LXXVI. THE ABSOLVED SINNER. THINK'ST thou the Church, to give the sinner rest, Has dar'd assume a more than human sway?— What by her Lord's high will she justly may, She does. To ease the soul, its sin confest, Which humbly sues relief, her Lord's behest She names, his promis'd boon, the appointed way, The absolving words; nor fails of God to pray, To seal the sentence in his name exprest. Deems she that thus is purg'd the sinner's spot, If faithless, unrepentant; or to her Heaven's empery belongs?-Believe it not! Full well she knows, to pardon and to spare Is God's prerogative: well knows she, what The heaven-ward road, and what the passport there. LXXVII. THE SICK RESTORED. ON thy dim eye, how many a cheerless day, Thy pillow clung, and darkness the glad ray Of light obscur'd. Now forth thou wendest gay With life renew'd: now teems the unwonted ground For thee with flowers of Eden; and each sound Is to thine ear a spring-time roundelay. Quaff from the air its music! from the flower Its sweetness quaff! But fail not thanks to yield To Him who made them, and to thee the power Restores to taste their beauties! He repeal'd The impending sentence: He affliction's hour Has chang'd to joy: He smote and He has heal'd. raging in the town. The unexpected sight produced in me a solemn feeling, which vented itself as above. LXXVIII. FRUITS OF SICKNESS. LXXIX.* TIMELY PREPARATION. WHO, when the pilot warns, would lose the tide By casting pebbles on the glassy sea? Who to weave garlands in the flowery lea Would far from home the waning hours abide? What racer from his course would turn aside To pick up apples from Hesperian tree! What soldier, striving for the mastery, Waste in Campanian sloth his manhood's pride? CHRISTIAN, be wise! The tide is at its height, Which now may waft thee to the wish'd-for shore: Thy home's away, and swift the moments' flight: The goal, the crown's right on, thine eyes before: The trumpet calls to gird thee for the fight; Hark! now it sounds, but soon shall sound no more! LXXX. THE DEATH-BED. FULL of deep learning is the BED OF DEATH! And things, which lurk'd disguis'd, self-love beneath LXXXI.* THE SUDDEN DEATH. Smote him, what time amid the drunken feast LXXXII. THE DYING CRIMINAL. His life was spent in sin, and, often owed, With faith, 'twas said, with love, with transport glowed; Till night's approach the labor of the day! LXXXIII. THE OBEDIENT DISCIPLE. And use his means of grace; the love, his laws Peace be to those, who on God's altar lay Their life's late gleanings, scant thro' lengthen'd crime, And to the HARVEST'S LORD their fulness pay, LXXXIV. THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. Live thou the Christian's life!-To fight the fight To keep the faith's rich Jewel, whole and bright: So may God's Spirit with thine own attest Earth's anxious thoughts! So, meet to join the blest, His gentle breath shed comfort on thy soul, The pledge and earnest of eternal rest. LXXXV. THE PASSING BELL. THAT Sound upon my ears falls heavily!— A few hours more, wrapt in its funeral stole, Death's winding sheet, that bell again shall knoll The body hence, in its long home to lie, Till the angel's trump arouse it. Do not say, 'Tis a vain sound, that passing spirit's sign! But warn'd, awhile thy heart withdraw away . From this world's toys; to heavenly themes incline; And think, "The solemn knell, which sounds to-day A brother's fate, to-morrow may be mine!" 12 Tim. iv. 6, 7. |