From the blackness and darkness of chaos
Jehovah said: "Let there be light."
And the first sunny morn knew its dawning
And the evening stars welcomed the night.
Through vistas of sunlight and shadows
The golden shafts melted in space,
While the new world traversed her bright pathway
With the smile of God fresh on her face.
She moved in her beauty and grandeur
Leaving chaos and darkness behind,
A world that had first had its being
In the wealth of the Infinite mind.
The waves caught the tint of the cloud-lands
And shouted aloud in their glee
'Till the Creator silenced their voices
And shut up the gates of the sea.
"Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further
And here shalt thou proud waves be stayed."
The sea heard her Maker's commandment
And the fierce briny ocean obeyed.
The vales smiled with verdure and blossoms,
The proud rocks rose, silent and gray;
But whose were those magical fingers
That fashioned each delicate spray?
And who was the marvelous sculptor
Whose chisel, unheard and unseen,
Carved out the great rocks and deep basins
For the cool brooks that fretted between?
Did the angels glean fragments of sunlight
And tints from the blue of the skies,
Deep shades from the roseate dawning
Starry halos and rich sunset dyes
To wreathe in fantastical splendor
Around the first beautiful morn,
And cut into rubies and diamonds
The bride of the heavens, to adorn?
The power that subdued the fierce ocean
Created each flower in the dell,
The brooks and the bird's brilliant plumage
And the crags and vast mountains as well;
And placed in the midst of these treasures,
In the Eden of beauty and mirth,
Man, made in His own divine image
And formed from the dust of the earth.
Oh! fair was the first bridal morning
That God in His wisdom ordained;
But alas! the lost charms of its promise
Humanity never regained.
Oh! the matchless perfection of Eden,
The center of beauty and love,
Where the Creator blessed the first union
Recorded by angels above.
And down through the sin-tarnished ages
Comes that record, so stainless and true,
Of the pure and unsullied completeness
That the world in its innocence knew,
Ere man, by his direful fall, made it
A prey to destruction and death,
When the glory of God was upon it
And Peace, ladened each spicy breath.
When sparkling with fresh dewy garlands
She traversed her orbit of light,
And nature's electrical voices
Rejoiced at the wonderful sight.
How the glad morning-stars sang together
While the moon in the blue zenith hung,
And the sons of God shouted for joy
In the days when the green earth was young.
And their happy songs glanced on the waters
And echoed from mountain to glen,
'Till a few stray notes borne on the ages
Floated down to the children of men.
