Turneth the page of Jesus, and doth read With toil, perchance, that the trim school-boy mocks, Counting him in his arrogance a fool; Yet shall this poor, wayfaring man lie down ETERNITY OF GOD. And Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thy hands: They shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old, as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. HEB. I. 10-12. THE deep foundations of the earth are thine, It came, in light and loveliness arrayed, Crowned with green emerald mounts, tinted with gold, And wearing as a robe the silver sea, Seeded with jewels of resplendent isles. The awful heavens are thine: the liquid sun The wide spread soil, to where the burning sands For eye of man and angel to behold, And read and gaze on, worship and adore. These shall grow old, though solid earth with years Shall see her sapless body shrivel up, And her gray mountains crumble piecemeal down, Like crypt and pyramid, to primal dust. The sea shall labour on his hoary head, Shall wave his silver tresses, white with years; That bids the blood-like fluid circulate Through every fibre of the earth, shall cease, And the eternal heavens, in whose bright folds, As in a starry vesture, thou art girt, Shall lose their lustre and grow old with time, And as a wornout garment thou shalt fold Their faded glories, and they shall be changed For vesture bright, immortal as thyself. Yea, the eternal heavens, on whose blue page Thy glory and magnificence are traced, With age shall tarnish, and shall be rolled up As parchment scrolls of abrogated acts, And be deposited in deathless urns, Amid the archives of the mighty God. THOU art the same: thy years shall never fail In glory bright, when every star and sun And sun, and star, and planet be dissolved, |