Whitsunday

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When God of old came down from Heaven,
  In power and wrath He came;
Before His feet the clouds were riven,
  Half darkness and half flame:

Around the trembling mountain's base
  The prostrate people lay;
A day of wrath and not of grace;
  A dim and dreadful day.

But when he came the second time,
  He came in power and love,
Softer than gale at morning prime
  Hovered His holy Dove.

The fires that rushed on Sinai down
  In sudden torrents dread,
Now gently light, a glorious crown,
  On every sainted head.

Like arrows went those lightnings forth
  Winged with the sinner's doom,
But these, like tongues, o'er all the earth
  Proclaiming life to come:

And as on Israel's awe-struck ear
  The voice exceeding loud,
The trump, that angels quake to hear,
  Thrilled from the deep, dark cloud;

So, when the Spirit of our God
  Came down His flock to find,
A voice from Heaven was heard abroad,
  A rushing, mighty wind.

Nor doth the outward ear alone
  At that high warning start;
Conscience gives back th' appalling tone;
  'Tis echoed in the heart.

It fills the Church of God; it fills
  The sinful world around;
Only in stubborn hearts and wills
  No place for it is found.

To other strains our souls are set:
  A giddy whirl of sin
Fills ear and brain, and will not let
  Heaven's harmonies come in.

Come Lord, Come Wisdom, Love, and Power,
  Open our ears to hear;
Let us not miss th' accepted hour;
  Save, Lord, by Love or Fear.

© John Keble