Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By The Sundial of Armoy (1847) (Selected Lyrics). I. The Paradise of Heaven

Richard Mant (1776–1848)

“NIGHT flies before the orient morning,”

So speak the dial’s accents clear:

So better speaks the prophet’s warning

To ears that hear.

“Night flies before the sun ascending”;

The sun goes down, the shadow spreads;

O come the day which, never ending,

No night succeeds!

And, see! a purer day-spring beaming,

Unwonted light; nor moon nor sun;

But Light itself, with glory streaming,

God on His throne.

And thence the river flows of gladness,

And there the tree of comfort grows,

Which whoso tastes, all sense of sadness,

All care, forgoes.

O tree profuse of life and healing;

O stream of pleasure, ever new;

O day of light, God’s light revealing,

Essential, true:—

For ye, for righteous men and lowly,

God’s saints, that promised seat prepare;

Nor impious aught, nor aught unholy

Finds entrance there:

Prompt ye my spirit, lest the slumber

Of reckless sloth its pow’rs enchain;

Or worldly lusts its course encumber,

Or thoughts profane.