NATURE.
O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto Thee?
Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them.
The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, Thou hast founded them.—Psalm lxxxix. 8, 9, 11.
The Lord is a great God, and a Great King above all Gods.
In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also.
The sea is His, and he made it; and His hands formed the dry land.—Psalm xcv. 3, 4, 5.
Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens; when I call unto them they stand up together.—Isaiah, xlviii. 13.
From dearth to plenty, and from death to life,
Is Nature’s progress, when she lectures man
In heavenly truth; evincing as she makes
The grand transition, that there lives and works
A soul in all things, and that soul is God.
Cowper.
Nature, employed in her allotted place,
Is hand-maid to the purposes of Grace;
By good vouchsafed, makes known superior good,
And bliss not seen, by blessings understood.
Cowper.
He looks abroad into the varied field
Of Nature; and though poor, perhaps, compared
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,
Calls the delightful scenery all his own.
His are the mountains, and the valleys his,
And the resplendent rivers; his to enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel,
But who, with filial confidence inspired,
Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say, “My Father made them all!”
Cowper.
By swift degrees the love of Nature works,
And warms the bosom; till, at last sublimed
To rapture and enthusiastic heat,
We feel the present Deity, and taste
The joy of God to see a happy world.
Thomson.
From Nature’s constant or eccentric laws,
The thoughtful soil this general inference draws—
That an effect must pre-suppose a cause.
Prior.
All Nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good.
Pope.
Read Nature; Nature is a friend to truth:
Nature is Christian; preaches to mankind;
And bids dead matter aid us in our creed.
Young.
How faint is language when we strive to sing
The beauties of the Almighty hand!
Each year upon our outward sense they win,
With all increasing and still varying force;
The seasons, days, months, years, incessant bring
Contrasting changes! First seeds, leaves, expand
As the young years with tender warmth begin,
Then bloom and fruit, and life bursts from its source,
In animated Nature, then decays,
And with revolving time is still renew’d.
Thus hope’s bright beam the distant scene displays
Where no repelling shadow’s may intrude;
So life may joyous be, and genius dwells
In new awaked fires, and fresh enchantment spells.
Sir E. Brydges.
Almighty Father! such the lesson is
That in these cool and venerable woods,
I con to-day; and firmer in my breast,
By every syllable, these truths are fixed
That Thou art the Beginning and the End
Of all this glorious work, and that Thy love
Pervades the universe; and that Thy smile
Seeketh all hearts, to sun them; and that Thou,
In every glorious thing we here behold,
Declarest and reveal’st Thyself to be
The Majesty Supreme—Eternal God.
W. D. Gallagher.
Nature’s self, which is the breath of God,
Or His pure Word by miracle revealed.
Wordsworth.
Nature, when sprung thy glorious frame?
—My Maker called me, and I came.
J. Montgomery.
Live thou with God in Nature: never falter
In thy communings with Him. Be
Like those blest birds we read of in the Psalter,
Who found a borne from peril free
In God’s own house, and nestled near His altar,
Making it ring with melody.
That temple stands no more,
But Nature standeth still; God’s holy presence
Abideth with us, and the offering
Of thankful joy to Him whose perfect essence
Is perfect love, our glowing lips may bring,
Till this brief life is o’er;
And in a brighter, better,
Our spirits know no fetter.
Bethune.
Never have the works of Nature
Yet to mortal man revealed,
How his much offended Maker
May to him be reconciled.
Flower, nor tree, nor rock, nor mountain,
Ever yet have showed the way,
Ever told him of a Fountain
That could wash his guilt away.
Man could never yet discover,
From the sky, the earth, the sea,
When his days on earth are over,
Where or what his state should be.
But the page of inspiration
Casts a light upon the whole,
Bringing peace and consolation
To the never-dying soul.
Alexander Letham.