Didst thou then bid the bounding heart Or clothe in flesh the hardening bone, Who bids the babe, to catch the breeze, And with impatient hands, untaught, Or who, with unextinguish'd love, To bear it in her arms? A God! a God! the wide earth shouts! He moulded in his palm the world, "Let us make man!"-With beauty clad, Stepp'd forth majestic man. Around he turns his wandering eyes, Ye hills and vales, ye meads and woods, What parent power, all great and good, Tell me, creation, tell me how SABBATH HYMN. SLEEP, sleep to-day, tormenting cares, Of earth and folly born! Ye shall not dim the light that streams From this celestial morn. To-morrow will be time enough To feel your harsh control; Ye shall not violate this day, The Sabbath of my soul. Sleep, sleep for ever, guilty thoughts! And, purged from sin, may I behold PUBLIC WORSHIP. PRAISE waits in Zion, Lord, for thee; Thy hand has raised us from the dust; Eternal Source of truth and light! To thee we look, on thee we call: Lord, we are nothing in thy sight; But thou to us art all in all. Still may thy children, in thy word, Their common trust and refuge see: O bind us to each other, Lord, By one great tie-the love of thee! Here, at the portal of thy house, We leave our mortal hopes and fears: Accept our prayers, and bless our vows, And dry our penitential tears. So shall our suns of hope arise With brighter still and brighter ray; Till thou shalt bless our longing eyes With beams of everlasting day. LIGHT FROM RELIGION. If all our hopes and all our fears Were prison'd in life's little bound; If, travellers through this vale of tears, We saw no better world beyond;— O what should check the rising sigh? What earthly thing could pleasure give? Who then in peace could ever die ? Or who would breathe a wish to live? Were life a dark and desert moor, Where clouds and mists eternal spread Their gloomy veil behind, before, And tempests thunder overhead; Where not a sunbeam breaks the gloom, And not a flow'ret smiles beneath;Who could exist in such a tomb? Who dwell in darkness and in death? Yet such were life without the ray 'Tis this that makes our darkness day; Bright is the golden sun above, And beautiful the flowers that bloom; And all is joy, and all is love, Reflected from a world to come. LOVE TO GOD. "THUS shalt thou love the Almighty Lord— "With all thy HEART"-no idol thing, Though close around the heart it twine, Its interposing shade must fling, To darken that pure love of thine. "With all thy MIND”—each varied power, And thoughts that glance behind, before, "With SOUL and STRENGTH"-thy days of ease, Thou Power Supreme, in whom we move, And strength to serve thee, while they may. |