ELEMENTS.
Reading edition
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.—Galatians, iv. 3.
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?—Galatians, iv. 9.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.—II. Peter, iii. 10.
I cavilled at the elements—what is earth? A huge congestion of unmethodized matter With but a skin of life—a mighty solid, Which nature’s prodigal of space provides For superficial uses; and what air? A motion and a pressure; fire? a change; And light? the language of the things called dumb. Last came the troubled question—what am I? A blade, a sapling of the growth of life Wherewith the outside of the earth is covered; A comprehensive atom, all the world In act of thought embracing; in the world A grain scarce filling a particular place. Henry Taylor.
Father, I know my frame is all composed Of elements that perish; and I know The bondage whereunto my grovelling soul Still turns, in spite of higher aspirations. Oh, grant me strength to burst the chains of sense! That in the elemental wreck to come, I may not perish utterly, but live To praise and bless Thee for my great salvation. Egone.
Let every element rejoice; Ye thunders, burst with awful voice To Him who bade you roll. His praise in softened notes declare, Each whispering breeze of yielding air, And breathe it to the soul. Ogilvie.