THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN THE FIRST CREATION

JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY

Blest be thy name, thou uncreated Word,
With God before all worlds, thyself the Lord
By whom all nature into being sprang,
While heaven applauded and the angels sang.
Bright stars of morning haled thee in their lays
The sons of God proclaimed their Master's praise,
Themselves once fashioned by thy plastic hand,
To thee they live, they move at thy command.
   Well might they joy, when the celestial dove 
O'er shoreless oceans waved her wing of love, 
Gently incumbent, and through realms of night 
Ancient and wild, was poured the new-born light. 
Bright efflux from the unfathomed source of day, 
And of the eternal co-eternal ray,
Thine was the glory of that hallowed hour;
From God, from thee, its radiance; thine the power 
That bade the seas recede, the land arise,
Opened the fountains, spread the watery skies, 
Gave to the air its substance and extent, 
Built and adorned the azure firmament.
   Another day is come; earth claims her bowers, 
Her vest of verdure, and her wreath of flowers. 
Sprung from no seed the budding wonders grow, 
The pines wave freely o'er the mountain's brow, 
Perfect at once the oaks dispense their shade, 
At once the lily and the rose array'd
In all their beauty shine; the primrose pale, 
Jasmine and hyacinth, perfume the vale;
Cassia and myrrh their wasted odours pour, 
The purpling vines each rifted rock explore; 
A thousand fruits with early blush appear, 
The promise of that bright primeval year. 
Their seeds are in them; sweets untasted now 
To men, in every age, shall bend the bough.
   Again the evening came, the morn was given, 
Especial boons devolved on earth from heaven; 
For ere that destined day, the glorious sun 
Was not, or hid from earth his course had run; 
No silver horn or perfect orb serene,
No wandering gems, in heaven s dark vault were seen:
But now the vast arrangement fitly made,
The morn shall rise, the eve bestow her shade, 
Months, seasons, years, proceed by natural cause, 
While heaven's bright signs obey His changeless laws, 
Who made them all; henceforth the greater light, 
Shall blaze by day; the lesser rule the night.
Thus didst Thou build and thus adorn a home
For sentient creatures, countless tribes that roam
O'er earth's wide surface, all alike by Thee
Endued with life's mysterious energy,
And conscious joy.--Some animate the seas, 
Now dive below, now leap to inhale the breeze, 
Armed with their silvery scales, retreat, advance, 
Crop the soft weed, and urge the mazy dance; 
While the smooth whales, disporting, lash the deep, 
And bid her fountains boil, or calmly sleep 
Like islands on her breast.--Some poised in air 
Flap the light wing and distant flight prepare, 
Or mount aloft, and to the sun unfold
Their feathered pride of purple, green, and gold; 
Or less adorned for sight, a social throng,
Charm tide glad ear, and fill the groves with song.
   Some track a humbler path and move unseen 
In earth's dark soils, or hid in thickets green, 
Their fleshy ringlets formed for easy play, 
Contracting and dilating, wind their way,
With arching neck, fork'd tongue, and eye of flame, 
Some slowly glide, or coil their circling frame,
Some frolic wild, and bound along the plain,
Or leap the rocks their wintry peak to gain; 
Or on high bough the grateful kernel find, 
Impetuous spring, and chatter to the wind, 
Or crouch and ruminate on all the glade, 
Or haunt the den, and penetrate the shade: 
Or to the pine-top lift a graceful form,
Or rove the wilderness, and breathe the storm.
   Slow moves Behemoth o'er the trembling ground; 
Of massive bars his framework, girt around 
With sinewy folds prodigious; easy toil! 
With share of ivory he ploughs the soil, 
Uproots his bulbous feast, intent to ply 
The lithe proboscis--while his lucid eye 
Beams with intelligence. The age must come 
When Asia's potentates and conquering Rome; 
Shall yoke his sons to the triumphal car, 
Train them to arts of peace, to strift of war; 
O'er the broad living flank, uprear the tower, 
And safely from its height their javelins shower,
Untutored now--ere known the haunts of men, 
He wanders wild o'er forest, glade, and glen; 
With draughts delicious cools his burning blood, 
And weens to dry the springs of Jordan's sacred flood.
   The hand that formed this wondrous living scene 
Must guide it still--no other hand between--
Must prompt the purpose, and direct the will, 
Inspire unseen the philosophic skill, 
Conduct the instinctive arts, impel, controul, 
Move in each moving part, and speed the whole.
   Led by the gentle impulse of the breast, 
Untaught, untrained, each warbler builds her nest, 
At the right season, when the spring is green, 
Of right materials, though by her unseen
Till now she needs them; of the ancient form 
By which her sires were sheltered from the storm. 
What reason prompts the swallow's arduous flight 
Ere winter's frown prolongs the dreary night, 
Bids her to southern shores in haste repair, 
Directs her passage through the boundless air?
What sense forewarns ere warmer climates burn 
And marks the moment for her safe return?
   Profound geometer! who taught the bee 
To mimic science, and to rival thee; 
With even hexagons to fill the plane,
Thus ample room with utmost strength to gain; 
Nor fill the plane alone; through all the mass 
No waste of substance, and no loss of' space; 
Each cell descending in the angle true 
That great Maclaurin by his fluxions knew? 
What proud inventive faculties impart, 
From age to age unchanged, the spider's art?
Around her home the magic circles run, 
Each thread of thousands wonderfully spun. 
The viewless gossamer man's skill exceeds, 
No teaching asks, no rule of science needs; 
Her nets ethereal every bush adorn
Dressed in the peerless dewdrops of the morn. 
What laws of order human wisdom vaunts 
Can match the civic polity of ants?
Commodious cities, and well guarded lands, 
Of willing labourers the united bands; 
The equal tending of ten thousand young,
The silent touch for man's vociferous tongue.
   The appointed customs of each busy kind 
Involve the working of thy master mind. 
Fountain of science, spring of all that's wise, 
Thy moving power their energy supplies,
The power that formed each creature's living frame 
With fitness nice to some peculiar aim.
One general type the glorious scheme pervades, 
While special forms, and ever varying grades, 
Connect, adorn, diversify the plan,
From the low reptile, up to complex man. 
Wisdom of God--high Partner of his throne, 
The Father's pleasure--with the Father one, 
From Thee of beauty flow the varied streams, 
With marks of Thee exuberant nature teems, 
Thy influence spreads above, around, below, 
The best philosophy is Thee to know.
As shapes and letters graven on the seal,
Adorn its substance, and its end reveal,
The melting wax a well known sign receives,
The eye beholds it and the mind believes;
God's image thou and character express,
In Thee he wills to quicken, form, and bless;
To worlds of life the sacred type is given,
And nature's glory corresponds with heaven.
   But chiefly man, now risen from the dust,
Of graceful carriage and proportions just,
Fresh as the morn, and as the day-star bright,
His visage beaming with celestial light,
Of lofty look and awful form erect,
Destined to guide, to govern, to protect,
With lamp of reason, furnished from above,
And filled with wisdom, holiness, and love,
His frame the dwelling of a soul that soars
To heaven's high courts, and communes and adores--
Man who alone the life eternal shares,
Reflects thy beauty, and God's likeness bears.
   Alas, how soon, when Satan wins his way
That form shall fade--that likeness shall decay!
Now all is perfect, all in Thee is blest,
And speeds its gentle course, the day of rest.