LESSON CXX.. THE TURF SHALL BE MY FRAGRANT SHRINE. THE turf shall be my fragrant shrine'; My choir shall be the moonlight waves', Even more than music', breathes of thee ! I'll seek, by day, some glade unknown', Thy Heaven, on which 'tis bliss to look', I'll read thy anger in the rack' That clouds awhile the daybeam's track'; Of sunny brightness' breaking through! There's nothing bright, above, below', There's nothing dark, below, above', LESSON CXXI. THE FALCON'S ESCAPE. WOULD it were mine, thou noble bird', Fiercely thou strivest'-franticly- And could I aid thee', thou should'st soon When first thy captor's arts secured And rather than behold thee bound', Oh! I have marked thee', day by day', And I have longed to rend the bonds Vainly their bribes are proffered thee'; And still to heaven', most wistfully', For thou, midst cloudy cliffs, hadst hung Thy eyrie* in the sky. Aye-thou hast had thy dwelling-place Nor can thy untamed spirit brook The hated haunts of men. * Eyrie, eyry, the place where birds of prey build their nests; the nest itself, as here. Pronounced, i-re Worlds could not bribe thy longer stay`:Were but those fetters riven', How wouldst thou sweep, in glad career', Back to thy native heaven! Still art thou struggling, gallant bird', Thy bonds, methinks, are yielding nōw`;— One brave, one powerful effort more', And, henceforth', thou shalt be Free as the winds of heaven. The fetters burst'! "Tis done! Thou'rt free! Hail to thee, glad one'! Cloud and storm And, in proud freedom rushing on', Still higher higher! joyous bird'; So the freed spirit of the just On faith's triumphant wings! O that we knew what most belongs How quickly would our fond pursuit Then would our sluggish spirits strive LESSON CXXII. THE SUN AN EXHIBITION OF THE GRANDEUR OF OMNIPOTENCE. WHAT a glorious idea, then, does such an object as the sun present to us of the GRANDEUR of the Deity' and the ENERGIES of OMNIPOTENCE! There is no single object within the range of our knowledge that affords a more striking and august emblem of its Great Creator. In its luster, in its magnitude', in its energy', in its boundless influence', and its beneficial effects on this earth, and on surrounding worlds', there is a more bright display of Divine perfection than in any other material being with which we are acquainted: "Great source of day', best image here below From world to world', the vital ocean round'- Could such a magnificent orb have been produced by a fortuitous concourse of atoms', and placed in its proper position to distribute light and attractive influence to the worlds which roll around it!? Could chânce have directed the distance at which it should be placed from the respective planets', or the size to which it should be expanded', in order to diffuse its energies to the remotest part of the system'? Could chânce have impressed upon it the laws requisite for sustaining in their courses all the bodies dependent on it', or have endowed it with a source of illumination which has been preserved in action from age to age'? To affirm such positions would be to undermine and annihilate the princi-. ples of all our reasonings. The existence of the sun proves the existence of an Eternal and Supreme Divinity, and at the same time demonstrates his omnipotent power', his uncontrollable agency', the depths of his wisdom', and the riches of his beneficence. If such a luminary be so glorious and incomprehensible, what must its Great Creator be'? If its splendor be so dazzling to our eyes, and its magnitude so overpowering to our imagination, what must He be who lighted up that magnificent orb', and bade a retinue of worlds revolve around it'? who "dwells in light inaccessible', to which no mortal eye can approach' ?" If the sun is only one out of many myriads of similar globes dispersed throughout the illimitable tracts of creation', how great, how glorious, how far surpassing human comprehension', must be the plans and the attributes of the infinite and eternal Creator! His greatness is unsearchable', and his ways past finding out." Could we thoroughly comprehend the depths of his perfections', or the grandeur of his empire', he would cease to be God', or we should cease to be limited and dependent beings. But, in presenting to our view such magnificent objects, it is evidently his intention that we should rise in our contemplations from the effect' to the cause', from the creature' to the Creator', from the visible splendors and magnificence of creation' to the invisible glories of Him who sits on the throne of the universe', "whose kingdom ruleth over all', and before whom all nations are counted as less than nothing and vanity." LESSON CXXIII. EVILS OF COVETOUSNESS. THE records of history, as I have had occasion to notice, contain little else than disgusting details of the mischiefs and the miseries inflicted on the world, by the ambition and rapaciousness of mankind. The earth, which might long ago have been transformed into a scene of fertility and beauty', by the benevolent agency of human beings', has, in most of its regions, been turned into a scene of desolation by destroying armies', prowling over every country in quest of plunder. Such is the insatiable appetite of avarice, that, not contented with " devouring widow's houses," spoiling the weak and defenceless in her native land', she has aimed at enriching herself with the plunder of Empires. Like hell and the grave, "she has enlarged her desiré, and opened her mouth without measure'; and the glory, the multitude and the pomp" of temples, cities, states, kingdoms and continents', have become a prey to her ever-craving appetité, and been swallowed up and devoured. Yet, after all, she |