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 bruisèd reed,
Is to be deceived 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 relinquished, how we roam,
Feel our way, and leave our home!
Spurious gems our hopes entice,
While we scorn the pearl of price;
And, preferring servants' pay,
Cast the children's bread away.
THE ACQUIESCENCE OF PURE LOVE.
LOVE! if Thy destined sacrifice am I,
Come, slay thy victim, and prepare Thy fires;
Plunged in Thy depths of mercy, let me die
The death which every soul that lives desires!
I watch my hours, and see them fleet away;
The time is long that I have languished 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 choose 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, unmoved, beneath the rudest hand,
As pleased when shipwrecked as when safe on shore.
THE ENTIRE SURRENDER.
PEACE has unveiled her smiling face,
And woos thy soul to her embrace,
Enjoyed with ease, if thou refrain
From earthly love, else sought in vain ;
She dwells with all who Truth prefer,
But seeks not them who seek not her.
Yield to the Lord, with simple heart,
All that thou hast, and all thou art;
Renounce all strength but strength divine,
And peace shall be for ever thine :
Behold the path which I have trod,
My path, till I go home to God.
OH, loved! but not enough-though dearer far
Than self and its most loved 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 shocked to find
Man in the post of honour-Thee behind.
Reason exclaims-" Let every creature fall,
Ashamed, abased, before the Lord of all!"
And faith, o'erwhelmed 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 conquering rays,
And teach these atoms Thou hast made Thy praise?
Thy Glory is the sweetest heaven I feel;
And, if I seek it with too fierce a zeal,
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!
My soul rest happy in thy low estate,
Nor hope, nor wish, to be esteemed or great ;
To take the 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 crowned Him, and He reigns indeed.
SELF-LOVE AND TRUTH INCOMPATIBLE.
FROM thorny wilds a monster came, That filled 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 addressed mine ear, Himself unconscious of a fear :
"Whence all this terror and surprise, "Distracted looks and streaming eyes? "Far from the world and its affairs, "The joy it boasts, the pain it shares, Surrender, without guile or art, "To God, an undivided heart; "The savage form, so feared before, "Shall scare your trembling soul no
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"Fix all your love on God alone, "Chuse but His will, and hate your own, "No fear shall in your path be found, "The dreary waste shall bloom around, "And you, through all your happy days, "Shall bless His name, and sing His praise."
O lovely solitude, how sweet The silence of this calm retreat! Here Truth, the fair whom I pursue, Gives all her beauty to my view; The simple unadorned display Charms every pain and fear away. O Truth, whom millions proudly slight; O Truth, my treasure and delight! Accept this tribute to thy name. And this poor heart from which it came !
LOVE is the Lord whom I obey,
Whose will transported I perform ;
The centre of my rest, my stay,
Love's all in all to me, myself a worm.
For uncreated charms I burn,
Oppressed by slavish fear no more;
For One in whom I may discern,
Even when He frowns, a sweetness I adore.
He little loves Him who complains,
And finds him rigorous and severe ;
His heart is sordid, and he feigns,
Though loud in boasting of a soul sincere.
Love cases grief, but 'tis to move
And stimulate the slumbering mind;
And he has never tasted love
Who shuns a pang so graciously designed.
Sweet is the cross, above all sweets,
To souls enamoured with Thy smiles;
The keenest woe life ever meets
Love strips of all its terrors, and beguiles.
'Tis just that God should not be dear
Where Self engrosses all the thought,
And groans and murmurs make it clear,
Whatever else is loved, the Lord is not.
The love of Thee flows just as much
As that of ebbing self subsides;
Our hearts, their scantiness is such,
Bear not the conflict of two rival tides.
Both cannot govern in one soul;
Then let self-love be dispossessed;
The love of God deserves the whole,
And will not dwell with so despised a guest.
THE SECRETS OF DIVINE LOVE ARE TO BE KEPT.
SUN! stay thy course, this moment
Suspend the o'erflowing tide of day,
Divulge not such a love as mine,
Ah! hide the mystery divine;
Lest man, who deems my glory shame,
Should learn the secret of my flame.
O Night! propitious to my views,
Thy sable awning wide diffuse :
Conceal alike my joy and pain,
Nor draw thy curtain back again,
Though morning, by the tears she shows,
Seems to participate my woes.
Ye Stars! whose faint and feeble fires
Express my languishing desires,
Whose slender beams pervade the skies
As silent as my secret sighs,
Those emanations of a soul
That darts her fires beyond the pole;
Your rays, that scarce assist the sight,
That pierce, but not displace, the night,
That shine indeed, but nothing show
Of all those various scenes below,
Bring no disturbance, rather prove
Incentives to a sacred love.
Thou Moon! whose never-failing course
Bespeaks a providential force,
Go, tell the tidings of my flame
To Him who calls the stars by name,
Whose absence kills, whose presence
Who blots or brightens all my years.
While, in the blue abyss of space,
Thine orb performs its rapid race,
Still whisper in his listening ears
The language of my sighs and tears;
Tell him, I seek him, far below,
Lost in a wilderness of woe.
Ye thought-composing, silent Hours,
Diffusing peace o'er all my powers,
Friends of the pensive! who conceal
In darkest shades the flames I feel;
To you I trust, and safely may,
The love that wastes my strength away.
In sylvan scenes and caverns rude,
I taste the sweets of solitude;
Retired indeed, but not alone,
I share them with a Spouse unknown,
Who hides me here, from envious eyes,
From all intrusion and surprise.
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