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12/16/2002 Entry: "One of Charles Wesley's finest"
In my view, this is one of Charles Wesley's finest efforts, revealing his genius of conveying great truth in only a few words. If anyone has ever managed a more concise insight into the mystery of the incarnation than the last two lines of the first stanza, I have never seen it.
LET earth and heaven combine,Angels and men agree,To praise in songs divineThe incarnate Deity,Our God contracted to a span,Incomprehensibly made man.He laid his glory by,He wrapped him in our clay;Unmarked by human eye,The latent Godhead lay;Infant of days he here became,And bore the mild Immanuel's name.
Unsearchable the loveThat hath the Saviour brought;The grace is far aboveOr man or angels thought;Suffice for us that God, we know,Our God, is manifest below.
He deigns in flesh to appear,Widest extremes to join;To bring our vileness near,And make us all divine:And we the life of God shall know,For God is manifest below.
Made perfect first in love,And sanctified by grace,We shall from earth remove,And see his glorious face:Then shall his love be fully showed,And man shall then be lost in God.
Replies:
Isn't "span" just perfect? There is something about that word that really embraces God's majesty. Do you know John Donne's "Good Friday, 1613: Riding Westward"? He talks about "those hands which span the poles" being pierced on the cross. It's one of my favorite poems, and that word is one of the reason.
Posted by Russ @ 12/17/2002 03:04 PM CST
