THE UNCERTAINTY OF LIFE.
Ан! who can tell which hour may be his last?
Perhaps my summons now is on its way;
Then let me rather muse upon the past,
Than count securely on the coming day..
Full many a ship that sailed at smiling morn,
Rich in her freight, and of her bravery vain,
'Midst changing skies, o'er raging billows borne,
Hath found ere night, her grave beneath the main.
Then let us seek a dwelling that shall last,
Far, far above this mouldering house of clay,
That, when this little life is gone and past,
Ours be the bliss that never shall decay.
Ere gentle sleep upon my eyelids fall,
To Thee, O God, would I my soul resign; For thy dear Son, forgive me when I call, That if I live or die, I may be thine.
TO PARENTS BEREAVED OF HOPEFUL
CHILDREN.
LOOK up with grateful joy, and weep no more;
To you the precious privilege is given,
Better than adding thousands to your store,
Of adding angels to the host of heaven.
G. MOGRIDGE.
WHAT nation will you find whose annals prove
So rich an interest in almighty love?
Where dwell they now? where dwelt in ancient day
A people planted, watered, blessed as they?
Let Egypt's plagues and Canaan's woes proclaim
The favours poured upon the Jewish name;
Their freedom purchased for them at the cost
Of all their hard oppressors valued most;
Their title to a country not their own
Made sure by miracles till then unknown;
For them the state they left made waste and void,
For them the states to which they went destroyed;
A cloud to measure out their march by day,
By night a fire to cheer the gloomy way;
That moving signal summoning, when best,
Their host to move, and when it stayed, to rest.
For them the rocks dissolved into a flood,
The dews condensed into angelic food,
Their very garments sacred, old yet new,
And Time forbid to touch them as he flew ;
Streams swelled above the bank enjoined to stand,
While they passed through to their appointed land;
Their leader armed with meekness, zeal, and love,
And graced with clear credentials from above;
Themselves secure beneath the Almighty wing,
Their God, their captain, lawgiver, and king;
Crowned with a thousand victories, and at last
Lords of the conquered soil, there rooted fast;
In peace possessing what they won by war,
Their name far published, and revered as far.
Where will you find a race like theirs, endowed
With all that man e'er wished, or heaven bestowed?
They and they only amongst all mankind
Received the transcript of the eternal mind,
Were trusted with his own engraven laws,
And constituted guardians of his cause;
Their's were the prophets, their's the priestly call,
And their's by birth the Saviour of us all.
CHRIST WEEPING OVER JERUSALEM.
O SALEM! who, in proud disdain,
My faithful prophets slew;
And soon, the cup of guilt to drain,
Wilt slay thy Saviour too!
How had my love thy children blest,
Their deeds of blood forgot,
And led them to eternal rest;
But they consented not!
Now shall thy house be desolate,
Thy glory now shall close;
Nor leave one trace of ruined state,
To tell where Salem rose.
Nor shalt thou thy Redeemer see,
Nor hail thy crown restored,
Till thou shalt say, "How blest is He
Whom Thou hast sent, O Lord!"
FROM heaven's high centre to its lowest line,
The sky is set with stars, a countless host,
Where lately shone but two or three at most;
Yet still those early few conspicuous shine,
With larger orb and brightness more divine.
So when the Christian starts upon his race,
Some simple doctrines shed the ray benign,
That marks the path his doubtful feet must trace:
He journeys on, and as he journeys, new
And glorious truths surprise him; but the few
He first beheld still keep the foremost place,
And guide, and light, and cheer him to the end;
The Father's love, the Holy Spirit's grace,
And Christ at once his Saviour and his Friend.
THE lapse of time and rivers is the same;
Both speed their journey with a restless stream ;
The silent pace with which they steal away,
No wealth can bribe, no power persuade to stay;
Alike irrevocable both, when past,
And a wide ocean swallows both at last.
Though each resemble each in every part,
A difference strikes at length the musing heart;
Streams never flow in vain, where streams abound,
How laughs the land with various plenty crown'd;
But time, which should enrich the nobler mind,
Neglected, leaves a dreary waste behind.
THE FALLING LEAF.
SAD but instructive emblem of decay,
To feverish hopes and slumbering fears addressed, Thy pensive tale a moral has impressed, That youth should learn before the winter's day; For come it must hereafter, and it may
Outstrip the passing year. Go to thy rest, Pale beauty of the wood, no more caressed, No more to join the desolated spray! Ev'n so man's leaf descends into the dust, And falls to rise no more. But as the bough At spring's return another leaf shall find, And clothe itself again; the ransomed just, Though naked and bereft their branches now, To vernal honours shall again be joined, In leaves that never shall their fall deplore, Whose bough the winter's hand shall touch no
SICKNESS and pain, and sin and death no more;
Their power ended, and their sufferings o'er;
Thou, Lord, wilt guide me with thine own right hand,
And bring me to Immanuel's happy land;
There shall I see, by angel-hosts adored,
And saints in light, my Saviour and my Lord:
Despised once when earth, as man, He trod,
All glorious now upon the throne of God.
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