198

SACRED HARMONY.

If night's blue curtain of the sky,
With thousand stars inwrought-
Hung, like some royal canopy,

With glittering diamonds fraught,
Be, Lord, thy temple's outer veil,
What glory round the shrine must dwell!

The dazzling sun, at noontide hour,
Forth from his flaming vase,
Flinging o'er earth his golden shower,

Till vale and mountain blaze;
But shows, O Lord, one beam of thine:
What then the day where thou dost shine!

Ah! how shall these dim eyes endure
That noon of living rays!
Or how my spirit so impure,
Upon thy brightness gaze!
Anoint, O Lord, anoint my sight,
And robe me for that world of light!

Oh! what precious things there be,
Shrined and sepulchred in thee!
Gems and gold from every eye,
Hid within thy bosom lie:"
Many a treasure-laden bark
Rests within thy caverns dark:
And where towers and temples rose,
Buried continents repose:

Giant secrets of thy breast,

With their thousand isles of rest-
With their brave and beauteous forms
Undisturb'd beneath thy storms;

In a safe and peaceful home,
Where the mourner may not come,
Nor the stranger rudely tread
O'er their calm and coral bed.
Where the ocean buried lies,
May no monuments arise,
For thy bosom bears no trace
Of our evanescent race:

On thy wild and wandering wave
Bloom no laurels for the grave;
O'er thy dread, unfathom'd gloom,
Tower no trophies for the tomb.
But there comes a day of dread,
To reclaim thy thousand dead;
Bursting from thy dark control,
While in fire thy billows roll,
Shall that countless multitude
Soar from out thy shrinking flood,
Thy mistress moon be changed to blood!
And the sun, with aspect drear,
Look upon this parting sphere,
At once his startled orb look wan,

On HIS cross who died for man:

Then shall the archangel stand,
One foot on sea, and one on shore,
And swear with an uplifted hand
That time shall be no more!

And while heaven's last thunders roll,
Sounding nature's parting knoll,
Like a burning, blackening scroll,
Reeling from the face of day,
Earth and sea shall flee away!

HYM N.

HEBER.

Lo, the lilies of the field,

How their leaves instruction yield;
Hark to Nature's lesson, given
By the blessed birds of heaven!
Every bush and tufted tree
Warbles sweet philosophy:
"Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!"
"Say, with richer crimson glows
The kingly mantle than the rose?
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
Than we, poor citizens of air?
Barns nor hoarded grain have we,
Yet we carol merrily.

Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow:
God provideth for the morrow!

"One there lives, whose guardian eye Guides our humble destiny;

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

SIR JOHN DAVIES.

0145ORANT poor man! what dost thou bear
Lock'd up within the casket of thy breast?
What jewels and what riches hast thou there!
What heav'nly treasure in so weak a chest?

Look in thy soul, and thou shalt beauties find,
Like those which drown'd Narcissus in the flood:
Honour and pleasure both are in thy mind,

And all that in the world is counted good.

Think of her worth, and think that God did mean,
This worthy mind should worthy things embrace:
Blat not her beauties with thy thoughts unclean,
Nor her dishonour with thy passion base.

Kill not her quick'ning power with surfeitings:
Mar not her sense with sensuality:
Cast not away her wit on idle things:

Make not her free will slave to vanity.

And when thou think'st of her eternity,

Think not that death against her nature is; Think it a birth: and when thou go'st to die, Sing like a swan; as if thou went'st to bliss.

Then shall the archangel stand, One foot on sea, and one on shore, And swear with an uplifted hand That time shall be no more! And while heaven's last thunders roll, Sounding nature's parting knoll, Like a burning, blackening scroll, Reeling from the face of day, Earth and sea shall flee away!

HYMN.

HEDER.

Lo, the lilies of the field,
How their leaves instruction yield;
Hark to Nature's lesson, given
By the blessed birds of heaven!
Every bush and tufted tree
Warbles sweet philosophy:
"Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!"

"Say, with richer crimson glows
The kingly mantle than the rose!
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
Than we, poor citizens of airt

rns nor hoarded grain have we,
ut we carol merrily.
Lortal, fly from doubt and sorrow:
iod provideth for the morrow!
"One there lives, whose guardian eye
Guides our humble destiny;

One there lives, who, Lord of all,
Keeps our feathers lest they fall:
Pass we blithely then the time,
Fearless of the snare and lime,

Free from doubt and faithless sorrow:
God provideth for the morrow!"

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

SIR JOHN DAVIES.

O IGNORANT poor man! what dost thou bear Lock'd up within the casket of thy breast? What jewels and what riches hast thou there? What heav'nly treasure in so weak a chest? Look in thy soul, and thou shalt beauties find, Like those which drown'd Narcissus in the flood: Honour and pleasure both are in thy mind,

And all that in the world is counted good.
Think of her worth, and think that God did mean,
This worthy mind should worthy things embrace:
Blot not her beauties with thy thoughts unclean,
Nor her dishonour with thy passion base.

Kill not her quick'ning power with surfeitings:
Mar not her sense with sensuality:
Cast not away her wit on idle things:

Make not her free will slave to vanity.

And when thou think'st of her eternity,

Think not that death against her nature is; Think it a birth: and when thou go'st to die, Sing like a swan; as if thou went'st to bliss.

And if thou, like a child, didst fear before, Being in the dark, where thou didst nothing see: Now I have brought thee torch-light, fear no mare: Now when thou diest, thou canst not hoodwinked be.

And thou, my soul, which turn'st with curious je To view the beams of thine own form divine, Know, that thou canst know nothing perfectly, While thou art clouded with this flesh of mine.

Take heed of overweening, and compare

Thy peacock's feet with thy gay peacock's train Study the best and highest things that are, But of thyself an humble thought retain.

Cast down thyself, and only strive to raise The glory of thy Maker's sacred name: Use all thy powers that blessed Power to praise Which gives thee power to be, and use the same.

CONFIDENCE IN GOD.

ADDISON

How are thy servants blest, O Lord!
How sure is their defence!

Eternal Wisdom is their guide;
Their help, Omnipotence.

In foreign realms and lands remote,
Supported by thy care;

Through burning realms 1 pass'd unhurt.
And breathed in tainted air.

Thy mercy sweeten'd every soil,

Made every region please;
The hoary Alpine hills it warm'd,
And smooth'd the Tyrrhene seas.
Think, O my soul, devoutly think,
How, with affrighted eyes,
Thou saw'st the wide-extended deep
In all its horrors rise.
Confusion dwelt in every face,

And fear in every heart;

When waves on waves, and gulfs on gulfs,
O'ercame the pilot's art.

Yet then from all my griefs, O Lord,
Thy mercy set me free;
Whilst, in the confidence of prayer,
My soul took hold on Thee.
For though in dreadful whirls we hung,
High on the broken wave,

I knew Thou wert not slow to hear,
Nor impotent to save.

The storm was laid, the winds retired,
Obedient to Thy will:

The sea, that roar'd at Thy command,
At Thy command was still.

In midst of dangers, fears, and death,
Thy goodness I'll adore;

And praise Thee for Thy mercies past,
And humbly hope for more.

My life, if Thou preserv'st my life,
Thy sacrifice shall be;

And death, if death must be my doom,
Shall join my soul to Thee!