Explore "Sonnet" by George MacDonald on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(Exodus xxxiii. 18-23.)
"I do beseech Thee, God, show me thy face."
"Come up to me in Sinai on the morn: / Thou shalt behold as much as may be borne."
And Moses on a rock stood lone in space.
From Sinai's top, the vaporous, thunderous place, / God passed in clouds, an earthly garment worn / To hide, and thus reveal. In love, not scorn, / He put him in a cleft in the rock's base, / Covered him with his hand, his eyes to screen, / Then passed, and showed his back through mists of years.
Ah, Moses! had He turned, and hadst thou seen / The pale face crowned with thorns, baptized with tears, / The eyes of the true man, by men belied, / Thou hadst beheld God's face, and straightway died.