Adoration. GOD'S FIRST TEMPLES. A HYMN. BY BRYANT. 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 sound of anthems,-in the darkling wood, All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect Only among the crowd, and under roofs Father, thy hand Hath reared these venerable columns; Thou down Thou didst look Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith, rose breeze, And shot towards heaven. The century-living crow Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died In music ;-Thou art in the cooler breath, The fresh moist ground, are all instinct with Thee. Passes; and yon clear spring, that, 'midst its herbs, Of all the good it does. Thou hast not left Are here to speak of Thee. This mighty oak- In all the proud old world beyond the deep, |