J40 Theger

WRITTEN FOR THE CLOSET, BY WM. B. TAPPAN.

And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. Luke vi. 12.

All night in prayer, while mortals slept,
The Saviour woke on bended knee;
And in the mountain vigil kept

Of sighs and tears, my soul! for thee.

Night spread her starry wing around
His head, that drooped for human wo;
And hastening angels sought the ground,
Wondering to see their Maker so.

He prayed-yet not in view of all
The griefs his prescience understood,-
The stripes, the nails, the spear, the gaul,
The crown of thorns, the cross of wood; -

But sight of sin, and sin's desert,

Prest down his soul; and sight of men,
Wounded to death, and, to their hurt,
Rejecting Gilead, grieved him then.

Oh, Saviour in Judea, prayer

Not now is breathed from lips of thine:
That mountain is the robber's lair,

Its clefts reveal the Moslem's shrine.

Yet thou art here!-this closet folds
Not shadow, but the form I love;
The same who, interceding, holds
My wants before the throne above.

All night in prayer!-my joyful sense
Would fain thus spend the wakeful night;
Yet, oh, where thou art, darkness thence
Flies, and with me 't is more than light!

BEING AN

AID TO PRIVATE DEVOTION.

CONTAINING

Directions and Helps

FOR

READING THE SCRIPTURES, MEDITATION,

SELF-EXAMINATION, AND

PRAYER.

BY

HARVEY NEWCOMB,

BOSTON:

JAMES B. DOW.

1841.

(977)

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1838,

BY JAMES B. DOW,

in the clerk's office of the District Court of Mass.

BOSTON:

WM. A. HALL AND CO.

PRINTERS.

Preface.

THE author feels great diffidence in offering this little work to the Christian public; as the BIBLE must be, and remain, the chief companion for the closet; yet, having himself felt the need of something of this kind, he ventures to publish this for the benefit of those who may have similar wants.