ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



A FOREST HYMN. 



THE groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned 

 To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, 

 And spread the roof above them ere he framed 

 The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 

 The sound of anthems ; in the darkling wood, 

 Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down, 

 And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 

 And supplication. For his simple heart 

 Might not resist the sacred influences 

 Which, from the stilly twilight of the place, 

 And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven 

 Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound 

 Of the invisible breath that swayed at once 

 All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed 

 His spirit with the thought of boundless power 

 And inaccessible majesty. Ah, why 

 Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect 

 God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore 

 Only among the crowd, and under roofs 

 That our frail hands have raised ? Let me, at least, 

 Here, in the shadow of this aged wood, 

 Offer one hymn thrice happy, if it find 

 Acceptance in His ear. 



Father, thy hand 



Hath reared these venerable columns. Thou 

 Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou .didst look down 

 Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith, rose 

 All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun, 

 Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze. 

 And shot toward heaven. The century-living crow 

 Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died 

 Among their branches, till, at last they stood, 

 As now they stand, massy, and tall, and dark. 

 Fit shrine for humble worshipper to hold 

 Communion with his Maker. * :;: 



These dim vaults, 



These winding aisles, of human pomp or pride 

 Report not. No fantastic carvings show 

 The boast of our vain race to change the form 

 Of thy fair works. But thou art here thou filPst 

 The solitude. Thou art in the soft winds 

 That run along the summit of these trees 

 In music ; thou art in the cooler breath, 

 That from the inmost darkness of the place 

 Comes, scarcely felt ; the barky trunks, the ground, 

 The fresh moist ground, are all instinct with thee. 



