Behold! th' Ambassador Divine,
Descending from above,
To publish to mankind the law
Of everlasting love!
On him, in rich effusion pour'd,
The heavenly dew descends;
And truth divine he shall reveal
To earth's remotest ends.
No trumpet-sound, at his approach,
Shall strike the wondering ears;
But still and gentle breathe the voice
In which the God appears.
By his kind hand the shaken reed
Shall raise its falling frame:
The dying embers shall revive,
And kindle to a flame.
The onward progress of his zeal
Shall never know decline,
Till foreign lands and distant isles
Receive the law divine.
He who spread forth the arch of heaven,
And bade the planets roll,
Who laid the basis of the earth,
And form'd the human soul,-
Thus saith the Lord, "Thee have I sent,
A Prophet from the sky,
Wide o'er the nations to proclaim
The message from on high.
"Before thy face the shades of death
Shall take to sudden flight;
The people who in darkness dwell
Shall hail a glorious light;
"The gates of brass shall 'sunder burst,
The iron fetters fall;
The promised jubilee of Heaven
Appointed rise o'er all.
"And lo! presaging thy approach,
The heathen temples shake,
And trembling in forsaken fanes,
The fabled idols quake.
"I am Jehovah: I am One:
My name shall now be known;
No idol shall usurp my praise,
Nor mount into my throne."
Lo, former scenes, predicted once,
Conspicuous rise to view;
And future scenes, predicted now,
Shall be accomplished too.
Now sing a new song to the Lord!
Let earth his praise resound:
Ye who upon the ocean dwell,
And fill the isles around.
O city of the Lord! begin
The universal song:
And let the scatter'd villages
The joyful notes prolong.
Let Kedar's wilderness afar
Lift up the lonely voice;
And let the tenants of the rock
With accent rude rejoice.
O from the streams of distant lands
Unto Jehovah sing!
And joyful from the mountain tops
Shout to the Lord the King!
Let all combined with one accord
Jehovah's glories raise,
Till in remotest bounds of earth
The nations sound his praise.
