The Eternal Generation of the Son

Frederick William Faber

Amid the eternal silences
God’s endless Word was spoken
None heard but He who always spake,
And the silence was unbroken.

Chorus:
Oh marvellous! Oh Worshipful!
No song or sound is heard,
But everywhere and every hour,
In love, in wisdom, and in power,
The Father speaks His dear Eternal Word.

For ever in the eternal land
The glorious day is dawning;
For ever is the Father’s Light
Like an endless outspread morning.

From the Father’s vast tranquillity,
In light coequal glowing
The kingly consubstantial Word
Is unutterably flowing.

For ever climbs that Morning Star
Without ascent or motion;
For ever is its daybreak
On the Spirit’s boundless ocean.

O Word! who fitly can adore
Thy Birth and Thy Relation,
Lost in the impenetrable light
Of Thine awful Generation?

Thy Father clasps Thee evermore
In unspeakable embraces,
While angels tremble as thy praise,
And shroud their dazzled faces.

And oh! in what abyss of love,
So fiery yet so tender,
The Holy Ghost encircles Thee
With His uncreated splendour!

O Word! O dear and gentle Word!
Thy creatures kneel before Thee,
And in ecstasies of timid love
Delightedly adore Thee.

Hail choicest mystery of God!
Hail wondrous Generation!
The Father’s self-sufficient rest!
The Spirit’s jubilation!

Dear Person! dear beyond all words,
Glorious beyond all telling!
Oh with what songs of silent love
Our ravished hearts are swelling!

Chorus:
Oh marvellous! Oh Worshipful!
No song or sound is heard,
But everywhere and every hour,
In love, in wisdom, and in power,
The Father speaks His dear Eternal Word.