Within that awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries!
Happiest they of human race,
read more

Within that awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries!
Happiest they of human race,
To whom God has granted grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, and force the way:
And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

But Thy good word informs my soul
How I may climb to heaven.

But Thy good word informs my soul
How I may climb to heaven.

Starres are poore books, and oftentimes do misse;
This book of starres lights to eternal blisse.

Starres are poore books, and oftentimes do misse;
This book of starres lights to eternal blisse.

We search the world for truth; we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful,
From all old read more

We search the world for truth; we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful,
From all old flower fields of the soul;
And, weary seeker of the best,
We come back laden from out quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.

And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere
Free from corruption, or entire, or clear,
Are uncorrupt, sufficient, read more

And that the Scriptures, though not everywhere
Free from corruption, or entire, or clear,
Are uncorrupt, sufficient, clear, entire
In all things which our needful faith require.

How glad the heathens would have been,
That worship idols, wood and stone,
If they the book read more

How glad the heathens would have been,
That worship idols, wood and stone,
If they the book God had seen.

The history of every individual man should be a Bible.

The history of every individual man should be a Bible.

Out from the heart of nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old.

Out from the heart of nature rolled
The burdens of the Bible old.

The word unto the prophet spoken
Was writ on tablets yet unbroken:
The word by seers or read more

The word unto the prophet spoken
Was writ on tablets yet unbroken:
The word by seers or sibyls told,
In groves of oak or fanes of gold,
Still floats upon the morning wind,
Still whispers to the willing mind.