CREATION AND SALVATION.
By C. Morton
WHEN nature’s first morning in glory and splendor
Arose o’er the empire of chaos and night,
And the new-born creation in beauty and grandeur
Was launched into vision on billows of light;
Surprised into new and unknown adoration,
All Heaven was instant in homage and praise
To Him who is high above all exaltation,
The Maker Supreme, the dread Ancient of Days. But when the blest morning of life and salvation
Arose o’er the empire of death and the grave,
And shone with the glory of man’s restoration
By Him who is able and mighty to save,
All Heaven in deepest amazement suspended,
Desired to look into the wonderful plan;
But angels most mighty could not comprehend it,
So great was the mercy and love to lost man. And when nature’s temple, this shadow of glory,
Whose lamps are the stars, and whose curtains the skies;
Shall pass and be gone as a dream or a story,
Then one on its ruins eternal shall rise,
Whose light is the Lamb, and whose walls are salvation,
Whose gates are all praise, and whose pillars are truth.
And those who are saved out of every nation,
Shall walk in its light in perpetual youth. There the river of life from the throne of Jehovah,
The tree of life there, all the nations to heal,
Shall flow and shall flourish forever and ever,
And there the True Light all himself shall reveal,
To eat of that tree and to drink of that river,
Forever to shine in the beams of that light,
To behold and enjoy him forever and ever,
There shall we with angels in glory unite.
—C. Morton