HYMN. Joanna Baillie Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851. Fugitive Verses. By Joanna Baillie, author of “Dramas on the Passions,“ etc. London Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXL. 1840 pp. 378-380.

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HYMN . ALMIGHTY God , from whom our being came , To whom it tends , blest be thy holy name ! Blest when through pillared aisles we roam , Or kneel beneath the lofty dome , As full o'er-head , and all around , Swell harmonies of long-drawn sound , While storied windows with deep tinctured beam , On chiselled forms and graven pavements gleam ! Blest in the low-browed house of prayer , Where homely pews and rafters bare Encompass those , who meekly look Upon the cherished , holy book ! Blest in the cot where , on the ground , The patriarch peasant kneels with all his family round ! But oh ! most blest where thy adorer stands , Within a temple not upreared by hands ! O'er-canopied by pure etherial blue , On which fair clouds , of white and silvery hue , In wide array with slow progression range , And varied forms assume in endless change ; The granite peak , by storms of ages beat , The pavement is , on which he sets his feet , And there a goodly scope surveys , Enlightened by the morning rays . Below , distinctly marked , are seen , Fields , hamlets , towns , and woodlands green ; And then beyond , but less defined , A sweep of hills and vales combined , Where brooding vapours scarce betray , Some river winding on its way ; And far beyond , by distance made , A fainter line of light and shade , While further still , in distance lost , Lie sea , and shore , and clifted coast , — A vasty circle , dim and pale , Of mortal ken the closing veil . In this thy Temple , fair and grand , Doth thine adoring creature stand , His eyes in extacy of wonder raising , His glowing , throbbing heart thy goodness praising , Till tears run coursing down his cheeks , And every thrilling member speaks The one absorbing thought his soul containeth , Of love and awe composed , " the Lord omnipotent reigneth . "