THE GLORY-FILLED EARTH.
By Uriah Smith
"But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." Num. xiv, 21. MARRED is thy course, O earth, with sin and woe;
In gory stains thy mantle now appears;
And days, and years, and ages, as they go,
Are resonant with groans and wet with tears.
And still beneath thy weary load of years,
Thou toilest on like one too sore oppressed,
While worn humanity, through hopes and fears,
Adjures an answer to its soul's request,
Is there no end of sin, no day of coming rest? Ah, yes, thy days of grief are numbered all!
From thy great Maker comes the fiat forth,
To wipe away thy curse, remove thy pall,
And re-adorn thee with celestial worth;
And holy bards, in strains of heavenly birth,
To themes immortal have attuned the lyre,
And sung of glory yet to flood the earth,
In lays that deep the drooping heart inspire,
And light the torch of hope, with heaven's own hallowed fire. And even now o'er all the eastern hills,
The deepening tints of dawn ascend the sky;
And joy each weary, waiting bosom fills;
For lo! the morn of glory draweth nigh:
When in the radiant heavens ascending high,
The Sun of Righteousness his wings shall spread,
To all the healing of his beams apply,
And wake to endless life the sainted dead;
And, I am sick, shall be no more forever said. Haste, glorious day; for sin too long hath trod
With blighting step o'er earth's once fair domain;
And lo, the whole creation cries to God
For him whose right it is to come and reign.
Come for thy waiting few who yet remain,
With sorrow, toil and dangers still oppressed.
Let earth's re-hallowed soil be once again
By righteous feet alone in gladness pressed,
When to their final home shall come the good and blest. U. S.