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VI. God an all sufficient good, and my only happiness.

WHY is my heart so far from thee,

My God, my chief delight?

Why are my thoughts no more by day,
With thee no more by night?

Why shouldst my foolish passions rove?
Where can such sweetness be

As I have tasted in thy love,
As I have found in thee?

Where can I hope to meet such joys as thy smiles have given me? where can I find pleasure so sincere and unallayed? When I have enjoyed the light of thy countenance, and the sense of thy love, has not all my soul been filled? have I found any want or emptiness? has there been any room left for desire, or any prospect beyond, besides the more perfect enjoyment of my God? Have not all the glories of the world been darkened, and turned into blackness and deformity? how poor, how contemptible have they appeared? or rather have they not all disappeared and vanished like dreams and shadows in the noon of day, and under the blaze of sun-beams?

I have never found satisfaction in any thing but in God; why then do I wander from him? why do I leave the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns? why do I abandon the full ocean in search of shallow streams? what account can I give for folly like this? I can promise myself nothing from

the creature; those expectations shall deceive me no more. It is thou, my God, thou art the only object of my hopes and desires: it is thou only that canst make me happy.

If thou frown, my being is a curse; thy indig nation is hell with all its terrors. Let me never feel that, and I defy all things else to make me miserable. I seem independent on all nature; to thee only I apply myself; hear me, thou beneficent Author of my being, thou support of my life; to thee I direct my wishes, those desires which thou wilt approve, while I ask but the happiness I was created to enjoy. Oh! fix all my expectation on thee, and free me from this levity and inconstancy. Look gently down, Almighty grace,

Prison me round in thy embrace;
Fity the heart that would be thine,
And let thy power my love confine.

Suffer me never to start from thee; such a confinement were sweeter than liberty: "Thy yoke "is easy, and thy burden light." I shall bless the chain that binds me to thee. Oh! give me such a view of thy beauty, as shall fix my volatile heart for ever; such a view as shall determine all its motions, and be a constant conviction, how unreasonable it is to wander from thee.

Is it that I relish any thing beyond thy love? Oh! No. I appeal even to thee who canst not be deceived, and knowest the inmost secrets of my soul thou knowest where the balance of my

love falls, and that my wanderings are not deliberate; that it is not by choice that I forsake thee. I grieve, 1 sigh for my folly; shouldst thou forgive me, I can never forgive myself, for I know it is inexcuseable.

I want nothing when I am possessed of thee; without thee I want all things Thou art the centre of all my passions; I have no hope but what is thine, no joy but what flows from thee; my greatest fears are those of losing thee; my inmost care is to secure thy favour. This is the subject of my deepest anxiety; every sigh I breathe ends in thy name, and that loved name alone allays every anguish of my soul, and calms its wildest tempests.

From thy frowns or favour all my joys or sorrows spring; thy frowns can make me infinitely miserable, thy favour can make me infinitely blessed. I can defy hell, and smile in the face of death, while I can call thee mine. My God! still let me bless the sound, and part with all things, rather than renounce my property in thee; let me hold it to my last breath, and claim it with my expiring sighs.

Secure of thee, nothing can terrify my soul; all is peaceful and serene within, eternal love and immortal pleasure; I desire no more; imagination stops here, and all my wishes are lost in eternal plenty.My God, more cannot be asked, and

with less I should be infinitely miserable. The kingdoms of the skies should not buy my title to thee, and thy love: the blessedness of all creatures is complete here; for God himself is blessed in himself for ever.

What can I add, for all my words are faint,
Celestial love no eloquence can pairt?
No more can be in mortal sounds express'd,
But vast eternity shall tell the rest.

VII. A Covenant with God.

INCOMPREHENSIBLE Being, who " searchest the "heart, and triest the reins of the children of men," thou knowest my sincerity, and my thoughts are all unveiled to thee; I am surrounded with thinc immensity; thou art a present, tho' invisible wit ness of the solemn affair I am now engaged in. I am now" taking hold of thy strength, that I may "make peace with thee," and entering into articles with the Almighty God. These are the happy days long since predicted, when "one shall say, "I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself "by the name of Israel, and another shall subscribe "with his hand to the Lord; and I will be their "God, and they shall be my sons and my daughters, "saith the Lord JEHOVAH."

With the most thankful sincerity I take hold of this covenant as it is more fully manifested and explained in the gospel by Jesus Christ; and hum

bly accepting thy proposals, I bind myself to thee by a sacred and everlasting obligation. By a free and deliberate action, I do hereby ratify the articles which were made for me in my baptism, into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ;. I religiously devote myself to thy service, and entirely submit to thy conduct. I renounce the glories and vanities of the world, and chuse thee as my happiness, my supreme felicity, and everlasting portion. I make no article with thee for any thing besides; deny or give me what thou wilt, I will never repine, while my principal treasure is secure.. This is deliberate, my free and sincere determination; a determination which, by thy grace, I will.

never retract.

Oh! thou, by whose power alone I shall be able to stand," Put thy fear in my heart, that I

may never depart from thee :" let not the world, with all its flatteries nor death, nor hell, with all their terrors, force me to violate this sacred vow. › Oh let me never live to abandon thee nor draw the impious breath that would deny thee.

And now let surrounding angels witness for me, that I solemnly devote all the powers and faculties of my soul to thy service; and when I presumptuously employ any of the advantages thou hast given me to thy dishonour, let them testify against me, and let my own words condemn me.

ELIZABETH ROWE.

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