Though ours be not such flagrant sins,
But lie perhaps conceal’d,
The day is coming when all things,
Now hid shall be reveal’d:
And some we have great cause to fear,
If they the truth would own,
Have little gods which they revere
Of gold, or precious stone.
When once through Israel’s armies brave,
The boasting challenge ran,
When great Goliath sent to Saul,
To find him out a man,
Who would in single combat fight,
Till one should be o’erthrown,
How little did he think that day
Of falling by a stone!
With steps that made the earth to bend,
And spirit swell’d with pride,
He boasting shook his greaves of brass,
And Israel’s God defied.
From Jesse’s loins a stripling sprung,
Who made the monster groan,
When from the whirling sling he threw,
The feeble,—fatal stone!
Proud armies have been overthrown,
And cities sack’d within,
And towers and temples broken down,
The sad effects of sin:—
And once an Angel did foreshow,
The fall of Babylon,
When in the heaving deep he threw,
A great and mighty stone!
When David’s highly favour’d son,
His temple first began,
They from the mountains brought a stone,
Which seem’d a pest to man:
The masons view’d it o’er and o’er,
But oft with haughty scorn,
Rejected it, and roll’d aside
This strange, unshapely stone!
From first to last it tumbling lay,
An object of disdain,
Till time, upon a certain day,
The mystery did explain.
The last, and loftiest pinnacle,
To finish and adorn
They sought, but none would do so well
As this rejected stone!
A finer building ne’er was seen,
By any mortal eye,
The timbrels rung, and Israel sung,
And old men wept for joy.
And having thus their temple rear’d
Themselves are forc’d to own,
That which the builders once refus’d
Is now the Corner Stone!
’Tis thus Jehovah’s favour’d sons,
With hearts by grace refined,
Are all compar’d to living stones,
For nobler ends design’d.
Thus he the mighty structure rears,
And perfects them in one,
A glorious Church,—and Jesus is
The chief, the corner stone!
A stone by Daniel was perceiv’d,
And still the record stands,
Which from the mountains should proceed,
Cut out as without hands;
Whose dignity should greater grow,
And mighty Kings dethrone,
Till all the earth be fill’d below,
With this amazing stone!
So “in due time God sent his Son,”
According to His word,
Whose sacred mission was begun,
And seal’d with precious blood;
Who, while He dwelt on earth below,
Did make salvation known,
And caus’d His heavenly love to flow
In hearts once hard as stone!