CALCULATED COMFORT.

If otherwise, it were a waste,—a loss

Of truth and beauty, happiness and love; But there are all redemptions in the Cross,

And more than Space and Time in Heaven above!

95

CALCULATED COMFORT.

RECOLLECT, as well you may,

(You that pine and brood in sorrow),

If there's little luck to-day,

More is left to come to-morrow;

Every present grows to past

Almost while the grumbler heeds it:

But, for pleasure made to last,

Look to where the future feeds it.

Coming chances must be more,
(Reason will herself remind us),
And all prizes crowd before

If the blanks are all behind us;
Therefore never go downcast,

But let cares sit all the lighter,
Since a dark and luckless past

Argues all the future brighter.

PARADISE LOST.

ALAS for trouble and care and sin,

And bitterness, hate, and strife!

That the heart grows cold and callous within,
As stoned by the hail and stunn'd by the din
Of the storm-driven desert of life.

Alas! that the world is winning the game,-
And who then is counting the cost?
O speed, for fear, for glory, for shame,
Let Satan be baulk'd of his murderous aim,
For, the stake is a soul to be lost!

Where stands Paradise, after the fall?
Alas! it has wither'd away,-

The slime of the serpent is over us all,
And Nature has veil'd with a funeral-pall
Her beautiful face in decay!

CHEERFULNESS.

(IN DACTYLICS.)

LOVER of goodness, and friend to the beautiful,
Ever go forth with a smile on thy cheek,
Knowing that God will prosper the dutiful,
Gladden the holy, and honour the meek;
Ever go on, though thy fortune be rigorous,
Bearing as Providence wisely may will,

97

46

CONFIDENCE.

Strong in good conscience, with energy vigorous,
Building up good, and demolishing ill.

There is a spirit, that sadly and tearfully
Goes to its duties, a slave to its tasks;
There is a spirit that stoutly and cheerfully

Toils in the sunshine, and toils as it basks;
Both may be labouring, ripely and readily,

Christians and husbandmen tilling the soil, But the one sings, while he labours so steadily, And the sad other sheds tears at his toil.

Be of this wiser and better fraternity,

Nursing contentedness still in thy breast; So shall thy heart, for time and eternity, Patient and strong, be for ever at rest : Peace is the portion of hopeful audacity, Routing the worst and securing the best, And the keen vision of Christian sagacity Sees for us all, that we all may be blest!

CONFIDENCE.

(IN SAPPHICS.)

NEVER went man courageously to dangers
Fear and his constant spirit being strangers,
But, while he faced his enemies and hew'd them,

Soon he subdued them:
G

As he goes onward, perils seem to scatter,
Mind ever shows the conqueror of matter;
Even the mountain crags that toppled o'er him
Open before him;

Even the torrents, riotously wrathful,
Are to his footsteps fordable and pathful;
Even the prowlers, in the desert roaming,
Fly at his coming.

O man of faith, of energy, and boldness,— Onward in spite of darkness and of coldness,Forward! for Conquest with triumphal pleasance Waits for thy presence:

Never, on Right and Providence relying,
Fail'd of success, while duteously trying,
He, who resolves and wrestles like a Roman,

Yielding to no man!

FREEDOM.

(IN ALCAICS.)

BULWARK of England, GOD-given Liberty!

Name much malign'd, yet noble and glorious,
How rarely the masses who claim thee

Judge as they ought of the fools that maim thee!

FREEDOM.

No part hast thou with clamorous demagogues,
Red revolution scares thee and scatters thee,
And despots have stolen thy standard

Only to render thee scorn'd and slander'd:

Still to enslave the credulous multitude
Is their intent in utter effrontery;

O treason, O shame, and O wonder,

That the one tramples the many under!

99

Man, when his Maker made him and fashion'd him,
Man stood as free as Mercy could order it,—
Free, saving Religion in season,

Saving the bridle and bit of Reason:

And when, as now, the Fall and its accidents
Drove him from GOD to human society,
Still Reason, Religion, and Frankness

Stand as the pruners of Freedom's rankness:

Reason, Religion, counsel and sanctify
Unto good order governing ministers,
And Frankness gives up to his brother

Much of his own, for the sake of other.

Freeman thy neighbour also has liberties;
This may subtract his rights from thy heritage,-
But Freedom without moderations

Were but the licence of pirate nations.