SATURDAY MORNING. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind."-GENESIS i. 24-30. My soul! to trace thy Maker's hand And see the wond'rous frame He planned, The blossomed herb, the fruitful tree, These all were made, one beauteous plan, O God! most merciful and just, Thy spirit o'er the fashioned dust, That breath of life" derived from Thee, Our hope and sustenance to be. Dominion o'er created things, A spirit like to thine, Thought, that within unbidden springs; These were the gifts divine Wherewith thy creature was arrayed, In God's eternal likeness made. And unto him the herb and tree, That earth so perfect, fair, and good. And not of this sweet earth alone Was he proclaimed the heir; The eternal heaven, his Maker's throne Died from the earth, and passed away Then crumbled back the form of clay But, like a brand from burning caught, The soul—that part that thinks, and wills, Shall live with God, if in his name That never-ceasing life we claim. Oh, though a child whose thoughts are weak, I can this boon implore, Who quits his own no more: He hears me whilst to Him I pray. SUNDAY MORNING. "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work."-GENESIS ii. 2. HAIL, Sabbath day! by God ordained, Blessed the young world his love had framed, Deep peace o'er all creation lay, The fulness of repose came down And man's awakened tongue made known Thus having called him from the clay, God rested on the seventh day. |