Assessor with His Father on His throne, Inheriting the Name o'er every name Ascendant, King of kings and Lord of lords, And us assuming with Himself to reign! Amen! And hallelujah! And amen!" As one might watch an eagle in his flight That soared to viewless in the blinding sun; As one might hearken while from higher and higher A lark poured back his singing on the ground, So Stephen gazed, listening, with ecstatic mind. "Transported with delight I hear thee speak Thus, O my reverend master, for with awe, Which is delight, the deepest that I know"-- Thus at length Stephen spoke, easing his mind A little, with its fulness overfraught. "Doxology outbreaking from thy lips Becomes them so! The rapture of thy praise Is as the waving of a mighty wing Beside me that is able to upbear Me also thither whither it will soar. I am caught in its motion and I mount Unmeasured heights as to the heaven of heavens. Let me join voice with thee and say, 'Amen!' Not least I love when least I understand Often thy high discourse. Eluding me It leads me yet and tempts me after thee, Tempts and enables, and, above myself, I find myself equalled to the impossible! But then when afterward I sink returned To what I was--no longer wing not mine To lift me with its great auxiliar sweep Upward--I grope and stumble on the ground. "Bear with me that I need to ask such things, But tell me yet, O thou who knowest, tell me, Am I then right, and is it, as thou seemedst To say but saidst not, veering from the mark When now almost upon it, so I thought, Who waited watching--did the psalmist old Commingle sometimes an alloy of base Unpurified affection with his clear All-holy inspiration breathed from God, Lading his language with a sense unmeet, Personal spite, his own, for God's pure ire? Forgive me that I need to ask such things."