[From a work entitled, "A Word for the Sabbath," for sale at the office of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.] WHEN first the rapid march of Time began,
And God achieved his ever-wondrous plan,
When heaven and earth the royal summons heard, And came, obedient, at the Almighty's word,
Sky, land, and sea, and forms of beauty there,
Raised their glad anthems on the silent air;
Then did the Morning Stars loud songs employ,
And all the sons of God gave shouts of joy.
When planets; glimmering on the brow of night,
The orb of day, with his refulgent light,
And rolling earth, each taught their varied bounds, Commenced, majestic, their eternal rounds—
Six days alone this glorious work employed;
God on the seventh a sacred rest enjoyed.
Calmly and grand the six day's labor close,
The seventh beholds the Deity's repose.
Oh! wondrous power, when the creative power
Ceasing, as dawned that calm auspicious hour,
The Lord in holy, contemplative mood
Surveyed his finished work, and called it good.
'Twas meet the day on which the King did rest
Should thus be hallowed, sanctified, and blest.
'Twas meet that man, from God's example given,
Should yield each seventh day to him and heaven. So was the hallowed season set apart
To be observed by every loyal heart. Thus full and clear the Sabbath was made known,
Firm as the pillars of Jehovah's throne.
With the fair earth it left its Maker's hand,
And with the earth will co-existent stand. As yet, upright in innocence man stood,
Not yet engulfed in sin's polluting flood,
Still pure in heart he walked the earth abroad,
And face to face held converse with his God,
No error yet had slightest foothold found
Within the precincts of that hallowed ground.
In this pure season was the Sabbath given,
When earth was but the outer court of Heaven.
'Twas not a type, foretelling sin to come,
A sad reminder of man's fearful doom,
When e'en his soul by sin's polluting breath
Was doomed, unless redeemed, to certain death.
As yet, man needed no redeeming grace,
Nor type of that as yet could here find place.
A child of Eden is the Sabbath fair,
Its natal breath, that garden's sinless air.
And when to earth Heaven's Royal Monarch came, His car the clouds, his steeds devouring flame,
When Sinai's towering mount obsequious bowed,
And swelling trumpet answered thunders loud,
When thus the King of kings his footstool pressed,
And trembling earth proclaimed her mighty guest,
'Mid all these heralds of almighty power,
'Mid all the grandeur of that awful hour,
God spake his just, eternal law to man;
And thus, in plainest truth, this precept ran: The Sabbath day remember; then shall close
The days of weekly toil, for calm repose.
For earthly care and toil, six days are thine,
The seventh is God's holy day divine;
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
And gave all beings and all creatures birth,
And on the seventh enjoyed a sacred rest;
Wherefore the Sabbath day Jehovah blest.
Thus God's own finger points us to its birth,
When he from out the void made heaven and earth.