Spirit of Charity, dispense

Thy grace to every heart;
Expel all other spirits thence,

Drive felf from every part;
Charity divine, draw nigh,

Break the chains in which we lie!

All selfish souls, whate'er they feign,

Have still a flavish lot;
They boaft of liberty in vain,
Of Love, and feel it not.

He whose bosom glows with Thee,
He, and he alone, is free.

Oh bleffedness, all bliss above,
When thy pure fires prevail!
Love only teaches what is Love;

All other leffons fail:

We learn its name, but not its powers,
Experience only makes it ours.

9. HAPPY SOLITUDE-UNHAPPY

MEN.

Y heart is easy, and my burden light;
I smile, though fad, when Thou art in
my fight:

The more my woes in fecret I deplore,
I taste thy goodness, and I love the more.

There, while a folemn ftillness reigns around, Faith, Love, and Hope within my foul abound; And, while the world fuppofe me loft in care, The joys of angels, unperceived, I share.

Thy creatures wrong thee, O thou fovereign Good! Thou art not loved, because not understood; This grieves me most, that vain pursuits beguile Ungrateful men, regardless of thy fmile.

Frail beauty and false honour are adored;
While Thee they scorn, and trifle with thy Word;
Pass, unconcern'd, a Saviour's forrows by;
And hunt their ruin with a zeal to die.

10. LIVING WATER.

HE fountain in its fource

No drought of fummer fears;
The farther it purfues its course,
The nobler it appears.

But shallow cifterns yield

A fcanty fhort fupply;

The morning fees them amply fill'd,

At evening they are dry.

369

11. TRUTH AND DIVINE LOVE REJECTED

BY THE WORLD.

LOVE, of

pure and heavenly birth!
O fimple Truth, scarce known on earth!
Whom men refift with stubborn will;

And, more perverse and daring still,
Smother and quench, with reasonings vain,
While Error and Deception reign.

Whence comes it, that, your power the fame
As His on high, from whence you came,
Ye rarely find a listening ear,

Or heart that makes you welcome here?-
Because ye bring reproach and pain,
Where'er ye vifit, in your train.

The world is proud, and cannot bear
The scorn and calumny ye share;
The praise of men the mark they mean,
They fly the place where ye are seen;
Pure Love, with scandal in the rear,
Suits not the vain; it cofts too dear.

may,

Then, let the price be what it
Though poor, I am prepared to pay ;
Come fhame, come forrow; fpite of tears,
Weakness, and heart-oppreffing fears;
One foul, at least, shall not repine,
To give you room; come, reign in mine!

VOL. II.

B B

12. DIVINE JUSTICE AMIABLE.

HOU hast no lightnings, O thou just!

Or I their force should know;

And, if thou strike me into dust,
My soul approves the blow.
The heart, that values less its ease

Than it adores thy ways,
In thine avenging anger sees

A subject of its praise.

Pleased I could lie, conceal'd and lost,

In shades of central night;
Not to avoid thy wrath, thou know'st,

But lest I grieve thy sight.

Smite me, O Thou, whom I provoke !

And I will love thee ftill:
The well deserved and righteous stroke

Shall please me, though it kill.
Am I not worthy to sustain

The worst thou canst devise : And dare I seek thy throne again,

And meet thy sacred eyes ?

Far from afflicting, Thou art kind;

And, in my saddest hours, An unction of thy grace I find,

Pervading all my powers.

Alas! Thou sparest me yet again;
And, when thy wrath fhould move,
Too gentle to endure my pain,
Thou footh'ft me with thy love.

I have no punishment to fear;
But, ah! that fmile from Thee
Imparts a pang far more severe
Than woe itself would be.

13. THE SOUL THAT LOVES GOD FINDS HIM EVERY WHERE.

H Thou, by long experience tried,
Near whom no grief can long abide;
My Love! how full of fweet content

I pass my years of banishment!

All scenes alike engaging prove

To fouls impress'd with facred Love!
Where'er they dwell, they dwell in Thee;
In heaven, in earth, or on the fea.

To me remains nor place nor time;
My country is in every clime;

I can be calm and free from care
On any shore, fince God is there.

While place we feek, or place we shun,
The foul finds happiness in none;
But with a God to guide our way,
'Tis equal joy to go or stay.