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224

NATURE-NIGHT-OCEAN.

The green earth sends its incense up from God hath a presence, and that ye may see every mountain shrine, In the fold of the flower, the leaf of the tree, From every flower and dewy cup that greeteth In the sun of the noonday, the star of the the sunshine. night, The mists are lifted from the rills like the white In the storm cloud of darkness, the rainbow wing of prayer, of light, They lean above the ancient hills as doing In the waves of the ocean, the furrows of land, homage there. In the mountain of granite, the atom of sand;

The forest tops are lowly cast o'er breezy hill Turn where ye may, from the sky to the sod, and glen, Where can ye gaze that ye see not God?

As if a prayerful spirit passed on nature as on

men.

ELIZA COOK.

The clouds weep o'er the fallen world e'en as [See also BIRDS-FLOWERS-RIVERS-OCEAN

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Sea! of Almightiness itself the immense

And glorious mirror! how thy azure face Renews the heavens in their magnificence!

To thee the love of woman hath gone down; Dark flow thy tides o'er manhood's noble head,

What awful grandeur rounds thy heavy O'er youth's bright looks, and beauty's flowery space!

Thy surge two worlds eternal warring sweeps,
And God's throne rests on thy majestic deeps.

ANONYMOUS.

Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we
That hear the question of that voice sublime?
O! what are all the notes that ever rung
From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering

side!

Yea, what is all the riot man can make
In his short life, to thy unceasing roar!

BRAINARD.

crown!

Yet must thou hear a voice, "Restore the dead !"

Earth shall reclaim her precious things from thee;

"Restore the dead, thou sea!"

MRS. HEMANS.

And evermore the waters worship God;
And bards and prophets tune their mystic lyres
While listening to the music of the waves.
MRS. HALE.

The sea is mighty, but a mightier sways
His restless billows. Thou, whose hands have
scooped

But thou art almighty, eternal, sublime,
Unweakened, unwasted, twin brother of time!
Fleets, tempests, nor nations thy glory can His boundless gulfs and built his shore, thy

breath,

bow; As the stars first beheld thee, still chainless That moved in the beginning o'er his face, Moves o'er it evermore. The obedient waves art thou.

But hold! when thy surges no longer shall To its strong motion roll, and rise and fall. roll,

And that firmament's length is drawn back

like a scroll,

Type of the Infinite! I look away Then, then shall the spirit that sighs by thee Over thy billows, and I cannot stay

now

BRYANT.

My thought upon a resting-place, or make Be more mighty, more lasting, more chainless A shore beyond my vision, where they break;

than thou.

"IRISH MAGAZINE."

See how, beneath the moonbeam's smile,
Yon little billow heaves its breast,
And foams and sparkles for a while,

Then, murmuring, subsides to rest.
Thus man, the sport of bliss and care,
Rises on time's eventful sea;
And having swelled a moment there,
Thus melts into eternity.

MOORE.

When up some woodland dale we catch
The many-twinkling smile of Ocean,
Or with pleased ear, bewildered, watch
His chime of restless motion;
Still as the surging waves retire,
They seem to gasp with strong desire;
Such signs of love old Ocean gives,
We cannot choose but think he lives.

KEBLE.

But on my spirit stretches, 'till it's pain
To think, then rests, and then puts forth again.
Thou hold'st me by a spell; and on thy beach
I feel all soul; and thoughts unmeasured reach
Far back beyond all date.

DANA.

Of thousands thou both sepulcher and pall,
Old ocean, art! A requiem o'er the dead,
From out thy gloomy cells

A tale of mourning tells-
Tells of man's woe and fall, his sinless glory
fled.

DANA.

All praise to the Lord, who rules with a word
The untractable sea,

And limits its rage by his steadfast decree:
Whose providence binds or releases the winds,
And compels them again,

At his beck, to put on the invisible chain.
C. WESLEY.

226

OCEAN — OMNIPOTENCE — OMNIPRESENCE.

living thing,

The homage of its waves is given in ceaseless worshiping.

Great Source of being, beauty, light, and love! | The ocean looketh up to heaven as 'twere a
Creator! Lord! the waters worship thee!
Ere thy creative smile had sown the flowers,
Ere the glad hills leaped upward, or the earth,
With swelling bosom, waited for her child;
Before Eternal Love had lit the sun,

Or Time had traced his dial-plate in stars,
The joyful anthem of the ocean flowed;
And chaos like a frightened felon fled,
While on the deep the Holy Spirit moved.
MRS. HALE.

Homeward bound! with deep emotion
We remember, Lord, that life
Is a voyage upon an ocean
Heaved by many a tempest's strife.
Be thy statutes so engraven

On our hearts and minds, that we,
Anchoring in death's quiet haven,
All may make our home with thee.
PIERPONT.

Star of Hope! gleam on the billow,
Bless the soul that sighs for thee;
Bless the sailor's lonely pillow

They kneel upon the sloping sand, as bends the human knee,

A beautiful and tireless band, the priesthood of the sea!

They pour the glittering treasures out which in the deep have birth,

And chant their awful hymns about the watching hills of earth.

WHITTIER.

God of the dark and heavy deep!
The waves lie sleeping on the sands,
Till the fierce trumpet of the storm

Hath summoned up their slumbering bands;
Then the white sails are dashed like foam,
Or hurry, trembling, o'er the seas,
Till, calmed by thee, the sinking gale
Serenely breathes, "Depart in peace."
W. B. O. PEABODY.
[See also NATURE — RIVERS.]

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The Lord descended from above, and bowed the heavens high;

Whose peaceful streets with gold are paved, And angels sing, "They're saved! they're And underneath his feet he cast the darkness saved!"

H. F. GOULD.

of the sky.

On cherubs and on cherubims full royally he rode;

Eternity comes in the sound of billows that And on the wings of all the winds came

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OMNIPOTENCE-OMNIPRESENCE-OMNISCIENCE. 227

High is Thy power above all height;
Whate'er thy will decrees is done;
Thy wisdom, equal to thy might,

Only to thee, O God, is known! Translated from the German by J. WESLEY.

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In all the immense, the strange, and old,

Thy presence careless men behold;
In all the little, weak, and mean,
By faith be thou as clearly seen.

STERLING.

When up to nightly skies we gaze,
Where stars pursue their endless ways,
We think we see, from earth's low clod,
The wide and shining home of God.
'Tis vain to dream those tracts of space,
With all their worlds, approach his face;
One glory fills each wheeling ball;
One love has shaped and moved them all.
This earth, with all its dust and tears,
Is no less his than yonder spheres;
And rain-drops weak, and grains of sand,
Are stamped by his immediate hand.

STERLING.

But fixed, O God! forever stands thy throne;
Jehovah reigns, a universe alone;
The eternal fire that feeds each vital flame,
Collected or diffused, is still the same;
He dwells within his own unfathomed essence,
And fills all space with his unbounded presence.
MRS. BARBAULD.

Soul of the world, all-seeing Eye,
Where, where shall man thy presence fly?
Say, would he climb the starry height?
All heaven is instinct with thy light!
Dwell in the darkness of the grave?
Yea, thou art there to judge and save.
In vain on wings of morn we soar,
In vain the realms of space explore,
In vain retreat to shades of night;
For what can vail us from thy sight?
Distance dissolves before thy ray,
And darkness kindles into day.

W. PETER.

There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind, Omnific. His most holy name is Love. Truth of subliming import! with the which Who feeds and saturates his constant soul, He from his small particular orbit flies, With blessed outstarting!

COLERIDGE.

Vain thought! the confines of His throne to trace

Who goes through all the fields of boundless

space.

H. K. WHITE.

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