"I LOVE the Lord," is still the strain
This Heart delights to sing
But I reply "Your thoughts are vain,
Perhaps 'tis no such thing."
Before the power of Love Divine
Creation fades away;
Till only God is seen to shine
In all that we survey.
In gulfs of awful night we find
The God of our desires;
"Tis there he stamps the yielding mind,
And doubles all its fires.
Flames of encircling Love invest,
And pierce it sweetly through;
'Tis filled with sacred joy, yet pressed
With sacred sorrow too.
Ah Love! my heart is in the right-
Amidst a thousand woes,
To Thee, its ever new delight,
And all its peace, it owes.
Fresh causes of distress occur
Where'er I look or move;
The comforts I to all prefer
Are Solitude and Love.
Nor exile I nor prison fear;
Love makes my courage great;
I find a Saviour everywhere,
His grace in every state.
Nor castle walls, nor dungeons deep,
Exclude His quickening beams;
There I can sit, and sing, and weep,
And dwell on heavenly themes.
for His sake, is found
A joy beyond compare;
There no presumptuous thoughts abound,
No pride can enter there.
A Saviour doubles all my joys,
And sweetens all my pains,
His strength in my defence employs,
Consoles me and sustains.
I fear no ill, resent no wrong,
Nor feel a passion move,
When Malice whets her slanderous tongue; Such patience is in Love.
SCENES FAVOURABLE TO MEDITATION.
WILDS horrid and dark with o'ershadowing trees, Rocks that ivy and briers enfold,
Scenes Nature with dread and astonishment sees,
But I with a pleasure untold.
Though awfully silent, and shaggy, and rude,
I am charmed with the peace ye afford,
Your shades are a temple where none will intrude,
The abode of my Lover and Lord.
I am sick of thy splendour, O fountain of day,
And here I am hid from its beams,
Here safely contemplate a brighter display
Of the noblest and holiest themes.
Ye forests, that yield me my sweetest repose,
Where stillness and solitude reign,
To you I securely and boldly disclose
The dear anguish of which I complain.
Here sweetly forgetting, and wholly forgot
By the world and its turbulent throng,
The birds and the streams lend me many a note
That aids meditation and song.
Here wandering in scenes that are sacred to night,
Love wears me and wastes me away,
And often the sun has spent much of his light
Ere yet I perceive it is day.
While a mantle of darkness envelopes the sphere,
My sorrows are safely rehearsed,
To me the dark hours are all equally dear,
And the last is as sweet as the first.
Here I and the beasts of the desert agree,
Mankind are the wolves that I fear,
They grudge me my natural right to be free,
But nobody questions it here.
Though little is found in this dreary abode
That appetite wishes to find,
My spirit is soothed by the presence of God,
And appetite wholly resigned.
Ye desolate scenes, to your solitude led,
My life I in praises employ,
And scarce know the source of the tears that I shed,
Proceed they from sorrow or joy.
There is nothing I seem to have skill to discern,
I feel out my way in the dark;
Love reigns in my bosom, I constantly burn,
Yet hardly distinguish the spark.
I live, yet I seem to myself to be dead,
Such a riddle is not to be found;
I am nourished without knowing how I am fed,
I have nothing, and yet I abound.
O Love, who in darkness art pleased to abide!
Though dimly yet surely I see,
That these contrarieties only reside
In the soul that is chosen of Thee.
Ah! send me not back to the race of mankind,
Perversely by folly beguiled,
For where, in the crowds I have left, shall I find
The spirit and heart of a child.
Here let me, though fixed in a desert, be free;
A little one whom they despise,
Though lost to the world, if in union with Thee,
Shall be holy and happy and wise.
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE FABLES OF GAY.
Lusus amicitia est, uni nisi dedita, ceu fit,
Simplice ni nexus fœdere, lusus amor.
Incerto genitore puer, non sæpe paternæ
Tutamen novit, deliciasque domûs:
Quique sibi fidos fore multos sperat, amicus,
Mirum est huic misero si ferat ullus opem.
Comis erat, mitisque, et nolle et velle paratus
Cum quovis, Gaii more modoque, Lepus.
Пle, quot in sylvis et quot spatiantur in agris
Quadrupedes, nôrat conciliare sibi;
Et quisque innocuo, invitoque lacessere quenquam
Labra tenus saltem fidus amicus erat.
Ortum sub lucis dum pressa cubilia linquit,
Rorantes herbas, pabula sueta, petens,
Venatorum audit clangores ponè sequentem,
Fulmineumque sonum territus erro fugit.
Corda pavor pulsat, sursum sedet, erigit aures,
Respicit, et sentit jam prope adesse necem.
Utque canes fallat latè circumvagus, illuc,
Unde abiit, mirâ calliditate redit;
Viribus at fractis tandem se projicit ultro
In mediâ miserum semianimemque viâ.
Vix ibi stratus, equi sonitum pedis audit, et, oh spe
Quam lætâ adventu cor agitatur equi!
Dorsum (inquit) mihi, chare, tuum concede, tuoque
Auxilio nares fallere, vimque canum.
Me meus, ut nôsti, pes prodit-fidus amicus
Fert quodcunque lubens, nec grave sentit, onus.
Belle miselle lepuscule (equus respondet) amara,
Omnia quæ tibi sunt, sunt et amara mihi.
Verum age-sume animos-multi, me pone, bonique
Adveniunt, quorum sis citò salvus ope.
Proximus armenti dominus bos solicitatus
Auxilium his verbis se dare posse negat.
Quando quadrupedum, quot vivunt, nullus amicum
Me nescire potest usque fuisse tibi,
Libertate æquus, quam cedit amicus amico,
Utar, et absque metu ne tibi displiceam;
Hinc me mandat amor. Juxta istum messis acervum
Me mea, præ cunctis chara, juvenca manet;
Et quis non ultro quæcunque negotia linquit,
Pareat ut dominæ, cum vocat ipsa suæ ?
Neu me crudelem dicas-discedo-sed hircus,
Cujus ope effugias integer, hircus adest.
Febrem (ait hircus) habes. Heu, sicca ut lumina languent! Utque caput, collo deficiente, jacet!
Hirsutum mihi tergum; et forsan læserit ægrum,
Vellere eris melius fultus, ovisque venit.
Me mihi fecit onus natura, ovis inquit, anhelans
Sustineo lanæ pondera tanta mex;
Me nec velocem nec fortem jacto, solentque
Nos etiam sævi dilacerare canes.
Ultimus accedit vitulus, vitulumque precatur,
TJt periturum alias ocyus eripiat.
Remine ego, respondet vitulus, suscepero tantam,
Non depulsus adhuc ubere, natus heri
Te, quem maturi canibus validique relinquunt,
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