May 1, 2005
Have
faith in God –
Decide for Jesus now;
Have faith in God –
Make here your solemn vow;
Have faith in God –
His Word will tell you how.
Have faith, dear friend, in God.
The Spacious Firmament
Joseph Addison, 1672-1719
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Psalm 19:1.
Words by Joseph Addison in The Spectator (London, England: August 23, 1712). It followed an essay on the proper means of strengthening and confirming faith in the mind of man, with this introduction:
The Supreme Being has made the best arguments for his own existence in the formation of the heavens and the earth, and these are arguments which a man of sense cannot forbear attending to who is out of the noise and hurry of human affairs…The Psalmist has very beautiful strokes of poetry to this purpose in that exalted strain (Psalm 19). As such a bold and sublime manner of Thinking furnished out very noble Matter for an Ode, the Reader may see it wrought into the following one.
The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame
Their great Original proclaim.
Th’unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator’s powers display,
And publishes to every land
The work of an Almighty Hand.Soon as the evening shades prevail
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth;
While all the stars that round her burn
And all the planets in their turn,
Confirm the tidings as they roll,
And spread the truth from pole to pole.What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid the radiant orbs be found?
In reason’s ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
Forever singing as they shine,
“The hand that made us is divine.”
Have Faith in God by H.M.S.
Richards, Used by Permission