T H E L A D I E S '   R E P O S I T O R Y .

J U L Y,   1 8 4 9 .

      'Tis sweet and refreshing to the soul to look abroad over this wide and extended earth, and behold in its vast and varied scenery the wondrous skill of the all-creating Hand. The diversity of upland and plain, forest and field, swelling seas, roaring cataracts, leaping torrents, placid lakes, and majestic rivers, is well calculated to awaken in the heart the profoundest emotions of wonder and grateful adoration, and insensibly to lead the heart from the contemplations of these scenes in their wildest, sublimest, loveliest grouping, to the great Author of such grandeur, beauty, and loveliness. And yet, though earth may present scenes which are surpassingly fair, there are none which awaken such emotions of rapture--such expansion of soul, as we all experience, when we lift our eyes to heaven's azure, star-gemmed dome, which the hand Omnipotent has spread above so wondrously.

      Day hath its glories--the splendors of the rising day, the overpowering blaze of noon, and the golden beams of eve's dying smile--but they are all too brilliant and dazzling, and the very effulgence of their beauty overpowers the weak sense, and forbids the calm reflection, to which the mild and vailed glory of the midnight sky invites.

      Walk abroad, thou lover of nature, at midnight's solemn noon, and study attentively the silent yet eloquent and instructive scene--look at the fair moon as she walks the sky in all her queenly beauty--look upon those light, fleecy clouds, like fairy barks sailing upon the unbroken surface of heaven's untroubled sea, and far, far above, upon the silent stars, which, like sleepless watchers, circle the eternal throne: and then, if thou canst, lay thy hand upon thy heart, and declare, in the presence of all these bright witnesses, that there is no God. No, they bear too much of the impress of their great Original; they utter in the spirit's ear such sweet words of peace, purity, and harmony, that the very thought is repressed; holier feelings are awakened, the stormy passions are lulled to repose, and he who, amid the gay and thoughtless, and the glare and glitter of day's busy scenes, might be led to join in the scoff of the proud [206] blasphemer, now thinks that these are better moments, and feels that he can

      Such is the influence of the night scene, when her brow is richly decked with such flashing jewels, and we wonder not that men in the absence of revelation from God, should turn to the starry host, as pure divinities, and appoint, for their solemn worship, the altar, temple, and the priest; for they of all material things seem the most suitable objects for human worship--the most likely to be the rulers and arbiters of human destiny. We wonder not that the Chaldean Shepherd, who nightly strove to read this wondrous scroll, should, in an age of superstition, suppose, that awful and mysterious words--words involving the fate of nations and empires--were written on the skies in characters of flame, and that to him was given power to understand these bright revealings of futurity. Nor should it be a matter of surprise, that those who first dared to brave the angry waves of ocean, should entertain great reverence for the starry chart which guided their way across its pathless waters. But to the Christian, of all other men, the heavens possess the deepest and sublimest interest. He sees in the starry host strong and abiding proofs of the power and goodness of Him whose hand first formed, and whose mind still controls them. He rises up on Thought's swift wing, and, enraptured with their fadeless splendor, exclaims with the minstrel king, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork." He stops not in any midway flight; in imagination he sees them peopled with pure, bright, unfallen intelligences, and longs for the time when, released from its bonds of clay, his spirit may plume its imprisoned pinions, and wing its flight from star to star, and learning their story from their blest inhabitants, may, through endless years, find new reason to bless the beneficent power, that in goodness and wisdom hath created them all.

[The Ladies' Repository 9 (July 1849): 206-207.]

      William Baxter's "Short Sermons from the Poets: Number V" was first published in The Ladies' Repository: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, Vol. 9, No. 7, July 1849, pp. 206-207. This volume, edited by B. F. Tefft, was published in Cincinnati by L. Swormstedt and J. H. Power and in New York by G. Lane and L. Scott.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 14 April 2000.
Updated 28 June 2003.