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, If the blanks are all behind us; But let cares sit all the lighter, 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, Alas! that the world is winning the game,- Where stands Paradise, after the fall? The slime of the serpent is over us all, CHEERFULNESS. (IN DACTYLICS.) LOVER of goodness, and friend to the beautiful, 97 46 CONFIDENCE. Strong in good conscience, with energy vigorous, There is a spirit, that sadly and tearfully Toils in the sunshine, and toils as it basks; 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 Soon he subdued them: As he goes onward, perils seem to scatter, Even the torrents, riotously wrathful, 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, Yielding to no man! FREEDOM. (IN ALCAICS.) BULWARK of England, GOD-given Liberty! Name much malign'd, yet noble and glorious, Judge as they ought of the fools that maim thee! FREEDOM. No part hast thou with clamorous demagogues, Only to render thee scorn'd and slander'd: Still to enslave the credulous multitude 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, Saving the bridle and bit of Reason: And when, as now, the Fall and its accidents Stand as the pruners of Freedom's rankness: Reason, Religion, counsel and sanctify Much of his own, for the sake of other. Freeman thy neighbour also has liberties; Were but the licence of pirate nations. |