GOD BY G. R. DERZHAVIN

GOD
BY G. R. DERZHAVIN
0 Thou Eternal One! whose presence bright All space doth occupy, all motion guide:
Unchanged through time's all devastating flight; Thou only God! There is no God beside!
Being above all beings! Mighty One!
Whom none can comprehend and none explore;
Who fill 'st existence with Thyself alone: Embracing all—supporting—ruling o'er— Being whom we call God—and know no more!
In its sublime research, philosophy May measure out the ocean deep—may count
The sands or the sun's rays—but God! for Thee There is no weight nor measure:—none can mount
Up to Thy mysteries. Reason's brightest spark,
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Tho kindled by Thy light, in vain would try To trace Thy counsels, infinite and dark:
And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high, Even like past moments in eternity.
Thou from primeval nothingness didst call
First chaos, then existence:—Lord! on Thee Eternity had its foundation:—all
Sprung forth from Thee:—of light, joy, harmony, Sole origin:—all life, all beauty Thine.
Thy word created all, and doth create; Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine.
Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! Great!
Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate!
Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround,
Upheld by Thee, by Thee inspired with breath! Thou the beginning with the end hast bound,
And beautifully mingled life and death! As sparks mount upward from the fiery blaze,
So suns are born, so worlds sprung forth from Thee: And as the spangles in the sunny rays
Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry Of heaven's bright army glitters in Thy praise.
'A million torches lighted by Thy hand Wander unwearied through the blue abyss:
They own Thy power, accomplish Thy command, All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss.
What shall we call them ? Piles of crystal light— A glorious company of golden streams—
Lamps of celestial ether, burning bright—
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Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams? But Thou to these art as the noon to night.
Yes! as a drop of water in the sea, All this magnificence in Thee is lost:—
What are ten thousand worlds compared to Thee? And what am /• then? Heaven's unnumbered host,
Tho multiplied by myriads, and arrayed In all the glory of sublimest thought,
Is but an atom in the balance; weighed Against Thy greatness, is a cipher brought Against infinity! Oh, what am I then ? Nought!
Nought! yet the effluence of Thy light divine,
Pervading worlds, hath reached my bosom, too; Yes! in my spirit doth Thy spirit shine,
As shines the sunbeam in a drop of dew. Nought! yet I live, and on hope's pinions fly
Eager toward Thy presence; for in Thee I live, and breathe, and dwell; aspiring high,
Even to the throne of Thy divinity.
I am, 0 God! and surely Thou must be!
The chain of being is complete in me;
In me is matter's last gradation lost, And the next step is spirit—Deity!
I can command the lightning, and am dust! A monarch, and a slave; a worm, a god!
Whence came I here ? and how so marvelously Constructed and conceived? unknown! this clod
Lives surely through some higher energy;
For from itself alone it could not be!