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Thou art to give and to confirm,
For each his talent and his term;
All flesh thy bounties share:
Thou shalt not call thy brother fool:
The porches of the Christian school
Are meekness, peace, and prayer.

Open and naked of offence,

Man's made of mercy, soul, and sense:
God armed the snail and wilk;
Be good to him that pulls thy plough;
Due food and care, due rest allow
For her that yields thee milk.

Rise up before the hoary head,
And God's benign commandment dread,
Which says thou shalt not die:

'Not as I will, but as Thou wilt,'

Prayed He, whose conscience knew no guilt;

With Whose blessed pattern vie.

Use all thy passions! love is thine,
And joy and jealousy divine;

Thine hope's eternal fort,
And care thy leisure to disturb,
With fear concupiscence to curb,
And rapture to transport.

Act simply, as occasion asks;
Put mellow wine in seasoned casks;
Till not with ass and bull:
Remember thy baptismal bond;
Keep thy commixtures foul and fond,
Nor work thy flax with wool.

Distribute; pay the Lord His tithe,
And make the widow's heart-strings blithe;
Resort with those that weep:

As you from all and each expect,
For all and each thy love direct,

And render as you reap.

The slander and its bearer spurn,
And propagating praise sojourn
To make thy welcome last;
Turn from old Adam to the New:
By hope futurity pursue:

Look upwards to the past.

Control thine eye, salute success,
Honour the wiser, happier bless,

And for their neighbour feel;
Grutch not of mammon and his leaven,
Work emulation up to heaven

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By knowledge and by zeal.

O David, highest in the list

Of worthies, on God's ways insist,
The genuine word repeat!

Vain are the documents of men,
And vain the flourish of the pen
That keeps the fool's conceit.

Praise above all-for praise prevails;
Heap up the measure, load the scales,
And good to goodness add:

The generous soul her Saviour aids,
But peevish obloquy degrades;
The Lord is great and glad.

For Adoration all the ranks
Of Angels yield eternal thanks,
And David in the midst:

With God's good poor, which, last and least
In man's esteem, Thou to Thy feast,

O Blessed Bridegroom, bidst.

For Adoration seasons change,
And order, truth, and beauty range,
Adjust, attract, and fill:

The grass the polyanthus checks;
And polished porphyry reflects,
By the descending rill.

Rich almonds colour to the prime
For Adoration; tendrils climb,

And fruit-trees pledge their gems;
And Ivis, with her gorgeous vest,
Builds for her eggs her cunning nest,
And bell-flowers bow their stems.

With vinous syrup cedars spout;
From rocks pure honey gushing out,
For Adoration springs:

All scenes of painting crowd the map
Of nature; to the mermaid's pap
The scaled infant clings.

The spotted ounce and playsome cubs
Run rustling 'mong the flowering shrubs.
And lizards feed the moss;

For Adoration beasts embark,
While waves upholding halcyon's ark
No longer roar and toss.

While Israel sits beneath his fig,
With coral root and amber sprig
The weaned adventurer sports;
Where to the palm the jasmine cleaves,
For Adoration 'mong the leaves
The gale his peace reports.

Increasing days their reign exalt,
Nor in the pink and mottled vault
The opposing spirits tilt;
And by the coasting reader spied,
The silverlings and crusions glide
For Adoration gilt.

For Adoration ripening canes,

And cocoa's purest milk detains
The western pilgrim's staff;

Where rain in clasping boughs enclosed,
And vines with oranges disposed,

Embower the social laugh.

Now labour his reward receives,
For Adoration counts his sheaves,

To peace, her bounteous prince;
The nect'rine his strong tint imbibes,
And apples of ten thousand tribes,
And quick peculiar quince.

The wealthy crops of whitening rice
'Mongst thyine woods and groves of spice,
For Adoration grow;

And, marshalled in the fencèd land,
The peaches and pomegranates stand,
Where wild carnations blow.

The laurels with the winter strive;
The crocus burnishes alive

Upon the snow-clad earth;
For Adoration myrtles stay
To keep the garden from dismay,
And bless the sight from dearth.

The pheasant shows his pompous neck;
And ermine, jealous of a speck,
With fear eludes offence:
The sable, with his glossy pride,
For Adoration is described,

Where frosts the waves condense.

The cheerful holly, pensive yew,
And holy thorn, their trim renew;
The squirrel hoards his nuts;
All creatures batten o'er their stores,
And careful nature all her doors
For Adoration shuts.

For Adoration, David's Psalms,
Lift up the heart to deeds of alms;
And he, who kneels and chants,
Prevails his passions to control,
Finds meat and medicine to the soul,
Which for translation pants.

For Adoration, beyond match,
The scholar bullfinch aims to catch
The soft flute's ivory touch:
And, careless, on the hazel spray
The daring redbreast keeps at bay
The damsel's greedy clutch.

For Adoration, in the skies,
The Lord's philosopher espies
The dog, the ram, and rose;
The planets' ring, Orion's sword;
Nor is his greatness less adored
In the vile worm that glows.

For Adoration, on the strings
The western breezes work their wings,
The captive ear to soothe

Hark! 'tis a voice-how still, and small-
That makes the cataracts to fall,

Or bids the sea be smooth!

For Adoration, incense comes
From bezoar, and Arabian gums,
And from the civet's fur:

But as for prayer, or e'er it faints,
Far better is the breath of saints
Than galbanum or myrrh.

For Adoration, from the down
Of damsons to the anana's crown,
God sends to tempt the taste;
And while the luscious zest invites
The sense, that in the scene delights,
Commands desire be chaste.

For Adoration, all the paths

Of grace are open, all the baths

Of purity refresh;

And all the rays of glory beam

To deck the man of God's esteem
Who triumphs o'er the flesh.

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