1 Eternal and immortal King!
Thy peerless splendours none can bear;
But darkness veils seraphic eyes;
When God with all his glory’s there.

2 Yet faith can pierce the awful gloom,
The great Invisible can see:
And with its tremblings mingle joy,
In fix'd regard, great God! to Thee.

3 Then ev'ry tempting form of sin,
Aw'd by thy presence, disappears;
And all the glowing raptur'd soul
The likeness it contemplates, wears.

4 O ever conscious to my heart!
Witness to its supreme desire;
Behold it presses on to thee,
For it hath caught the heav'nly fire.

5 This one petition would it urge:
To bear thee ever in my sight!
In life, in death, in worlds unknown,
My only portion and delight!