There’s not a bird upon the tree;
There’s not a dew-drop on the flower;
But leaves the impress Lord of Thee.
Thy hand the varied leaf designed,
And gave the bird its thrilling tone;
Thy power the dew-drop’s tints combined,
Till like the diamond’s blaze they shone.
Yes, dew-drops, leaves, and buds, and all,
The smallest, like the greatest things;
The sea’s vast space, the earth’s wide hall,
Alike proclaim Thee _King_ of _Kings_.
_Mrs. Opie._
KINGDOM.
The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his _kingdom_
ruleth over all.--Psalm ciii. 19.
Thy _kingdom_ come.--Matthew, vi. 10.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the _kingdom_ prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.--Matthew, xxv. 34.
Jesus answered, My _kingdom_ is not of this world: if my _kingdom_
were of this world, then would my servants fight; that I should not be
delivered to the Jews: but now is my _kingdom_ not from hence.--John,
xviii. 36.
And there were great voices in heaven, saying, The _kingdoms_ of this
world are become the _kingdoms_ of our Lord, and of his Christ and he
shall reign for ever and ever.--Revelation, xi. 15.
“His _kingdom_ come!” For this we pray in vain,
Unless He does in our affections reign.
How fond it were to wish for such a King,
And no obedience to His sceptre bring,
Whose yoke is easy, and His burthen light;
His service freedom, and His judgments right.
_Waller._
_Kingdoms_ and thrones to God belong;
Crown Him, ye nations, in your song;
His wondrous names and powers rehearse,
His honours shall enrich your verse.
Proclaim Him King, pronounce Him blest;
He’s your defence, your joy, your rest:
When terrors rise, and nations faint,
God is the strength of every saint.
_Watts._
Thy _kingdom_ come! and shall we dare
With lips unhallowed breathe that prayer?
With hearts unsanctified within,
How can we ever hope to win
A place or _kingdom_ such as Thine,
Where all is holy and benign?
Send down Thy spirit, Lord, and bless
The prayer we falteringly express:
Oh, give us grace, and give us power,
To wait with confidence the hour
When we shall in thy _kingdom_ be,
And dwell to all eternity.
_Egone._
KNOWLEDGE.
Shall any teach God _knowledge_?--Job, xxi. 22.
He that teacheth man _knowledge_, shall not he _know_?
The Lord _knoweth_ the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.--Psalm
xciv. 10, 11.
Wise men lay up _knowledge_.--Proverbs, x. 14.
Many shall run to and fro, and _knowledge_ shall be increased.--Daniel,
xii. 4.
According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that
pertain unto life and godliness, through the _knowledge_ of him that
hath called us to glory and virtue.--II. Peter, i. 3.
O Lord! in me there lieth nought,
But to Thy search revealed lies;
For when I sit
Thou markest it,
No less Thou notest when I rise;
Yea, closest closet of my thought
Hath open windows to Thine eyes.
Thou walkest with me when I walk,
When to my bed for rest I go,
I find Thee there,
And every where;
Not youngest thought in me doth grow,
No, not one word I cast to talk,
But yet unuttered thou dost _know_.
To shun Thy notice, leave Thine eye,
O whither might I take my way?
To starry sphere?
Thy throne is there.
To dead men’s undelightsome stay?
There is Thy walk, and there to lie
_Unknown_, in vain I should essay.
O sun! whom light nor flight can match,
Suppose Thy lightful, flightful wings
Thou lend to me,
And I could flee,
As far as Thee the evening brings;
Ev’n led to west He would me catch,
Nor should I lurk with western things.
Do thou thy best, O secret night
In sable vail to cover me;
The sable vail
Shall vainly fail:
With day unmask’d my night shall be:
For night is day, and darkness light,
O Father of all lights to Thee.
_Countess of Pembroke._
Almighty Being,
Cause and support of all things, can I view
These objects of my wonder: can I feel
These fine sensations, and not think of Thee?
Thou who dost through th’eternal round of time,
Dost through th’ immensity of space exist
Alone, shalt Thou excluded be
From this Thy universe? Shall feeble man
Think it beneath his proud philosophy
To call for Thy assistance, and pretend
To frame a world, who cannot frame a clod?
Not to _know_ Thee, is not to _know_ ourselves--
Is to _know_ nothing--worth the care
Of man’s exalted spirit.
_Stillingfleet._
O for the coming of that glorious time
When, prizing _knowledge_ as her noblest wealth
And best protection, this imperial realm,
While she exacts allegiance, shall admit
An obligation, on her part, to teach
Them who are born to serve her and obey;
Binding herself by statute to secure
For all the children whom her soil maintains,
The rudiments of letters, and inform
The mind with moral and religious truth,
Both understood and practised,--so that none,
However destitute, be left to droop
By culture unsustained; or run
Into a wild disorder: or be forced
To drudge through a weary life without the help
Of intellectual implements and tools;
A savage horde among the civilized,
A servile band among the lordly free.
_Wordsworth._
What hast thou, Man, that thou dar’st call thine own?
What is there in thee, Man, that can be known?--
Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought,
Vain sister of the worm,--life, death, soul, clod--
Ignore thyself, and strive to _know_ thy God!
_Coleridge._
What is true _knowledge_? is it with keen eye
Of lucre’s sons to thread the mazy way?
Is it of civil rights, and royal sway,
And wealth political, the depth to try?
Is it to delve the earth, to soar the sky?
To marshal nations, tribes in just array;
To mix, and analyze, and mete, and weigh
Her elements, and all her powers descry?
These things, who will may _know_ them, if to _know_
Breed not vain glory; but, o’er all, to scan
God in His works, and word shown forth below,
Creation’s wonders; and Redemption’s plan
Whence came we; what to do, and whither go;
This is true _knowledge_, and the whole of man.
_Bishop Mant._
Let him stand who will on the giddy height
Of the palace-top in his pride of place!
In a humbler home may my heart delight,
Where my couch is low, and my pillow,--peace.
Be it _known_ to few how my life flows on,
As I silent sail on its noiseless tide!
When its days and years are expired and gone,
Let my record be that,--I lived and died!
For sadly he meets the stroke of death,
(At the ends of earth though his name be _known_,)
Who laments, when yielding his final breath,
That he’s _known_ to all but himself alone.
_Mordaunt Barnard._
View all around the works of Power Divine,
Inquire, explore, admire, extol, resign;
This is the whole of human kind below;
’Tis only given beyond the grave to _know_.
_W. Hamilton._
Who loves not _knowledge_? who shall rail
Against her beauty? May she mix
With men and prosper! Who shall fix
Her pillars? Let her work prevail.
But on her forehead sits a fire;
She sets her forward countenance,
And leaps into the future chance,
Submitting all things to desire.
Half-grown as yet, a child, and vain,
She cannot fight the fear of death.
What is she, cut from love and faith,
But some wild Pallas from the brain
Of Demons? fiery hot to burst
All barriers in her onward race
For power. Let her know her place,
She is the second, not the first.
A higher hand must make her mild,
If all be not in vain; and guide
Her footsteps moving side by side
With wisdom, like the younger child.
For she is earthly of the mind,
But wisdom heavenly of the soul.
O friend, who earnest to thy goal
So early, leaving me behind,
I would the great world grew like thee,
Who grewest not alone in power
And _knowledge_, but from hour to hour
In reverence and in charity.
_Tennyson._
_Knowledge_ holdeth by the hilt, and heweth out a road to
conquest;
Ignorance graspeth the blade, and is wounded by its own good sword.
_Knowledge_ distilleth health from the virulence of opposite
poisons;
Ignorance mixeth wholesomes unto the breeding of disease.
_Knowledge_ is leagued with the universe, and findeth a friend
in all things;
But ignorance is everywhere a stranger, unwelcome, ill at ease, and
out of place.
_M. F. Tupper._
LABOUR.
Come unto me, all ye that _labour_ and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.--Matthew, xi. 28.
The _labourer_ is worthy of his hire.--Luke, x. 7.
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him _labour_, working
with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him
that needeth.--Ephesians, iv. 28.
Inventive _Labour_! cunning to deceive
Thyself, and skilful to no end but this,
Still to be doing, never to achieve--
What profitest?--though all, to such excess,
Man cannot utter it, be full of thee--
The eye unsatisfied, the ear no less--
Sore travail, and the vainest vanity
Ordained to exercise the sons of men--
Who getteth wisdom, where thy trials be?
_J. A. Heraud._
_Labour_, with envy and annoyance, where strangers will thee
wealth;
_Labour_, with indolence and gloom, where wealth falleth from
a father;
_Labour_ unto all, whether aching thews, or aching head, or
spirit;
The curse on the sons of men, in all their states, is _labour_.
Nevertheless, to the diligent, _labour_ bringeth blessing;
The thought of duty sweeteneth toil, and travail is a pleasure;
And time spent in doing, hath a comfort that is not for the idle,
The hardship is transmuted into joy by the dear alchemy of mercy.
_Labour_ is good for man, bracing up his energies to conquest,
And without it life is dull, the man perceiving himself useless.
For wearily the body groaneth, like a door on rusty hinges,
And the grasp of the mind is weakened, as the talons of a caged
vulture.
_M. F. Tupper._
LAND.
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which
are in Egypt.
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that _land_ unto a good _land_, and a
large, unto a _land_ flowing with milk and honey.--Exodus, iii. 7, 8.
He that tilleth his _land_ shall be satisfied with bread.--Proverbs,
xii. 11.
Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the
_land_ that is vary far off.--Isaiah, xxxiii. 17.
Beautiful _Landscape_! I could look on thee
For hours, unmindful of the storm and strife,
And mingled murmurs of tumultuous life.
Here, all is still as fair--the stream, the tree,
The wood, the sunshine on the bank; no tear--
No thought of time’s swift wing, or closing night,
Which comes to steal away the long sweet light,--
No sighs of sad humanity are here.
Here is no tint of mortal change--the day,--
Beneath whose light the dog and peasant boy
Gambol, with look, and almost bark, of joy--
Still seems, though centuries have passed, to stay;
Then gaze again, that shadow’d scenes may teach
Lessons of peace and love, beyond all speech.
_Bowles._
There is a _land_ of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
There everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flowers;
Death like a narrow sea divides
This heavenly _land_ from ours.
_Dr. Watts._
Yes, far beyond the clouds outspread,
Where soaring fancy oft hath been,
There is a _land_ where Thou hast said
The pure in heart shall enter in;
They dream no more of grief and care,
For Thou, the God of Peace, art there.
_Mrs. Welby._
LAW.
And the Lord said unto Moses, come up to me into the mount, and be
there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a _law_.--Exodus,
xxiv. 12.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the _law_ of the Lord; and in his _law_ doth he
meditate day and night.--Psalm i. 1, 2.
Think not that I am come to destroy the _law_, or the prophets; I am
not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the _law_, till all be
fulfilled.--Matthew, v. 17, 18.
The good need fear no _law_;
It is his safety, and the bad man’s awe.
_Massinger._
_Law_ hath dominion over all things, over universal mind and
matter;
For there are reciprocities of right which no creature can gainsay.
Unto each was there added by its Maker, in the perfect chain of
being,
Dependencies and sustentations, accidents, and qualities, and
powers:
And each must fly forward in the curve, unto which it was forced
from the beginning;
Each must attract and repel, or the monarchy of order is no more.
_Laws_ are essential emanations from the self-poised character
of God,
And they radiate from that sun to the circling edges of creation.
Verily the mighty _Law_giver hath subjected himself unto
_laws_,
And God is the primal grand example of free unrestrained obedience;
_Martin F. Tupper._
Adam’s foul revolt
From the primeval _law_, on all his sons,
Through every age, the sad inheritance
Of sin and death entailed.
_Samuel Hayes._
LEAF.
We all do fade as a _leaf_.--Isaiah, lxiv. 6.
See the _leaves_ around us falling
Dry and withered to the ground;
Thus to thoughtless mortals calling,
In a sad and solemn sound:
Sons of Adam, once in Eden,
Blighted when like us he fell,
Hear the lecture we are reading,
’Tis, alas! the truth we tell.
Virgins, much, too much presuming
On your boasted white and red,
View us, late in beauty blooming,
Number’d now among the dead.
Sons of honour, fed on praises,
Fluttering high in fancied worth,
Lo! the fickle air, that raises,
Brings us down to parent earth.
Learned sophs, in systems jaded,
Who for new ones daily call,
Cease, at length, by us persuaded,
Ev’ry _leaf_ must have its fall.
Youths, though yet no losses grieve you,
Gay in health and manly grace,
Let not cloudless skies deceive you,
Summer gives to autumn place.
Venerable sires, grown hoary,
Hither turn th’ unwilling eye,
Think, amidst your falling glory,
Autumn tells a winter nigh.
Yearly in our course returning,
Messengers of shortest stay,
Thus we preach, this truth concerning,
“Heaven and Earth shall pass away.”
On the Tree of Life eternal,
Man, let all thy hope be staid,
Which alone, for ever vernal,
Bears a _leaf_ that shall not fade.
_Bishop Horne._
LEARNING.
A wise man will hear, and will increase _learning_; and a man of
understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.--Proverbs, i. 5.
Cease to do evil; _Learn_ to do well.--Isaiah, i. 16, 17.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
_learning_.--Romans, xv. 4.
What is the pomp of _learning_? the parade
Of letters and of tongues? Even as the mists
Of the grey morn before the rising sun,
That pass away and perish. Earthly things
Are but the transient pageants of an hour;
And earthly pride is like the passing flower
That springs to fall, and blossoms but to die.
_H. K. White._
Of the deep _learning_ of the schools of yore
The reverend pastor hath a golden stock;
Yet with a vain display of useless lore,
Or sapless doctrine never will he mock
The better cravings of his simple flock;
But faithfully their humble shepherd guides
Where streams eternal gush from Calvary’s rock;
For well he knows not _learning’s_ purest tides
Can quench the immortal thirst that in the soul abides.
_Mrs. Little._
_Learning_ is good, but holiness is better:
_Learning_ with holiness combined--what then?
Aye, that is best of all; th’ instructed mind,
Which ignorance nor prejudice can fetter,
That looks through nature with a searching ken,
And knows the history of human kind,
And hath a store of treasures at command;
If such can meekly bend, and humbly wait
Beside the footstool of the Infinite,
Eager to bask in beams of saving grace,
_Learning_ and goodness then go hand in hand,
And happy is the people and the state,
That hath such _learned_ men to shed the light
Of their example round their early resting-place.
_Egone._
LIBERTY.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious _liberty_ of the children of God.--Romans,
viii. 21.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is _liberty_.--II. Corinthians,
iii. 17.
So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of
_liberty_.--James, ii. 12.
In vain from thee, O love, expecting ease,
Few hours of calm, but years of grief I passed,
And lived on joys and hopes that would not last--
Food ill adapted to my heart’s disease.
But now that I desire a full release,
And heaven has granted me this sweet contrast
Of light, and life, and _liberty_ so vast,
Far as I can from thee I fly for peace;
Even as a bird, which, rescued from the snare,
Wings to the shady covert of the grove,
Still fluttering at the danger it has seen.
I hear thee call indeed, as I remove;
But He who sought me, and who hears my prayer,
Allows not earthly love to come between.
_Gabriel Fiamma._
But there is yet a _liberty_, unsung
By poets, and by senators unpraised,
Which monarchs cannot grant, nor all the powers
Of earth and hell confederate, take away;
A _liberty_ which persecution, fraud,
Oppression, prisons, have no power to bind;
Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no more.
’Tis _liberty_ of heart, derived from Heaven,
Bought with His blood, who gave it to mankind,
And sealed with the same token.
_Cowper._
True _Liberty_ was Christian; sanctified,
Baptized and found in Christian hearts alone.
First-born of Virtue, daughter of the skies,
Nursling of truth divine; sister of all
The graces, meekness, holiness, and love.
Giving to God, and man, and all below
That symptom showed of sensible existence,
Their due, unasked.
_Pollok._
LIFE.
A man’s _life_ consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he
possesseth.--Luke, xii. 15.
This is _life_ eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.--John, xvii. 3.
In hope of eternal _life_, which God, that cannot lie, promised before
the world began.--Titus, i. 2.
For what is your _life_? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a
little time, and then vanisheth away.--James, iv. 14.
Hereby perceive we the love of God; because he laid down his _life_ for
us: and we ought to lay down our _lives_ for the brethren.--I. John,
iii. 16.
So, in the passing of a day, doth pass
The bud and blossom of the _life_ of man,
Nor e’er doth flourish more, but like the grass
Cut down, becometh withered, pale, and wan.
_Tasso._
I _live_ on earth upon a stage of sorrow;
Lord, if Thou pleasest, end the play to-morrow.
I _live_ on earth, as in a dream of pleasure;
Awake me when Thou wilt, I wait Thy leisure.
I _live_ on earth, but as of _life_ bereaven;
My _life_’s with Thee, for, Lord, Thou art in Heaven.
_Quarles._
Thy _life_’s a warfare, thou a soldier art,
Satan’s thy foeman, and a faithful heart
Thy two-edged weapon, patience thy shield,
Heaven is thy chieftain, and the world thy field.
To be afraid to die, or wish for death,
Are words and passions of despairing breath:
Who doth the first, the day doth faintly yield;
And who the second, basely flies the field.
_Quarles._
While man is growing, _life_ is in decrease;
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb.
Our birth is nothing but our death begun;
As tapers waste that instant they take fire.
* * * * *
He sins against this _life_, who slights the next.
_Young._
_Life_ is most enjoyed
When courted least; most worth when disesteemed;
Then ’tis the seat of comfort, rich in peace,
In prospect richer far; important, awful,
Not to be mentioned, but with shouts of praise!
Not to be thought on, but with tides of joy!
The mighty basis of eternal bliss!
* * * * *
In the same brook, none ever bathed him twice:
To the same _life_, none ever twice awoke.
We call the brook the same; the same we think
Our _life_, though still more rapid in its flow;
Nor mark the much irrevocably lapsed,
And mingled with the sea.
_Young._
Opening the map of God’s expansive plan,
We find a little isle, this _life_ of man;
Eternity’s unknown expanse appears
Circling around, and limiting his years.
The busy race examine and explore
Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore,
With care collect what in their eyes excels,
Some shining pebbles, and some weeds and shells,
Thus laden, dream that they are rich and great,
And happiest be that groans beneath his weight.
The waves o’ertake them in their serious play,
And every hour sweeps multitudes away;
They shriek and sink--survivors start and weep,
Pursue their sport, and follow to the deep.
_Cowper._
This mortal _life_,
Seeming so fair, is like a feather tossed,
Borne on the wind, and in a moment lost.
Or if with sudden wheel it flies
Further sometimes, and upwards springs,
And then upon its wings
Sustained in air, as if self-balanced, lies,
The lightness of its nature is the cause--
And swiftly, after little pause,
With thousand turns, and thousand idle stops,
Because it is of earth, to earth it drops.
_From the Italian of Sanazzaro._
Transient, fickle, light, and gay,
Flattering only to betray;
What, alas! can _life_ contain!
_Life_ like all its circles,--vain.
_Moore._
Man’s _life_’s a book of history;
The leaves thereof are days;
The letters, mercies closely joined;
The title is God’s praise.
_Mason._
How short is human _life_! the very breath
Which frames my words, accelerates my death.
_Hannah More._
Ah, what is _Life_! a dream within a dream;
A pilgrimage from peril rarely free;
A bark that sails upon a changing sea,
Now sunshine and now storm; a mountain stream
Heard, but scarce seen ere to the dark deep gone;
A wild star blazing with unsteady beam,
Yet for a season fair to look upon.
_Life_ is an infant on Affection’s knee,
A youth now full of hope and transient glee,
In manhood’s peerless noon, now bright, anon
A time-worn ruin silvered o’er with years.
_Life_ is a race where slippery steeps arise,
Where discontent and sorrow are the prize,
And where the goal appears the grave is won.
_E. Moxon._
In deserts of the Holy Land I strayed,
Where Christ once _lived_, but seems to _live_ no more,
On Lebanon my lonely home I made,
I heard the wind among the cedars roar,
And saw, far off, the Great Sea’s solemn shore:
“But ’tis a dreary wilderness,” I said,
Now the prophetic spirit hence has fled:
Then, from a convent in the vale, I heard,
Slow-chanted forth, the everlasting Word,
Saying “I am he that _liveth_, and was dead,
And lo! I am _alive_ for evermore.”
Then forth upon my pilgrimage I fare,
Resolved to find and praise Him everywhere.
_J. Gostick._
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
“_Life_ is but an empty dream!”
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
_Life_ is real! _Life_ is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
“Dust thou art, to dust returnest,”
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way,
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of _Life_,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the _living_ Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
_Lives_ of great men all remind us
We can make our _lives_ sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er _life’s_ solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate,
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.
_Longfellow._
LIGHT.
And God said. Let there be _light_: and there was _light_.
And God saw the _light_ that it was good: and God divided the _light_
from the darkness.
And God called the _light_ Day.--Genesis, i. 3, 4, 5.
Truly the _light_ is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to
behold the sun.--Ecclesiastes, xi. 7.
Come ye, and let us walk in the _light_ of the Lord.--Isaiah, ii. 5.
Let your _light_ so shine before men that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven.--Matthew, v. 16.
The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give _light_ to them
that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet
into the way of peace.--Luke, i. 78, 79.
Every one that doeth evil, hateth the _light_; neither cometh to the
_light_, lest his deeds should be reproved.--John, iii. 20.