1Great God! the heavens' well ordered frame

Declares the glory of thy name,

A thousand starry beauties there,

A thousand radiant marks appear,

2From night to day, from day to night,

The dawning and the dying light

With silent eloquence they raise

Our thoughts to our Creator's praise,

3Yet thy divine instructions run

Far as the journeys of the sun:

We see thy smile in Nature's face,

And in the pages of thy grace

1Begin the high, celestial strain,

A sacred hymn of grateful praise

2Ye curling fountains, as ye roll

Repeat to all your verdant shores

3Bear it, ye breezes, on your wings,

And round the wide-extended world

4Take up the burden of his name,

To deck with gold the opening morn,

5Long let it warble round the spheres,

Let angels, with immortal skill,

6While we, with sacred rapture fired,

And chant our consecrated lays

1Blessed be thy name forever,

Thou of life the Guard and Giver!

Thou canst guard thy creatures sleeping,

Heal the heart long broke with weeping:

God of stillness and of motion,

Of the desert and the ocean,

Of the mountain, rock and river,

Blessed be thy name forever!

2Thou who slumberest not nor sleepest,

Blest are they thou kindly keepest.

God of evening's parting ray,

Of midnight gloom, and dawning day--

That rises from the azure sea

Like breathings of eternity;

God of life! that fade shall never,

Blessed be thy name forever!

O bless his name whose love extends

Salvation to the world's far ends.

Till heathen tongues his grace proclaim,

And every heart adores his name.

He swells the tempests on the main,

Or breathes the zephyr o'er the plain.

'Tis nature's wild, unconscious song

O'er thousand waves that floats along.

O, let his works declare his name

Through all the universal frame.

1Hail, great Creator--wise and good!

Nature, through all her various scenes,

2Thy glory beams in every star,

And decks the smiling face of morn

3Great nature's God! still may these scenes

Still may our grateful hearts consult

4And while, in all thy wondrous ways,

Oh, may our hearts, great God, be led

1Ours is a lovely world, how fair

Thy beauties e'en on earth appear!

And bring successive joys. The sea,

The earth, the sky, are full of thee,

2There's beauty in the heat of day;

There's glory in the noon-tide ray;

Magnificence in night. Thy love

Arch'd the grand heaven of blue above,

3And if thy glories here be found,

Streaming with radiance all around,

In thee we'll hope, in thee confide,

Thou, mercy's never ebbing tide,

1Thou art, O God, the life and light

Its glow by day, its smile by night,

Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,

And all things fair and bright are thine.

2When day, with farewell beam delays

And we can almost think we gaze,

Those hues that mark the sun's decline,

So soft, so radiant, Lord, are thine.

3When night, with wings of starry gloom,

Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume

That sacred gloom, those fires divine,

So grand, so countless, Lord, are thine.

4When youthful spring around us breathes,

And every flower that summer wreathes

Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,

And all things fair and bright are thine.

1The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great original proclaim.

Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,

Doth his Creator's power display;

And publishes to every land

The work of an Almighty hand.

2Soon as the evening shades prevail,

The moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly to the listening earth

Repeats the story of her birth:

Whilst all the stars which round her burn,

And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

3What though, in solemn silence, all

Move round this dark terrestrial ball;

What though no real voice nor sound

Amidst their radiant orbs be found;

In reason's ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice;

Forever singing, as they shine,--

"The hand that made us is divine."

1Lord, when thou said'st, "So let it be,"

And this whole earth stood gloriously;

2The whole creation still records,

That thou art God, the Lord of lords;

1The heavenly spheres, to thee, O God,

All wise, all holy, thou art praised,

Unnumbered systems, suns and worlds,

While thy majestic greatness fills

2Nature,--a temple worthy thee,

Whose flowers so sweetly bloom below,

Whose altars are the mountain cliffs

Whose anthems, the sublime accord

3Her song of gratitude is sung

Her summer offers at thy shrine

Her autumn brings its ripened fruits,

While winter's silver heights reflect

4On all thou smil'st; and what is man

A breath, but yesterday inspired,

That clod shall mingle in the vale,

The spirit to thy arms shall spring,

1The heavens, O Lord! thy power proclaim,

And the earth echoes back thy name;

Ten thousand voices speak thy might,

And day to day, and night to night,

Utter thy praise--thou Lord above!

Thy praise, thy glory, and thy love.

2And nature with its countless throng,

And sun, and moon, and planets' song,

And every flower that light receives,

And every dew that tips the leaves,

And every murmur of the sea--

Tunes its sweet voice to worship Thee.

3Thy name thy glories they rehearse,

Great Spirit of the universe;

Sense of all sense, and soul of soul,

Nought is too vast for thy control;

The meanest and the mightiest share

Alike thy kindness and thy care.

1Lo! the lilies of the field!

How their leaves instruction yield!

Hark to nature's lesson given

By the blessed birds of heaven!

Every bush and tufted tree

Warbles trust and piety:

Children, banish doubt and sorrow,--

God provideth for the morrow.

2One there lives, whose guardian eye

Guides our earthly destiny;

One there lives, who, Lord of all,

Keeps his children lest they fall:

Pass we, then, in love and praise,

Trusting him, through all our days,

Free from doubt and faithless sorrow,--

God provideth for the morrow.

1God of the fair and open sky!

The tented dome, of heavenly blue,

Each brilliant star, that sparkles through

In evening's purple radiance, gives

2God of the rolling orbs above,

In the warm day's unvarying blaze,

For every fire that fronts the sun,

Around the utmost verge of heaven,

3God of the world, the hour must come,

Her crumbling altars must decay;

But still her grand and lovely scenes

For hearts grow holier as they trace

1The heavens declare his glory,

Each day repeats the story,

Their silent proclamation

The record of creation,

2There, from his bright pavilion,

Hailed by earth's thousand million,

His glorious race commencing,

Through the vast round dispensing

3So pure, so soul-restoring

A brighter radiance pouring

The wanderer surely guiding,

And evermore abiding,

1I praised the earth in beauty seen,

With garlands gay of various green;

I praised the sea, whose ample field

Shone glorious as a silver shield;

And earth and ocean seemed to say,

"Our beauties are but for a day."

2I praised the sun, whose chariot rolled

On wheels of amber and of gold;

I praised the moon, whose softer eye

Gleamed sweetly through the summer sky;

And moon and sun in answer said,

"Our years are told when we must fade."

3O God, O, good beyond compare!

If thus thy meaner works are fair,--

If thus thy bounties gild the span

Of sinful earth and mortal man,--

How glorious must thy mansion be

Where thy redeemed shall dwell with thee.

1The turf shall be my fragrant shrine;

My temple, Lord, that arch of thine,

My censor's breath the mountain airs,

And silent thoughts my only prayers.

My choir shall be the moonlight waves,

When murmuring homeward to their caves,

Or when the stillness of the sea,

E'en more than music breathes of thee.

2I'll seek, by day, some glade unknown.

All light and silence like thy throne,

And the pale stars shall be, at night,

The only eyes that watch my rite.

Thy heaven, on which 'tis bliss to look,

Shall be my pure and shining book,

Where I can read, in words of flame,

The glories of thy wondrous name.

3There's nothing bright, above, below,

From flowers that bloom, to stars that glow,

But in its light my soul can see

Some feature of thy Deity.

There's nothing dark, below, above,

But in its gloom I trace thy love,

And meekly wait that moment, when

Thy touch shall turn all bright again.