THERE is a book, who runs may read, | |
| Which heavenly truth imparts, | |
| And all the lore its scholars need, | |
| Pure eyes and Christian hearts. | |
| |
| The works of God above, below, | 5 |
| Within us and around, | |
| Are pages in that book, to show | |
| How God Himself is found. | |
| |
| The glorious sky embracing all | |
| Is like the Maker’s love, | 10 |
| Wherewith encompassed, great and small | |
| In peace and order move. | |
| |
| The Moon above, the Church below, | |
| A wondrous race they run, | |
| But all their radiance, all their glow, | 15 |
| Each borrows of its Sun. | |
| |
| The Saviour lends the light and heat | |
| That crowns His holy hill; | |
| The saints, like stars, around His seat | |
| Perform their courses still. | 20 |
| |
| The saints above are stars in heaven— | |
| What are the saints on earth? | |
| Like trees they stand whom God has given, | |
| Our Eden’s happy birth. | |
| |
| Faith is their fixed unswerving root, | 25 |
| Hope their unfading flower, | |
| Fair deeds of charity their fruit, | |
| The glory of their bower. | |
| |
| The dew of heaven is like Thy grace, | |
| It steals in silence down; | 30 |
| But where it lights, the favoured place | |
| By richest fruits is known. | |
| |
| One Name above all glorious names | |
| With its ten thousand tongues | |
| The everlasting sea proclaims, | 35 |
| Echoing angelic songs. | |
| |
| The raging Fire, the roaring Wind, | |
| Thy boundless power display; | |
| But in the gentle breeze we find | |
| Thy Spirit’s viewless way. | 40 |
| |
| Two worlds are ours: ’tis only Sin | |
| Forbids us to descry | |
| The mystic heaven and earth within, | |
| Plain as the sea and sky. | |
| |
| Thou, who hast given me eyes to see | 45 |
| And love this sight so fair, | |
| Give me a heart to find out Thee, | |
| And read Thee everywhere. | |
| |
