Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

He established it, and searched it out;

But he said unto man,

Behold! the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
And to depart from evil, that is understanding.

5. A NATION'S STRENGTH.

Psalm 33, translated by Rev GR Noyes.

HAPPY the Nation whose God is Jehovah ;

The People whom He hath chosen for His inheritance.

The Lord looketh down from Heaven;

He beholdeth all the children of men ;

From His dwelling-place He beholdeth all the inhabitants of the carth He, that formed the hearts of all,

And observeth all their works.

A King is not saved by the number of his forces,

Nor a hero by the greatness of his strength.

The horse is a vain thing for safety,

Nor can he deliver his master by his great strength.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him,

Upon them that trust in His goodness;

To save them from the power of death,

And keep them alive in famine.
The hope of our souls is in the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
Yea, in Him doth our heart rejoice;
In His holy name we have confidence.

May Thy goodness be upon us, O Lord,
According as we trust in Thee!

6. EXHORTATION TO PRAISE GOD.- Psalms.

PRAISE ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his word: mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars; beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl; kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth; both young men, and maidens; old men, and children; let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in

the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

7. THE JOYFUL MESSENGER.— Isaiah, translated by Bishop Lowth.

How beautiful appear on the mountains

The feet of the joyful messenger,

of him that announceth peace!

Of the joyful messenger of good tidings, - of him that announceth

salvation!

Of him, that sayeth unto Sion, Thy God reigneth!

All thy watchmen lift up their voice: they shout together;
For, face to face shall they see, when Jehovah returneth to Sion.
Burst forth into joy, shout together, ye ruins of Jerusalem!
For Jehovah hath comforted His people; He hath redeemed Israel.
Jehovah hath made bare His holy arm, in the sight of all the Nations
And all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

Depart, depart ye, go ye out from thence; touch no polluted thing: Go ye out from the midst of her; be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of Jehovah !

Verily not in haste shall ye go forth;

And not by flight shall ye march along.

For Jehovah shall march in your front;

And the God of Israel shall bring up your rear.

8. HYMN OF OUR FIRST PARENTS. -Milton.

THESE are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous, then
Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these Heavens,
To us invisible, or dimly seen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.
Speak, ye who best can tell, ye sons of light,
Angels; for ye behold him, and with songs.
And choral symphonies, day without night,
Circle his throne rejoicing; ye in Heaven,
On earth join, all ye creatures, to extol
Him first, Him last, Him midst, and without end.
Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn,

Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morr.

With thy bright circlet, praise Him m thy sphere,
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.
Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
Acknowledge Him thy greater; sound His praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st.
Moon, that now meet'st the Orient sun, now fly'st
With the fixed stars, fixed in their orb that flies;
And ye five other wandering fires, that move
In mystic dance, not without song, resound
His praise who out of darkness called up light.
Air, and ye elements, the eldest birth
Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle multiform, and mix

And nourish all things, let your ceaseless change
Vary to our great Maker still new praise.
Ye mists and exhalations, that now rise
From hill or steaming lake, dusky or gray,
Till the sun paint your fleecy skirts with gold,
In honor to the World's great Author rise;
Whether to deck with clouds the uncolored sky,
Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,
Rising or falling, still advance His praise.
His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship wave.
Fountains, and ye that warble as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling; tune His praise;
Join voices, all ye living souls; ye birds,
That singing up to heaven-gate ascend,

Bear on your wings and in your notes His praise.
Ye that in waters glide, and

ye

that walk

The earth, and stately tread or lowly creep,
Witness if I be silent, morn or even,

To hill or valley, fountain, or fresh shade,
Made vocal by my song, and taught His praise.

9. THE UNIVERSAL HYMN OF NATURE.- -Thomson.

THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring
Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense and every heart is joy.
Then comes Thy glory in the Summer months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy sun

30

Shoots full perfection through the swelling year;
And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks:
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales
Thy bounty shines in Autumn unconfined,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
In Winter, awful Thou! with clouds and storms
Around Thee thrown, tempest o'er tempest rolled
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
Riding sublime, Thou bidd'st the world adore,
And humblest Nature with Thy northern blast.
Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine
Deep felt, in these appear! a simple train,
Yet so delightful mixed, with such kind art,
Such beauty and beneficence combined;
Shade, unperceived, so softening into shade;
And all so forming an harmonious whole;
That, as they still succeed, they ravish still.
But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze,
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand.
That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres ;
Works in the secret deep; shoots, steaming, thence
The fair profusion that o'erspreads the Spring;
Flings from the sun direct the flaming day;
Feeds every creature; hurls the tempest forth;
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves,
With transport touches all the springs of life.
Nature, attend! join, every living soul,
Beneath the spacious temple of the sky,
In adoration join; and, ardent, raise

One general song! To Him, ye vocal gales,

Breathe soft, whose Spirit in your freshness breathes;

O, talk of Him in solitary glooms,

Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely-waving pine

Fills the brown shade with a religious awe.

And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar,

Who shake the astonished world, lift high to Heaven
The impetuous song, and say from whom you rage.
His praise, ye brooks, attune, ye trembling rills;
And let me catch it as I muse along.

Ye headlong torrents, rapid, and profound;
Ye softer floods, that lead the humid maze
Along the vale; and thou, majestic main,
A secret world of wonders in thyself,

Sound His stupendous praise; whose greater voice
Or bids you roar, or bids your roarings fall.
Soft roll your incense, herbs, and fruits, and flowers,
In mingled clouds to Him; whose sun exalts,

Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.
Ye forests bend, ye harvests wave, to Him;
Breathe your still song
into the reaper's heart,
As home he goes beneath the joyous moon
Ye that keep watch in Heaven, as earth asleep
Unconscious lies, effuse your mildest beams
Ye constellations, while your angels strike
Amid the spangled sky, the silver lyre.
Great source of day! best image bere below
Of thy Creator, ever pouring wide,

From world to world, the vital ocean round,
On Nature write with every beam His praise.

10. CHAMOUNY.-S. T. Coleridge.

HAST thou a charm to stay the morning star
In his steep course?—so long he seems to pause
On thy bald, awful front, O sovereign Blanc •
The Arvé and Arveiron at thy base

Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form,
Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines
How silently!
Around thee and above,
Deep is the air, and dark; substantial black,
An ebon mass: methinks thou piercest it,
As with a wedge! But, when I look again,-
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine,
Thy habitation from eternity.

O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee,
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,
Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in
I worshipped the Invisible alone.

Yet, like some sweet, beguiling melody,

So sweet, we know not we are listening to it,

prayer,

Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my thought, –
Yea, with my life, and life's own secret joy
Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused,
Into the mighty vision passing- there,
As in her natural form, swelled vast to Heaven
Awake, my soul Not only passive praise
Thou owest; not alone these swelling tears,
Mute thanks, and silent ecstasy. Awake,
Voice of sweet song! Awake, my heart, awake,
Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn.

Thou, first and chief, sole sovereign of the vale!
O! struggling with the darkness all the night,
And visited all night by troops of stars,
Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink

-

[ocr errors]
« ZurückWeiter »