Then, cold and dark, my spirit sinks, To see my light of life depart;And every fiend of Hell, methinks, Enjoys the anguish of my heart.
What shall I do, if all my love, My hopes, my toil, are cast away, And if there be no God above, To hear and bless me when I pray?
If this be vain delusion all, If death be an eternal sleep, And none can hear my secret call, Or see the silent tears I weep!
Oh, help me, God! For thou alone Canst my distracted soul relieve;Forsake it not: it is thine own, Though weak, yet longing to believe.
Oh, drive these cruel doubts away;And make me know, that Thou art God!
A faith, that shines by night and day, Will lighten every earthly load.
If I believe that Jesus died, And waking, rose to reign above;Then surely Sorrow, Sin, and Pride, Must yield to Peace, and Hope, and Love.
And all the blessed words He said Will strength and holy joy impart:
A shield of safety o'er my head, A spring of comfort in my heart.
A WORD TO THE "ELECT."
You may rejoice to think YOURSELVES secure;You may be grateful for the gift divine--
That grace unsought, which made your black hearts pure, And fits your earth-born souls in Heaven to shine.
But, is it sweet to look around, and view Thousands excluded from that happiness Which they deserved, at least, as much as you.--
Their faults not greater, nor their virtues less?
And wherefore should you love your God the more, Because to you alone his smiles are given;Because He chose to pass the MANY o'er, And only bring the favoured FEW to Heaven?
And, wherefore should your hearts more grateful prove, Because for ALL the Saviour did not die?
Is yours the God of justice and of love?
And are your bosoms warm with charity?
Say, does your heart expand to all mankind?
And, would you ever to your neighbour do--
The weak, the strong, the enlightened, and the blind--
As you would have your neighbour do to you?
And when you, looking on your fellow-men, Behold them doomed to endless misery, How can you talk of joy and rapture then?--
May God withhold such cruel joy from me!
That none deserve eternal bliss I know;Unmerited the grace in mercy given:
But, none shall sink to everlasting woe, That have not well deserved the wrath of Heaven.
And, oh! there lives within my heart A hope, long nursed by me;(And should its cheering ray depart, How dark my soul would be!)
That as in Adam all have died, In Christ shall all men live;And ever round his throne abide, Eternal praise to give.
That even the wicked shall at last Be fitted for the skies;And when their dreadful doom is past, To life and light arise.
I ask not, how remote the day, Nor what the sinners' woe, Before their dross is purged away;Enough for me to know--
That when the clip of wrath is drained, The metal purified, They'll cling to what they once disdained, And live by Him that died.
PAST DAYS.
'Tis strange to think there WAS a time When mirth was not an empty name, When laughter really cheered the heart, And frequent smiles unbidden came, And tears of grief would only flow In sympathy for others' woe;When speech expressed the inward thought, And heart to kindred heart was bare, And summer days were far too short For all the pleasures crowded there;And silence, solitude, and rest, Now welcome to the weary breast--
Were all unprized, uncourted then--
And all the joy one spirit showed, The other deeply felt again;And friendship like a river flowed, Constant and strong its silent course, For nought withstood its gentle force:
When night, the holy time of peace, Was dreaded as the parting hour;When speech and mirth at once must cease, And silence must resume her power;Though ever free from pains and woes, She only brought us calm repose.
And when the blessed dawn again Brought daylight to the blushing skies, We woke, and not RELUCTANT then, To joyless LABOUR did we rise;But full of hope, and glad and gay, We welcomed the returning day.
THE CONSOLATION.
Though bleak these woods, and damp the ground With fallen leaves so thickly strown, And cold the wind that wanders round With wild and melancholy moan;There IS a friendly roof, I know, Might shield me from the wintry blast;There is a fire, whose ruddy glow Will cheer me for my wanderings past.
And so, though still, where'er I go, Cold stranger-glances meet my eye;Though, when my spirit sinks in woe, Unheeded swells the unbidden sigh;Though solitude, endured too long, Bids youthful joys too soon decay, Makes mirth a stranger to my tongue, And overclouds my noon of day;When kindly thoughts that would have way, Flow back discouraged to my breast;I know there is, though far away, A home where heart and soul may rest.
Warm hands are there, that, clasped in mine, The warmer heart will not belie;While mirth, and truth, and friendship shine In smiling lip and earnest eye.
The ice that gathers round my heart May there be thawed; and sweetly, then, The joys of youth, that now depart, Will come to cheer my soul again.
Though far I roam, that thought shall be My hope, my comfort, everywhere;While such a home remains to me, My heart shall never know despair!
LINES COMPOSED IN A WOOD ON A WINDY DAY.
My soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring And carried aloft on the wings of the breeze;For above and around me the wild wind is roaring, Arousing to rapture the earth and the seas.
The long withered grass in the sunshine is glancing, The bare trees are tossing their branches on high;The dead leaves beneath them are merrily dancing, The white clouds are scudding across the blue sky I wish I could see how the ocean is lashing The foam of its billows to whirlwinds of spray;I wish I could see how its proud waves are dashing, And hear the wild roar of their thunder to-day!
VIEWS OF LIFE.
When sinks my heart in hopeless gloom, And life can show no joy for me;And I behold a yawning tomb, Where bowers and palaces should be;In vain you talk of morbid dreams;In vain you gaily smiling say, That what to me so dreary seems, The healthy mind deems bright and gay.
I too have smiled, and thought like you, But madly smiled, and falsely deemed:
TRUTH led me to the present view,--
