Indi, come orologio che ne chiami

nell’ora che la sposa di Dio surge
a mattinar lo sposo perchè l’ami,
che l’una parte l’altra tira e urge,
tin tin sonando con sì dolce nota,
che ‘l ben disposto spirto d’amor turge;
così vid’ io la glorïosa rota
muoversi e render voce a voce in tempra
ed in dolcezza ch’esser non pò nota
se non colà dove gioir s’ insempra.

– from Paradiso, Dante Alighieri
(via George MacDonald)

White-raving storm of molten metals,

[the Sun] is but a coal from the altar of the Father’s never-ending sacrifice to his children. See every little flower straighten its stalk, lift up its neck, and with outstretched head stand expectant: something more than the sun, greater than the light, is coming, is coming – none the less surely coming that it is long upon the road! What matters to-day, or to-morrow, or ten thousand years to Life himself, to Love himself! He is coming, is coming, and the necks of all humanity are stretched out to see him come! Every morning will they thus outstretch themselves, every evening will they droop and wait – until he comes. – Is this but an airdrawn vision? When he comes, will he indeed find them watching thus?

– Lilith, chapter XLV,
George MacDonald