Malvern Hills :: :: University of Virginia Library

Sceptres and thrones, the blaze of power,
Yea, all that charms the heart, the eye,
Will wonder raise, their little hour,
And, like a scroll, be passed by.

But thou, unchanged, shalt remain,
Encircled by thy robe of light;
Thou, through perpetual years, shalt reign,
When sun, and stars, are quench'd in night.

328

Whirlwind and blast, thy will perform;
Lightnings receive their course from thee;
Thou rid'st upon the winged storm,
And thou restrain'st the raging sea!

Thou, unconfined by space or time,
Display'st thy power, through endless years;
In every age, in every clime,
The Majesty of God appears.

Thy mandate gave all creatures birth,
From chaos, Nature rose divine;
The deep foundations of the earth,
The everlasting hills, are thine.

Perfection marks thy works around,
The great, the small, are one to thee;
The element where thou art found,
Is all alike — Infinity!

Thy dwelling, deep pavilions hide;
Mists bar access; dark waters frown;
Yet, here and there, the clouds divide,
And bring celestial visions down.

The birds, that joyous stretch their wing,
And wanton in the summer air;
The insect, and the creeping-thing,
Reveal the tokens of thy care.

Mountains, unchanged, from age to age,
Thou, by thy might, hast girded round,
And given to Ocean, in his rage,
The fix'd, and admantine bound.

329

Leviathan, and all his train,
Through the wide sea, in myriads spread;
The beasts, that range the wood, or plain,
All, by thy bounteous hand, are fed!

The shrubs and flowers, in fair array,
The golden corn, the lofty tree;
The fruits, that clustering bend the spray,
Still claim our thanks, and point to thee.

Thine is the Summer's ample store,
Thee, teeming Autumn owns her King;
Thou shin'st in Winter's mantle hoar,
And thou renew'st the face of Spring.

On all that is, the Great First Cause,
Stamps his imperishable lines;
Resistless power the spirit awes,
Till, through the awful, mercy shines.

Thou, who, above all thought, art high,
The Great Unknown, the Final End,
Dost hear the ravens, when they cry,
And, “goodness,” to the worm, extend.

Creation, to her utmost bound,
Regales the ear, and charms the sight;
Beneficence, the earth around,
Moves onward, in her track of light.

We mark thee in the blush of morn;
We view thee in the glow of eve;
And generations, yet unborn,
Shall drink the transport we receive.

330

When, to the heavens, we raise our eye,
The grandeur of thy name we see;
We trace, through all the spangled sky,
The finger plain of Deity!

Let the whole earth, in chorus wide,
Laud thee, till faith expires in sight;
That thou didst cast the veil aside,
And give to man the starry night.

That tablet clear, that lucid page,
Whereon is read Jehovah's sway;
And, which the Atheist, in his rage,
To blackest shades, would tear away!

There, sphere on sphere, in mystic throng,
Direct to thee their airy lyre;
The daring vision toils along,
Through regions, kindling still with fire.

The moon, august, Thou badest shine,
While calm as thought the concave glows,
Thou spak'st, and in one vast design,
Ten thousand beaming worlds arose.

Amid the confluent flood of light,
Sent from Heaven's unimagined bound;
Suns, traversing, harmonious, bright,
The constellated vault profound;

Arcturus, stately, passes on,
Conspicuous, through his lapse of years,
Orion, with his triple zone,
Alike, in radiant pomp, appears.

331

And there, the Pleiades proclaim
“Dominion!” to the Lord on high!
While all the planets sing the same,
In their procession round the sky.

Though countless orbs through ether roll,
Yet these are atoms, power confined;
Thou didst create the human soul,
Efflux of thine eternal mind!

Still higher! the angelic choir,
With all the glorious hosts above,
Sprang from thy fiat, Sovereign Sire!
Great Source of Being! Fount of Love!

On earth, “Omnipotence!” we hear,
Sent forth from every form and sense;
While heaven, with accent still more clear,
Again repeats, “Omnipotence!”