Life One Great Ritual by Philip James Baily

Life One Great Ritual 

by Philip James Bailey

And as the vesper hymn of Time precedes
The starry matins of Eternity
And daybreak of existence in the Heavens,–
To know this, is to know we shall depart
Into the storm-surrounding calm on high,
The sacred cirque, the all-central infinite
Of that self-blessedness wherein abides
Our GOD, all kind, all loving, all beloved;-
To feel life one great ritual, and its laws
Writ in the vital rubric of the blood,
Flow in obedience and flow out command,
In sealike circulation; and be here
Accepted as a gift by Him, who gives
An empire as an alms, nor counts it aught,
So long as all His creatures joy in Him,
The great Rejoicer of the Universe,
Whom all the boundless spheres of Being bless.