The Sun-Dial of Armoy :: :: University of Virginia Library

The Sun-Dial of Armoy

A Poem, In Latin and English. By Richard, Lord Bishop of Down and Connor, and Dromore [i.e. Richard Mant]

Mant, Richard (1776-1848)

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PREAMBLE.

There are two Books of God, the one hard by,
Of little space, and writ with ink and pen;
The other, writ by finger not of men,
Spreads o'er the volume of the expanded sky.
In various guise; the theme of each the same,
God's glory, here below, and there on high,
Which day to day, and night to night proclaim,
And with harmonious speech his words reply.
Blest! who, whate'er his transient earthly views,
In joy or woe, in trouble or in weal,
Can from perplexing thoughts his spirit steal,
Can on the records of that glory muse,
And in His Word, and in His works abroad,
Acknowledge and adore the present God!

ON A SUN-DIAL,

INSCRIBED, “SOLE ORIENTE, FUGIUNT TENEBRÆ,” IN A GARDEN OF THE DIOCESE OF CONNOR.

I.—THE GARDEN OF ARMOY.

Where, bright with many a leaf and flower,
In summer warmth a garden glows,
And many an elm of ancient power
O'er-shadowing grows:

Where the smooth circling sweep embraces
The spreading beech and lowlier bay,
And mid green turf the dial traces
Each sun-bright day;

(There, where you see God's house arising,
In beauty new, tower, spire, and shrine;
Thine, Son belov'd, that work's devising,
Its labour thine!)

A servant of the Lord was gazing
On things around with placid eye,
Meanwhile his thoughts from earth upraising
To things on high.

II.—THE PARADISE OF HEAVEN.

“‘Night flies before the orient morning,’
So speak the dial's accents clear:
So better speaks the prophet's warning
To ears that hear.

‘Night flies before the sun ascending;’
The sun goes down, the shadow spreads
O come the day which, never ending,
No night succeeds!

And, see! a purer day-spring beaming,
Unwonted light; nor moon nor sun;
But Light itself, with glory streaming,
God on His throne.

And thence the river flows of gladness,
And there the tree of comfort grows,
Which whoso tastes, all sense of sadness,
All care, foregoes.

O tree profuse of life and healing;
O stream of pleasure, ever new;
O day of light, God's light revealing,
Essential, true:—

For ye, for righteous men and lowly,
God's saints, that promised seat prepare;
Nor impious aught, nor aught unholy,
Finds entrance there:—

Prompt ye my spirit, lest the slumber
Of reckless sloth its pow'rs enchain;
Or worldly lusts its course encumber,
Or thoughts profane.

III.—CHRISTIAN GRACES.

But mine be ardent Faith, perfected
By patient and obedient Love;
And Hope, with eyes and steps directed
To scenes above:

Nor barren form, nor glare misleading,
But Piety, with holy light,
Training for life the soul, and feeding
With holy rite;

Not various ways to try delighting,
But brethren to one mind to bring,
And with one mouth His name reciting,
Of all the King;

With loyalty, alert in paying
Due reverence to God's will and cause;
God's voice, or, as God's voice, obeying
His Church's laws:

The wish chastised, than golden treasure
More worth, with God's free gifts content,
Not restless, craving larger measure
Than God hath sent:

Toil, such as daily duty biddeth,
By pray'r continual not unblest;
And, such as wearied nature needeth,
The nightly rest:

The childlike mind, intent on learning,
And following straight the upward way,
Intent no less on back returning,
If drawn astray

By specious wiles of sin or error:—
With Truth, of fearless speech sincere,
Like some smooth lake's translucent mirror
Of crystal clear:

Justice, to others' faults forbearing,
Strict to her own: and Goodness bland,
Kind heart by look benign declaring,
And open hand:

Humility, who guards the portal
Leading to Honour's high abode;
And Peace, her sons by lips immortal
Hail'd ‘sons of God:’

Mine, too, the goodliest grace of heaven,
Be Holiness, the angels' grace,
To whom to see unveil'd is given
God ‘face to face!’

He knows, who thus the Godhead vieweth;
He knows, who, though with sight obscure,
Sees Him, and pureness still pursueth,
As God is pure;

Who, step by step, his Saviour's story
With imitative love hath traced,
And mark'd what holy acts to glory
His passage graced;

Who with unwavering eye beholdeth
The King enthroned on glory's seat,
And to the form of virtue mouldeth
His stedfast feet.

So press he on, by Christ conducted!
So more and more his likeness share!
So this vile frame, anew constructed,
Christ's image bear!

IV.—HEAVENLY CHANGES OF THE DEPARTED.

O come the day-spring never ending,
When, freed from sin and sinful stain,
With the free soul the body blending
Shall rise again!

Till, sown in weakness, rais'd in power,
All glorious rais'd, all worthless sown,
Purged from earth's dross, the golden ore
Heaven's impress own.

And life mortality shall banish,
And health efface corruption's spot,
And death by death self-stricken vanish,
And sin be not.

Then, angel-like, their God adoring,
Just men the angels' course shall run,
In God's own realm a brightness pouring
Forth as the sun.

God's city their's, a holier dwelling
Than Sion's mount and Salem's gates,
God's temple, where devotion telling
His glory waits.

All sin, all grief, all death, for ever
Shall cease; and kind affection's tie,
Which death erewhile for once could sever,
New life supply.

V.—REUNION OF FRIENDS.

O treasure of connubial blessing,
To man in bliss primæval dealt,
When, life with innocence possessing,
No ill he felt!

O treasure of connubial greeting,
Parental or fraternal love,
If sever'd once, assured of meeting
In joy above!

Sweet solace, that for those who slumber,
Lord, in Thy rest, if worthy we,
We, who now mourn, complete their number
In bliss shall see:

If worthy we, when dead and living
Shall stand before the Judge's throne,
To hear Him to the faithful giving
Their Lord's ‘Well done!’

VI.—COMMEMORATION OF ONE DEPARTED.

Meanwhile before the Judge approving,
Cheers me the thought of thee approved,
Thee many a year thy consort loving,
Thee, wife beloved!

Whom God Himself of late hath taken,
Cheers me the thought that blest art thou,
Long-tried on earth, and, earth forsaken,
How peaceful now!

Yes, holy peace hath thee received,
Thy goal attain'd, thy warfare done;
Me wait new tasks, of thee bereaved,
Beloved one!

My loss—be thy kind heart its measure!
But hope survives for us to meet
Before God's face, in endless pleasure,
In joy complete:

Thee (for amid my heart's fond yearning,
I see thee to my fancy brought,
As once thou wast, ev'n now returning,
In silent thought):

Thee daily in God's volume reading
To mark, in better times of old,
What lesson to all times succeeding
God's matrons told:

God's handmaid thee, His servants treating,
Like Phœbe, with a sister's due;
Thee on Christ's lips, like Mary, waiting;
Like Anna true,

Thee in church-rites and prayers partaking;
Thee ‘of good works and alms-deeds’ filled,
Like Dorcas, coats and garments making,
The poor to shield;

Thee, as Eunice, early rearing
Thy race on holy lore to feed;
Thy husband, like Priscilla, cheering
To holy deed;

Thee in primæval worship joining,
Like faithful Lydia, thee and thine,
One faith with simple mode combining
Of rite divine;

Thee, like ‘the Elected Lady,’ guiding
Thy sons by Truth's behests to move,
In the right faith of Christ abiding
With Christian love;

Like Chloe, thee with thine eschewing
Discordant voice, dissentient mind,
And unity by peace ensuing
With will resigned;

Thee, like the lowly Virgin, saying,
Blest mother of the Incarnate Word,
‘Thy will be done! bent on obeying,
Behold me, Lord!’

Thee pious, meek, kind, unaspiring,
Submiss to bear God's chastening will;
Me, weak alas! but aye desiring
To follow still;

To follow still, as He shall call me,
Obedient through life's varied scene,
Such harder tasks as may befall me,
Or paths serene;

Where on my steps His lamp is gleaming,
(Too slightly mark'd) His Word divine,
Till on His saints in glory beaming
Himself shall shine.

Such home be mine, in deathless union
With parents, children, friends approved:
Nor ever fail thy bland communion,
Wife ever-loved!

VII.—STATE OF THE BLESSED.

O blest their place, and blest their being,
Who bear the signet of the Lamb,
And own the privilege of seeing
The one I AM!

Who with the angels join, confessing
Thrice holy Him on whom they call,
With seers, apostles, martyrs, blessing
The Sire of all!

VIII.—GOD'S PRAISES IN HEAVEN.

Hear I? or roves the mind delighted
In prospect those blest groves among,
Where countless tongues, in one united,
The hymn prolong?

Hark! by prophetic vision painted,
In thought I hear the heavenly cry
Of glory to the Holy chanted,
To God most high!

‘O Holy, Source of all things living!
O Holy, true, begotten Son!
O Holy Ghost, life, comfort, giving!
Thrice Holy One!

‘Thy glory heaven and earth is filling,
Thou Lord of hosts; nor least, His name
Christ's saints in chants peculiar telling,
His praise proclaim!

‘Pure effluence Thou of light eternal,
Co-equal with the Almighty Lord,
Thou Partner of the throne paternal,
The Father's Word:

‘Thou, Virgin-born, Thou, God's Anointed,
Thy Church's health and corner-stone;
Thou, glory's King; of all appointed
Thou Judge alone.’

IX.—FAITH CONFIRMED BY SENSE.

O come the day, the dark to brighten,
When, breaking on the distant view,
What faith believes shall sense enlighten,
And prove it true.

O come the day, in thought expected,
By tongue proclaim'd, when saints shall meet,
(Be mine such bliss) by God perfected,
In God's own seat.

Such bliss for Him, O God most holy,
Whose gift and attribute it is,
To cheer the meek, exalt the lowly,
And mark for his:

Such bliss be mine, all-righteous Father,
All worthless I, save for His name,
Who comes His purchased flock to gather,
His own to claim.

Then be it mine, in glory seated,
Till time, and time, and times be old,
At length to feel in truth completed
The bliss foretold!

Suffice it now, by His high pleasure,
To hold the course he bids, and strain
The race to run, the mark to measure,
The prize to gain;

Still on his banner'd sign attending,
Still led and shielded by his might,
Till, like yon sun, at eve descending,
I sink in night:

Yet not of time to come unheeding,
When night shall fly the dawn divine,
And the true Light, no night succeeding,
Self-radiant shine.”

X.—CONCLUSION.

Thus, through the hours of morning musing,
I mark the sun's ascending pride,
Or in thy shades his lustre losing,
Cool even-tide:

Useful and sweet, from things terrestrial
If rise the mind with keener zest,
To God's own paradise celestial,
His people's rest.

THE FAREWELL

Farewell, kind Reader, who perchance canst spy
Cause of brief pastime in poetic page,
In this degenerate, world-devoted age,
When Wealth looks down on slighted Poesy.
Slight her, who will! But dare not thou defy
Thoughts which would fain thy better part engage,
Aid thee to tread in peace this earthly stage,
And fit for better things that yonder lie.
If aught of pleasure, more, if aught of good,
Have blest our short companionship, to One,
Source of true joy, Giver of good alone,
To God be thanks! Nor thou meanwhile exclude
Me from thy pray'rs, nor pray'r of mine repel,
But take, and give, a mutual kind “Farewell!”