The Sun
Dark is the moonless earth at dead of night.
Over its vast expanse
Rise rugged cliff and mountain height.
At their feet yawn huge chasms, whose depths profound
Defy the keenest glance;
And forests hang their gloom o'er treacherous ground,
Where dragons lurk or prowling beasts of prey;
Or, bred by marshes' stagnant air,
The dancing wild-fires play,
And lure the traveller's feet to ruin unaware.
Nor paths are seen,
While every groping step may plunge him down
Some dark ravine;
And o'er hiSunprotected head,
With fury dread,
Storms burst, winds shriek, and thunders roll,
Whose mighty voices drown
All other sounds, shaking the earth and sky.
Dark horrors thrill his soul;
Quick pants his trembling breath;
His lightless pathway seems to lie
Under the quivering wings of sudden Death.
Behold the rising Sun!
The gloomy mountains melt in tender blue.
Scarce is the dawn begun,
When in the forest, rings its matin song.
The leaves are glancing in the light, and, through
The vistas opening all along,
Dim distant lakes and islands meet the view.
The mighty monarch's rays
Pierce through the lowering fragments of the storm;
When, kindling with a bright reflected blaze,
Away on breezy wings
They fly, in quaint fantastic form,
Like living things
Of golden plumage, or of rosy hue,
Or snowy white; and side by side,
Like peaceful doves, they glide
Along the welkin blue.
Or, when the sullen storm-clouds hold
In purple phalanx their retreating march,
His brilliant beams build on their latest fold
The love-born arch.
He filleth Nature's lap with light.
He brings the tender flowers to birth,
And herbs, and shrubs, and trees of portly girth:
Upward, with wondrous skill and subtle might,
He draws their living sap;
Through stem and twig and leaf and opening bloom,
Stores their deep cups with sweetness and perfume;
Covers the blushing fruit with downy nap,
And with his warmth he feeds
To full and pregnant strength their life-inclosing seeds.
In times of dearth,
When field and forest droop, all parched and brown,
He from the thirsty earth
In sultry hours
Draws the thin vapors, and then drops them down
In dewy showers.
He lights thy path, lone traveller, he cheers
Thy steps, and banishes thy fears.
These are his works, and countless beyond these;
And while they all reveal
The deepest uses Nature can require,
The grateful mind,
With daily growing zeal,
Throughout the boundless range forever sees
Unending forms of beauty to admire,
And may for evermore new raptures feel,
New blessings find.
But if, with naked eye, thou raise
Up to his burning orb thy daring gaze,
He strikes thee blind!
Dark is the godless Earth
To him who wanders in its mazy wild
With eye unlightened by the second birth.
High thrones and powers he sees, with crime defiled,
And at their feet
Abysses bottomless of guilt and woe
Yawn wide. Near by, his footsteps meet
Forests of old corruptions, wherein lurk
Fierce beasts of prey, that, prowling to and fro,
Do in the dark their deadly work:
Fanatic wild-fires, glowing bright
Where living waters have no strength to flow,
And, dancing o'er the miry slough,
With baleful influence, like comets hairy,
They lure to deeper, darker night
The poor unwary.
Nor rightful paths are seen;
But ever close on either hand are found
Pitfalls, and snares, and dens obscene,
Where, underground,
Whole broods of vices hide their filth away,
To shun the eye of day.
And wars burst forth, with cannon roar
And falchion-stroke;
Battalions charge, and fall to rise no more;
Shouts, shrieks and groans, and curses high
Mix with the thundering hoofs of cavalry;
While all unheeded, through the battle smoke,
Rise up, in naked hosts,
The silent ghosts!
Read on their ghastly corpses, pale and gory,
The price of glory!
Oh, Earth! Earth! Earth! hast thou no Friend?
Will this thy night of horrors never end?
Behold the Rising Sun!
The Sun OF R IGHTEOUSNESS , who brings
The morning dawn
With light and life and healing in His wings!
As in His conquering might He marches on,
Adown the mountains stream His glorious rays,
Piercing the clouds of war,
That roll their curtains up as He appears,
And shrink before His blaze:
While thunders, storms and night are scattered far,
And hopes, like rainbows, beam 'mid falling tears.
He filleth Earth with light;
And, from its earliest birth, the tender soul
Drinks in His outpoured love,
With ever-growing strength and new delight.
Throughout the whole
Of life's appointed term,
His spiritual warmth, with wondrous power,
Soft beaming from above,
Sustains from bud to leaf the tender germ, —
From leaf to flower,
From flower to perfect fruit He makes it grow:
Nor only so,
But still, with holy seed, from sire to son,
The stream of heavenly love flows on.
When, in this weary world of sin and woe,
The soldier quails before his ghostly foe,
Faints in the fight for his eternal crown,
And Faith can see no more Heaven's shining towers:
Prayer, like an unseen vapor, flies aloft,
And soon the answering times of soft
And sweet refreshing from the Lord drop down
Upon the panting soul in dewy showers.
H E is about thy path, about thy bed,
And though thy journey lie
Through dangers dread,
Through rivers of deep waters rolling high,
Through pestilential breaths,
Through snares, fires, sorrows, and ten thousand deaths,
They shall not hurt thee nor come nigh thy head;
For H E hath said:
" Lo! I am with thee; be not thou afraid. "
These are H IS works; and countless worlds beside
Combine to swell the immeasurable tide.
Here mayest thou see
The deepest love, truth, grace and mercy free,
For man unite,
And all with pure and heavenly beauty bright.
Here mayest thou study evermore
With heart and soul and mind, —
Be filled with raptures never felt before,
And ever find new cause to worship and adore.
Thus shalt thou find
Life in the Light of Heaven, not death and pain.
But if, with naked eye profane,
Thou proudly raise
Up to the E TERNAL L IGHT thy daring gaze,
H E strikes thee blind!
Canst thou by searching find out D EITY ?
The fringes of H IS robe suffice for thee!
H E is T HE Lord ;
And through H IS Holy Word,
As through a glass, hath bid thee look on H IM :
A glass with solemn shadows dark and dim,
With wondrous type and mystery profound,
Beyond poor human reason's utmost bound, —
With symbols, signs and prophets' song sublime,
That chants the ending from the birth of time:
Through this behold thy S AVIOUR ; this supplies
A mystic twilight, meet for feeble eyes.
See how his tender love obscures the blaze
That else would blast thy mortal gaze!
Yet not forever darkling shall thy sight
Gaze on H IS glory who is L IGHT OF L IGHT :
Soon over thee the wings of Death shall pass,
And brush these earth-born shadows from the glass;
Then face to face, and eye to eye,
In Heaven thou shalt behold the Lord of Earth and Sky.
Over its vast expanse
Rise rugged cliff and mountain height.
At their feet yawn huge chasms, whose depths profound
Defy the keenest glance;
And forests hang their gloom o'er treacherous ground,
Where dragons lurk or prowling beasts of prey;
Or, bred by marshes' stagnant air,
The dancing wild-fires play,
And lure the traveller's feet to ruin unaware.
Nor paths are seen,
While every groping step may plunge him down
Some dark ravine;
And o'er hiSunprotected head,
With fury dread,
Storms burst, winds shriek, and thunders roll,
Whose mighty voices drown
All other sounds, shaking the earth and sky.
Dark horrors thrill his soul;
Quick pants his trembling breath;
His lightless pathway seems to lie
Under the quivering wings of sudden Death.
Behold the rising Sun!
The gloomy mountains melt in tender blue.
Scarce is the dawn begun,
When in the forest, rings its matin song.
The leaves are glancing in the light, and, through
The vistas opening all along,
Dim distant lakes and islands meet the view.
The mighty monarch's rays
Pierce through the lowering fragments of the storm;
When, kindling with a bright reflected blaze,
Away on breezy wings
They fly, in quaint fantastic form,
Like living things
Of golden plumage, or of rosy hue,
Or snowy white; and side by side,
Like peaceful doves, they glide
Along the welkin blue.
Or, when the sullen storm-clouds hold
In purple phalanx their retreating march,
His brilliant beams build on their latest fold
The love-born arch.
He filleth Nature's lap with light.
He brings the tender flowers to birth,
And herbs, and shrubs, and trees of portly girth:
Upward, with wondrous skill and subtle might,
He draws their living sap;
Through stem and twig and leaf and opening bloom,
Stores their deep cups with sweetness and perfume;
Covers the blushing fruit with downy nap,
And with his warmth he feeds
To full and pregnant strength their life-inclosing seeds.
In times of dearth,
When field and forest droop, all parched and brown,
He from the thirsty earth
In sultry hours
Draws the thin vapors, and then drops them down
In dewy showers.
He lights thy path, lone traveller, he cheers
Thy steps, and banishes thy fears.
These are his works, and countless beyond these;
And while they all reveal
The deepest uses Nature can require,
The grateful mind,
With daily growing zeal,
Throughout the boundless range forever sees
Unending forms of beauty to admire,
And may for evermore new raptures feel,
New blessings find.
But if, with naked eye, thou raise
Up to his burning orb thy daring gaze,
He strikes thee blind!
Dark is the godless Earth
To him who wanders in its mazy wild
With eye unlightened by the second birth.
High thrones and powers he sees, with crime defiled,
And at their feet
Abysses bottomless of guilt and woe
Yawn wide. Near by, his footsteps meet
Forests of old corruptions, wherein lurk
Fierce beasts of prey, that, prowling to and fro,
Do in the dark their deadly work:
Fanatic wild-fires, glowing bright
Where living waters have no strength to flow,
And, dancing o'er the miry slough,
With baleful influence, like comets hairy,
They lure to deeper, darker night
The poor unwary.
Nor rightful paths are seen;
But ever close on either hand are found
Pitfalls, and snares, and dens obscene,
Where, underground,
Whole broods of vices hide their filth away,
To shun the eye of day.
And wars burst forth, with cannon roar
And falchion-stroke;
Battalions charge, and fall to rise no more;
Shouts, shrieks and groans, and curses high
Mix with the thundering hoofs of cavalry;
While all unheeded, through the battle smoke,
Rise up, in naked hosts,
The silent ghosts!
Read on their ghastly corpses, pale and gory,
The price of glory!
Oh, Earth! Earth! Earth! hast thou no Friend?
Will this thy night of horrors never end?
Behold the Rising Sun!
The Sun OF R IGHTEOUSNESS , who brings
The morning dawn
With light and life and healing in His wings!
As in His conquering might He marches on,
Adown the mountains stream His glorious rays,
Piercing the clouds of war,
That roll their curtains up as He appears,
And shrink before His blaze:
While thunders, storms and night are scattered far,
And hopes, like rainbows, beam 'mid falling tears.
He filleth Earth with light;
And, from its earliest birth, the tender soul
Drinks in His outpoured love,
With ever-growing strength and new delight.
Throughout the whole
Of life's appointed term,
His spiritual warmth, with wondrous power,
Soft beaming from above,
Sustains from bud to leaf the tender germ, —
From leaf to flower,
From flower to perfect fruit He makes it grow:
Nor only so,
But still, with holy seed, from sire to son,
The stream of heavenly love flows on.
When, in this weary world of sin and woe,
The soldier quails before his ghostly foe,
Faints in the fight for his eternal crown,
And Faith can see no more Heaven's shining towers:
Prayer, like an unseen vapor, flies aloft,
And soon the answering times of soft
And sweet refreshing from the Lord drop down
Upon the panting soul in dewy showers.
H E is about thy path, about thy bed,
And though thy journey lie
Through dangers dread,
Through rivers of deep waters rolling high,
Through pestilential breaths,
Through snares, fires, sorrows, and ten thousand deaths,
They shall not hurt thee nor come nigh thy head;
For H E hath said:
" Lo! I am with thee; be not thou afraid. "
These are H IS works; and countless worlds beside
Combine to swell the immeasurable tide.
Here mayest thou see
The deepest love, truth, grace and mercy free,
For man unite,
And all with pure and heavenly beauty bright.
Here mayest thou study evermore
With heart and soul and mind, —
Be filled with raptures never felt before,
And ever find new cause to worship and adore.
Thus shalt thou find
Life in the Light of Heaven, not death and pain.
But if, with naked eye profane,
Thou proudly raise
Up to the E TERNAL L IGHT thy daring gaze,
H E strikes thee blind!
Canst thou by searching find out D EITY ?
The fringes of H IS robe suffice for thee!
H E is T HE Lord ;
And through H IS Holy Word,
As through a glass, hath bid thee look on H IM :
A glass with solemn shadows dark and dim,
With wondrous type and mystery profound,
Beyond poor human reason's utmost bound, —
With symbols, signs and prophets' song sublime,
That chants the ending from the birth of time:
Through this behold thy S AVIOUR ; this supplies
A mystic twilight, meet for feeble eyes.
See how his tender love obscures the blaze
That else would blast thy mortal gaze!
Yet not forever darkling shall thy sight
Gaze on H IS glory who is L IGHT OF L IGHT :
Soon over thee the wings of Death shall pass,
And brush these earth-born shadows from the glass;
Then face to face, and eye to eye,
In Heaven thou shalt behold the Lord of Earth and Sky.
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