Benedicite.
“O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord: praise Him, and magnify Him for ever.”
—Prayer Book.
In creed, like Seraphim we soar,
In conduct, low as dust descend!
And, while our lips a God adore
Our wills pursue a godless end.
If thus discordant, life departs,
Why marvel that, the jubilee
Creation hymns round Christian hearts,
Is neither loved, nor learn'd by thee?
Untuned men are by Self and Sin
For those deep harmonies which roll
Around the list'ning ear within,
When Nature's anthem woos the soul.
But, oh, thou stern and songless Mind,
Hark! how the universal choir
Of chanting wave and choral wind
Rebukes the Heart's unechoing lyre!
Ungenial soul! the Church obey,
Thy canticle with Hers combine;
And echo back the ceaseless lay
All creatures sing to Love Divine.
Mountain and sea, with sun and moon,
Waters and winds, and frost and dew,
Night with clear stars, and sultry noon,
And young-eyed morning, bright and blue;
Lightning and cloud, and storm and calm,
Forests and floods, with ice and snow,—
From all, and each, a conscious psalm
Through earth's wide Temple seems to flow.
And, 'mid the worship of their praise
Let christian Levites, pure in heart,
With Priests and Angels, blend their lays,—
In perfect chorus taking part.
Creation and the Church united,
Hosannah! both appear to cry,
As if by Seraph-choirs invited
Their equal God to glorify.
While thus a more than music rolls
From vast creation's varied round,
Echoes awake in list'ning souls
Attuned to such ethereal sound.
God's universe a Poem seems
Written by His creative Hand;
And Faith, in her entrancèd dreams,
Each mystic tone would understand:
A throbbing lyre of holy love
The heart baptized for heaven should be,
Whose inmost pulse is heard above,
And thrills incarnate Deity,—
Flesh of our flesh! e'en from the same
His beating heart of love replies
To hymning Saints, who laud His name
And lift to heaven their asking eyes.
