A UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

"Breath of the soul, by Jesus taught to rise,

And blend with anthems heard beyond the skies."

TRANSCENDANT POWER! almightily supreme,

Unborn, sublime, eternal, and alone,

The Uncreated God!-at whose command

Nature and Time did hand in hand arise,

And round Thee wheel a universe of worlds,

Descend! and magnify our thoughts for prayer;

Illume, expand, and purify the soul

With inward glory from Thyself derived ;

The springs of mind unlock, and let them pour

The vital feelings forth, in one full stream

Of adoration, duteous as divine.

Thou Infinite! since first creation roll'd, Of Thee thy mercy hath a shade reveal'd To Nature's heart; in every age or clime, Heard in the wind, or by the tempest robed, Or in the parent Sun presumed to shine,— Still has immortal Soul been stamp'd with Thee!

Oh! all that thought can span, or eye perceive, Is but a part, a shadow of Thy power, Creating, filling, and upholding All!

The arch'd immensity above us spread,

Where mystic worlds perform their silent march,

And Seasons live and die; the chainless deep,

Belting the earth with majesty and might;

The mountains pinnacled with storms, the floods And streams, the meadows beautified with flowers,

A God declare! and in the thunder-peals,

Rattling from cloud to cloud their voices dire,
Like Sinai, when the awe of sound convulsed
Her cavern'd height,-a Deity is there!

But when dark whirlwinds o'er creation sweep,
Like rebel spirits plunging from the sky,-

We dread Thee, wing'd upon each awful blast!

Fountain of Light and Love! while Nature hymns Thy praise, in wave or wind, from shore to shore, -the grace

Thy miniature, immortal man—1

And glory of the earth—with brow erect
Was made to walk the world in joy, to share
Thy goodness, and adore the hand divine :

Then look,-thou Universal One, whose eye

Alike on all is fix'd-with mercy view

This wide and peopled World; from east to west,

From north to south, Thy guardian care extend :

In Polar climes, in lands refined or rude,

In isles remote, or deserts grimly vast,—
Where beats a heart within a human breast,
There be Thou present, and Thy power adored!
And oh! since all one common race are doom'd
To run, and one eternal goal to reach,

May Thy prime attribute each bosom warm
With tender sympathy and truth; may man
To man be link'd in fellowship of soul,

Till one vast chain of Love embrace the world!

UNSEARCHABLE! before whose boundless gaze The Past, the Present, and the Future stand! Submissive, we implore Thee to unshroud The Sun of truth; his heavenly beam advance