MYSTERY.
Behold I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.—I. Corinthians, xv. 51, 52.
The mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.—Colossians, i. 26.
Praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ.—Colossians, iv. 3.
With outstretched arms,
Stern justice and soft-smiling love embrace,
Supporting, in full majesty, thy throne,
When seemed its majesty to need support,
Or that, or man, inevitably lost:
What, but the fathomless of love divine
Could labour such expedient from despair,
And rescue both? Both rescue? Both exalt!
O, how are both exalted by the deed!
The wondrous deed! or shall I call it more?
A wonder in Omnipotence itself!
A mystery no less to gods than men.
Young.
Hail, Sovereign Lord! by all Thy works confess’d!
By angels worship’d, and by saints address’d!
Hail, Sovereign Lord! mysterious Wisdom! hail;
In whom the Father and His fulness dwell.
In whom the Godhead and the man unite,
Stamp of His form, and glory of His light!
In whom complete, in Thee completed shine,
The God incarnate, and the man divine.
Mysterious truth! withheld from reason’s eye;
Outcast on earth! but loftiest on high!
Hail, wondrous cross!—yet how more wondrous He
That cross who bore!—Thyself its mystery!—
And borne for man!—a greater mystery still;
So great Thy love, and love’s mysterious will!
Peronnet.
That things to mortals are mysterious,
Is not because the things themselves are dark,
But the perceptions through which they are viewed.
David Bates.