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THE BEAUTY OF WISDOM.

PROVERBS iv. 9.

SHE SHALL GIVE TO THINE HEAD AN ORNAMENT OF GRACE: A CROWN OF GLORY SHALL SHE DELIVER TO THEE.

I.

CANST thou on dress and beauty place

Thy wishes and delight,
Forgetful that the highest grace
Is out of mortal sight?

II.

Canst thou to wealth, or fame, or power,

A glittering fabric build,

To see the airy, tottering tower
Fall, ere thy plan's fulfill'd?

III.

Think less of earth and earthly things:
The world, with all its form,

Its flattery, and its threatenings,

Are passing to the worm.

IV.

Leave more to God, and learn to find

Fresh beauties in his page;

And let the treasures of the mind

Thy better thoughts engage.

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THE BEAUTY OF WISDOM.

V.

Seek Wisdom in life's early morn,
And thou shalt find in her
The various graces that adorn

The Christian character.

VI.

Nor hard the search; those gems are near;
The heav'nly list survey:1

Then say, for this life's short career,
What charms so bright as they?

VII.

But Wisdom's hand shall place a crown
Upon her servant's brow,

When Death has torn the circlet down,
That shines with diamonds now.

VIII.

The meek and lowly, on that day,
The poor, and plain, and lone,
Shall shine like stars 2 of purest ray,
When heav'n shall claim its own. 3

IX.

Change cometh not o'er that blest place,
Nor beauty waxeth dim;

The Saints behold their Saviour's face, 4
And are complete in Him.5

1 Gal. v. 22, 23.

2 Dan. xii. 3.

3 Mal. iii. 17.

6 Col. ii. 10.

4 1 John iii. 2.

MY SON, HEAR THE INSTRUCTION OF THY FATHER, AND FORSAKE NOT THE LAW OF THY MOTHER.

HEARKEN UNTO THY FATHER THAT BEGAT THEE, AND DESPISE NOT THY MOTHER WHEN SHE IS OLD.

THE EYE THAT MOCKETH AT HIS FATHER, AND DESPISETH TO OBEY HIS MOTHER, THE RAVENS OF THE VALLEY SHALL PICK IT OUT, AND THE YOUNG EAGLES SHALL EAT IT.

I.

ATTEND, ye children, while my tongue
Shall tell from Scripture's page
The duties owing by the young

To those of riper age.

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DUTY OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS.

II.

As children, you should always show
The love and honour due

To both your parents, for you know
They loved and cared for you.

III.

Before you learn'd to walk or speak,
They fed you day by day;
They told you Jesus' love to seek,
And taught you how to pray.

IV.

How oft, when you were sick and ill,
Beside your bed they stood;
They griev'd to see your stubborn will,
Were glad when you were good.

V.

And will not you regard their love,
Nor render back the fruits

Of all their care? Why, this would prove
That you were worse than brutes.

VI.

Shall children, blest with reason, lie
Beneath such sad disgrace,

As turning fiercely round to fly
Against a parent's face?

DUTY OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS.

VII.

But, above all, the God of truth
The Fifth Commandment spake ;1
Which, to be happy, every youth
Must for his guidance take;

VIII.

Lest, when his parents both are dead,
His soul be sorely vex'd,

And misery light upon his head

In this world and the next.

IX.

Then heed your parents' just commands ;
And, should they need it, grant
The willing labour of your hands,
That they may never want.

Exod. xx. 12. Eph. vi. 1, 2, 3.

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