BOOK.
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people.—Exodus, xxiv. 7.
Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up.—Nehemiah, viii. 5.
Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!—Job, xix. 23.
Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.—Ecclesiastes, xii. 12.
There shall in no wise enter into it (the holy city) any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.—Revelation, xxi. 27.
Thy glass will shew thee how thy beauties wear,
Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste,
Thy vacant leaves thy mind’s imprint will bear,
And of this book this learning may’st thou taste:
The wrinkles which thy glass will truly show,
Of mouthed graves will give thee memory;
Thou by the dial’s shady stealth may’st know
Time’s thievish progress to eternity;
Look, what thy memory cannot contain,
Commit to these waste blanks, and thou shall find
Those children nursed delivered from thy brain
To take a new acquaintance of thy mind.
These offices so oft as thou wilt look,
Will profit thee, and much enrich thy book.
Shakspere.
But what strange art, what magic can dispose
The troubled mind to change its native woes,
Or lead us willing from ourselves, to see
Others more wretched, more undone than we?
This books can do;—nor this alone, they give
New views of life, and teach us how to live.
They soothe the grieved, the stubborn they chastise,
Fools they admonish, and confound the wise;
Their aid they lead to all; they never shun
The man of sorrow, nor the wretch undone.
Unlike the hard, the selfish, and the proud,
They fly not sullen from the suppliant crowd;
Nor tell to various people various things,
But show to subjects what they show to kings.
Blessed be the gracious Power! who taught mankind
To stamp a lasting image of the mind.
Beasts may convey and tuneful birds may sing
their mutual feelings in the opening spring,
But man alone has skill and power to send
The heart’s warm dictates to a distant friend;
’Tis his alone to please, instruct, advise
Ages remote, and nations yet to rise.
Crabbe.
I love the sacred book of God,
No other can its place supply;
It points me to the saints’ abode,
It gives me wings, and bids me fly.
Blest book! in thee my eyes discern
The image of my absent Lord;
From thine instructive page I learn
The joys his presence will afford.
Then shall I need thy light no more,
For nothing shall be there concealed;
When I have reached the heavenly shore
The Lord himself will stand revealed.
When, ’midst the throng celestial placed,
The bright original I see,
From which thy sacred page was traced,
Blest book! I’ve no more need of thee.
But while I’m here thou shalt supply
His place, and tell me of His love;
I’ll read with faith’s discerning eye,
And thus partake of joys above.
Kelly.
There is a book, who runs may read,
Which heavenly truth imparts,
And all the lore its scholars need
Pure eyes and Christian hearts.
The works of God above, below,
Within us, and around,
Are pages in that book, to show
How God Himself is found.
Keble.