THE LORD'S PRAYER. INQUIREST thou, O man, wherewithal may I come unto the Lord? For thou art but one of many, thy brotherhood is with all: So shall thy thoughts be humbled, nor love be unmixed with reverence: And one universal temple echo the perfections of Jehovah : Bend thou to his good-will, and subserve his holy purposes, Till in thee, and those around thee, grow a little heaven upon earth: Bread for thy triple estate, for thou hast a trinity of nature: Be then thy prayer for pardon mingled with the tear of penitence; To thy Father thy weaknesses are known, and thou hast not hid thy sin, And to Him thou givest glory, as a creature of his workmanship and favour, OF DISCRETION. For what then was I born?-to fill the circling year With daily toil for daily bread, with sordid pains and pleasures ?— To walk this chequered world, alternate light and darkness, The day dreams of deep thought followed by the night-dreams of fancy ?— To be one in a full procession ?-to dig my kindred clay?— To decorate the gallery of art ?-to clear a few acres of forest? For more than these, my soul, thy God hath lent thee life. Is then that noble end to feed this mind with knowledge, To light with many lamps the caverns of my heart, To reap, in the furrows of my brain, good harvest of right reasons?- Is it to grow stronger in self-government, to check the chafing will, In earth, yea in heaven, if thou seek it for itself, seeking thou shalt not find. Trample the thyme beneath thy feet; be useful, and be happy! Thus unto fair conclusions argueth generous youth, And quickly he starteth on his course, knight-errant to do good. Yet one thing he lacketh, the Mentor of the mind, The quiet whisper of Discretion-Thy time is not yet come. For he smiteth an oppressor; and vengeance for that smiting Is dealt in double stripes on the faint body of the victim: He is glad to give and to distribute; and clamorous pauperism feasteth, While honest labour, pining, hideth his sharp ribs : He challengeth to a fair field that subtle giant Infidelity, And worsted in the unequal fight, strengtheneth the hands of error: And to the listening ear will urge the false argument of feeling. So hath it often been, that, judging by results, The hottest friends of truth have done her deadliest wrong. Alas! for there are enemies without, glad enough to parley with a traitor, Zeal without judgment is an evil, though it be zeal unto good: To point out a meaning in her words, he will blot those words with his finger; And winnow chaff into the eyes, before he hath wheat to show: He will heap sturdy logs on a faint expiring fire, And with a room in flames, will cast the casement open; By a shoulder to the wheel downhill harasseth the labouring beast, And where obstruction were needed, will harm by an ill-judged thrusting-on. A vessel foundereth at sea, if a storm have unshipped the rudder; And a mind with much sail shall require heavy ballast. Take a lever by the middle, thou shalt seem to prove it powerless, Argue for truth indiscreetly, thou shalt toil for falsehood. There is plenty of room for a peaceable man in the most thronged assembly; Many a teacher, lacking judgment, hindereth his own lessons; The garment woven of a piece is rashly torn by schism, Discretion guide thee on thy way, noble-minded youth, Help thee to humour infirmities, to wink at innocent errors, To take small count of forms, to bear with prejudice and fancy: Teach thee that well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech, And tell thee, the keystone of an arch can be loosened with least labour from within. The snows of Hecla lie around its troubled smoking Geysers; Let the cool streams of prudence temper the hot spring of zeal: So shalt thou gain thine honourable end, nor lose the midway prize; OF TRIFLES. YET Once more, saith the fool, yet once, and is it not a little one? And he blindeth his conscience with lies, and stupefieth his heart with doubts; Whom shall I harm in this matter? and a little ill breedeth much good; My thoughts, are they not mine own? and they leave no mark behind them; And if God so pardoneth crime, how should these petty sins affect him ?— So he transgresseth yet again, and falleth by little and little, Till the ground crumble beneath him, and he sinketh in the gulf despairing. For there is nothing in the earth so small that it may not produce great things, And no swerving from a right line, that may not lead eternally astray. A landmark tree was once a seed, and the dust in the balance maketh a difference; And the cairn is heaped high by each one flinging a pebble: The dangerous bar in the harbour's mouth is only grains of sand; And the shoal that hath wrecked a navy is the work of a colony of worms: And the living rock is worn by the diligent flow of the brook. What, is thy servant a dog?—not yet wilt thou grasp the dagger, And travel in mental heat the mazy labyrinths of guilt, And then conceive it possible, and then reflect on it as done, And use, by little and little, thyself to regard thyself a villain, Not long will crime be absent from the voice that doth invoke him to thy heart, And bitterly wilt thou grieve, that the buds have ripened into poison. A spark is a molecule of matter, yet it may kindle the world; Vast is the mighty ocean, but drops have made it vast. Despise not thou a small thing, either for evil or for good; For a look may work thy ruin, or a word create thy wealth: The walking this way or that, the casual stopping or hastening, Hath saved life, and destroyed it, hath cast down and built up fortunes. Commit thy trifles unto God, for to him is nothing trivial; And it is but the littleness of man that seeth no greatness in a trifle. All things are infinite in parts, and the moral is as the material, Neither is any thing vast, but it is compacted of atoms. Thou art wise, and shalt find comfort, if thou study thy pleasure in trifles, For slender joys, often repeated, fall as sunshine on the heart: Thou art wise, if thou beat off petty troubles, nor suffer their stinging to fret thee: Thrust not thine hand among the thorns, but with a leathern glove. Regard nothing lightly which the wisdom of Providence hath ordered; And therefore, consider all things that happen unto thee or unto others. The warrior that stood against a host, may be pierced unto death by a needle; And the saint that feareth not the fire, may perish the victim of a thought. And the cable of a furlong is lost through an ill-wrought inch. |