BIBLICAL PICTURES.

THE

FIRST SABBATH.

Six days the heavenly host, in circle vast,
Like that untouching cincture which enzones
The globe of Saturn, compassed wide this orb,
And with the forming mass floated along,
In rapid course, through yet untravelled space,
Beholding God's stupendous power,-a world
Bursting from Chaos at the omnific will,
And perfect ere the sixth day's evening star
On Paradise arose. Blessed that eve!
The Sabbath's harbinger, when, all complete,
In freshest beauty from JEHOVAH's hand,
Creation bloomed; when Eden's twilight face

Smiled like a sleeping babe: The voice divine

A holy calm breathed o'er the goodly work:
Mildly the sun, upon the loftiest trees,

Shed mellowly a sloping beam. Peace reigned,
And love, and gratitude; the human pair

Their orisons poured forth; love, concord, reigned.
The falcon, perched upon the blooming bough
With Philomela, listened to her lay;

Among the antlered herd, the tyger couched
Harmless; the lion's mane no terror spread
Among the careless ruminating flock.

Silence was o'er the deep; the noiseless surge,
The last subsiding wave,of that dread tumult
Which raged, when Ocean, at the mute command,
Rushed furiously into his new-cleft bed,—

Was gently rippling on the pebbled shore ;

While, on the swell, the sea-bird with her head

Wing-veiled, slept tranquilly. The host of heaven,

Entranced in new delight, speechless adored;

Nor stopped their fleet career, nor changed their form Encircular, till on that hemisphere,—

In which the blissful garden sweet exhaled

Its incense, odorous clouds,—the Sabbath dawn
Arose; then wide the flying circle oped,

And soared, in semblance of a mighty rainbow.
Silent ascend the choirs of Seraphim ;

No harp resounds, mute is each voice; the burst
Of joy and praise reluctant they repress,—
For love and concord all things so attuned

To harmony, that Earth must have received
The grand vibration, and to the centre shook:

But soon as to the starry altitudes

They reached, then what a storm of sound, tremendous, Swelled through the realms of space! The morning stars Together sang, and all the sons of God

Shouted for joy! Loud was the peal; so loud,

As would have quite o'erwhelmed the human sense; But to the Earth it came a gentle strain,