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Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.

By Thomas Toke Lynch (1818–1871)

Stars

 
SEE! 1 through the heavenly arch
With silent stately march
  The starry ranks for ever sweep;
In graduate scale of might
They all are sons of light,        5
  And all their times and orders keep.
 
O glorious, countless host,
Which shall I praise the most,
  Your lustrous groups, or course exact?
Ye on your way sublime        10
Defy confusing time
  Your light to dim, your path distract.
 
Earth’s early fathers saw
The gospel and the law
  In the firm beauty of the skies:        15
O Thou unswerving Will,
The unveiled heavens still
  Show Thee as glorious, good, and wise.
 
Lord of the starry night,
With awe and with delight        20
  Under Thy temple dome we pray:
Still as we gaze above,
Temper our fear with love,
  That we may filial homage pay.
 
Not as the primal force        25
Impelling Nature’s course
  We know Thee, but as Father dear:
Oh, if with foolish mind
We judge Thee weakly kind,
  Correct false love with filial fear.        30
 
Note 1. The name of T. T. Lynch is well-known in Nonconformist circles as that of a hymn-writer, but he well deserves wider recognition. The poems here given are from “The Rivulet,” a book of verses first published in 1855, and several times augmented. [back]