eeping all silently, became a flower
With voting immortality.
The Word was Law. And atoms kindled into light,
And light became a song, for song is law
And harmony which sweep along,
In octaves through the spheres.
And lo ! God vibrant, with eternal hand,
Smote Chaos with a song of law,
Behold ! The world, without a flaw,
Traced upon leaf, or tree, or star, or man ;
One thought—one primal will—revealing
God's great plan,
Creation.
Even now, as then, He stands within the space
Apart, and consecrated to the grace
Of God's good word.
Behold ! It issues thence,
Each thought becomes a recompense,
And like Creation in its cosmic sphere,
You hold the universe within your heart, and hear
The sigh, the moan.
These are but echoes of the ante-natal groan.
In the Beginning was the Word !
And by the primal law, and power,
And thought He shaped, the world was born—
The rock—the flower.
And man through the successive ages of his life
Resonant with song, with care, with strife,
Is but the subject of that primal Word
Which pierces, even as a pointed sword,
The depths of matter.
Lo ! The primal thought !
How pure and white it is !
Its rays are caught alone the prism of life,
Turned red and grey by human strife.
Even now, as then, God speaks in primal word,
One song of harmony is ever hearth.
