LET others start back with affrighted eye
From the black horror-struck declivity;
Let others, with closed eyes and drooping head,
Hang o'er the quiet pillow of the dead.
All hail to thee, O Death! thou com'st to me Clad in no chilling gorgon panoply,
Mine eye unscath'd thy awful face hath scann'd,
I see no sword of terror in thy hand.
My head in gladness at thy feet I bow,
I see no darkening shadow on thy brow.
O messenger of hope and peace from God,
Bearer of joy and blessing, not the rod :
Thy hand, celestial soother of our cares,
From Paradise a torch of glory bears,
And gentle Faith, the Christian's angel-guide,
Unfolds a world of beauty at thy side!
Come then, dear Spirit, quickly, and unbind
The earthly chains that press upon my mind.
Oh, wherefore lingerest thou? Appear! Appear!
E'en now my spirit sorrows to be here,
Longing to that Great Being to ascend,
At once my bright beginning and my end!
'Tis gone, that bright and orbed blaze,
Fast fading from our wistful gaze;
Yon mantling cloud has hid from sight
The last faint pulse of quivering light.
In darkness and in weariness
The traveller on his way must press;
No gleam to watch on tree or tower,
Whiling away the lonesome hour.
Sun of my soul! thou Saviour dear,
It is not night if thou be near:
Oh! may no earth-born cloud arise
To hide thee from thy servant's eyes.
When round thy wondrous works below
My searching, rapturous glance I throw,
Tracing out wisdom, power, and love,
In earth or sky, in stream or grove ;-
Or by the light thy words disclose Watch Time's full river as it flows, Scanning thy gracious providence, Where not too deep for mortal sense :—
When with dear friends sweet talk I hold,
And all the flowers of life unfold ;-
Let not my heart within me burn,
Except in all I thee discern.
When the soft dews of kindly sleep
My wearied eyelids gently steep,
my last thought, how sweet to rest
For ever on my Saviour's breast.
Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without thee I cannot live:
Abide with me when night is nigh,
For without thee I dare not die.
Thou Framer of the light and dark,
Steer through the tempest thine own ark ;
Amid the howling wintry sea,
We are in port if we have thee.
The rulers of this Christian land,
"Twixt thee and us ordain'd to stand,Guide thou their course, O Lord, aright, Let all do all as in thy sight.
Oh, by thine own sad burthen, borne
So meekly up the hill of scorn,
Teach thou thy priests their daily cross
To bear as thine, nor count it loss!
If some poor wandering child of thine
Have spurn'd, to-day, the voice divine,
Now, Lord, the gracious work begin;
Let him no more lie down in sin.
Watch by the sick: enrich the poor
With blessings from thy boundless store:
Be every mourner's sleep to-night
Like infant's slumbers, pure and light.
Come near and bless us when we wake, Ere through the world our way we take : Till in the ocean of thy love
We lose ourselves in heaven above.
THE heart has tendrils, like the vine,
Which round another's bosom twine,
Outspringing from the parent tree
Of deeply-planted Sympathy,
Whose flowers are hope, its fruits are bliss ; Beneficence its harvest is.
There are some bosoms dark and drear,
Which an unwater'd desert are:
Yet there a curious eye may trace
Some smiling spot, some verdant place,
Where little flowers, the weeds between,
Spend their soft fragrance all unseen.
Despise them not-for Wisdom's toil
Has ne'er disturb'd that stubborn soil:
Yet care and culture might have brought
The ore of Truth from mines of thought;
And Fancy's fairest flowers had bloom'd
Where Truth and Fancy lie entomb'd.-
Insult him not-his blackest crime
May, in his Maker's eye sublime,
In spite of all thy pride, be less
Than e'en thy daily waywardness:
Than many a sin, and many a stain,
Forgotten, and impressed again.
There is, in every human heart,
Some not completely barren part,
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