Who can resist th' Almighty arm

that made the starry sky?

Or who elude the certain glance

of God's all-seeing eye?

From him no cov'ring vails our crimes;

hell opens to his sight;

And all Destruction's secret snares

lie full disclosed in light.

Firm on the boundless void of space

he poised the steady pole,

And in the circle of his clouds

bade secret waters roll.

While nature's universal frame

its Maker's power reveals,

His throne, remote from mortal eyes

an awful cloud conceals.

From where the rising day ascends,

to where it sets in night,

He compasses the floods with bounds,

and checks their threat'ning might.

The pillars that support the sky

tremble at his rebuke;

Through all its caverns quakes the earth,

as though its centre shook.

He brings the waters from their beds,

although no tempest blows,

And smites the kingdom of the proud

without the hand of foes.

With bright inhabitants above

he fills the heavenly land,

And all the crooked serpent's breed

dismayed before him stand.

Few of his works can we survey;

these few our skill transcend:

But the full thunder of his pow'r

what heart can comprehend?