Farewell! the mantle of a Saviour's love
And with this vestment, in the courts above
For ever shine!
"Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart so doth the sweetness of a man's friend."-PROV. xxvii. 9.
A WITTY lady-quite a blue!
As fain my pen would trace her;
Whilst light and shade of varying hue
Sent forth their charms to grace her.
Yes, she was blue! and deeply dyed
In that far-famed complexion;
Yet was her soul so beautified,
It bore a close inspection.
I see her in my mental gaze,
Apart from vice and folly,
She walked on earth, in wisdom's ways,
In paths serene and holy.
Yet taste and learning crowned her brow
And placed a garland on it;
But could she speak she'd tell you now,
Her merits never won it.
She spake for Truth with fearless air,
Where fatal shafts were flying-
She drew her portrait bright and fair,
In colours all undying.
Where senseless sons of mad misrule
Were moving earth's contention,
She bade them learn in wisdom's school,
To save it from declension.
Where Fashion leads her glittering throng,
The things of heaven she taught them;
She reasoned well, she reasoned long,
And goodly pearls she brought them.
She told them of a Saviour's love,
Who left heaven's glorious portal,
To bid them walk His courts above,
And wear a crown immortal.
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver"-PROV.
FULL on his way like courser to the goal,
In fancy's light I viewed a lofty soul;
Philanthropy his being's chosen aim,
Whilst zeal illumed his breast with purest flame
Ardour was in his eye, and taste refined
Enlivened with her grace, that sentient mind.
Untiring in his purpose, and of power
To grapple with the foe in Satan's hour;
Unflinching for the truth, and well agreed
In her defence to suffer and to bleed:
Dauntless amid the Christian phalanx he,
And foremost in the front of victory.
In friendship soft and tender as a child,
Compassionate and merciful and mild;
And for the sons of suffering on their bed,
See from his eye those melting tear-drops shed !
Amid the lion-hearted and the brave,
He nobly stands, to succour and to save ;
And in the Lamb's own warfare, at the last,
When earth's dark days of conflict shall be past,
Faithful beside his Lord, in armour bright,
And wrestling in the thickest of the fight,
So shall his soul departing, heaven-ward rise,
And gain the full fruition of the skies.
"Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft."-2 COR. xi. 23.
BEAMING with brightness, wearing love's sweet smile
I looked and read upon her brow the while,
The pearls of Truth upon her neck were strung
In artless guise,
And words of sweetness melted from her tongue,
That charmed the wise.
She listened when from intellect's high spring
A full tide flowed;
And whilst another's praise she fain would sing,
Her warm cheek glowed.
she loved and cherished-and her heart
Seeking their weal,
Made her the balm of sympathy impart
Their woes to heal.
Deep in the shade her spirit loved to be,
For there she found
Like saints who tread the vale humility,
'Twas pleasant ground.
But most she loved her Master,--and His cause
Was near her breast
She walked with Him below, nor sought applause,
"She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness."-PROV. xxxi. 26.
CHAMPION of truth! say, was there not a cause
That thou shouldst vindicate her broken laws?
Champion of freedom! with that glorious band
Who plead her injured rights, 'twas thine to stand,
To rescue bleeding Afric from her woes,
To deprecate her wrongs and yield her soft repose.
Friend of mankind! how many a golden hour
On thee has poured its light, with quickening power;
How many a charm was thine of heavenly birth,
With flowers that deck the verdant lap of earth;
How many a boon and blessing largely spread,
Played in thy path and circled round thy head,
With fruits of Paradise ordained to bless
And cheer the traveller on, in life's parched wilderness.
Thy eloquence that touched the heart's deep spring,
Had power from feeling's fount, a tide to bring
Of chastened sympathies, of hallowed thought,
For high resolve, for holy purpose wrought :-
Fertile and green thy borders-and 'twas there
That pure Devotion raised her house of prayer,
The shrine of his orisons, where the saint
Might well the hues of heavenly glories, paint
With telescopic vision, whilst his eye
Could thence, Immanuel's land of light descry..
Conversion was thy aim-thy mind and pen
Spoke gospel doctrines to thy fellow-men;
And thou wast brought to Jesus, for His love
Bore thee from earthly things to things above:
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