Page images
PDF
EPUB

PRAYER.

Prayer is the burthen of a sigh,
The falling of a tear;

The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.

Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try;

Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high.

Prayer is the Christian's vital breath,
The Christian's native air,

His watchword at the gates of death,
He enters heaven by prayer.

Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice,
Returning from his ways;
While angels in their songs rejoice,
And say, "Behold, he prays."

The saints, in prayer, appear as one,
In word, and deed, and mind,
When with the Father and his Son
Their fellowship they find.

Nor prayer is made on earth alone:
The Holy Spirit pleads;

And Jesus, on the eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.

O thou, by whom we come to God,
The Life, the Truth, the Way:
The path of prayer thyself hast trod:
Lord, teach us how to pray.

MONTGOMERY.

46

PRAYER.

"Pray without ceasing."-1 THES. V. 17.
"HE prayeth best who loveth best,"
For he who hears above,
"Our Father" ever watches us
With all a father's love.

He prayeth most who feareth most
To do an evil thing,

And to the right against the might
Courageously will cling.

He prayeth best who beareth best
All earthly wrong or ill,

Who bears and forbears, yet, because
It is his Father's will.

He prayeth best who striveth best,
To win the heavenly race,

And runneth, as the goal he sought,
Before his Father's face.

He prayeth most who trusteth most
In God's revealed word,
Whose heart each day unceasingly
By faith and hope is stirr❜d.

He prayeth best who worketh best
Salvation out on earth,

By charity and holiness,

By righteousness and worth.

He prayeth most who weepeth most
At his own sin and shame,
Yet in his Saviour joyeth most,
And triumphs in his name.

W. MARTIN.

THE EARTH BEFORE THE FALL.

How beauteous wert thou, Earth, when fair and new
From thy Creator's hand, thou first didst move
In calm and silent grandeur, with the smile
Of the Eternal round thee, and with man
Form'd in His likeness glorious; and great
In perfect innocence.-Then the sweet dove
Nestled at night beneath the vulture's wing;
While night's choice bird, would on the eagle's ear,
Pour its melodious hymn; then beauty threw
A heavenly radiance on the serpent's form,
So heavenly, that it seem'd as it were sent
For man to worship daily; then the herb
Put forth its bloom uncull'd by misery's hand;
And, oh! the shrivell'd lip on morning's dew
Sigh'd not its fevers, and the burning brow
Scath'd not the rose that bound them. Then the sun,
In newest glory, had not known a cloud,
The moon a halo, nor the stainless blue

Of heaven's pure arch the shadow of a storm:
The glowing planets, and the sparkling stars,
Stood clear at midnight; and the waveless streams
In which their twinkling was reflected full
Till morning's dawn, spoke of the certain peace
'Twixt Earth and Heaven, whose all-admiring sons
Came down to muse with man, and teach him how
To speak the joy befitting such a time.

Oh! blessed holy time, when joy but raised
Her voice in gratitude for blissful things:
Ere hearts began to leap at human woe,
Or at a brother's fall: ere blood had paid
The deed of blood; or the pure front of Heaven
Was crimson'd by war's carnage, and gaunt death

Shook his black crest exulting o'er the plain,
By cursed ambition strewn. The laurel grew
Twined with the olive, on fair Eden's banks;
The hero's mailed hand had not yet torn

-Calm,

It thence to flourish o'er his gore-stain'd brow,
To draw the homage of a trembling world:
Woman's fair speech had not brought death to man,
Nor man's offences drawn the thunders down
From wrath-enkindled skies, mingled with fire,
Tornado, torrent, and wild whirlwind.-
Silent, and gorgeous hung the canopy
Of azure heaven, over the emerald deep,
That shew the rocks of flawless crystal, and
Masses of virgin marble like a mirror,
Reflecting all the purple-hooded hills
And lofty mountains to their very tops,
In all their herbage green: All! all! was peace,
Beauty, and glory, and sublimity;

Divinity's first law!-'Twas then that God
Moved in his mighty essence through the walks
And shady bowers of Eden;-Happy man
Met him with open forehead, pure at heart,
And heard his voice with joy.

W. MARTIN.

THE FIRST SABBATH.

AND now on earth the seventh

Evening arose in Eden, for the sun

Was set, and twilight from the East came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
Of heaven's high-seated top, the imperial throne
Of Godhead fix'd for ever firm and sure,

The Filial Power arrived, and sat him down
With his great Father there; and, from his work
Now resting, bless'd and hallow'd the seventh day,
As resting on that day from all his work.
But not in silence holy kept: the harp
Had work and rested not; the solemn pipe,
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All sounds on fret by string or golden wire,
Temper'd soft tunings, intermix'd with voice
Choral or unison; of incense, clouds,
Fuming from golden censers, hid the mount.
Creation and the six days' acts they sung:
"Great are thy works, Jehovah! infinite

Thy power! what thought can measure thee, or tongue

Relate thee? Greater now in thy return
Than from the giant angels: thee that day
Thy thunders magnified; but to create
Is greater than created to destroy.

Who can impair thee, Mighty King, or bound
Thy empire? Easily the proud attempt
Of sp'rits apostate, and their counsels vain,
Thou hast repell'd; while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might; his evil
Thou usest, and from thence creat'st more good.
Witness this new-made world, another heaven
From heaven-gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation; but thou know'st

E

« PreviousContinue »