[From Mona's Isle, 1844]

REFLECTIONS.

O ! DREAD eternal Source of all
Existing matter here below,
My knowledge of thee, 0, how small!
How far beyond my power to know
Are thy deep attributes on high,
Combined with all that’s here on earth!
When angels wonder, how can I,
Born of a dark terrestrial birth,
Pretend to pierce that shining blaze
Which baffles e’en seraphic sight,
Or view the bright refulgent rays
That wrap thee in thy robes of light?
Then as a creature of thine hand,
Involved in solemn mystery,
I sprung th life, at thy command,
To live throughout eternity,
From Thee !—for thou the fountain art
From whence this mind must have its source,
As nothing less could thus impart
Such an extensive mighty force
Of thought, or solemn reasoning,
While yet within an earthly clod,
It fain would know of everything
Throughout all nature up to God!

REFLECTIONS.

GREAT God of all the host above,
Who reign’st supreme yet undefined,
The source of bliss and endless love,
And fountain of the human mind,—
Though far remote from every thought
Thou dwell’st in deep obscurity,
Yet all this spacious earth is fraught
With thy all-dread ubiquity
Teach me thy mercies to rehearse
From day to day, while here below,
And all my sinful thoughts disperse
That I thy saving grace may know.
O teach me, Lord, to worship thee
In spirit, and in truth alone,
Let all my thoughts from earth be free
When I approach thy gracious throne
To sue for pardon, and for peace,
Through the atoning Lamb of God,
That once was slain for Adam’s race
To screen us from thy chastening rod!