THE MANIFESTO
OF THE GLORIOUS GOD
IN THE DELIGHTFUL DRAMA WHERE
DESOLATION BECOMES DELIVERANCE
AND DAMNATION YIELDS ITS CLAMOUR
IN SALVATION SALUBRIOUS AND ETERNAL
The manifestation of the manifest manifesto
of the magnificent God is sure from the irrefragable word of God,
the Bible, the manifesto in writ,
seen in the piercing peace of that Master of men,
Jesus Christ, the manifesto in person,
declared in the manifest collusion of history with His words,
determinant of history,
deliverer of those otherwise damned,
not in a fit of capricious imperialism,
but in the holiness of the hygiene of perfection,
which acknowledges no dirt,
while the marvel of the mercy that gushes from the grandeur of
the mighty mountains of the character of God,
having paid in the Cross of Calvary for the redeemed,
acknowledges those manifestly made anew in His glorious grace,
by which HIS are the works, and OURS is the reception of Himself,
and of the standing of those His works and words,
so that we stand in His standing,
freely redeemed for ever,
and so can sit in heavenly places,
not failing to walk in His Spirit,
without fear of falling,
but cleansed in the fear of God to avoid stumbling with zeal,
and pride with passion,
reflecting a glimmer of His own,
which from eternity knew His own,
in time paid for them,
while lamenting for the lost whose loss is not
merely from the momentum of sin,
but in the preference for darkness,
divinely read past every sin and circumstance,
in the infinite comprehension
that stares down difficulty in wisdom incomparable,
uncontainable and illimitable,
on which the whole creation alone can stand,
though its curse wilts it since the fall of man,
while the cure brings rest from the fall of Christ,
not in sin, but for it,
not to flights of imagination but to faith in Him who is manifest,
and confers
the power of God, bringing a supply of strength
not for sin, but from it and for His service
which is glorious in grace,
brilliant in holiness,
shining with discipline,
either in the doing or the correction,
so that sent like shafts of light,
in the delicate manoeuvres of right,
like birds pirouetting,
sails whippping,
gales blowing with a cleanliness that stings,
and a power that thrills,
His people perform in their littleness
the testimony of the divine manifesto
wrought in His splendour,
taught in His humiliation,
bought in His love,
sought where reality stares into the hearts that
are aware of shame, but lose guilt in His goodness,
and relish His name,
manifested in might,
evidenced in resurrections,
beheld in healings,
fulfilled in detail
in all He has spoken,
His own body's arising from the grave,
the summation and summary of His power,
and manifestation of His lovingkindness,
a dam of delight to the thirsty
and a certainty of promise to the faithful
in whom is He living by His Spirit,
triumphant over death, magnified in life,
even He whose dominating declaration brought matter into being,
time and space into their parameters,
and directed the manufacture of life into existence,
not turgidly but sovereignly
in the championship work of incomparable power of design,
provided spirit to man
and perfection in the end,
as will be manifest to
those who have received His manifesto.
Glory to His name,
the manifest height for creation,
without which the created become as nameless as shameless,
and seek shambles,
rather than the ruthless removal of what ruins
in the redemption of rest,
applied in pity, wrought in pain,
sealed in strength, eternal.
