One song employs all nations, and all cry "Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us!" The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks Shout to each other; and the mountain tops From distant mountains catch the flying joy, Till nation after nation taught the strain, Each rolls the rapturous Hosanna round. Behold the measure of the promise fill'd, See Salem built, the labour of a God ! Bright as a sun the sacred city shines; All kingdoms and all princes of the earth Flock to that light; the glory of all lands Flows into her, unbounded is her joy,
And endless her increase. Thy rams are there Nebaioth, and the flocks of Kedar 22 there; The looms of Ormus, and the mines of Ind23, And Saba's spicy groves pay tribute there. Praise is in all her gates. Upon her walls, And in her streets, and in her spacious courts Is heard salvation. Eastern Java there Kneels with the native of the farthest West, And Ethiopia spreads abroad the hand And worships. Her report has travell❜d forth Into all lands. From every clime they come To see thy beauty, and to share thy joy
22 Nebaioth and Kedar, the sons of Ishmael and progenitors of the Arabs, in the prophetic scripture here alluded to, may be reasonably considered as representatives of the Gentiles at large. C.
23 High on a throne of royal state which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind.
O Sion! an assembly such as earth
Saw never, such as heaven stoops down to see. Thus heavenward all things tend. For all were once Perfect, and all must be at length restored. So God has greatly purposed; who would else In his dishonoured works himself endure Dishonour, and be wrong'd without redress. Haste then, and wheel away a shatter'd world, Ye slow-revolving seasons! We would see (A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet,) A world that does not dread and hate his laws, And suffer for its crime: would learn how fair The creature is that God pronounces good, How pleasant in itself what pleases him. Here every drop of honey hides a sting;
Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers, And even the joy that haply some poor heart Derives from heaven, pure as the fountain is, Is sullied in the stream; taking a taint From touch of human lips, at best impure. Oh for a world in principle as chaste As this is gross and selfish! over which Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway That govern all things here, shouldering aside The meek and modest truth, and forcing her To seek a refuge from the tongue of strife In nooks obscure, far from the ways of men Where violence shall never lift the sword, Nor cunning justify the proud man's wrong,
From the cheerful ways of men Par. Lost, iii. 46.
Leaving the poor no remedy but tears. Where he that fills an office, shall esteem The occasion it presents of doing good
More than the perquisite: where law shall speak Seldom, and never but as wisdom prompts And equity; not jealous more to guard A worthless form, than to decide aright: Where fashion shall not sanctify abuse, Nor smooth good-breeding (supplemental grace,) With lean performance ape the work of love.
Come then, and added to thy many crowns Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, Thou who alone art worthy! it was thine By ancient covenant ere nature's birth,
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, And overpaid its value with thy blood.
Thy saints proclaim thee King; and in their hearts Thy title is engraven with a pen
Dipt in the fountain of eternal love.
Thy saints proclaim thee King; and thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see The dawn of thy last advent long-desired,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills, And flee for safety to the falling rocks. The very spirit of the world is tired
Of its own taunting question ask'd so long,
"Where is the promise of your Lord's approach ?"
The infidel has shot his bolts away,
Till his exhausted quiver yielding none,
He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoiled, And aims them at the shield of truth again.
The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands,
That hides divinity from mortal eyes, And all the mysteries to faith proposed Insulted and traduced, are cast aside
As useless, to the moles and to the bats.
They now are deem'd the faithful, and are praised, Who constant only in rejecting thee,
Deny thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal, And quit their office for their error's sake. Blind and in love with darkness! yet even these Worthy, compared with sycophants, who knee Thy name, adoring, and then preach thee man. So fares thy church. But how thy church may fare The world takes little thought; who will may preach, And what they will. All pastors are alike To wandering sheep, resolved to follow none. Two gods divide them all, Pleasure and Gain. For these they live, they sacrifice to these, And in their service wage perpetual war
With conscience and with thee. Lust in their hearts, And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth To prey upon each other; stubborn, fierce, High-minded, foaming out their own disgrace. Thy prophets speak of such; and noting down The features of the last degenerate times, Exhibit every lineament of these.
Come then, and added to thy many crowns Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest, Due to thy last and most effectual work, Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world!
He is the happy man, whose life even now Shows somewhat of that happier life to come; Who doomed to an obscure but tranquil state
Is pleased with it, and were he free to choose 25, Would make his fate his choice; whom peace, the fruit Of virtue, and whom virtue, fruit of faith, Prepare for happiness; bespeak him one Content indeed to sojourn while he must Below the skies, but having there his home. The world o'erlooks him in her busy search Of objects more illustrious in her view; And occupied as earnestly as she,
Though more sublimely, he o'erlooks the world. She scorns his pleasures, for she knows them not; He seeks not hers, for he has proved them vain. 920 He cannot skim the ground like summer birds Pursuing gilded flies, and such he deems
Her honours, her emoluments, her joys. Therefore in contemplation is his bliss,
Whose power is such, that whom she lifts from earth She makes familiar with a heaven unseen,
And shows him glories yet to be reveal'd. Not slothful he, though seeming unemployed, And censured oft as useless. Stillest 26 streams Oft water fairest meadows, and the bird
25 He has a heart, as Marvel expresses it, to make his destiny Elia, vol. ii. p. 206.
his choice. 20 How seldom do we look through the form and circumstances of affairs into their real importance; and how much are we led to rate them by the stir and noise with which they are attended! But we might reflect that the most perfect and beneficial agency is exerted without precipitation or tumult; that all the planetary revolutions are performed in majestic order and silence, and with less impression upon the senses than the motions of a water mill.
Rural Philosophy, by Ely Bates.
« PreviousContinue » |