But unstable, strangely weak,
Still let slip the good I seek.
Self-confiding wretch, I thought,
I could serve thee as I ought,
Win thee, and deserve to feel
All the love thou canst reveal!
Trusting self, a bruised reed,
Is to be deceiv'd indeed :
Save me from this harm and loss,
Lest my gold turn all to dross!
Self is earthly....Faith alone
Makes an unseen world our own;
Faith relinquish'd, how we roam,
Feel our way, and leave our home!
Spurious Gems our hopes entice,
While we scorn the pearl of price;
And preferring servant's pay,
Cast the children's bread away!
THE ACQUIESCENCE OF PURE LOVE.
LOVE, if thy destin'd sacrifice am I; Come, slay thy victim, and prepare thy fires;
Plung'd in thy depths of mercy, let me die
The death, which ev'ry soul that lives, desires!
I watch my hours, and see them fleet away;
The time is long, that I have languish'd here;
Yet all my thoughts thy purposes obey,
With no reluctance, cheerful and sincere.
To me 'tis equal, whether Love ordain
My life or death, appoint me pain or ease:
My soul perceives no real Ill in pain;
In ease, or health, no real Good she sees.
One Good she covets, and that Good alone;
To chuse thy will, from selfish bias free;
And to prefer a cottage to a throne,
And grief to comfort, if it pleases Thee.
That we should bear the cross, is thy command,
Die to the world, and live to self no more;
Suffer unmov'd beneath the rudest hand,
As pleas'd when shipwreck'd as when safe on shore.
BLEST! who far from all mankind,
This world's shadows left behind,
Hears from heav'n a gentle strain
Whisp'ring Love, and loves again.
Blest! who free from self-esteem,
Dives into the Great Supreme,
All desire beside discards,
Joys inferior none regards.
Blest! who in thy bosom seeks
Rest that nothing earthly breaks,
Dead to self and worldly things,
Lost in thee, thou King of Kings!
Ye that know my secret fire,
Softly speak, and soon retire;
Favour my divine repose,
Spare the sleep a God bestows.
OH lov'd! but not enough....though dearer far Than self and its most lov'd enjoyments are; None duly loves thee, but who, nobly free From sensual objects, finds his all in thee.
Glory of God! thou stranger here below,
Whom man nor knows, nor feels a wish to know ;
Our Faith and Reason are both shock'd to find
Man in the post of honour....Thee behind.
Reason exclaims...." Let ev'ry creature fall,
"Asham'd, abas'd, before the Lord of all;"
And Faith, 'erwhelm'd with such a dazzling blaze,
Feebly describes the beauty she surveys.
Yet man, dim-sighted man, and rash as blind,
Deaf to the dictates of his better mind,
In frantic competition dares the skies,
And claims precedence of the Only Wise.
Oh lost in vanity till once self-known!
Nothing is great, or good, but God alone,
When thou shalt stand before his awful face,
Then, at the last, thy pride shall know His place.
Glorious, Almighty, First, and without end!
When wilt thou melt the mountains, and descend?
When wilt thou shoot abroad thy conqu'ring rays,
And teach these atoms, thou hast made, thy praise?
Thy Glory is the sweetest heav'n I feel;
And if I seek it with too fierce a zcal,
Thy Love, triumphant o'er a selfish will,
Taught me the passion, and inspires it still.
My Reason, all my faculties, unite,
To make thy Glory their supreme delight;
Forbid it, Fountain of my brightest days,
That I should rob thee, and usurp thy praise!
Mo soul! rest happy in thy low estate,
Nor hope, nor wish, to be esteem'd or great;
To take th' impression of a will divine,
Be that thy glory, and those riches thine.
Confess Him righteous in his just decrees,
Love what he loves, and let his pleasure please;
Die daily; from the touch of Sin recede;
Then thou hast crown'd him, and he reigns indeed.
SELF-LOVE AND TRUTH INCOMPATIBLE,
FROM thorny wilds, a Monster came, That fill'd my soul with fear and shame; The birds, forgetful of their mirth, Droop'd at the sight, and fell to earth; When thus a sage address'd mine ear, Himself unconscious of a fear.
"Whence all this terror and surprise, "Distracted looks, and streaming eyes?
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