Virginia Free Press

"Let there be light!"—were the words of creation,
That broke on the chaos and silence of night.
The creatures of matter moved to their station,
Suffused into being, and kindled to light.
"Let there be light!" the Great Spirit descended,
And flashed on the waves that in darkness had slept;
The sun in his gory giant ascended,
The dews on the earth their mild radiance wept.
"Let there be light!"—and the fruits and the flowers,
Replied and smiled to the new-lighted air;
There was music in the gale, there was bosom in the bowers,
Sweet sounds for the ear, and soft beams for the eye.
"Let there be light!"—And the millions of womanhood
Deriv'd joy on the man who thus Paradise swayed;
There was joy—till the foe of all happiness human
Crept into these bowers—serpent baleful—and gray.
"Let there be light!"—were the words of salvation,
When man had dejected life's object and end,
Had quelled for himself consolation,
Abandoned a God and confirm'd a sad.
"Let there be light!"—The same Spirit supernal
That lit up the torch when creation began,
Laid aside the bright beams of his Godhead—
And wrought as a servant, and wept as a man.
"Let there be light!" from Gethsemane springing,
From Golgotha's darkness, from Calvary's tomb.
Joy, joy unto mortals, and angels are singing,
The light and the lamp of the hemisphere.