The right of private judgement.
ABSURD and vain attempt! to bind
With iron chains the free-born mind;
To force conviction, and reclaim
The wandering by destructive flame.
Bold arrogance! to snatch from heaven
Dominion not to mortals given;
O'er conscience to usurp the throne,
Accountable to God alone.
Jesus, thy gentle law of love
Doth no such cruelties approve :
Mild as thyself, thy doctrine wields.
No arms but what persuasion yields.
By proofs divine and reason strong
It draws the willing soul along,
And conquests to thy church acquires
By eloquence which heaven inspires.
O happy, who are thus compell'd
To the rich feast by Jesus held!
Britain, thy blessings know, and prize
The light which liberty supplies.
228. C. M. BUTCHER.
The Christian's inheritance.
WITH transport, Lord, we view the page
Where all thy mercies shine,
And joy to tell the rising age
What boundless grace is thine.
The world with all its shifting schemes, Time with its fleeting hours,
Life with its gay and flattering dreams, Its hopes and fears, are ours.
Death also, at our Father's word,
Lays all its terrors by,
Gently divides the "silver cord,"
And calls us to the sky.
Fain would our hearts a tribute bring
Before our Father's throne;
A tribute worthy of our King,
Whose mercies are unknown.
229. L. M. MRS. STEELE. Piety excited by Christian prospects.
THERE is a glorious world on high,
Resplendent with eternal day;
Faith views the blissful prospect nigh,
While God's own word reveals the way.
There shall the servants of the Lord
With never-fading lustre shine;
Amazing honour! vast reward
Conferr'd on man by love divine.
The shining firmament shall fade,
And sparkling stars resign their light;
But these shall know nor change nor shade,
For ever fair, for ever bright.
And shall not these cold hearts of ours
Be kindled at the glorious view?
Come, Lord, awake our active powers,
Our feeble, dying strength renew.
On wings of faith and strong desire
O may our spirits daily rise,
And reach at last the shining choir
In the bright mansions of the skies!
230. C. M. WATTS.
The hope of heaven a support in death.
THERE is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers:
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.
Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand drest in living green:
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan roll'd between.
But timorous mortals start and shrink
To cross this narrow sea,
And linger shivering on the brink,
And fear to launch away.
O could we make our doubts remove,
Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And view the Canaan that we love
With unbeclouded eyes:
Could we but stand as Moses stood,
And view the landscape o'er;
Not Jordan's streams, nor death's cold flood,
Should fright us from the shore.
231. c. M. MRS. STEELE.
The promised land.
FAR from these narrow scenes of night
Unbounded glories rise,
And realms of infinite delight,
Unknown to mortal eyes.
Fair distant land! could mortal eyes
But half its joys explore,
How would our spirits long to rise,
And dwell on earth no more!
There pain and sickness never come,
And grief no more complains:
Health triumphs in immortal bloom,
And endless pleasure reigns.
The glorious monarch there displays
His beams of wondrous grace:
His happy subjects sing his praise,
And bow before his face.
O may the heavenly prospect fire
Our hearts with ardent love,
Till wings of faith and strong desire
Bear every thought above!
Prepare us, Lord, by grace divine,
For thy bright courts on high:
Then bid our spirits rise and join
The chorus of the sky.
232. c. M. SIR J. E. SMITH. Heaven the everlasting rest of the righteous.
ADORE, my soul, that awful name
To which the angels bow,
By which the worlds from nothing came,
The heaven of heavens, and thou.
The God who sits enthroned above
Thy breath of life has given:
His voice, in thunder and in love,
Calls thee from earth to heaven.
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