By his calm hearth reclines the peasant sire;
The toil-worn steed basks in the breezy field.
Within, without, through farm and cottage blest,
'Tis one bright day of gladness and of rest.
Down from the mountain dwellings, whilst the dew
Shines on the heath-bells, and the fern is bending
In the fresh breeze, in festive garbs I view
Childhood, and age, and buoyant youth descending. God! who hast piled thy wonders round their home, 'Tis in their love they to thy temple come.
A stately ship speeds o'er the mighty main-
Oh! many a league from our own happy land:
Yet from its heart ascends the choral strain;
For there its little isolated band,
Amid the ocean desert's awful roar
Praise Him whose love links shore to distant shore.
O'er palmy woods where summer radiance falls,
In the glad islands of the Indian main,
What thronging crowds the missionary calls
To raise to heaven the Christian's glorious strain!
Lo! where, engirt by children of the sun,
Stands the white man, and counts his victories won
In the fierce deserts of a distant zone,
Mid savage nations, terrible and stern,
A lonely atom, severed from his own,
The traveller wends, death or renown to earn.
Parched, fasting, wearied, verging to despair,
He kneels, he prays hope kindles in his prayer.
O'er the wide world, blest day, thine influence flies;
Rest o'er the sufferer spreads her balmy wings;
Love wakes, joy dawns, praise fills the listening skies;
The expanding heart from earth's enchantment springs:
Heaven, for one day, withdraws its ancient ban,
Unbars its gates, and dwells once more with man.
"T is not as when th' Eternal mandate came,
'Let there be light!' that now, sweet Sabbath day,
Thy opening beams upon my casement play,
Bidding me life from dreamy sleep reclaim:
But rather art thou like that blessed hour
When Jesus burst the fetters of the tomb,
And the dark visions of our earthly doom
Fled from the glories of the living power.
So soft thy rays upon my soul descend,
The harbingers of faith, and hope, and love,
Which through thy quiet day, my soul shall prove For Him on whom all earthly joys depend;
For Him who scatters thus the shades of night,
And brought His only Son to life and light.
I HAIL the radiance of thy noontide beams,
Dear Sabbath! brighter than the kindling rays
That wont to cheer our souls in other days,
Less blest than thou; and now all nature seems
More joyful and more sweet. The very bird
Carols more softly in the woodland shade;
And as I listen, through the opening glade
The melting sound of village bells is heard.
"T is silent- then a rich and solemn strain
From human voices swells upon the air
With melody divine. And thou art there,
Spirit of peace, amongst that humble train
Of thy own followers; and I bless the power
That dwells around me in this sabbath hour.
Now in the stillness of the evening hour,
A Sabbath stillness, I would bend my way
Far from the haunts of men, where gently play
The sun's departing ray's on every flower,
Closing in seeming sleep their dewy leaves;
Or, 'mid the scene of man's mortality,
With eye uplifted to the deep blue sky,
Rest on the mother earth, who still receives
Her children to a cold and long embrace.
But not forever!- she shall yield again
The forms we loved so well, and not in vain
Shall be their slumbers in this sacred place;
That which is sown in earth, shall bloom above,
In the pure heaven where dwells eternal love.
BLEST is the Sabbath night, when silence keeps
Her faithful vigil o'er the slumbering world;
When the pure glories of the heaven's unfurled
Tell of His love and care who never sleeps.
Blest is the Sabbath night, to him who dares
To gaze, with tranquil eyes, as darkness falls
Around his couch of rest; who then recalls
Past hours of sacred joy, and swift repairs,
With kindling bosom, to communion sweet
At an eternal shrine -no conscious dread
Of unrepented guilt shall haunt his bed;
No shades of wasted days his eyes shall greet,
But softly, as the light of the morn arose,
Shall the calm Sabbath of the Christian close.
OH Thou, whose smile is love!
Send the resplendent blessing from above!
Let the deep radiance on our hearts descend,
Till chastened, in its holy light, our fond emotions blend.
Oh! Thou, whose voice is truth!
Speak in thy mercy to the soul of youth!
Let the celestial music charm our ear,
And bid it still in danger's hour thy lightest whisper hear:
Whose breath is purity!
Breathe on the sin-stained spirit, till it be
Unshadowed in its calm and blessed light,
Then, in its depths, one glorious name—thine own— - oh
Come to us! Emblems of the heaven-taught dove !
Work for our spirits pinions like the bird,
And rise with them, till, sweet in heaven, your seraph song
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