Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
Birthday of heaven and earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they filled,
And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works; Creator him they sung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn.
NOTES.-Sapience, wisdom. Spontaneous, of their own accord. Omnific, one who makes all things. Fervid, hot. Profundity, depth. Tartareous, belonging to hell. Conglobed, formed together in a round lump. Quintessence, strongest, purest essence. Orient, Eastern.
"In Him was Life: and the Life was the Light of men." John i. 4.
Now heaven in all her glory shone, and rolled
Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand
First wheeled their course: earth in her rich attire
Consummate lovely smiled; air, water, earth,
By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walked,
Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remained:
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done-a creature, who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends; thither with heart, and voice, and eyes
Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship God Supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works: therefore the Omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake :—
"Let us make now man in our image, man In our similitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,
Beast of the field, and over all the earth,
And every creeping thing that creeps the ground!"
This said, he formed thee, Adam, thee, O man;
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God
Express; and thou becam'st a living soul.
Male he created thee; but thy consort
Female, for race; then blessed mankind, and said,
"Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,
Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold
Over fish of the sea, and fowl of the air,
And every living thing that moves on the earth."
Wherever thus created-for no place
Is yet distinct by name-thence, as thou know'st,
He brought thee into this delicious grove,
This garden, planted with the trees of God,
Delectable both to behold and taste;
And freely all their pleasant fruit for food
Gave thee. All sorts are here that all the earth yields, Variety without end; but of the tree
Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil
Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st thou diest.
Death is the penalty imposed; beware,
And govern well thy appetite; lest sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant death.-Milton.
"Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil."-Isa. lvi. 2.
AND now on earth the seventh
Evening arose in Eden-for the sun
Was set, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night-when at the holy mount
Of heaven's high-seated top, the imperial throne
Of Godhead fixed for ever firm and sure,
The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down
With his great Father: for he also went
Invisible, yet stayed (such privilege
Hath Omnipresence), and the work ordained,
Author and end of all things; and, from work
Now resting, blessed and hallowed the seventh day,
As resting on that day from all his work.
But not in silence holy kept: the harp
Had work and rested not; the solemn pipe,
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
Tempered soft tunings, intermixed with voice
Choral or unison: of incense clouds,
Fuming from golden censers, hid the mount.
Creation and the six days' acts they sung:
"Great are thy works, Jehovah! infinite
Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or tongue
Relate thee-greater now in thy return
Than from the giant angels. Thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.
Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound
Thy empire? Easily the proud attempt
Of spirits apostate, and their counsels vain,
Thou hast repelled; while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose, serves
To manifest the more thy might his evil
Thou usest, and from thence creat'st more good.
Witness this new-made world, another heaven
From heaven-gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation—but thou knowest
Their seasons: among these the seat of men,
Earth, with her nether ocean circumfused,
Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy men,
And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced,
Created in his image there to dwell
And worship him; and in reward to rule
Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshippers
Holy and just! thrice happy, if they know
Their happiness, and persevere upright!"
So sung they, and the empyréan rung
With halleluiahs; thus was Sabbath kept.-Milton.
NOTES.-Prone, with head down. Express, expressly. For race, to multiply the race. Symphonious, in musical harmony. Supernal, from above. Apostate, rebellious. Hyaline, glassy, transparent. Empyrean, heaven.
"Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"-Psal. viii. 4.
So then as darkness overspread the deep,
Ere Nature rose from her eternal sleep,
And this delightful earth, and that fair sky,
Leaped out of nothing, called by the Most High;
By such a change thy darkness is made light,
Thy chaos order, and thy weakness might;
And He whose power mere nullity obeys,
Who found thee nothing, formed thee for His praise.
To praise Him is to serve Him, and fulfil,
Doing and suffering, His unquestioned will;
'Tis to believe what men inspired of old,
Faithful, and faithfully informed, unfold;
Candid and just, with no false aim in view,
To take for truth what cannot but be true,
To learn in God's own school the Christian part,
And bind the task assigned thee to thine heart.
Happy the man there seeking and there found,
Happy the nation where such men abound!
How shall a verse impress thee? by what name
Shall I adjure thee not to court thy shame?
By theirs, whose bright example unimpeached
Directs thee to that eminence they reached,
Heroes and worthies of days past, thy sires?
Or His, who touched their hearts with hallowed fires?
Their names, alas! in vain reproach an age,
Whom all the vanities they scorned engage;
And His, that seraphs tremble at, is hung
Disgracefully on every trifler's tongue,
Or serves the champion in forensic war
To flourish and parade with at the bar.
Pleasure herself perhaps suggests a plea,
If interest move thee, to persuade e'en thee;
By every charm that smiles upon her face,
By joys possessed, and joys still held in chase,
If dear society be worth a thought,
And if the feast of freedom cloy thee not,
Reflect that these and all that seems thine own,
Held by the tenure of his will alone,
Like angels in the service of their Lord,
Remain with thee, or leave thee at his word;
That gratitude and temperance in our use
Of what He gives unsparing and profuse,
Secure the favour and enhance the joy,
That thankless waste and wild abuse destroy.
But above all reflect, how cheap soe'er
Those rights that millions envy thee appear,
And though resolved to risk them, and swim down
The tide of pleasure heedless of his frown,
That blessings truly sacred, and when given,
Marked with the signature and stamp of Heaven,
The word of prophecy, those truths divine
Which make that Heaven, if thou desire it, thine
(Awful alternative! believed, beloved,
Thy glory--and thy shame if unimproved),
Are never long vouchsafed, if pushed aside
With cold disgust or philosophic pride;
And that judicially withdrawn, disgrace,
Error, and darkness occupy their place.
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