CREATION.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.—Genesis, i. 1.
Let them praise the name of the Lord: for He commanded, and they were created.—Psalm cxlviii. 5.
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.—Ecclesiastes, xii. 1.
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?—Isaiah, xl. 26, 28.
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?—Malachi, ii. 10.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.—Revelation, iv. 11.
Here finished he, and all that he had made
Viewed, and behold all is entirely good;
So even and morn accomplished the sixth day;
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up returned,
Up to the heaven of heavens his high abode,
Thence to behold his new created world,
Th’ addition of his empire, how it showed
In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair,
Answering his great idea. Up he rode,
Followed by acclamation, and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned
Angelic harmonies; the earth, the air,
Resounded,
The heavens and all the constellations rang,
The planets in their stations listening stood,
While the bright pomp ascended jubilant:—
Open, ye everlasting gates, they sang,
Open, ye heavens, your everlasting doors; let in
The great Creator from his work returned
Magnificent, his six days’ work—a world.
Milton.
My heart is awed within me, when I think
Of the great miracle that still goes on,
In silence, round me—the perpetual work
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed
For ever.
W. C. Bryant.
From the throne of the Highest the mandate came forth,
From the word of Omnipotent God;
And the elements fashioned his footstool the earth,
And the Heavens his holy abode:
And his Spirit moved over the fathomless flood
Of waters that fretted in darkness around,
Until at his bidding, their turbulent mood
Was hushed to a calm, and obedient they stood
Where he fixed their perpetual bound.
From the work of creation, which rose by his word,
When finished the heavens and the earth;
On the seventh day rested th’ Omnipotent Lord,
As he looked on each beautiful birth:—
On the firmament, stretched from the east to the west,
On the far flowing sea, and the fast teeming land,
And he saw they were good, and the Sabbath was blest,
The Sabbath! the sanctified season of rest
To the creatures that came from his hand.
Knox.
Mysterious power! which guides by night
Through darkest wood the illumined sight;
Which prompts them, by the unerring smell,
The appointed prey’s abode to tell;
Bore with long bill the investing mould,
And feel, and from the secret hold
Dislodge the reptile spoil! But who
Can look Creation’s volume through,
And not fresh proofs, at every turn,
Of the Creator’s mind discern:
The end to which his actions tend,
The means adapted to the end,
The reasoning thought, the effective skill,
And, ruling all, the Almighty will.
Bishop Mant.
In the Beginning primal darkness flung
Her veil o’er chaos, void and formless all;
The brooding Spirit o’er the waters hung;
The father’s fiat moved the empty pall:
“Let there be Light!” Forthwith Creation sprung
Glad into being. Thy Creating Love,
Lord, I believe! Mine unbelief remove.
H. H. Weld.