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Retire and read thy Bible, to be gay;

There truths abound of sovereign aid

peace;

So has this Book entitled us to heaven,
And rules to guide us to that mansion given.
WALLER.

Precious Bible! what a treasure

Does the word of God afford!
All I want for life or pleasure,

Food and medicine, shield and sword:
Let the world account me poor,
Having this I need no more.

NEWTON.

If on the book itself we cast our view,
Concurrent heathens prove the story true;
The doctrine, miracles, which must convince,
For heaven in them appeals to human sense;
And though they prove not, they confirm the

cause,

When what is taught agrees with Nature's
laws.

Then for the style, majestic and divine,
It speaks no less than God in every line:
Commanding words; whose force is still the

same

As the first fiat that produced our frame.

DRYDEN.

"Tis Revelation satisfies all doubts,
Explains all mysteries, except her own,
And so illuminates the path of life,
That fools discover it and stray no more.
COWPER.

Most wondrous book! bright candle of the

Lord!

Star of eternity! the only star

By which the bark of man could navigate

to The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss Securely; only star which rose on time,

Ah! do not prize them less, because in- And, on its dark and troubled billows, still

spired,

As thou and thine are apt and proud to do.
If not inspired, that fragrant page had stood,
Time's treasure, and the wonder of the

wise!

YOUNG.

It is the armory of light;
Let constant use but keep it bright,
You'll find it yields,

To holy hands and humble hearts,
More swords and shields
Than sin hath snares, or hell hath darts.
RICHARD CRASHAW.

As generation, drifting swiftly by,
Succeeded generation, threw a ray

Of heaven's own light, and to the hills of God,
The everlasting hills, pointed the sinner's eye.

POLLOK.

There wilt thou learn what to thy ardent mind
Will make this world but as a thorny pass
To regions of delight; man's natural life,
With all its varied turmoil of ambition,
But as the training of a wayward child
To manly excellence; yea, death itself
But as the painful birth of life unending.
JOANNA BAILLIE,

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Which animates the glowing page they He proved all creeds false but his own, and found,

penned.

HODSON.

Sad error this, to take

The light of nature, rather than the light
Of Revelation for a guide. As well
Prefer the borrowed light of earth's pale

moon

To the effulgence of the noon-day sun.

BATES.

Stars are poor books, and oftentimes do miss; This book of stars lights to eternal bliss. HERBERT.

At last, his own most false; most false, because He spent his time to prove all others so.

POLLOK.

And nature's God, to whom alone
The secret of the heart is known,
The hidden language traced thereon;
Who from its many cumberings

Of form and creed and outward things,
To light the naked spirit brings;
Not with our partial eye shall scan,
Not with our pride and scorn shall ban
The spirit of our brother man!

WHITTIER.

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