Sacred Poems By the Late Right Hon. Sir Robert Grant |
 |
| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
| V. |
| VI. |
| VII. |
| VIII. |
| IX. | IX.
PSALM XIX. |
| X. |
| XI. |
| XII. |
 | Sacred Poems |  |
28
IX. PSALM XIX.
[_]
(This is intended as a sequel or counterpart to Addison's hymn, “The spacious firmament.” It corresponds to the latter portion of the 19th Psalm, as Addison's does to the former.)
1
The starry firmament on high,And all the glories of the sky,
Yet shine not to thy praise, O Lord,
So brightly as thy written word:
The hopes that holy word supplies,
Its truths divine and precepts wise—
In each a heavenly beam I see,
And every beam conducts to thee.
29
2
When, taught by painful proof to knowThat all is vanity below,
The sinner roams from comfort far,
And looks in vain for sun or star,
Soft gleaming then those lights divine
Through all the cheerless darkness shine,
And sweetly to his ravished eye
Disclose the day-spring from on high.
3
The heart in sensual fetters bound,And barren as the wintry ground,
Confesses, Lord, thy quick'ning ray;—
Thy word can charm the spell away,
With genial influence can beguile
The frozen wilderness to smile;
Bid living waters o'er it flow,
And all be paradise below.
4
Almighty Lord! the sun shall fail,The moon forget her nightly tale,
30
The radiant chorus of the sky;
But, fixed for everlasting years,
Unmov'd amid the wreck of spheres,
Thy word shall shine in cloudless day,
When heaven and earth have pass'd away.
| Sacred Poems | |