September 11 TRANSFORMATION
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."
---Rev. xxi. 1.
It never can be quite the same
Since first I felt Thy Presence near,
The whiteness in that Heart of Flame
Unstained by all reproach and fear;
Since I looked up into those Eyes
And heard the music of that Voice,
Which clothed the earth with bluer skies
And bade the barren fields rejoice.
It never can be quite the same,
Since first I leant upon Thy Name.
It never can be quite the same
Since I first in Thy Sanctuary knelt,
And from the earthly cloud of shame
Passed to the Glory where God dwelt;
Since I was offered at Thy Hands
The mystic Food of Life to eat,
And found fulfilling Thy commands
Within the Cross the Mercy-seat.
It never can be quite the same,
Since I did learn Thy secret Name.
Thy Names are many, Lord, and sweet---
The Holy Lamb, the Sacred Dove;
But all the truest, tenderest meet
In the one blessèd word of Love.
Frederick William Orde Ward, The Prisoner of Love, 1904.