1 Kings 5:4-5 — THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT 804-22
After this war one work remains for us, O leaders, that which Solomon achieved, The peaceful scion and the unarmed heir Of a warlike realm, whose father's weary hand Was sullied by the ardent blood of kings. The blood effaced, a temple is upraised And golden altar, house sublime of Christ. Jerusalem then by its temple crowned, Received its God, now that the wandering ark On the marble altar found repose. In our camp let a sacred temple rise, that God may in its sanctuary dwell. What profits it to have repelled the hosts Of earthborn vices, if the Son of man From heaven descending, enter the body cleansed, But unadorned and not a temple fair? Thus far we have engaged in fierce conflict: Now let white-vestured Peace perform its tasks, And youth unarmed build up a sacred house.
1 Peter 3:19 — HYMNS 9.70-75
That the dead might know salvation, who in limbo long had dwelt, Into hell with love he entered; to him yield the broken gates As the bolts and massive hinges fall asunder at his word. Now the door of ready entrance, but forbidding all return Outward swings as bars are loosened and sends forth the prisoned souls By reversal of the mandate, treading its threshold once more.
1 Peter 5:8 — HYMNS 4.79-81
Who goes roaring around, raging madly As he seeks to entrap and devour us, When, O infinite God, we praise thee only!
1 Thessalonians 4:16 — HYMNS 11, 105-8
When at the awful trumpet's sound The earth will be consumed by fire, And with a mighty rush the world Unhinged, will crash in dreadful ruin.
1 Thessalonians 5:6 — HYMNS 1.1-8
The winged messenger of day Sings loud, foretelling dawn's approach, And Christ in stirring accents calls Our slumbering souls to life with him. "Away," he cries, "with dull repose, The sleep of death and sinful sloth; With hearts now sober, just and pure, Keep watch, for I am very near."
2 Corinthians 6:14 — HYMNS 1.58-60
Shall we stoop to say of mammon who have been reborn in Christ? Formed to God's eternal image, shall we serve the fleeting world? God forbid that celestial flame should be mingled with earth's mire.
Exodus 2:3 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 12.141-52
Thus Moses in a former age Escaped proud Pharaoh's foolish law, And as the savior of his race Prefigured Christ who was to come. A cruel edict had been passed Forbidding Hebrew mothers all, When sons were born to them, to rear These virile pledges of their love. Devoutly scornful of the king, A zealous midwife found a way To hide her charge and keep him safe For future glory and renown.
Exodus 3:2 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 49-70
It was the Word, breathed from the Father's mouth, Who of the Virgin took a mortal frame. The human form that not yet in the flesh Appeared to Moses wore a brow like ours, Since God, who would by power of the Word Assume a body, made the face the same. Flames rose and seemed to burn the thorny bush. God moved amid the branches set with spines, And tresses of the flames swayed harmlessly, That he might shadow forth his Son's descent Into our thorny members sin infests With teeming briers and fills with bitter woes. For tainted at its root that noxious shrub Had sprouted from its baneful sap a crop Of evil shoots beset with many thorns. The sterile branches suddenly grew bright As God enkindled with his mighty power The leafy boughs, nor harmed the tangled briers. He touched the scarlet berries, blood-red fruits, And grazed the twigs that grew from deadly wood, Shed by the tortured bush with cruel pangs.
Genesis 1:26 — POEMS
The inspired historian makes it very clear That at earth's dawn the Father not alone Nor without Christ his new creation formed. "God fashioned man," he says, "and gave to him The face of God." What but to say that he Was not alone, that God stood by God's side When the Lord made man in image of the Lord?
Genesis 8:6-7 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 3
As a sign that the flood had abated the dove is now bringing Back to the ark in her beak the budding green branch of an olive. For the raven, held captive by gluttony, clung to foul bodies, While the dove brought back the glad tidings of peace that was given.
Genesis 10:8-9 — ORIGIN OF SIN 143-48
A Nimrod, who goes round the world, made rough With deep ravines and wooden crags, and strives To waylay some by fraud and secret wiles, To vanquish others by his giant arms And spread his deadly triumphs far and wide.
Genesis 23:19 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 4-5
This is the lodging place of the Lord, where an oak branch at Mamre Covered the pastoral roof of the ancient seer; in this hospice Sarah laughed at the joy of bearing a child in her old age And at the faith her venerable husband could have in the marvel. Abraham purchased a field wherein he might bury his wife's bones, Inasmuch as justice and faith on the earth dwell as strangers: This is the cave for which he expended a great sum of money, To prepare a fit resting place for his wife's holy ashes.
Isaiah 55:9 — AGAINST SYMMACHUS 2:123-40
"If you would," he says, "Ascend to heaven, banish cares of earth. For far as earth is distant from the sky And heaven from the world below, so far Are your vain thoughts from my eternal thoughts, Ill from good, sin from virtue, dark from light. I counsel you to shun all passing things And deem as nought all to corruption prone, For it is destined to return to nought. All earth brings forth and holds, at dawn of time I made; I decked with splendid ornaments The shining world and formed the elements, But willed that the enjoyment be confined Within due bounds, as far as mortal frame And fleeting human life may have the need, Not that humanity, by unbridled passion ruled, Should reckon good alone things sweet and vain, Which I have preordained to pass with time.
Judges 15:4-5 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 17.18
Samson resistless because of his hair is attacked by a lion; When he killed the wild beast, from its mouth there flowed streams of honey, And from an ass's jawbone comes forth a fountain of water: Folly with water overflows and virtue with sweetness. Samson catches three hundred foxes and arms them with firebrands, Which he ties to their tails, and he lets them go into the cornfields Of the Philistines to burn their crops: thus the fox of false doctrine Cunningly scatters the flames of heresy over our vineyards.
John 1:3 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 11, A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY
Though you came from the mouth of God, Born as his Word on earth below, Yet as his Wisdom you lived Forever in the Father's heart. This Wisdom uttered made the sky, The sky and light and all besides; All by the Word's almighty power Were fashioned, for the Word was God. But when the universe was formed And ordered by unchanging laws, The Cause and architect divine In the Father's bosom still remained, Until the slow revolving years In centuries at length had passed, And he himself condescended to come Down to the world grown old in sin.… But such destruction of humankind The heart of Christ could not endure; And lest his Father's handiwork, Unvindicated, should be lost, He clothed himself in mortal flesh, That by arising from the tomb He might unlock the chains of death And bring man to his Father's house. This is your natal day, on which The high Creator sent you forth, And gave to you a form of clay, Uniting flesh with his own Word.
John 1:14 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 9.10-27
Of the Father's love begotten before the beginning of the world, Called Alpha and Omega, himself both source and end Of all that is, has been, and will exist in times to come. He commanded and they were created, he spoke and they were made, Earth, heavens, the depths of the sea—the triple structure of the universe— And all that inhabits them beneath the lofty orbs of sun and moon. He put on mortal body's form and limbs vulnerable to death, To prevent the destruction of the race sprung from the first creature Whom a deadly law had plunged deep into hell. O what a blessed birth was then, when a virgin in labor, Having conceived by the Holy Spirit, brought forth our salvation, And the child who is the world's redeemer revealed his sacred face. Let the heights of heaven sing, all you angels, sing, Let all the powers everywhere sing in praise of God, Let no tongue be silent, let every voice ring in harmony. Look how the one who was foretold by seers in ages past And pledged in the prophets' reliable writings, Shines forth, he who was promised long ago: let all things praise him.
Joshua 4:3-4 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 177.180
Also, twelve stones from Jordan's bed, Left dry when waters backward flowed, He raised and firmly set in place, The type of Christ's apostles twelve.
Joshua 7:1 — THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT 536.46
And Jericho had seen in her own ruin Our hand's control, when conquering Achan fell. Renowned for bloodshed, proud of leveling walls, He fell a victim to the enemy's gold When from the dust he gleaned the stuff accursed And snatched the mournful plunder from the ruins. His tribe did not avail, nor his descent From Judah, founder of the race of Christ And patriarch blessed in his noble scion. Let those who imitate his race accept A similar form of death and punishment.
Luke 1:34-35 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 566-84
A heavenly fire engenders him, not flesh Nor blood of father, nor impure desire. By power of God a spotless maid conceives, As in her virgin womb the Spirit breathes. The mystery of this birth confirms our faith That Christ is God: a maiden by the Spirit Is wed, unstained by love; her purity Remains intact; with child within, untouched Without, bright in her chaste fertility, Mother yet virgin, mother that knew not man. Why, doubter, do you shake your silly head? An angel makes this known with holy lips. Will you not hearken to angelic words? The Virgin blest, the shining messenger Believed, and by her faith she Christ conceived. Christ comes to men of faith and spurns the heart Irresolute in trust and reverence. The Virgin's instant faith attracted Christ into her womb and hid him there till birth.
Luke 1:34-35 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 25
When God's coming draws near, the angel Gabriel advances From the Father's high throne and enters the house of the Virgin. "Mary," he says, "the Holy Spirit will render you fruitful, And you shall give birth to the Christ, O glorious Virgin."
Luke 1:34-35 — AGAINST SYMMACHUS 2.265-69
He had to be redeemed: my Spirit came down And impregnated flesh made from the dust With the divine nature; God has assumed Humanity, joining it with divinity, And kindled in men's hearts new love of me.
Luke 1:42 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 585-93
Believe what says the angel who was sent From the Father's throne, or if your stolid ear Catch not the voice from heaven, be wise and hear The cry of aged woman, now with child. O wondrous faith! The babe in senile womb Greets through his mother's lips the Virgin's Son, Our Lord; the child unborn makes known the cry Of the Child bestowed on us, for speechless yet, He caused that mouth to herald Christ as God.
Luke 3:4-5 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 7.51-55
As messenger of God, who was about to come, He faithfully observed this law, constructing well, That every hill might low become and tough ways plain, Lest when the truth should glide from heaven down to earth It then would find a barrier to its swift approach.
Luke 3:23-38 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 1001-18
What do you say about the sacred words of Luke When he the genealogy repeats, The fleshly line retracing through old sires? Up generations seventy-two Christ mounts—so many teachers into the world He sent—and by the steps down to his birth Goes back to Adam, head of earthly flesh. The Father then receives his Son and us, And Adam son of God becomes through Christ. Nothing now remains but that you deem this race Unreal, Levi, Judah, Simeon, King David, other mighty kings, unreal, The virgin's swelling womb itself grown big With lying vapor, flimsy clouds and mist. That airy blood dissolves, the bones grow soft And melt, the trembling muscles disappear. That every deed the idle wind dispels, The breezes scatter, all an empty tale.
Luke 4:9 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 31
Still the pinnacle stands, outlasting the temple's destruction, For the corner raised up from that stone which the builders rejected Will remain throughout all ages forever and ever. Now it is head of the temple and holds the new stones together.
Luke 8:28-31 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 36
In his sepulchral prison the savage demon had broken Fetters of iron that bound him; he darts forth and kneels before Jesus. But the Lord sets the man free and orders the devil to madden Herds of the swine and to plunge with them into the depths of the vast sea.
Luke 8:43-44 — HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 9.33-44
Then a woman, weak and timid, touched his sacred garment's hem: Instant was his blessed healing, and the pallor left her cheek, As the hemorrhage she had suffered Through so many years was stopped.
Luke 9:17 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 37
God has broken five loaves and two fishes and fed the five thousand With these foods that satisfy to the fullest their hunger. Then twice six baskets are filled with the fragments that are left over: Such is the bounty dispensed from the heavenly table forever.
Luke 9:17 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 9.58-63
"Place," he said, "in these twelve baskets all the fragments that remain." Thousands at that feast reclining, with abundance had been fed On the five loaves they had eaten and two fishes multiplied. You, our bread, our true refection, never-failing sweetness are. He can nevermore know hunger, who is at your banquet fed, Nourishing not our fleshly nature, but imparting lasting life.
Luke 15:4-5 — HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 8.33-45
When one ailing sheep lags behind the others And loses itself in the sylvan mazes, Tearing its white fleece on the thorns and briers, Sharp in the brambles, Unwearied the Shepherd, that lost one seeking, Drives away the wolves and on his strong shoulders Brings it home again to the fold's safekeeping, Healed and unsullied. He brings it back to the green fields and meadows, Where no thorn bush waves with its cruel prickles, Where no shaggy thistle arms trembling branches With its tough briars. But where palm trees grow in the open woodland, Where the lush grass bends its green leaves, and laurels Shade the glassy streamlet of living water Ceaselessly flowing.
Luke 16:23 — HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 10.149-56
But until the perishable body You will raise up, O God, and refashion, What mansion of rest is made ready For the soul that is pure and unsullied? It shall rest in the patriarch's bosom As did Lazarus, hedged round with flowers, Whom Dives beheld from a distance While he burned in the fires everlasting.
Luke 22:34 — HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 1.49-68
The Savior once to Peter showed What hidden power this bird may have, And warned that ere the cock would crow Himself three times must be denied. For evil deeds are ever done Before that herald of the dawn Enlightens humankind and brings An end to error and to sin. Forthwith he wept his bitter fall Whose lying lips denied the Christ, The while his heart was innocent, And steadfast faith his soul preserved. And never more such word he spoke, By slip of tongue or conscious fault, For mindful of the crowing cock, The just man ceased from ways of sin. Hence all now hold in firm belief That in the stillness of the night When loudly crows the joyful cock Our Lord came back from hell's dim shore.
Luke 23:40-42 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 42
Water and blood flow out from the pierced sides of the Savior. Blood indicates the victory, and water stands for baptism. The two robbers on crosses on each side dispute with each other. One denies Christ is God, but the other wins heavenly glory.
Luke 23:43 — HYMN FOR EVERY DAY 10.157-68
We believe in thy words, O Redeemer, Which, when triumphing over death's darkness, Thou didst speak to thy robber companion, Bidding him in thy footprints to follow. Lo, now to the faithful is opened The bright road to paradise leading; Man again is permitted to enter The garden he lost to the Serpent. To that sacred abode, O great Leader, Take, we pray thee, the soul of thy servant; Let it rest in its native country, Which it left, as an exile to wander.
Mark 5:3 — HYMN 9
Then a man bereft of reason, dwelling in sepulchral caves, Bound with cruel and grinding fetters and with raging frenzy torn, Rushes forth and kneels in worship, as the saving Christ draws near.
Mark 5:13 — HYMN 9
Driven forth, the wily demons, legion named that evil scourge, Seize upon the sordid foulness of a herd of filthy swine And into the muddy waters plunge themselves with maddened beasts.
Mark 5:20 — A HYMN ON THE TRINITY
Behold, a legion hurls headlong the swine Of Gerasenes, and once enchained in tombs, It loudly grunts with pain. From lips possessed It had cried out: "O Jesus, Son of God, Offspring of David's royal line, we know Who you are and why you have come, what power Expels us, at your coming filled with dread." Has not this voice, Judea, reached your ears? True, but it has not pierced your darkened mind And, driven back, has from the threshold fled. Now sets the evening sun, where he who beholds The rosy dawn beholds the Lord's advent. The fervent gospel word Has thawed the Scythian frosts and Hyrcanian snows, So that Rhodopeian Hebrus, freed from ice, Flows from Caucasian cliffs, a gentler stream.
Mark 5:34 — HYMN 9
Members filled with leprous ulcers, flesh corrupted and decayed, "Go and wash them, I command you"; what he ordered then is done; Wounds are healed by pious cleansing, swollen flesh grows smooth again. Now on eyes, by lifelong darkness, shrouded from the light of day Thou dost spread a clay of healing, made with nectar from thy lips; Soon the blinded orbs are opened and rejoice in late-found sight. Thou dost chide the angry tempest and the savage hurricane, Which upheave the tossing billows and beset the fragile boat; At thy bidding winds are subject, and the rolling waves are stilled. Then a woman, weak and timid, touched his sacred garment's hem: Instant was the blessed healing, and the pallor left her cheek, As the hemorrhage she had suffered through so many years was stopped. Lazarus for four days buried, hidden in the sunless tomb, He restores to life and vigor, giving power to breathe again, And the soul returning, enters flesh now crumbling to decay.
Mark 6:8 — THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT
To wish for nothing more than need demands Is rest supreme, with simple food and dress To feed and clothe our bodies and to seek No more than is prescribed by nature's wants. When going on a journey, take no purse, Nor of a second tunic think, and be Not anxious for the morrow, lest for food The belly lack. Our daily bread returns With every sun. Does any bird take thought Of tomorrow, certain to be fed by God?
Mark 6:38 — A HYMN ON THE TRINITY
Five loaves and fishes two he orders placed As food before the people thronging round Their master, by their hunger undeterred, Who mindful not of food forgot their towns, Their forts, their markets, hamlets, trading-posts And cities, glad to feed upon his words. The festive gathering swarms upon the plain; By hundreds they recline in friendly bands, And round the countless boards they range themselves To dine on two small fish and scanty crusts He multiplies—know now that he is God!
Mark 6:41 — HYMNS 9
Thou, our bread, our true refreshment, never failing sweetness art; He can nevermore know hunger, who is at thy banquet fed, Nourishing not our fleshly nature, but imparting lasting life. … Every sickness now surrenders, every listlessness departs, Tongues long bound by chains of silence are unloosed and speak aright, While the joyful paralytic bears his pallet through the streets.
Mark 6:43 — A HYMN ON THE TRINITY
The banquet ended, plates still overflow, And with the crumbs twelve baskets then they fill. The stuffed boy strives with undigested fare, The waiter groans beneath his heavy load. Who can a great feast spread from stores so few? Who but the maker of our frame and all That nurtures it, who shaped the world from nought? Almighty God without the aid of seed Fashioned the earth, not as the sculptor works To lift the block of bronze from metal fused. All that now is was nought: that nothingness Was into being brought and bidden grow. Small was the first creation, but it grew Till it became the mighty universe. Therefore, when I behold that meager fare Thus multiplied within the hands of Christ, Can I doubt that the elemental forms First made by him from nothing, by degrees Have grown to that perfection we now see? Lest fragments should be trodden on and lost, When men had fed, or should become the spoil Of wolves or foxes or of petty mice, Twelve men were charged to heap in baskets full The gifts of Christ to keep and spread afar.
Mark 6:48 — AGAINST SYMMACHUS 2
Simon, surnamed Peter, Chief disciple of Christ the Lord, On a day at the set of sun When the evening sky grows red, Unloosed his anchor's hook, And filled his sails with the swelling winds, And made ready to cross the sea. But night roused up a contrary gale That stirred up the deeper waves And buffeted the floundering boat. Shouts of fishermen struck the sky, With shrieks and despairing groans Amid the creak of swaying ropes. Nor did any have hope of escape From shipwreck and a watery death, When the oarsmen all wan with fear Saw Christ himself not far away Treading surely upon the surge, Just as though on the barren shore He walked over the solid ground.
Mark 6:50 — AGAINST SYMMACHUS 2
Thus I by my loquacious tongue From the heaven of silence am led Into perils unknown and dark. Not as Peter, disciple true, Confident in his virtue and faith, I am as one whose unnumbered sins Have shipwrecked on the rolling seas.… How easily can I be shipwrecked, One untaught in seafaring arts, Unless you, almighty Christ, Stretch forth your hand with help divine.
Mark 6:51 — HYMN 5
O mighty is the power of God, The power that all things did create, That calmed the waters of the sea When Christ upon its surface walked, So that in treading on the waves, He moved dry-shod across the deep, Nor ever did he wet his soles As light he skimmed the surging flood.
Mark 7:36 — HYMNS 9
Deafened ears, of sound unconscious, every passage blocked and closed, At the word of Christ responding, all the portals open wide, Hear with joy friendly voices and the softly whispered speech. Every sickness now surrenders, every listlessness departs, Tongues long bound by chains of silence are unloosed and speak aright, While the joyful paralytic bears his pallet through the streets.
Mark 13:35 — A HYMN FOR COCK-CROW
"Away," he cries, "with dull repose, The sleep of death and sinful sloth; With hearts now sober, just and pure, Keep watch, for I am very near."
Mark 14:58 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 40, 41
Lo, the house of the wicked blasphemer, Caiaphas, has fallen, Where the sacred face of the Christ was cruelly smitten. This destruction will be the lot of all reprobate sinners, For their life will lie buried in crumbling ruins forever. In this house the Lord stood upright, bound and tied to a pillar, And submitted his back as a slave bound and tied to a pillar, Worthy of reverence, this pillar still stands, supporting a temple, And instructing us how to lead our lives. free from all scourges
Mark 14:58 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
Do not the quarried stones of Solomon Now lie in ruins, that temple built by hand? Why so? The mortal hand of mason wrought That short-lived work. It rightly lies in ruins, Since every work of art returns to nought. All that is made is doomed one day to fall. Learn what our temple is, if you would know; It is one that no artisan has built, A structure not of riven fir or pine, Nor reared with blocks of quarried marble fair. Its massive weight no columns high support Beneath the arches of a gilded vault. By God's Word it was formed, not by his voice, But by the everlasting Word, the Word made flesh. This temple is eternal, without end, This you attacked with scourge and cross and gall. This temple was destroyed by bitter pains. Its form was fragile from the mother's womb, But when brief death the mother's part dissolved, The Father's might restored it in three days.
Mark 16:4 — SCENES FROM SACRED HISTORY 43, THE SEPULCHER OF CHRIST
Neither the stone nor the bolts of the tomb could hold Christ a captive; Death lies conquered by him, he has trampled on hell's fiery chasm. With him a throng of saints ascended to heavenly regions, And to many he showed himself, letting them see and touch him.
Mark 16:19 — HYMN 9, A HYMN FOR EVERY HOUR
Hail! Thou king of all the living; Hail! Thou judge of all the dead, At the right hand of thy Father, Thou art throned in highest power, And from thence just judge of sinners, Thou shalt one day come again.
Proverbs 8:27-28 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 11
This Wisdom uttered made the sky, The sky and light and all besides; All by the Word's almighty power Were fashioned, for the Word was God.
Psalms 8:6 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 3:36-40
From his Providence, humanity has received All that he grasps with imperious hand: All that the sky and the earth and the sea Yields from the air and the waves and the fields, This he subjects to me, me to himself.
Psalms 24:7 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 518-36
Learn what our temple is, if you would know; It is one that no artisan has built, A structure not of riven fir or pine, Nor reared with blocks of quarried marble fair. Its massive weight no columns high support Beneath the arches of a gilded vault. By God's Word it was formed, not by his voice, But by the everlasting Word, the Word made flesh. This temple is eternal, without end, This you attacked with scourge and cross and gall. This temple was destroyed by bitter pains. Its form was fragile from the Mother's womb, But when brief death the Mother's part dissolved, The Father's might restored it in three days. You have beheld my saving temple rise On high, surrounded by an angel throng. The everlasting gates uphold its roof; Through lofty towers the glorious stairs arise, And at the top appears a shining path.
Psalms 44:1 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 90-93
The majesty that with the Father dwelled, His spirit and thought, the way of his designs, Which made not by his hand or spoken word, Breathed from the Father's heart, declared his will.
Psalms 119:105 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 33-46
Behold a stone is set for us, a stumbling block, Against which vanity may strike, A sign unto the faithful, scandal to the lax, The one it fells, the other guides. The blind one feels his way with slow uncertain step And runs into what'er he meets. The lamp of faith alone must shine before our feet, That footsteps may unswerving be. The foe assails and carries off the wanderers Who in the darkness go astray, A demon who devours the wheat speeds on the way For pilgrims passing to and fro, A thief who tampers with the fertile fields of Christ By sowing in them barren oats. A demon who devours the wheat spread on the way For pilgrims passing to and fro, A thief who tampers with the fertile fields of Christ By sowing in them barren oats.
Psalms 135:7 — BOOK OF THE MARTYRS' CROWNS 10:325-35
The sky above, the earth and ocean's mightydepths, The orbs presiding over day and over night, The winds and tempests, lightnings, showers of rain and clouds, The polar stars, the star of evening, heat and snow, The fountains, hoarfrosts, precious veins of ore and streams, One in their might one both the Father and the Son, And that one splendor generated by one light With all the Godhead's plenitude of brightness shone. In God one undivided being operates, And by one power was created all that is, The rugged cliffs and level plains and mountain dells, Wild beasts, the fowl of air and reptiles, all that swim, The beasts of burden, cattle, oxen, mammoth brutes, The flowers and shrubs, the vines, the herbs and woodland groves, All plants that shed their fragrance, plants that food supply.
Psalms 148:1-2 — HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY 22-24
Sing his praises heights of heaven, all you angels sing his praise, Let the mighty hosts of heaven sing in joyous praise of God; Let no tongue of humanity be silent, let all voices join the hymn.
Romans 5:12 — THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, LINES 909-15
Such was the soul's first state. Created pure Through sordid union with the flesh it fell Into iniquity; stained by Adam's sin, It tainted all the race from him derived, And infant souls inherit at their birth The first man's sin; no one is sinless born.