Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

VII.

MODERN:

DECEASED WRITERS.

[graphic][subsumed]

66 LET US NOT SLEEP, AS DO OTHERS."

B

ENEATH our feet and o'er our head

Is equal warning given;

Beneath us lie the countless dead,

Above us is the Heaven!

Their names are graven on the stone,

Their bones are in the clay;

And ere another day is gone,
Ourselves may be as they.

Death rides on every passing breeze,
He lurks in every flower;

Each season has its own disease,

Its peril every hour!

[ocr errors]

Our eyes have seen the rosy light
Of youth's soft cheek decay,
And fate descend in sudden night
On manhood's middle day.

Our

eyes have seen the steps of age Halt feebly towards the tomb,

And yet shall earth our hearts engage, And dreams of days to come?

Turn, mortal, turn! thy danger know;
Where'er thy foot can tread,
The earth rings hollow from below,
And warns thee of her dead!

Turn, Christian, turn! thy soul apply To truths divinely given;

The bones that underneath thee lie

Shall live for Hell or Heaven!

"COME OVER AND HELP US!"

FROM Greenland's icy mountains,
From India's coral strand,
Where Afric's sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand;
From many an ancient river,
From many a palmy plain,

They call us to deliver

Their land from error's chain.

What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle,
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile;
In vain with lavish kindness,
The gifts of God are strewn,
The Heathen, in his blindness,
Bows down to wood and stone.

« AnteriorContinuar »