Yes! as the sailor, who by tempests tost
On some lone coast, survives his shipmates lost,
Spreads for his native home once more the sail
That swells exulting in the favouring gale,
And joyful strains (the rising shore in view)
To catch each object to remembrance true;
So in that last, that great decisive hour,
When the new form assumes angelic power,
In rank celestial though the virtuous shine,
'Mid radiant bands transcendant and divine,
Still may they know the friends on earth they
knew,
And souls unite that there engrafted grew!
Great Lord of life! whose voice to roseate bloom Shall wake the form long wither'd in the tomb, O give salvation's star our course to light Through all the dangers of this mortal night; And when the vaunts of Death and Time expire, As life rekindles with immortal fire
In resurrection's morn, for us to shine
And gild with rays of peace the mercy-seat divine!"
"O Thou whose lonely contemplation trod
Gethsemane and Tabor, there to pray,
And in communion see the face of God,
Let us not linger in this house of clay
Without Thy visitation,—and the ray
That from between the cherubim of light
Illumes the path from darkness into day,
Nor only guides, but strengthens for the flight
The spirit that aspires where Thou and heaven
Age, grief, infirmity have yet a calm
That brings the servant nearer to the feet
Of Him who shall award the crown and palm,
When with his angels to the mercy-seat
He comes, and all earth's generations meet
Messiah-generations of the dead.
While worlds to worlds the jubilee repeat
Of saints in triumph to their kingdom led,
Jehovah their defence, Immanuel their head!
Rejoice, disciple of the Lord, in loss,
In grief, in age, in tribulation blest;
More closely to thy bosom press the cross,
And thankfully acknowledge all is best
As Providence hath ordered, whose behest,
Then most benign when seeming most severe,
Protects us from ourselves, nor offers rest
Till Time dissolving in th' eternal year
Proclaims our full repose from sorrow, sin, and
fear.
Our days are register'd, and ev'ry hour
Gives warning :-not a moment ever roll'd
Without a testimonial to that Power
That spread abroad the firmament of old,
Appointed summer's heat, and winter's cold,
The fruits of autumn, and the bloom of spring,
Call'd forth the sun, the stars by number told,
And bade all ages, all creation sing
The constellations' birth-the glory of their King.
Behold how Nature's volume is to all
Laid open-there the record to peruse
Of Him by whom earth's kingdoms rise and fall,
The seasons change, the clouds distil their dews,
The garden and the mead display their hues.
The sky's illimitable circuit feels
His guidance, and the destined course pursues,
And day by day and night by night reveals
What hand each insect feeds, each star and planet wields.
Then turn not from the melodies of morn,
In cold abstraction, nor refuse to hear
The early echoes, of that sweet season born,
Blend with the list'ning breeze so pure and clear.
No, let them wake devotion to revere
The Giver of all good! and pay her vow,
When first day's eyelid opens on the sphere
Terrestrial, and transfigures all below,
Till fair as Paradise, earth, ocean, ether glow!
Nor may we pass the mystery of noon
Unsolemnized-Then was the ransom paid
That purchas'd for the world salvation's boon;
Then trembled earth, the sun retired dismay'd,
The vault of heaven was wrapp'd in deepest shade,
And height and depth convuls'd, the signal gave
How high the victim that atoned for man-
E'en Him who quell'd the whirlwind and the wave,
Death overcame, its sting, the serpent, and the
But morning and the noon of life are fled,
And glooms of eve to sadder musing call,
Ere night prepare the pillow for the head
On that sepulchral couch ordain'd for all
Earth's progeny, that soon or later fall
Like wither'd leaf.-Yet though we seem to die,
Though dissolution and decay enthral
Our mortal frame, the soul shall upward fly
Ever from strength to strength to meet its God on high."
Extract from Poem to Bishop Kenn, by Mr.
Hoyle, contained in Bowles' Life of Kenn.
"O grant to me, indulgent Heaven, Grant me with trembling and with awe To use each earthly blessing given,
And using, own thy Wisdom's law :
Own that each joy I feel or know
Is partner to another's woe.
I smile amid lament;
And as Time's restless wheel goes round,
My turn for sorrow must be found
My hour of trial sent.
O, when Thou givest, give, I pray,
A heart awake to future ill;
And when thou lackest, take away
Each feeling rebel to Thy will.
Humble in joy, for joy will fly,
Patient in woe, for woe will die,
To every lot resign'd;
So let me view life's gleaming scene,
Still warn of woe behind."
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