"There's no place like Home."
[ON MY RETURNING FROM A TEMPORARY ABSENCE.]
HOME of my HEART! Sweet REST from earthly care!
Once more I greet my dear domestick shrine;
Borne on affection's wing, I haste to share
In treasures, richer than Potosi's mine.
Home of my LOVE! though brief has been my stay,
Mid stranger-homes, and elemental strife;
How slowly seems to roll the car of day,
Estranged from children dear, and faithful wife.
Home of my Jox!-if joy abide not here,
"Tis sought in vain throughout creation's range;
Here twine the tendrils of affection dear,—
A joy unknown to those who sigh for change.
Home of my HOPE! around this sacred hearth,
Are clustering buds of promise, fair and bright;
And what, extraneous, can to Hope give birth,
Like these dear objects, in the Father's sight!
Home of my PRAYER oh, let not sickness come,—
No sad mischance, calamity, or death :-
Withhold my darlings from the insatiate tomb!
God of my fathers! guard their vital breath!
Home of my FAITH! yon glorious world above,
There may we rest, when called to quit these scenes;
For ever basking in a Saviour's love,
To cloud whose rays no sorrow intervenes.
INSCRIBED TO MY FRIEND J. F. MOORE, OF NEW YORK.
LET Avarice heap his hoards of glittering gold,
And grope his way in intellectual night;
Be mine the treasures wealth can ne'er unfold,
Disclosed to view through beams of mental light.
While peace and competence surround my board,
And bland affection cheers my labouring breast;
What further happiness can wealth afford,
Save, as a means to succour the distressed?
Yet something still, beyond the simple means,
Is requisite the sufferer's woes to heal;—
How rare the miser's breast to pity leans!
How rare, his callous heart hath power to feel!
But in proportion as his coffers shine,
His soul is veiled in penury's wretched pall; Nor classick rays, nor holy truths combine,
To free his mind from mammon's lurid thrall !
What holier feelings sway the Christian's heart!
Though fortune deigns not to increase his store,
'Tis still his joy, with frugal means, to impart
A needful pittance to the suffering poor.
Sweet sympathy asserts her heavenly power,
Inspires his heart with pure affection's flame;
And fellow-man, relieved in misery's hour,
Implores a benison on his loved name.
What then can earth detract from his pure joy,
Though friends prove false, and wealth is torn away?
His inward peace no outward ills annoy-
He seeks his GUERDON in the realms of day.
WRITTEN ON RECEIVING A LETTER FROM AN ABSENT
DEDICATED HERSELF TO HER SAVIOUR.
How welcome to the heart, when distant friends
Announce their welfare:-how the feeling breast
Dilates with joy, when fortune smiles serene,
And earthly prospects brighten to the view
Of those we love; when health's sweet voice is heard
Throughout their dwellings; when prosperity
Crowns all their labours, and felicity
Attends their earthly course, and sheds its beams
To cheer life's pilgrimage!
With the report that temporal benefits
Attend our loved ones, is inspired with joy,-
Ilow greater far, yea, how beyond the power
Of words to speak, shall heavenly transport rise
In the fond parents' heart, when news arrives
Their child is "born again!" Here bliss is found;
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