MORNING PRAISES TO THE LORD.
By Charles Elmer Jenney
[Charles Elmer Jenney, in the Ram’s Horn.] When the glory of the Morning sends its heralds on their way,
And the dark-lashed lids of Hesper open, trembling, on the Day;
When the world wakes to the truth of the clear call, “All is well,”
That the faithful watchman night-long never once has ceased to tell;
Nor has ceased, these twenty centuries, since that dawn so dull and gray,
When, fulfilling words prophetic, timed he Peter’s thrice-said “Nay:”
When the leaves are all a-rustle at the stirring of the breeze,
Comes a clear-toned matin from the high-arched chancel of the trees,
As the bird-choir’s cheery carols, in a flute-like roundelay,
Upward on the incensed zephyrs praises to the Lord convey.
Listen to the happy voices of His children of the air!
Shall my heart, less grateful, render not its tribute to His care?
Up! Awake, my Soul, rejoicing as the new tides forward sweep.
Thy diurnal resurrection from the sepulcher of Sleep
Is an emblem always with thee, of a greater natal day,
And the joy of Life Eternal echoed by the bird’s blithe lay.