rouding the glow of Heaven.

Such statements of belief were not rare in the Apologists; but Nature
at this time was losing independent importance in men's minds, like
life itself, which after Cyprian was counted as nothing but a fight
with the devil.[14]

There is deep reverence for Nature in the lyrics, the hymns of the
first centuries A.D., as a work of God and an emblem of moral ideas.
Ebert observes[15]

In comparison with the old Roman, one can easily see the
peculiarities and perfect originality of these Christian lyrics.
I do not mean merely in that dominance of the soul life in which
man appeared to be quite merged, and which makes them such
profound expressions of feeling; but in man's relationship to
Nature, which, one might say, supplies the colour to the
painter's brush.[16] Nature appears here in the service of ideal
moral powers and robbed of her independence;[17] the servant of
her Creator, whose direct command she obeys. She is his
instrument for man's welfare, and also at times, under the
temporary mastery of the devil, for his destruction. Thus Nature
easily symbolizes the moral world.

'Bountiful Giver of light, through whose calm brightness, when the
time of night is past and gone, the daylight is suffused abroad,
Thou, the world's true morning star, clearer than the full glorious
sun, Thou very dayspring, very light in all its fulness, that dost
illumine the innermost recesses of the heart,' sings St Hilary in his
Morning Hymn; and in another hymn, declaring himself unworthy to lift
his sinful eyes to the clear stars, he urges all the creatures, and
heaven, earth, sea and river, hill and wood, rose, lily, and star to
weep with him and lament the sinfulness of man.

In the Morning Hymn of St Ambrose dawn is used symbolically; dark
night pales, the light of the world is born again, and the new birth
of the soul raises to new energy; Christ is called the true sun, the
source of light; 'let modesty be as the dawn, faith as the noonday,
let the mind know no twilight.'

And Prudentius sings in a Morning Hymn [18]: 'Night and mist and
darkness fade, light dawns, the globe brightens, Christ is coming!'
and again: 'The herald bird of dawn announces day, Christ the awaker
calls us to life.' And in the ninth hymn: 'Let flowing rivers, waves,
the seashore's thundering, showers, heat, snow, frost, forest and
breeze, night, day, praise Thee throughout the ag