XXXVI.

HEAVENLY JOYS.

JOW fading are the joys we dote upon! Like apparitions feen and gone; But those which fooneft take their flight, Are the most exquifite and ftrong; Like angels' vifits, fhort and bright, Mortality's too weak to bear them long.

JOHN NORRIS, 17th Cent.

Alone how can I feel?

When faith's clear vifion feems like fight,

When Truth's eternal ftores reveal

To my glad heart delight.

Trembling, I feem to lie

So near the heavenly portals bright, I catch the streaming rays that fly

From eternity's own light.

SARAH MARTIN.

XXXVIII.

WORLDLY JOYS.

UT pleasures are like poppies spread,
You feize the flower, its bloom is fhed;
Or like the fnow-falls on the river,

A moment white, then melts for ever;
Or like the Borealis race,

That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form,
Evanishing amid the storm.

BURNS.

XXXIX.

PRAISE.

ERE every faultering tongue of man,
Almighty Father, filent in thy praise,
Thy works themfelves would raise a
general voice,

E'en in the depths of folitary woods
By human foot untrod-proclaim Thy power,
And to the Choir Celeftial Thee refound,
The eternal cause, fupport, and end of all.

HEN fhall I offer up, O beautiful and

bright,

Even in the bofom of Thy light,

My canticle of praife to Thee?
And ever praying for Thy fake,
My burning thirst for ever flake
From Thy fount of purity.

CANTIQUES SPIRITUELS, A.D. 1694.

Resurrection. Greatness. 229

XLII.

RESURRECTION.

ONTEMPLATE, when the fun declines,
Thy death with deep reflection-
But when again he rifing fhines,
The day of refurrection.

COWPER.

XLIII.

GREATNESS.

HOU haft left behind

Powers that will work for Thee-Earth

air, and skies;

There's not a breathing of the common wind

That will forget Thee-Thou haft great alliesThy friends are exultations, agonies,

And love, and man's unconquerable mind.

WORDSWORTH.

XLIV.

MERCY.

HE quality of Mercy is not ftrain'd,
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from
Heaven

Upon the place beneath; it is twice
bleffed;

It bleffeth him that gives, and him that takes;
"Tis mightieft in the mightieft; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His fceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majefty,

Wherein doth fit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this fceptred fway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God Himself;

An earthly power doth then show likeft God's,
When Mercy feasons Juftice.

SHAKESPEARE.