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SONG TO CREATING WISDOM.

PART I.

ETERNAL Wisdom, thee we praise,

Thee the creation sings;

With thy loud name, rocks, hills, and seas,
And Heaven's high palace rings.

Place me on the bright wings of day,
To travel with the sun;

With what amaze shall I survey

The wonders thou hast done?

Thy hand how wide it spread the sky,
How glorious to behold!

Ting'd with a blue of heavenly dye,
And starr'd with sparkling gold.

There thou hast bid the globes of light
Their endless circles run;
There the pale planet rules the night,
And day obeys the sun.

PART II.

DOWNWARD I turn my wondring eyes
On clouds and storms below,

Those under regions of the skies
Thy numerous glories show.

The noisy winds stand ready there

Thy orders to obey,

With sounding wings they sweep the air,
To make thy chariot way.

There, like a trumpet, loud and strong,
Thy thunder shakes our coast:
While the red lightnings wave along,
The banners of thine host.

On the thin air, without a prop,
Hang fruitful showers around:
At thy command they sink, and drop
Their fatness on the ground.

PART III.

Now to the earth I bend my song,
And cast my eyes abroad,
Glancing the British isles along;
Bless'd isles, confess your God.

How did his wondrous skill array
Your fields in charming green;
A thousand herbs his art display,
A thousand flowers between!

Tall oaks for future navies grow,
Fair Albion's best defence,
While corn and vines rejoice below,
Those luxuries of sense.

The bleating flocks his pasture feeds:
And herds of larger size,

That bellow through the Lindian meads,
His bounteous hand supplies.

PART IV.

WE see the Thames caress the shores,
He guides her silver flood:

While angry Severn swells and roars,
Yet hears her ruler, God.

The rolling mountains of the deep
Observe his strong command;
His breath can raise the billows steep,
Or sink them to the sand.

Amidst thy watry kingdoms, Lord,
The finny nations play,

And scaly monsters, at thy word,
Rush through the northern sea.

PART V.

THY glories blaze all nature round,
And strike the gazing sight,
Through skies, and seas, and solid ground,
With terror and delight.

Infinite strength, and equal skill,

Shine through the worlds abroad, Our souls with vast amazement fill, And speak the builder God.

But the sweet beauties of thy grace

Our softer passions move;

Pity divine in Jesus' face

We see, adore, and love!

GOD'S ABSOLUTE DOMINION.

LORD, when my thoughtful soul surveys
Fire, air, and earth, and stars, and seas,
I call them all thy slaves;

Commission'd by my Father's will,
Poisons shall cure, or balms shall kill;
Vernal suns, or Zephyr's breath,
May burn or blast the plants to death
That sharp December saves;
What can winds or planets boast
But a precarious pow'r?

The sun is all in darkness lost,
Frost shall be fire, and fire be frost,
When he appoints the hour.

Lo, the Norwegians near the polar sky
Chafe their frozen limbs with snow,
Their frozen limbs awake and glow,

The vital flame touch'd with a strange supply, Rekindles, for the God of life is nigh;

He bids the vital flood in wonted circles flow. Cold steel expos'd to northern air,

Drinks the meridian fury of the midnight bear, And burns the' unwary stranger there.

Enquire, my soul, of ancient fame,

Look back two thousand years, and see
The' Assyrian prince transform'd a brute,
For boasting to be absolute:

Once to his court the God of Israel came,
A King more absolute than he.
I see the furnace blaze with rage
Sevenfold: I see amidst the flame
Three Hebrews of inmortal name;
They move, they walk across the burning stage
Unhurt, and fearless, while the tyrant stood
A statue; fear congeal'd his blood;
Nor did the raging element dare
Attempt their garments, or their hair;
It knew the Lord of nature there.
Nature, compell'd by a superior cause,
Now breaks her own eternal laws,
Now seems to break them, and obeys
Her Sovereign King in different ways.
Father, how bright thy glories shine!
How broad thy kingdom, how divine!
Nature, and miracle, and fate, and chance, are thine.

Hence from my heart, ye idols, flee,
Ye sounding names of vanity!

No more my lips shall sacrifice

To chance and nature, tales and lies: Creatures without a God can yield me no supplies. What is the sun, or what the shade, Or frosts, or flames, to kill or save?

His favour is my life, his lips pronounce me dead; And as his awful dictates bid,

Earth is my mother, or my grave.