The forests in His strength rejoice;
Hark! on the evening breeze,
As once of old, the Lord God's voice
Is heard among the trees.
Here on the hills He feeds His herds,
His flocks on yonder plains;
His praise is warbled by the birds,
O could we catch their strains!
Mount with the lark, and bear our song
Up to the gates of light;
Or, with the nightingale, prolong
Our numbers through the night!
In every stream His bounty flows,
Diffusing joy and wealth;
In every breeze His Spirit blows,
The breath of life and health.
His blessings fall in plenteous showers.
Upon the lap of earth,
That teems with foliage, fruit, and flowers,
And rings with infant mirth.
If God has made this world so fair,
Where sin and death abound,
How beautiful beyond compare
Will paradise be found!
WHEN on Sinai's top I
God descend in majesty,
To proclaim His holy law,
All my spirit sinks with awe.
When in ecstasy sublime
Tabor's glorious steep I climb,
At the too-transporting light,
Darkness rushes o'er my sight.
When on Calvary I rest,
God, in flesh, made manifest,
Shines in my Redeemer's face,
Full of beauty, truth, and grace.
Here I would for ever stay,
Weep, and gaze my soul away;
Thou art heaven on earth to me,
Lovely, mournful Calvary!
HALLELUJAH.
HARK! the song of Jubilee;
Loud as mighty thunders roar,
Or the fulness of the sea,
When it breaks upon the shore;
Hallelujah! for the Lord
God Omnipotent shall reign;
Hallelujah! let the word
Echo round the earth and main.
Hallelujah! hark! the sound
From the centre to the skies,
Wakes above, beneath, around,
All creation's harmonies:
See! Jehovah's banners furled,
Sheathed His sword; He speaks, 'tis done,
And the kingdoms of this world
Are the kingdoms of His Son:
He shall reign from pole to pole
With illimitable sway:
He shall reign, when like a scroll
Yonder heavens have passed away,
Then the end;- beneath His rod,
Man's last enemy shall fall:
Hallelujah! Christ our God,
God in Christ-our All in All!
GOD'S OVERRULING PROVIDENCE.
BOUND in the links of that ethereal Chain
Which upward, from the insect's tiny pulse
On earth that throbs, to yonder wheeling orbs
Enormous, its unbroken coil extends,
Are all things by the hand Almighty held.
And thus, what chance to vulgar sense appears,
Is veil'd Causation, and confirm'd Decree.
Nature herself, through each organic change
And form, or function, is but Will supreme,
In might or beauty, marching to result
Predestined; not an atom is consumed,
No leaf can vibrate, not a billow laugh,
Nor wild breeze flutter on its airy wing,—
But God o'errules it, with control as nice
As that which belts the planets with a zone
Of harmony, and binds the stars with law.
But though mere Chaos to an eye unpurged
By rays extracted from Essential Light
(E'en by the Spirit's), life's convulsive scene
Too often looks,-not thus, to them who read
The world's great volume, by explaining beams
From Scripture darted, does the map of time
Appear. For then, disorder is but plan,
Divinely working by arranged degrees ;
Upward and onward, into Truth evolved
Through the long maze of labyrinthine wills
And human actions.
EXTRACTS FROM THE POEM,
OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DEITY.
THOU, Uncreate, Unseen, and Undefined,
Source of all life, and Fountain of the mind;
Pervading Spirit, whom no eye can trace,
Felt through all time, and working in all space,
Imagination cannot paint that spot,
Around, above, beneath, where thou art not.
Before the glad stars hymned the new-born earth, Or young creation revelled in its birth,
Thy Spirit moved upon the pregnant deep,
Unchained the waveless waters from their sleep,
Bade time's majestic wings to be unfurled,
And out of darkness drew the breathing world.
Primeval Power! before thy thunder rang,
And nature from Eternity outsprang!
Ere matter formed at thy creative tone,
Thou wert, Almighty, Endless, and Alone;
In thine own essence, all that was to be,-
Sublime, unfathomable Deity:
Thou saidst and lo! a universe was born,
And light flashed from thee, for her birthday morn!
The earth unshrouded all her beauty now;
The monarch mountain bared his awful brow,
Flowers, fruits, and trees, felt instantaneous life,—
But, hark! Creation trembles with the strife,
Of roaring waves in wild commotion hurled-
'Tis ocean winding round the rocking world!
And next, triumphant o'er the green-clad earth,
The universal sun burst into birth,
And dashed from off his altitude sublime
The first dread ray that marked commencing time!
Last came the moon, upon the wings of light,
And sat in glory on the throne of night;
While fierce and fresh, a radiant host of stars
Wheeled round the heavens on their burning cars!
But all was dismal as a world of dead,
Till the great deep her living swarms outspread:
Forth from her teeming bosom, sudden came
Immingled monsters, mighty, without name:
Then plumy tribes winged into being there,
And played their gleamy pinions on the air,
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