DAY.
And God called the light Day.—Genesis, i. 5.
The day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?—Joel, ii. 11.
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.—Matthew, xxiv. 36.
The dayspring from on high hath visited us.—Luke, i. 78.
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.—II. Corinthians, vi. 2.
How many hours bring about the day?
How many days will finish up the year?
Shakspere.
The breath of heaven, blowing pure and sweet,
With dayspring born, here leaves us to respire.
Milton.
Yet are we able only to survey
Dawnings of beams, and promises of day.
Prior.
Once more, my soul, the rising day
Salutes my waking eyes;
Once more, my voice, thy tribute pay
To Him that rules the skies.
Night unto night His name repeats,
The day renews the sound,
Wide as the heaven on which he sits,
To turn the seasons round.
Watts.
See, where the falling day
In silence steals away,
Behind the western hills withdrawn;
Her fires are quench’d, her beauty fled,
With blushes all her face o’erspread,
As conscious she had ill fulfill’d
The promise of the dawn.
Another morning soon shall rise,
Another day salute our eyes,
As smiling and as fair as she,
And make as many promises:
But do not thou
The tale believe.
They’re sisters all,
And all deceive.
Barbauld.
Sudden in the sky
Stands the great sun! Like the first glorious breath
Of Freedom to the slave, like Hope upon
The hush of woe, or through the mists of death
The pardoning Angel—comes to earth the Sun.
Ice still on land—still vapour in the air,
But Light—the victor Lord—but Light is there!
On siege-worn cities, when their war is spent,
From the far hill as gleam on gleam, arise
The spears of some great aiding armament,
Grow the dim splendours, broadening up the skies;
Till, bright and brighter, the sublime array
Flings o’er the world the banners of the Day!
Sir E. Bulwer Lytton.
That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away;
What power shall be the sinner’s stay?
How will ye meet that dreadful day?
When shrivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead.
O! on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay;
Be Thou the trembling sinner’s stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away.
Scott.
Oh! day of days! shall hearts set free,
No “minstrel rapture” find for thee?
Thou art the Sun of other days,
They shine by giving back thy rays:
Enthroned in thy sovereign sphere,
Thou shedd’st thy light on all the year,
Sundays by thee more glorious break,
An Easter day in every week.
And week days following in their train,
The fullness of thy blessing gain,
Till all, both resting and employ,
Be one Lord’s day of holy joy.
Keble.