The pavement of those heavenly courts Where I shall reign with God! The Father of eternal light Shall there his beams display, Nor shall one moment's darkness mix With that unvaried day. No more the drops of piercing grief There all the millions of his saints AWAKE, YE SAINTS. Awake, ye saints, and raise your eyes, And raise your voices high; Awake and praise that sovereign love That shows salvation nigh. On all the wings of time it flies, Each moment brings it near; Then welcome each declining day, Welcome each closing year! Not many years their round shall run, Ere all its glories stand revealed Ye wheels of nature, speed your course! Fast as ye bring the night of death, EPIGRAM. Dr. Johnson justly pronounces the following "one of the finest epigrams in the English language." It is founded on Doddridge's own family motto of "Dum vivimus vivamus " (While we live, let us live). "Live while you live," the epicure would say, "And seize the pleasures of the present day." "Live while you live," the sacred preacher cries, "And give to God each moment as it flies." Lord, in my view let both united be: I live in pleasure when I live to Thee! Son of the rector of Epworth, in Lincolnshire, John Wesley (1703-1791) was educated at Oxford, where he and his brother Charles, and a few other students, lived after a regular system of pious study and discipline, whence they were denominated Methodists. James Harvey, author of the "Meditations," and George Whitefield, the great preacher, who died at Newburyport, Mass., were members of this association. John and Charles Wesley sailed for Georgia with Oglethorpe, October 14th, 1735, and anchored in the Savannah River, February 6th, 1736. Charles soon returned to England; John stayed in Georgia a year and nine months. In 1740 he began in England that remarkable career as preacher, writer, and laborer, which led to the formation of the large and powerful Methodist denomination. In 1750 he married, but the union was an unhappy one, and separation ensued. He continued his ministerial work up to his eighty-eighth year; his apostolic earnestness and venerable appearance procuring for him everywhere profound respect. His religious poems are many of them paraphrases from the German, but have much of the merit of original productions. From phenomena in his own family, Wesley became a devout believer in preternatural occurrences and spiritual intercommunication. "With my latest breath," he says, "will I bear my tes timony against giving up to infidels one great proof of the invisible world." JOHN WESLEY.-WILLIAM HAMILTON. 173 COMMIT THOU ALL THY GRIEFS. William Hamilton. A native of Ayrshire, in Scotland, Hamilton of Bangour (1701-1754) was a man of fortune and family. An unauthorized edition of his poems appeared in Glasgow in 1748; a genuine edition was published by his friends in 1760; and a still more complete one, edited by James Paterson, appeared in 1850. Hamilton was the delight of the fashionable circles of Scotland. In 1745 he joined the standard of Prince Charles, and, on the downfall of the Jacobite party, fled to France. He was finally pardoned, and his paternal estate restored to him; but he did not long live to enjoy it. A pulmonary attack compelled him to seek a warmer climate, and he died at Lyons in the fiftieth year of his age. "The Braes of Yarrow" is the best known of Hamilton's poems; inJohnson deed, the rest of them are quite worthless. said of his poems, with some justice, that "they were very well for a gentleman to hand about among his friends;" but Johnson must have overlooked "The Braes of Yarrow," or else he was not in a mood to feel its marvellous pathos and beauty. It seems to have suggested three charming poems to Wordsworth -"Yarrow Unvisited," ," "Yarrow Visited," and "Yarrow Revisited." THE BRAES OF YARROW. 4. Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride; Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome marrow; Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride, And think nae mair on the braes of Yarrow. B. Where gat ye that bonny, bonny bride? Where gat ye that winsome marrow? 4. I gat her where I darena weil be seen, Pu'ing the birks' on the braes of Yarrow. Weep not, weep not, my bonny, bonny bride; Weep not, weep not, my winsome marrow! Nor let thy heart lament to leave Pu'ing the birks on the braes of Yarrow. B. Why does she weep, thy bonny, bonny bride? Why does she weep, thy winsome marrow? And why dare ye nae mair weil be seen Pu'ing the birks on the braes of Yarrow? A. Lang maun she weep, lang maun she, maun she weep; Lang maun she weep with dule and sorrow; And lang maun I nae mair weil be seen Pu'ing the birks on the braes of Yarrow. 1 Pulling the birches. NATHANIEL COTTON.-CHARLES WESLEY. Ah me! what ghastly spectre's yon, Pale as he is, here lay him, lay him down; Oh, lay his cold head on my pillow! Take aff, take aff these bridal weeds, Aud crown my careful head with willow. Pale tho' thou art, yet best, yet best beloved, Pale, pale indeed, oh lovely, lovely youth! 4. Return, return, oh mournful, mournful bride! Return, and dry thy useless sorrow: Thy lover heeds naught of thy sighs; He lies a corpse on the braes of Yarrow! 175 But soft, my friend; arrest the present moments; Than all the crimson treasures of life's fountains! "Tis a sharper who stakes his penury Against thy plenty; who takes thy ready cash, And pays thee naught but wishes, hopes, and promises, The currency of idiots. Injurious bankrupt, In all the hoary registers of Time, THE WRESTLER. GENESIS XXXII. 24-26. Come, oh thou traveller unknown, Whom still I hold, but cannot see, My company before is gone, And I am left alone with thee; With thee all night I mean to stay, And wrestle till the break of day. I need not tell thee who I am, Look on thy hands, and read it there! In vain thou strugglest to get free, I never will unloose my hold; |