Him who dare name
And yet proclaim,
Yes! I believe...
The All-embracer,
All-sustainer,
Doth he not embrace, sustain,
Thee, me, Himself?
Lifts not the Heaven its dome above?
Doth not the firm-set earth beneath us rise?...
And beaming tenderly with looks of love
Climb not the everlasting stars on high?...
Fill thence thy heart, how large so e'er it be,
And in the feeling when thou'rt wholly blest,
Then call it what thou wilt--Bliss! Heart! Love! God!
I have no name for it--'tis feeling all
Name is but sound and smoke
Shrouding the glow of Heaven.

Such statements of belief were not rare in the Apologists; but Nature
at this time was losing independent importance in men's minds, like
life itself, which after Cyprian was counted as nothing but a fight
with the devil.[14]

There is deep reverence for Nature in the lyrics, the hymns of the
first centuries A.D., as a work of God and an emblem of moral ideas.
Ebert observes[15]

In comparison with the old Roman, one can easily see the
peculiarities and perfect originality of these Christian lyrics.
I do not mean merely in that dominance of the soul life in which