For Rain.
“Send us, we beseech Thee,—moderate rain and showers.
—Prayer Book.
Nature is christian to a christian eye,
Touch'd by regen'rate spells, from Christ which came,
When vast creation, from His farewell-sigh,
Felt a new life o'ersteal its giant frame;—
Since Nature's glories, through Man's primal sin,
Darken'd without, when Adam quail'd within.
Hence Nature, Providence, and Grace combine,
Wheel within wheel,
their interblending powers,
And, by their threefold action form a shrine,
Where Christ is worshipp'd in memorial-hours:—
Creation and the Church can thus declare,
Each unto each, the life and law of Prayer.
And Thou, Who art the Cause of causes all,
King of the Universe, by God encrown'd!
Thy mercy freshens, through each rain-drop's fall,
The fruit and verdure of the fragrant ground;
While, o'er the clouds adoring hearts ascend,
And, shrined in glory, hail the sinner's Friend.
Deluge and drought, the sunshine, dew, or rain
Are not contingencies, but full of God;
Each hath a mission, and the wisest gain
Lessons from all, when Science walks abroad,
Perusing Nature with religious eye,—
Divinely-conscious that her Lord is nigh.
But, if in showers man's atheistic heart
Forget the Fount, whence raining mercies flow,
Who does not dread Thee, when the clouds depart
And landscapes wither in a torrid glow,
Till earth seem iron, and the heaven like brass;—
Is there a Curse that can such doom surpass?
Then, parch'd and pining, droop all fruits and trees,
The meadows burn beneath a blasting glare,
While Nature sickens for the absent breeze,
And Life seems gasping in the pulseless air:
Creation dons the livery of death,
And dying Languor draws its heated breath.
Lord of the atmosphere! in mercy look
Down on our Land, if thus chastised it be,
And once again bid every flowing brook,
In liquid warbles to resound of Thee:
While balm and beauty, as thy People pray,
With answ'ring freshness field and grove array.
And, bounteous Heaven! beneath Thy fruitful Word
Let barren souls be soften'd, and subdued,
Till each dead feeling, by devotion stirr'd,
Bound with new throbs of holy gratitude,—
Learning that wisdom heaven-taught spirits gain,
When God is reverenced in the gift of rain.
