Scripture Verse

Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:20–21

Introduction

Words: John Need­ham, Hymns De­vo­tion­al and Mo­ral on Va­ri­ous Sub­jects (Bris­tol, En­gland: S. Far­ley, 1768), num­ber 153. The Athe­ist re­proved.

Music: Em­ma­nu­el Carl C. N. Balle, 1850 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Need­ham or Balle (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Blush, athe­ists, blush, your ai­ry schemes,
Your chance, and at­oms, are but dreams:
Science in vain you proud­ly boast,
In er­ror’s end­less maz­es lost.

Nature sur­vey, the migh­ty whole
From north to south­ern dist­ant pole:
Heav’n, earth and seas, and worlds of light
For ages hid from hu­man sight.

Say then, could chance this fab­ric rear
So great, so good, so won­drous fair?
Could chance the heav’n­ly bodies move,
And in strict or­der bid them rove?

Does chance the va­ri­ous sea­sons rule,
The bloom­ing spring, the au­tumn cool?
Bid sum­mer’s heat en­rich the year
And win­ter pinch with frosts se­vere?

Sways chance the em­pire of the main?
Can chance its proud­est waves re­strain?
Command the sense­less tides to flow?
Of teach the ebb its hour to know?

What is all na­ture but de­sign?
Her works, but skill and pow­er div­ine?
The God we see in ev­ery form,
From the arch­an­gel to the worm.

The won­drous scale of be­ings view,
Their nice gra­da­tions close pur­sue;
Deny then, skep­tic, if you can
A pro­per place as­signed for man.

Man, know thy­self, thy rank well know,
And pay the migh­ty debt you owe;
The God adore, who did in­spire
Your frame with an im­mor­tal fire.

Man, view thy soul, nor let it be
A slave when God would have it free;
Nor be it said that brutes ob­ey,
Whilst man re­jects his mak­er’s sway.