Hound of Heaven

THE HOUND OF HEAVEN

The name is strange. It startles one at first. It is so bold, so new, so fearless. It does not attract at once, rather the reverse. But when one reads the poem this strangeness disappears. The meaning is understood. As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying and imperturbed pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God it seeks to hide itself, Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit.

It would be difficult to find another poem in the language that gives such food for thought, so satisfying, so new, that can be read and reread, and always with a relish and a discovery of a new application, or the glimmer of an unseen light. In many poems, one reading suffices, and the mind is sated, for the whole depth is plummeted and all is revealed in a single view. It is not so in this poem. There is a depth that can be sounded, and deeper depths are still there. The vision takes in the view, but other details arise that charm, or surprise, or startle, or evoke admiration at the spiritual insight into the workings of the soul. It gives great and wide range of thought within a small compass, and a deep knowledge of the human soul, of the meanings of life, of the soul's relation to God and of other beings not God, and of the hold of God's love upon the soul in spite of its fleeing from Him to the creatures of His hand.

It is happiness the human soul is ever yearning for. It never ceases its quest for happiness. Night and day, year after year, it is grasping after happiness. The weary days of labor are borne to gain the wealth with which it thinks it may buy happiness. The days of suffering and pain are spent in watching and waiting for the agony to pass, that happiness may come. It looks for it in every
creature, in the earth, in the sea, in the air. The soul asks all these things — wherein is your happiness — and the answer of earth, air, sea is "He made us." 'We are for Him, for His glory." So the soul is looking for happiness, and in all these things it will not find happiness. It will find happiness only in God. And yet instead of seeking it in God, it turns away from Him and seeks it in the creature, something that is not God. And God is ever seeking that soul which is running away from Him. Wherever it runs, the sound of those feet, following ever after, is heard, and a voice, stronger than the beat —

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