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 A^ POEM: 
 
 Q^^A%mEki FiiesSc 
 
 GEOKGE BUHROWES, D.D. 
 
 Author of a Commentary on the Soug of Solomon. 
 
 ^^jlilahlpljiii: 
 
 WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN. 
 
 * 185G. 
 
\ 
 
 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1856, hy 
 
 GEORGE BURROWES, D. D., 
 
 In the Clerk's OiEce of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
TO 
 MRS. S. D. CONNER, 
 
 THESE LINES 
 
 WRITTEN IN LEISURE HOURS, 
 
 DURING THE PAST SUMMER HAPPILY SPENT 
 
 IN THE RETIREMENT OF 
 
 HER OCTORARA HOME, 
 
 ARE INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 OcTOBARA, October 1850. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arcinive 
 
 in 2011 witii funding from 
 
 Princeton Tlneoiogicai Seminary Library 
 
 littp://www.archive.org/details/octorarapoemoccaOOburr 
 
 I 
 
CnntButs, 
 
 PAOE 
 
 OCTOBARA 9 
 
 RETIREMENT WITH JESUS 79 
 
 THE NAME OF JESUS 82 
 
 LONGING FOR JESUS 85 
 
 THE MORNING STAR 8G 
 
 LINES WRITTEN IN A NEW HOME 89 
 
 ASPIRATIONS 9] 
 
 WHERE I ABIDE 94 
 
 JESUS OUR REST 96 
 
 A LOVED ONE IN HEAVED. 99 
 
 THE NEW YEAR 103 
 

 
ARGUMENT. 
 
 Summer evening. Twilight. Invocation. The grove around Octo- 
 rara. View from the piazza. Rural retirement favourable to piety 
 and happiness. Piety the foundation of lasting friendship. The pious 
 heart has most enjoyment in the beauties of Nature. Sounds at 
 evening. The Am-ora Borealis. Power of hope. The Christian's 
 hope throws great beauty over the present world. The second 
 coming of Jesus. Millennial blessings. The redeemed with Jesus. 
 Social converse within doors. Dignity of the Medical profession. 
 Sympathy in sorrow. Dr. Philip Syng Physick. Parental love and 
 faithfulness, its reward. Filial love eminently beautiful. Disobedi- 
 ence to parents requited in this world. Counsel to the young. The 
 sacred Scriptures, their fulness and excellence. An affecting relic. 
 
'^tC. SEP UoM 
 
 ®([^T®lAEila 
 
 Come to this porch, this rustic seat, aud share 
 The coolness of the tranquil summer eve. 
 The twilight glow, the quiet heav'ns, the trees 
 Hushed in the gathering gloom, the coming stars, 
 The busy sounds of day now sunk to rest. 
 Are all in unison with the profound 
 And deep-toned feelings thronging on the soul : 
 And that benignant Power whose love at first 
 Pitched all the harmonies of earth and heaven. 
 Attuned in Eden to man's sinless soul. 
 Has with our feelings harmonized this scene, 
 2 
 
10 OCTORARA. 
 
 That friendship here may, with adoring love, 
 Feel what that Eden was, what heav'n shall be. 
 
 Come, thou blest Spirit, as the cloud of fire 
 On Pentecostal scene, calm as this eve; 
 And as the golden twilight turns to flame 
 Rich as its own soft beauty, yon dark cloud 
 Lonely and fading, thou our spirits melt 
 Into the brightness of thy love, suifused 
 With the calm twilight of our coming heaven. 
 
 iTow sweet to linger while the kindly eve, 
 With dewy fingers, sheds her twilight shades 
 Serene around; as when the mother's love 
 The curtain draws o'er infant innocence, 
 Shades the dim night-lamp, and with sleepless eye, 
 From love intense, gazes and watches there. 
 Slow in the West the lingering twilight fades; 
 The outline of the woods above yon hills. 
 Stands clearly traced on the back -ground of light; 
 
OCTORARA. 11 
 
 And through the pensive willow's trailing boughs, 
 
 Bright burns the evening star, — along the shades 
 
 Embosoming our home, those flame -tipped shafts, 
 
 Rays mid the green more beauteous, through the soul 
 
 Shoot thrills most exquisite; the clustering trees 
 
 Gather a holier atmosphere of shade 
 
 More lovely still as deeper; that dark beech 
 
 Of thick o'ermantling gloom; those ash -trees fresh 
 
 In vigorous growth; the locusts deeply rich 
 
 With dewy fragrance in the moon -light June; 
 
 The poplar's tulip bloom; the murmuring pine; 
 
 The red -bud with its crown of blushing flowers, 
 
 Placed eagerly upon the brow of spring; 
 
 The towering buttonwood; the cedar -grove 
 
 Which breaks the force of many a western blast; 
 
 That line of cedars where the arbour leads 
 
 O'er clustered with the grapes in fragi'ant bloom 
 
 And varied honey -suckle's vines and flowers, 
 
 And through the rustic gate we look adown 
 
 The hill -slope to the murmuriiig, grove - fringed bed 
 
12 OCTORARA. 
 
 Of Octorara; and this deep green hedge 
 
 Of osage - orange, with luxuriant shoots 
 
 The gate o'erarching and the grass - fringed path 
 
 To the farm hamlet, where the aged oaks 
 
 Shelter the grassy dell's sequestered nook, 
 
 And gushes the cool spring, and the sheep-fold 
 
 Alone by trees unhid ; — these spread a grove 
 
 Around this Christian home, where piety 
 
 And peace may ever love to find repose, 
 
 And while enjoying earth prepare for heaven. 
 
 Above those roses blooming through the year, 
 That edge the walk and fringe the dewy grass, 
 Where gaze those weeping willows on the heavens, 
 Like graceful widowhood in flowing weeds, 
 Beyond the wicket with o'ermantling boughs 
 G-rown heavy from the hedge, — the scene expands; 
 We gaze on mingled fields of grass, and grain 
 All whitened for the reaper's hand, and groves 
 Of forest growth still sacred in their gloom, 
 
OCTORARA. 13 
 
 And rural homes: those neighbouring, twin -like knolls, 
 
 Whose faultless undulations and smooth green 
 
 Arrest our sense of beauty, gently hide 
 
 All save the roof of Highfield; calm repose 
 
 Broods o'er that seemina; lake with islets green 
 
 And foliage curving to the water's brim, 
 
 Formed by the river with its faint, dull roar, 
 
 Where roll its waters hid by leafy groves 
 
 And Harford's wave -washed undulating hills 
 
 With wooded slopes and varied tillage crowned. 
 
 Those peaceful waters brighten on the. view, 
 
 As, in the cloudless East, the silent moon 
 
 Walks forth in silvery mantle, and with smile 
 
 E'en purer than the twilight's fading glow, 
 
 Lights up the varied landscape into joy. 
 
 Now like an angel visitant she stands, 
 
 With kind, full, lustrous eye, behind those trees. 
 
 And through their boughs, as though along the hedge 
 
 Of cedars walking, hails us happy eve, 
 
 With tread so airy on her quiet way. 
 
 The dew-drops, glistening, lie unshaken there. 
 
14 OCTORARA. 
 
 Here eartlily happiness has found a home; 
 Mid scenes like this our sinless parents dwelt, 
 E'er fell the curse; and in this blighted world, 
 A wilderness of woe, whate'er of bliss 
 Yet lingers, — like the dew-drops when the sun 
 Flames in his noontide heat, that lie concealed 
 In deep brown thickets only, — shrinks afar 
 From the hot, garish glare of fashion's crowd. 
 And lingers unexhaled in the cool shades 
 Of rural quietness. The richest flowers 
 Of earthly happiness, the wayworn heart 
 Finds not along the hard - paved streets of life. 
 Where selfish vanity throngs in its pomp; 
 Nor on the bleak, lone mountain - cliffs of fame; 
 Nor where the restless mind a traveller's way 
 Threads weary through the nations; nay, those plants 
 Whose leaves enfold a fragrance, and a dew, 
 And healing virtue such as Eden knew. 
 Are oftenest, if not ever, found to bloom 
 In the deep quiet of a rural life. 
 Like scanty spots of green, or flowers shown 
 
OCTORARA. 15 
 
 111 city - windows, in the crowded town 
 
 Those joys may scanty live; but like the flowers 
 
 Which carpet o'er the prairies of the West, 
 
 They find their native region in the fields 
 
 Of the retired country. In all climes, 
 
 In every land, e'en the most favoured spots. 
 
 Stand pitiable traces of the curse. 
 
 The richest soil, e'en Carmel in its pride. 
 
 And Sharon's wil(^ luxuriance of flowers, 
 
 Is but a shrivelled remnant of what earth 
 
 In beauty was before the fall, what earth 
 
 Shall be when Je$us comes again and reigns. 
 
 Yet far less deep the furrows of the curse, 
 
 In rural shades, in the lone wilderness. 
 
 Than in the centres where man numerous crowds. 
 
 In cities largest, deemed most beautiful. 
 
 Far less the miseries God in justice sends 
 
 On guilty earth, than those which man inflicts 
 
 On his own self, and on earth for his sake. 
 
 And while the votary of folly sneers 
 
16 UC TO KARA. 
 
 At those so stupid as to be content 
 
 With the dull country; they in wonder feel 
 
 How petrified the heart that rests content 
 
 With man's dark substitution in the town, 
 
 For God's fresh beauties in the rural wild. 
 
 The country has its drawbacks, but the town 
 
 More numerous and still greater; these the work 
 
 Of man in his depravity, while those 
 
 Are but the mingled ills of Him who sejids 
 
 No deprivations but arc for our good. 
 
 Man is the greatest cvirse to man; and those 
 
 Who most complain of God's reproof of sin. 
 
 Are they who multiply by sin their woes. 
 
 Of every happiness on earth the life 
 Is virtue; virtue's healthful, vigorous life 
 Is true religion. Like the influence 
 Unseen but animating nature's growth 
 In every tiny thing, all pleasure draws 
 Its life from piety whose spirit breathes 
 
OCTORARA. 17 
 
 From nature's great Creator- and true bliss 
 Grows wliere true piety has room to show, 
 Like trees in rural landscapes, the true power 
 Inherent, with no interfering hand. 
 Well saw the Roman sage friendship must rest 
 On virtue only as its lasting base: 
 Virtue is adamantine, no decay 
 Its unmixed purity can e'er corrode. 
 Like the foundation, formed of precious stones, 
 On which the heavenly walls of Zion rest 
 Unshaken ever, friendships thus endure 
 Thus founded on the gems which virtue, truth. 
 With varied shading, in one beauty blend. 
 All other loves are specious, castles built 
 On the unstable sand, with tottering base 
 Which time unsettles and the storm o'erthrows. 
 The strongest friendships are of those made one 
 By common love to Jesus; virtue this 
 In virtue's highest, purest form; their strength 
 Lies in their healthful purity of love; 
 3 
 
18 OCTORARA. 
 
 They thus enduring, as this heavenly love 
 
 Breathed into friendships makes them living souls, 
 
 deep the bliss of loving those who love 
 
 Our common G-od and Saviour; then the heart, 
 
 As clarified by grace, obtains a sense 
 
 More delicately exquisite, alive 
 
 To finer, keener shades of loveliness; 
 
 And friends, thus loved, we gather to the heart, 
 
 Not only for their own inherent worth. 
 
 But for the precious image which they bear 
 
 Of Jesus, in their deepest heart enshrined. 
 
 And whore blooms fairest, piety that gives 
 
 Friendship its healthful, amaranthine hues, 
 
 Enriches all the charities of life. 
 
 And sheds an Eden - fragrance o'er this world. 
 
 So bleak a wilderness, till all is filled 
 
 With fragrance of a field the Lord has blessed? 
 
 The country is its native soil; there first. 
 
 Without the gates of Paradise, 'twas found 
 
 By earth's first martyr; there, unlike the child 
 
OCTORARA. 19 
 
 Of fabled Ceres, seized by gloomy Dis, 
 
 While in Trinacria's meadows gathering flowers, 
 
 And hurried by his stormy chariot - steeds 
 
 To share his dismal throne with god of hell, — 
 
 Were holy Enoch and the prophet bold, 
 
 Who passed in Enoch's car of fire to heaven, 
 
 Culling the flowers of piety, afar 
 
 From crowded strife, in calm Judea's vales. 
 
 The father of the faithful fostered there 
 
 His hallowed virtues; in the quiet fields 
 
 Did Isaac meditate at eventide; 
 
 Judah's great minstrel there attuned his lyre. 
 
 By Bethlehem's shaded streams; the harbinger 
 
 Of Jesus in the wilderness abode 
 
 Till fitted for his mission. Sages sought 
 
 For truth of old in Academus' shades ; 
 
 Afar from Athens, on the sea -washed cliff 
 
 Of Sunium's promontory, Plato's lips 
 
 Distilled the purest truth the human mind 
 
 Could, in its anxious, restless wanderings, cull, 
 
20 OCTORARA. 
 
 Unaided, from tlie flowering works of God. 
 
 And when the Son of God discoursed of truths 
 
 Man had despaired of finding; when like rain 
 
 His doctrine dropped, his words distilled as dew; 
 
 He first stood on the mount of Galilee, 
 
 Stood on its peaceful lake; and when by day, 
 
 He taught in Salem's temple, he withdrew 
 
 Ever to spend the night in prayer to God, 
 
 In the lone mountain; far from public gaze, 
 
 Mid the secluded brakes of Tabor's cliffs, 
 
 His chosen ones his glory saw unveiled 
 
 In heavenly splendour; in a garden, rose 
 
 The vanquisher of death, amid the buds 
 
 Of opening spring; and from the rural top 
 
 Of Olivet, he blessed his sorrowing friends. 
 
 As in the Shechinah he passed to heaven. 
 
 And in such scenes shall they behold him first. 
 
 Who watch with longing hearts the coming dawn 
 
 Of his appearing to redeem his saints. 
 
 Not as when beacon - fires from steep to steep. 
 
OCTORARA. 21 
 
 To Argos hetalded the fiill of Troy;* 
 
 But like the lightning - flash in midnight gloom, 
 
 Through earth's dark valley of this shade of death, 
 
 Shall the keen brightness of his coming flame, 
 
 And herald to his waiting saints the fall 
 
 Of sin's proud towers and Satan's murderous reign. 
 
 In all the works of God the virtuous heart 
 Has greatest happiness: love clarifies 
 Our pow'rs from sensual grossness, and refines 
 Each apprehension; while within the soul, 
 Far down within our very heart of hearts, 
 God's Spirit new creates a heart of love, 
 Which adds another element of bliss 
 To our whole being, in the freshened sense 
 Of beauty, love, and joy imbedded there. 
 The letter written by a distant hand, 
 
 * See the brilliant passage in the Agamemnon of ^Eschylus, line 
 256, describing the progress of the beacon-lights from Troy to Ai'gos, 
 announcing the- fall of Troy. 
 
22 OCTORARA. 
 
 From some far region, to the stranger's eye 
 
 Has no great interest, thougt he may admire 
 
 The beauty of the hand, and prize the news: 
 
 To him who there the lines of love beholds 
 
 A parent's heart has traced, that common sheet 
 
 Becomes a fond memorial, often read. 
 
 More prized than gold, worn nearest to the heart. 
 
 The play- thing of a dead or wandering child. 
 
 To others valueless, is more than gems 
 
 To that parental heart who feels it speak 
 
 The language of a deep and sacred love. 
 
 Thus nature's beauties touch with keener power 
 
 The soul that feels them characters of love 
 
 Traced by a parent in the far oiF skies. 
 
 Thus love to Jesus new sensations sheds 
 
 Through all our being, makes each sound more sweet, 
 
 Fragrance more exquisite, more rich each view; 
 
 Each more delightful to the heart refined, 
 
 Where piety, the highest virtue reigns. 
 
OCTORARA. 23 
 
 How sweet the sounds that usher in the eve; 
 Kindred in richness with the mellow light 
 Of the declining sun and twilight's gloom. 
 The tinklings from the sheep - fold partly hid 
 By yonder oaks and poplar; the deep low 
 Of the impatient heifer for her young; 
 The bellowing ox slow from his daily toil; 
 The bark of Jupe in leisure dignified, 
 And sober mien, as though the manor's lord; 
 And Scrub's impatient cry, as in our ride 
 Along the avenue of trees, quick breaks 
 The rabbit from the hedge and bounds away 
 Hid in the field of thick luxuriant corn: 
 The quail his *' bobwhite " sings amid the grass, 
 Or lost, cries sadly for his wandering mate; 
 The red -bird whistling in his lonely bush; 
 The locust singing in the summer tree: 
 The wood -thrush carols with mellifluous note; 
 And oft when homeward bound, 'neath leafy oaks, 
 Where through the meadow rolls the pure, cool rill, 
 
24 OCTORARA. 
 
 Aud swells to deeper waters at the base 
 
 Of the gray rock o'ergrowa with mantling vines 
 
 And downward trailing, have we paused and sat, 
 
 Bridle in hand, upon the moss - grown stone 
 
 Hard by the log a rustic bridge o'erthrown; 
 
 And there, with breathless ear, have drank the notes 
 
 Of the wild wood -thrush in the thicket hid, 
 
 While rich they fell at luscious intervals, 
 
 In drops of music mingled with the dew; 
 
 Yet more delightful from the freshened air. 
 
 And leaves, and grass, and flowers, and farewell sun 
 
 More sweetly smiling o'er the by -gone shower. 
 
 And oft, again, we've breathless paused to hear. 
 
 In hedge or thicket, the same thrilling strain: 
 
 The widowed robin pours its sorrowing tones; 
 
 The exile dove, with lonely, plaintive moan, 
 
 Longs for her native paradise and heaven : 
 
 The thrush high perched upon a topmost bough, 
 
 Rains showering melody mid falling dews; 
 
 The oriole his luscious warble pours, 
 
OCTORARA. 25 
 
 Speeding, while singing, to his airy nest; 
 Pertly the bustling wren his quick note sings 3 
 The humming-bird the honey - suckle's bells 
 Sips, hovers o'er, and rapid darts from view: 
 The nighthawk shooting through the upper air, 
 Drops, with unearthly howl and swoop, to seize 
 His prey, amid the insect horde of eve; 
 And having through the day slept off th' effects 
 Of yesternight's debauch, the sneaking bat 
 Breaks from his covert in the time - worn eaves : 
 The swallows whirring from the chimneytop 
 Their sooty nests forsake for the fresh eve: 
 That mammoth motk with ruby eye, half bird, 
 Half butterfly, with rapid heavy hum, 
 Unrolls his coiling bill, and hovering drinks 
 Sweets from the honey - suckle's deepest flower. 
 
 Those sounds are hushed: now eve and silence reign 
 Beneath- the moon, whose silvery sceptre sways 
 A weary, labouring world to balmy rest. 
 4 
 
26 OC TO KARA. 
 
 This honey - suckle choice, the evergreen, 
 
 With vine dark crimson, leaves of velvet green, 
 
 And flovrers of rarest mould, of softest hue. 
 
 Pours cloying fragrance on the dewy air. 
 
 The jasmine sweetness, the rich clematis 
 
 In greenery and clustering sweets, unfolds 
 
 Its bloom pure, dewy, fresh of breathing snow: — 
 
 All, all, — this balmy fragrance, those sweet sounds 
 
 To life awaken every slumbering sense 
 
 Within us of the beautiful. The light 
 
 Of the aurora streaming in the North 
 
 Melts with this blended softness through the soul : 
 
 That tall and graceful locust now stands out, — 
 
 No more, as late, a mass of heavy gloom, — 
 
 In all its rounded outline, every bough 
 
 And every leaf, as, through, the northern light 
 
 Shines ray less; and we feel as though a tree, 
 
 Airy and silvered, from some fairy land 
 
 By some uneai'thly hand were towering there. 
 
OCTORARA. 27 
 
 There is no power in the human sonl 
 Religion does not quicken and refine; 
 No less our sense of beauty than our love. 
 Hence, while the virtuous heart such scenes delight 
 More than the bosom clouded by remorse, 
 By vice benumbed ; where virtue's highest type, 
 Piety reigns, they strike still greater joy 
 Through all the chords of feeling ; — that delight 
 Swelling to deepest volume, when the hope 
 Of the believing heart bespeaks these scenes 
 The dawning glories of a blighted world 
 In more than Eden's blessedness renewed. 
 
 All scenes receive a colouring from the eye 
 Through which they're viewed: The glass of varied hue 
 In window of the gothic pile, displays 
 Landscapes all -various to the selfsame eye, 
 In the same view of water, wood, and field. 
 The soul contemplates nature in the hues 
 Thrown over all things by the eye and mood 
 
28 OCTORARA. 
 
 Of him who gazes : with a roseate flush 
 
 To some is all sufi"used; a violet tinge, 
 
 A sickly hue of palish green, a ray 
 
 Of orange softness fringes all things o'er : 
 
 Thus e'en while gazing with intense delight, 
 
 According to our^ tone of grief or joy. 
 
 The heart whose eye is, with the jaundiced film 
 
 Of dark, diseased depravity, o'erspread. 
 
 Sees never in its real light the world. 
 
 Nor heav'n, nor duty. But when grace has purged 
 
 The eyeball of the soul, no fancy's hues 
 
 Longer deceive; and all things lie revealed 
 
 Clear in the light of heaven, with crystal ray; 
 
 And the pure fire of holiness, ablaze 
 
 On the heart's shrine, throws through the lustrous eye 
 
 A brilliance over all, made sweetly soft 
 
 By love's all tender glow. We live by hope; 
 
 Where beats the heart the mainspring of whose joy 
 
 Lies not in hope ? Our happiness abides 
 
 Far in the future, on the sunny isles 
 
OCTORARA. 29 
 
 Of blessedness beyond tbe waves of deatb. 
 
 Nor like tbe beasts tbat perisb, and can know 
 
 No future and tbe bope wbieb tbereto binds 
 
 Tbe boping heart, — our souls were formed to live, 
 
 Not for tbe present only, but afar 
 
 In tbe great future, an immortal life. 
 
 And bope, a beavenly ancbor, buried deep 
 
 In tbe dark future, makes tbis fragile bark , 
 
 Of eartbly being steadily outride 
 
 All storms of disappointment and despair; 
 
 And feel tbat clearer skies and bappier scenes 
 
 Will yet appear. Our eartbly bappiness 
 
 All centres in our bopes; — greater or less 
 
 As bope is weak or strong. Witb flattering bopes 
 
 Our present ills, witb cbeerfulness, we bear; 
 
 And witb no bopes far in tbe future cast, 
 
 We feel, wbate'er of present joy possessed, 
 
 Our being narrowed, in tbis desert life. 
 
 To a cramped oasis, witb meagre green 
 
 By tbe sirocco blasted of despair. 
 
30 OCTORARA. 
 
 Witli the magnificence of hope, our bliss 
 
 Becomes magnificent : the lesser hopes 
 
 Which bind the wayward spirit to pursuit 
 
 Of earthly joys, are emblems set to teach. 
 
 What hope in full development avails. 
 
 With anchor cast within the vail and sunk 
 
 Deep in the rock of ages. Earthly hope, 
 
 Like other earthly things, should be so scanned. 
 
 That we may learn the latent power of hope 
 
 Which lays its hold on heaven. In this world, 
 
 A wilderness, not like Palmyra's waste. 
 
 Of marble ruins, but a desert filled 
 
 With ruined temples of the Holy Ghost, — 
 
 The way-worn pilgrim has a hope of hopes, 
 
 Towering above all other hopes, as towers 
 
 The morning star above the lighthouse torch 
 
 Blazing upon the surging midnight sea: 
 
 A hope not frail afud fleeting, but pronounced. 
 
 From the high throne of Grod, "that blessed hope." 
 
OC TO KARA. 31 
 
 And what that hope, in heav'n esteemed so blessed? 
 The glorious appearing of our Lord, 
 Of Jesus on his throne of glory, crowned 
 With many crowns, no longer as the man 
 Of grief, a suffering sacrifice for sin, 
 But come in pow'r to make an end of sin 
 And crown with gloiy his expectant saints. 
 "Behold he comes in clouds," — the glorious cloud 
 Seen by Ezekiel leave the temple's gate * 
 And from the top of Olivet ascend 
 To heav'n ; which on that top again received 
 To his own glory our ascending Lord; — 
 The Shechinah once more come down to earth 
 There ever to abide and Jesus reign. 
 Along the deathless path where Enoch rose, 
 Caught up to meet Him in the aii", his saints 
 No more are found, for God has taken them, — 
 The jewels of his crown, — all stilly gone 
 
 * Ezekiel, Chapters x. aud xi. 
 
32 OCTORARA. 
 
 At midnight, as the stealthy thief secures, 
 
 E'er breaking morn, the sleeping miser's gold. 
 
 A wild and tearful search is all abroad, 
 
 Fruitless, as those who for Elijah sought, — 
 
 Forgetting they in car of fire thus passed. 
 
 At midnight, deathless, to their waiting Lord. 
 
 Nor those alone : fresh with the grass of spring. 
 
 With budding flowerets gemmed, the rounded turf 
 
 Of quiet grass sleeps as at yester eve; 
 
 But from those caskets, where the blood -bought dust 
 
 Of saints reposed, the jewels are withdrawn; 
 
 To human view those graves untouched, no need 
 
 Of bursting barriers as when Jesus rose, 
 
 Mid garden - beauties of an eastern spring. 
 
 The first-fruits of the dead, and proof thus given, 
 
 In liis grave tenantless, he vanquished death. 
 
 Of her peculiar ti'easure earth's despoiled; 
 
 And as earth's king in glory comes to reign, 
 
 They cluster round him, as the diamonds blaze 
 
 On the brow brilliant of a conquering king. 
 
-OCTORARA. 33 
 
 The living vigour of millennial spring 
 Earth, feels displacing the primeval curse : 
 A thousand years has Jesus come to reign. 
 The Prince of darkness chained in the abyss, 
 With his grim, fallen host, no more deceives 
 The suffering nations; nor makes man increase. 
 By his own sins, the pressure of the curse. 
 Since Paradise, earth ne'er has known a spring 
 Rich in such beauties bursting from the ground 
 So long accursed; the solitary place 
 And wilderness are glad; deserts rejoice 
 And blossom as the rose; Sharon puts forth 
 Her Eden -roses on the blasted heath; 
 And Carmel's excellency crowns the peaks 
 Of barren mountains : the discoloured air 
 No longer dimmed by deadly mists of sin, 
 Looks forth in primal purity of heaven. 
 Earth with her flowery herbage, and the trees 
 With leaf unfading and perennial fruits, 
 Drink from the air thus clarified first draughts 
 5 
 
34 OCTORAKA. 
 
 Of an immortal youth; and sun and moon, 
 
 Th' innumerable stars, with, radiance burn 
 
 Brilliant as when they first burst forth in smiles, 
 
 And o'er the new creation sung for joy. 
 
 Beneath the smiles of these millennial years, 
 
 The garden of our Lord shall cluster rich 
 
 With lilies fresh in copious heavenly dews, 
 
 To the glad Church a happier ornament, 
 
 Than to the earth her all - abounding flowers; 
 
 And gathered in their lily purity, 
 
 By his own hand, to slumber on his heart 
 
 In freshness ne'er to fade. As earth profuse 
 
 Pours forth her flowers for the gatherer's hand. 
 
 Peculiar to each season, — this blest reign * 
 
 Shall have its spring-time flow'rs, its summer buds, 
 
 And flowers of its sober autumn dews : 
 
 These in full bloom of piety and love. 
 
 Shall each in its own time, be gathered home. 
 
 O'er the wide, troublous ocean, halcyon days 
 
 Are calmly slumb'ring; the imprisoned storms 
 
OCTORARA. 35 
 
 And vengeful blasts with fi'uitless mutterings fill 
 Their deep abysmal dungeons; zephyr fresh 
 From dewy bowers, with train of laughing hours, 
 Floats through the cloudless sky, and fragrance showers, 
 And flowery plenty, and rose -scented dews. 
 
 Idolatry is done; that Moloch grim, 
 By universal man for ages loved, 
 In spite of blood-stained horrors, murderous war, 
 No longer claims his cloud of worshippers. 
 For glory seeking mid the groans and blood 
 Of dying millions; this dread Juggernaut, 
 Thrown from his hideous car, lies ground to dust; 
 The swordj the trumpet, the fire -breathing gun 
 Are known as fossils of a by-gone age, 
 Whose relics, from the strata as exhumed 
 Broken and mouldering, curious tell of fierce 
 And savage monsters who possessed the earth. 
 Tamed are the brute creation into peace, 
 Each with the other, and with man their lord. 
 
36 OCTORAKA. 
 
 Nought lingers that can now destroy or hurt 
 Through this wide world, so long the seat of death, 
 God's holy mountain, where Messiah reigns : 
 The promise of th' angelic host fulfilled, 
 On earth a boundless peace, good -will to man. 
 Like the last remnant of a summer shower. 
 When with his streaming rays the evening sun 
 The freshened landscape floods, and low the clouds, 
 But late all scowling, in th' horizon sunk. 
 Are seen no longer, save a low dark line 
 Around the circling East; thus sin's dark shades. 
 For ages scowling o'er the guilty world. 
 With shafted lightning and the thunder's roll, 
 Furrowing all nations with the sweeping curse, 
 Are gone, save where in far Siberian wilds. 
 Faint clouds are lingering yet, as o'er the marsh 
 Its deadly exhalation. The wide earth, 
 A camp of saints where their Jehovah dwells 
 Amid the cloud of fire, which Israel's hosts 
 O'ershadowed ojlorious in the wilderness. 
 
OCTORARA. 37 
 
 Around this tlirone, curtained with living light, 
 
 Of Christ the king of glory, crowd the host 
 
 Of angels gathered over Bethlehem's plain. 
 
 When round the midnight shepherds glory shone, 
 
 A soldiery all meet t' escort and guard 
 
 In bright immortal armour Zion's king. 
 
 Amid that splendour, like the chosen three 
 
 With the translated prophets on the mount 
 
 With Jesus when transfigured, stand a host 
 
 No man can number of all tribes and tongues, 
 
 Clothed in white raiment, with palms in their hands, 
 
 With crowns of gold, and on their breast a star 
 
 Emblem of royalty, and mid its rays 
 
 Set a white stone with an inscription traced 
 
 By God's own hand, which none can understand 
 
 But him who bears it; while with harps of gold, 
 
 As sound of many waters and the voice 
 
 Of harpers harping with their harps, they sing, 
 
 "Salvation to our God, and to the Lamb 
 
 Who made us kings and priests through his own blood." 
 
38 OCTORARA. 
 
 Around them stand tlie glad angelic host 
 
 As an encircling crown. What these? and whence? 
 
 Past the first resurrection: Blessed he 
 Who in its triumph shargd; for they shall reign, 
 Through endless ages, kings and priests to God. 
 These are the blessed host redeemed from earth, 
 O'er death triumphant, with their bodies changed 
 Alike the glorious body of their King; 
 Who, as the angel standing in the sun. 
 High on his throne and crowned with many crowns, 
 Sits King of Zion, mid that cloud of light; 
 And they, first of creation, round him stand 
 Circling, — the household of the King of kings, 
 With coronets unfading, jpeers of heaven. 
 
 This is the Christian's hope, — that blessed hope; 
 And may it well entrance our care-worn souls, 
 And make more happy earth by hope of heaven, 
 All centring in the bright, the morning star, 
 Jesus the harbinger and pledge of heaven. 
 
OCTORARA. 39 
 
 The lingering twilight fades: within we seek 
 A covert from the damp'ning evening air, 
 On sofa and the old arm-chairs, where drawn • 
 In friendly circle, conversation pours 
 The mingling streams of feeling into one, 
 And that a swelling tide of happiness. 
 Nor break by candle -glare the sacred gloom. 
 In which, with day's decline, the heart of friend 
 Loves best with friend to converse; while the chirp 
 Of the fall -cricket from the grassy field, 
 With the sharp chorus there of living things. 
 Blends pensive with the cricket on the hearth; 
 And for the katy-did, child of the dews. 
 Chaste, shrilly musical, the willow's shades 
 And silvery moonlight seem a fitting bower : 
 While the intrusive owl in darkness pours 
 The dreary murmur of his lone complaint. 
 A fitting time to dwell on faded joys; 
 On friends departed, still full fondly loved; 
 On coming bliss, and a reunion where 
 The day breaks and the shadows flee away. 
 
40 OCTORARA. 
 
 These halls are rendered sacred by tlie shade 
 Of one whose greatness has a lustre thrown 
 No less around his country than his home. 
 No nobler benefactor of his race, 
 Than he whose powers and life are spent to soothe 
 The sorrows of humanity, and make 
 One less the serried evils of the fall. 
 Could earthly calling higher honour gain, 
 Than when with man God sojourned in the flesh, 
 He lingered with the suifering poor, and healed 
 Their sicknesses, and their diseases bore, 
 Himself the great Physician? And the pen 
 Which traced with classic grace our Saviour's deeds, 
 Was held by the beloved physician's hand. 
 On this all-honoured calling, Physick's name 
 And virtues have unfading lustre shed. 
 E'en darkened pagan reason felt the truth 
 The art of healing sprung from heav'n, its due 
 The highest honour; since its patron %od* 
 
 * .^sculapius. 
 
OCTORARA. 41 
 
 CMld of Apollo, spring of light and life, 
 God of the lyre, soother of human woes. 
 Its votaries in every age have shown 
 The noblest virtues : in the shades of death, 
 When arrows tipped with death fill the hot air 
 With ghostly darkness, soldiers at their post 
 Of duty faithful; and with fearless eye, 
 Keeping at bay the king of terror's host. 
 Or martyrs falling in the noblest cause; — 
 With purer courage, than when Spartai's sons 
 Withstood the Persian horde, beneath the shade 
 Of hostile arrows, their funereal pall. * 
 I e'er regret to see such men, with hearts 
 Beating with such high feelings, not possessed 
 Of what alone is wanting to complete 
 
 * Dieneces the Spartan, at Thermopyloe, on being told by a Tra- 
 cMnian that the Persian host were so numerous as to pour forth a 
 shower of arrows sufficient to obscure the sun, replied, "We shall 
 then have the advantage of fighting them in the shade." — Herodotus, 
 7. 226. 
 
 6 
 
42 OCTORARA, 
 
 Natures so noble, heaven -born piety; 
 
 To see two callings thus allied, divorced, 
 
 The good physician not a pious man. 
 
 In human ills, some sufferings have their seat 
 
 Less in the body than the mind ; when sink 
 
 The spirits, sinks the body; and no care 
 
 Or skill medicinal can heal the ill. 
 
 There is no sickness of the heart but yields 
 
 To Siloa's cooling waters, Gilead's balm; 
 
 The panacea of all human woes 
 
 Is Scripture truth; and to administer 
 
 Aright this medicine to a mind diseased, 
 
 But little skill is needed save a heart 
 
 Which has experienced its healing power. 
 
 Kind words are not expensive things; soon said; 
 
 Nor make the poorer him who gives; and rich 
 
 In more than gold can buy, him who receives. 
 
 A few plain words spoken with feeling tone; 
 
 The faltering accent; eye suffused with tears; 
 
 The sorrowing look more eloquent than words; 
 
OCTORARA. 43 
 
 The kind and gentle pressure of tlie hand 
 
 Bespeaking sympathy when language fails j 
 
 The silent finger pointed to a verse 
 
 Of comfort on the Scripture's opened page, 
 
 While feeling checks our utterance and finds 
 
 Our best words weakness with God's truth compared; — 
 
 These are but little things, yet touch the spring 
 
 Of life and feeling with reviving power, 
 
 In their most tender depths; and n'er the heart 
 
 Forgets the kindness and the giver's love. 
 
 In foreign lands the missionary's power 
 
 Has greater strength, when the physician's skill 
 
 Goes with his pious knowledge hand in hand: 
 
 And here, when he who heals the body's pangs, 
 
 Soothes the parched fever of the leprous soul 
 
 And aching heart, with Zion's sacred oil 
 
 And living water from the fount of life ; — 
 
 Two -fold's his blessing, — not alone as man, 
 
 But as an angel minist'ring from heaven. 
 
 Hence fewer ties are stronger, than the bond 
 
44 OCTORARA. 
 
 Between • the ctild of suiFering and the man 
 Who heals the body and has cheered the heart- 
 Thus, with an all -devoted love the soul 
 Clings to the Saviour, when his healing power 
 Cleanses the heart from sin, speaks words of peace. 
 Makes our vile body glorious like his own. 
 
 A man to greatness bom, of noble mien; * 
 His was a head that Phidias would have loved 
 In marble of Pentelicus to mould; 
 A brow on which Apollo had enstamped 
 His own paternity; and while his lute 
 Drew the wild tenants from their mountain lairs. 
 Amid the feathery pines, to list his lay; f 
 The words of wisdom, in a richer tone, 
 From Physick's lips distilling, drew from far 
 The noblest youth and highest minds to hear, 
 
 * Dr. Philip Syng Physick. 
 
 f See the very beautiful Choral Ode in the Alcestis of Euripides, 
 line 590. 
 
OCTOEARA. 45 
 
 And hearing drink in wisdom, while they felt 
 
 Them honoured at his feet to sit and learn. 
 
 He nothing touched which did not thence receive 
 
 More beauteous lustre and a finished grace. 
 
 Throughout his character, the reigning charm 
 
 Was chaste simplicity and classic grace. 
 
 All artificial tricks his soul abhorred; 
 
 Such flimsy tinsel left to little minds: 
 
 No visionary theories; no high 
 
 And sounding phrases; no desire with charm 
 
 Of novelty to strike the wondering world. 
 
 He had the hardihood to disregard 
 
 Follies and fancies sanctified by age : 
 
 Sweeping away the cobwebs of the schools, 
 
 His mind's keen eagle -eye gazed unobscured 
 
 Into the depths of nature; while the strong 
 
 And muscular reliance genius feels, 
 
 Led forward with unfaltering tread in paths 
 
 Yet unexplored by science, with the lamp 
 
 Of inward wisdom guided : when small minds 
 
46 OCTORARA. 
 
 Turned on that tliresliold pale, like strangers seen 
 
 By Pilgrim fleeing from the vale of death 
 
 By shadowy forms appalled, he onward moved 
 
 Calm, confident in panoply of truth, 
 
 And bringing back, like Great -heart, trusting lives 
 
 Turned by his guidance from the jaws of death. 
 
 All bent to claims of duty; at the shrine 
 
 Of truth he humbly kneeled; when duty called 
 
 E'eu to the moment punctual; choicest thoughts 
 
 Dropping in limpid cadence from his tongue, 
 
 In words no criticism could improve, 
 
 Embodied fitly wisdom from a mind, 
 
 One of the few whose instincts wisdom seem, 
 
 By labour, culture, patient thought refined. 
 
 In his appearance, actions, words, there reigned 
 
 A harmony without a jar; his mind. 
 
 His manners, and his intercourse with men. 
 
 All took their colouring from a heart that felt 
 
 The depth of human woe, and to the work 
 
 Of its alleviation sobered came. 
 
OCTORARA. 47 
 
 All that before him stood, his greatness felt; 
 
 His quiet dignity all triflers awed. 
 
 That noble mien no smile unmeaning marred; 
 
 Yet when a real joy his brow illumed, 
 
 No beauteous woman smiled with sweeter grace. 
 
 A self-control no crisis could disturb; 
 
 And calmest, when the life most valued hung 
 
 On his quick judgment and his steady hand. 
 
 While this cool self-possession took the air, 
 
 To strangers, of indifference to woe, 
 
 'Twas heaven's especial gift which equal made 
 
 His spirit for his work; beneath, there beat 
 
 A heart of sympathies genial and warm, 
 
 With keenest feeling for another's pain. 
 
 And little would the casual gazer think. 
 
 That form so cool amid the deepest griefs. 
 
 Felt keener than a woman's heart the pangs 
 
 Duty inflicted, and in secret bled 
 
 More freely than the nearest friend, to view 
 
 The sorrows of humanity he healed. 
 
48 OCTORARA. 
 
 His hand was ever ready at the call 
 
 Of needy sorrow; and his heart bestowed 
 
 His priceless services with real joy. 
 
 He had no time to trifle, and no heart 
 
 To deal in jests, when sorrow thronged his door, 
 
 And woe in tears stood crying for relief. 
 
 More than a Roman virtue he possessed; 
 
 For Roman virtue lacked the element 
 
 Which quickens virtue into noblest life, 
 
 Which leavened his with beauty, Scripture truth. 
 
 His spotless moral excellence diffused 
 
 An influence round him, like a cloud of light, 
 
 Offspring of piety, without whose crown 
 
 All moral virtues are a headless trunk, 
 
 Th' Apollo Belvidere without the head. 
 
 In surgery he did a work no less 
 
 Than Washington had done in civil life; — 
 
 Father of surgery in this western world. 
 
 On earth no mission nobler than to rear. 
 
 In this great country, at its primal growth, 
 
OCTORARA. 49 
 
 A temple like Bethesda's, where disease 
 
 May find a sheltering porch and healing pool. 
 
 He the foundation laid with faultless skill; 
 
 And o'er his work time gathers no decay. 
 
 With blessings from the suflFering was his path 
 
 Made glad through life, and in declining age : 
 
 America's great surgeon, — in the hearts 
 
 Of youth to usefulness and greatness formed 
 
 By his example and his voice, now found 
 
 Highest in influence, and in the hearts 
 
 Who with relief from suff"ering link his name, — 
 
 Has his true monument; which shall endure 
 
 When marble moulders, while undying burns 
 
 The gratitude of loving hearts in heaven. 
 
 In this delightful landscape, deep embowered 
 Mid trees luxuriant, grass, and vines, and flowers, 
 This home reposes smiling; all combined 
 To form a setting for those precious gems, 
 Priceless beyond what ought on earth, too mean, 
 7 
 
50 OCTORARA. 
 
 Rubies or gold, could purchase; held so dear 
 
 By Him who gave, that He their purchase paid 
 
 By sacrifice of heaven and his own blood; 
 
 Diamonds to show not the sun's sickly ray, 
 
 But to reflect th' elFulgence of that light 
 
 Which is Jehovah's glory, ,and to blaze 
 
 When earth with all its crowns and precious things 
 
 Are crumbled down to ashes, as the gems 
 
 Of heaven's crown of glory, Jesus' throne. 
 
 In leading children to the cross, we take 
 
 The most efi"ective means to bind their hearts 
 
 Most strongly to our own. Who Jesus loves 
 
 With best affection, best affection gives 
 
 To those who lead them to that Saviour's love. 
 
 And when the living waters from the spring 
 
 Of Jesus' love, pure through the channels wind 
 
 Of feeling and affection, they refine. 
 
 And clarify, and nourish into life 
 
 Healthful and vigorous, all inferior loves. 
 
 Still dearer children when in Jesus loved; 
 
OCTORARA. 51 
 
 Each lies upon the heart, a beauteous star, 
 Light of our being, beauty of our joy: 
 And as that little image of the friend 
 On whom we gaze, seen deep within the eye, 
 Sends through our being feelings of delight; 
 When on them rests the heart with fondest gaze, 
 Their image exquisite drawn in the soul, 
 Amid the crystal waters of the spring 
 O'erflowing full with deep parental love, 
 Feeds our whole being with perennial bliss 
 Known only to the faithful parent's heart. 
 Their aspirations nobler than when Rome 
 The mother saw without denial claim 
 The crown imperial for her son from heaven: 
 At their request a crown of light awaits 
 In heaven each brow of our beloved sons. 
 And as the goddess when her wandering child 
 And friend, in stranger land their dangerous way 
 To the imperial walls of Carthage urged, 
 Mantled them with a cloud of mellow light 
 
52 OCTORARA. 
 
 More beauteous making all things, wtile unseen 
 
 Secure they walked in this encircling shield; 
 
 So shall our prayers a richer cloud of light, 
 
 Of God's eternal light, draw round our sons, 
 
 With favour compassing as with a shield. 
 
 While thus they pass through powerless hostile hosts 
 
 And enter the metropolis of heaven. 
 
 The faithful parent's prayers can realize 
 
 More than by ancient fable ever dreamed 
 
 In Leda's sons raised to the starry sphere, 
 
 There shining glorious through each passing age: 
 
 Translated from the earth, not in the flash 
 
 Of empty fancy, but by Enoch's Grod, 
 
 These sons twin stars shall burn amid the sky 
 
 Which crowns with starry gems the throne of God 
 
 In constellations numberless of hosts 
 
 Of clustering angels and of souls redeemed. 
 
 And like those stars unseen by common gaze, 
 
 But to the eye of science full disclosed 
 
 Revolving in harmonious, endless round, 
 
OCTORARA. 53 
 
 Blending the rays of different light and spheres 
 
 Alternate in a unison of light, 
 
 Of beauty, and of motion; shall these souls 
 
 In holy beauty luminous, with shades 
 
 Of blending feeling differing as light 
 
 Seen white and roseate in some double star, 
 
 Shine in the firmament of the new heavens, 
 
 More beauteous than when with optic glass, 
 
 Science all breathless lingers on some star, 
 
 A double system in remotest skies. 
 
 The souls of pious families on earth, 
 
 Transformed from darkness to the wondrous light 
 
 Of Him who burns in heaven the morning star, 
 
 Transferred to heaven by Jesus, ever shine 
 
 The constellations of that glorious world; 
 
 And mid their children circling round, bright burns 
 
 The parent, as the star that brightest gems 
 
 The starry circlet of the Northern Crown. 
 
 There hapjjy they who at His feet can say, — 
 
 HerO; Lord, am I, and children whom thou gavest. 
 
54 OCTORARA. 
 
 The busy crowds who bear the toil of life 
 With buoyant hearts, are in their labours cheered 
 With hope of gaining, in declining age, 
 A home with calm repose in rural ease. 
 For this the student threads his midnight path, 
 With lonely lamp, through labyrinthine lore; 
 The seaman braves the tempest -heaving waves, 
 And treacherous dangers, pestilential death; 
 The soldier marches calm to lingering wounds ; 
 And in the tedious furrow, oft the swain 
 Recruits his flagging steps with distant hope 
 Of home and rest in his enfeebled years. 
 
 Of earthly happiness the corner-stone 
 Lies in domestic bliss; the mutual love 
 Of wife and husband, when, congenial souls, 
 They blend in one, while round them freshly twine 
 The budding tendrils of warm childhood's heart, 
 Sweeter than fragrance of the blooming grape 
 O'er summer - meadows, drawing closer thus 
 
OCTORARA. 55 
 
 The hearts parental, and th' autumnal hues 
 
 Of mellow age with clusters making glad 
 
 Of filial virtues; — this the purest joy; 
 
 The spring whose crystal waters freshness give 
 
 And life to every other joy; the root 
 
 Which cankered, all the growths of happiness 
 
 Must fall into " the sere and yellow leaf. " 
 
 In the Creator's image formed, man stands 
 
 A living mirror shadowing forth the truth 
 
 The full perfection of Jehovah's mind. 
 
 Else e'er unknown. Nor can our soul conceive 
 
 How creature greater dignity can crown. 
 
 Than thus the eternal Maker's likeness bear 
 
 As our great end of being; and our joy 
 
 Is found in mirroring thus the Almighty's praise. 
 
 Parental love is rooted in the soul, 
 
 That we may have a teacher in our heart, 
 
 Showing with each pulsation how God loves 
 
 His creatures, sons; connubial love unfolds 
 
 The love of Jesus for his ransomed Church. 
 
56 OCTORARA. 
 
 In cherishing these loves we therefore find 
 
 A pleasure more than earthly, the designed 
 
 And exquisite memorial sent from heaven, 
 
 And lodged within the human heart, to show 
 
 The blessedness of God in his pure love 
 
 To those whose being from his own has sprung 
 
 The joy within our heart which thus can teach 
 
 Our souls th' eternal Spirit's happiness 
 
 In loving his own sons, must be refined 
 
 And priceless : As the diamond not the rock 
 
 Shows light how beauteous, and its lustre sheds 
 
 In deepest darkness; in the human soul. 
 
 Love conjugal and love parental shine 
 
 Diamonds amid inferior gems, and show 
 
 In error's midnight where no Scripture truth 
 
 Has shed a ray, what is the radiant love 
 
 Of God the sun of glory for his sons. • 
 
 As we our' children love, thus God loves those 
 
 Made through redeeming blood the sons of God : 
 
 And never can the child who fails in love 
 
OCTORARA. 57 
 
 To eartlily parent, due affection feel 
 
 For God, the Father who his being gave. 
 
 Well may we hoard this love, and prize its joy 
 
 The richest blessing of all earthly bliss. 
 
 Where is the heart that beauty cannot touch ? 
 Nought leaves Jehovah's forming hand, till shaped 
 And coloured into beauty : nor alone. 
 Deep in the farthest heav'ns where light assumes 
 Shades the most exquisite; where rolling clouds, 
 In golden grandeur, throng the setting sun; 
 Where the grim gust fades into rainbow hues; 
 Nor where profuse variety inweaves 
 The flowery carpet over tropic plains. 
 And loads the trees with bloom, the air with balm; — 
 Is beauty traced. It gushes in the rill; 
 Sighs in the breeze; mantles the moss-grown rock; 
 Breathes from the tinted flower's precious urn; 
 And in the pebbles which dull folly spurns. 
 Beams in the sapphire, in the ruby burns. 
 
58 OCTORARA. 
 
 But what this beauty of material things? 
 
 The mantle o'er an inward beauty thrown, 
 
 The spiritual, the moral, a far spring 
 
 Unseen but known, as the lone fount whose stream 
 
 Is traced in the rank verdure : Thus the soul 
 
 Is living beauty of the human form; 
 
 Thus God's creation's beauty, glory, life. 
 
 As beauty of the heart transcends the flush 
 
 Of frail corporeal beauty, lingers on 
 
 Undimmed, when mortal loveliness decays j 
 
 All moral beauty, flush of soul, excels 
 
 The richest beauty of material things. 
 
 No earthly thing more beauteous than the home 
 
 Where loves of parents, children, sweetly blend, 
 
 Difi"erent in nature as the rainbow's hues, 
 
 But needed each to form one perfect ray. 
 
 On such a scene the eye rests with delight 
 
 Calm mantling at the heart : as beauteous shades 
 
 Are finer and more pleasing in the flower 
 
 Than in the pebble; most refined in light, 
 
OCTORARA. 59 
 
 Where matter gently into spirit fades 
 
 As link connecting; so the spirit's powers, 
 
 By grade ascending, beauty still disclose 
 
 Yet more ethereal, yielding keener joy. 
 
 But in the temple of the human soul, — 
 
 The holiest place the inmost shrine, the heart 
 
 Of our whole being, nearest love to God, 
 
 Is love parental; which the emblem stands, 
 
 The oracle, th' interpreter to man 
 
 Of Grod's pure love, — Himself is light and life. 
 
 Virtue's the highest beauty; and of earth 
 
 The highest virtue is the duteous love 
 
 Of child to parent. Memory joys to hoard 
 
 Such scenes when met with in this jarring world; 
 
 Nor greater ugliness appears than harsh, 
 
 Unfilial conduct: memory retains 
 
 Enstamped such harshness, as a monster's form 
 
 Is graved indelible upon the mind. 
 
 The greatest monster's an unfeeling child; 
 
 A duteous child the greatest earthly joy. 
 
60 OCTORARA. / 
 
 Of every virtue tbis the vital root; 
 
 Of every happiness the primal spring. 
 
 A lawless son, whatever else of good 
 
 Possessing, ne'er can make a virtuous man. 
 
 His so called virtues are the fruit's crude germ 
 
 In spring time fair, but fallen in decay 
 
 E'er ripening summer, with a canker lodged 
 
 Deep in the core, with numerous fading leaves, 
 
 E'er autumn, telling death unseen at heart. 
 
 No virtue e'er can ripen in a heart, 
 
 Where at the core, parental disrespect, 
 
 A cankering worm, hideous and deadly lies. 
 
 When by the death -bed of the parent, stands 
 
 The child, and holds now' cold in death the hand 
 
 That ne'er to him was stretched, but to extend 
 
 And act of kindness, and his faltering steps 
 
 Upheld in infancy; and feels perchance 
 
 Those hands now hardened with the anxious toil 
 
 That sheltered him from want in childhood's years; 
 
 And sees those eyes are dim, tho^e lips are pale, 
 
OCTORARA. 61 
 
 Where nought had dwelt but looks and words of love; 
 
 Then e'en the child most dutiful will find 
 
 More than enough of failures in his love 
 
 And duty to the parent, to distress 
 
 His heart, and from his eye wring bitter tears. 
 
 But, the agony, when there the child 
 
 Stands self- convicted of unkind neglect. 
 
 Of wilful disobedience, and that heart 
 
 In secret oft with keenest anguish wrung. 
 
 Repentance then and tears can ne'er avail; 
 
 Nought but remorse and anguish are his lot, 
 
 And retribution slow but coming sure. 
 
 No retribution surer than for sins 
 
 Against parental love: with lagging foot. 
 
 But deadly sureness, creeps the coming curse. 
 
 And when long years have passed; and the old home 
 
 Is nigh forgotten; and those grey hairs gone 
 
 In sorrow to the grave ; the bitter cup ' 
 
 The child held to the parent, is in turn 
 
 Drunk by that child e'en to the very dregs, 
 
62 OCTORARA. 
 
 Presented by the hand whicli wrote the law, 
 "What measure ye have meted, shall again 
 To you be measured." That same hand requites 
 Good measure heaped together, running o'er, 
 To children faithful in parental love. 
 In the far future lies a treasured store. 
 Of blessed memories and prospering deeds. 
 By Heaven in love reserved for duteous sons. 
 Cleave to this road of virtue; 'tis a way 
 Of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace. 
 
 To youth would love and wisdom kindly say, — 
 Amid the many things which blend to form 
 Thine earthly heritage, — lands, houses, wealth, — 
 Ne'er cease to hoard as legacy most prized, 
 Th' example, counsels, name, and pious prayers, 
 Bequeathed by the good parent to his sons. 
 An ornament of grace around thy head 
 Is such a prayer; not like the fabled crown 
 On the devoted brow of Jason's spouse, 
 
OCTORARA. 63 
 
 Set by Medea vengeful, whence the rays 
 
 Of fiery death streamed circling through her frame, 
 
 Mantling it with a curse; but this a crown 
 
 Of heavenly gold, in which a magnet power 
 
 Lodged by the Holy Ghost, perennial dwells, 
 
 And mildly radiates, "life to thy soul;" 
 
 And thou, through earth, walk in the mantling light 
 
 Shed from this crown of fond paternal love. 
 
 Wouldst thou true nobleness of soul attain. 
 
 The many generous passions of thy heart 
 
 Enliven with the living fire which burns 
 
 On pure religion's altar, brought from heaven. 
 
 Here, as the hill of science thou dost climb. 
 
 The temple of all glorious truth to reach, 
 
 Kneel at Religion's altar, take her hand 
 
 In kindness oflFered : she will be thy guide 
 
 Through error's mazes, till thou reach the shrine 
 
 Where dwells in glory God, himself the truth. 
 
 The God of Israel bless thee and the hand 
 
 Of Israel's Shepherd be thy guide, loved youth, 
 
64 OCTOEARA. 
 
 Througli all the dangers of this wilderness, 
 Where thou thy pilgrim - staff full early take, 
 With face turned toward heaven. When my soul 
 May far be severed from thee, I will bear 
 Thee on my heart in prayer, and faith, and love, 
 As my own child in Jesus; and from heaven, 
 If there preceding thee, look down and hail 
 Thee welcome to that world and crown of life. 
 Here would I set the Saviour's name a stilr, 
 " The morning star, " which never sets, to guide 
 Thee in thy pilgrimage: in coming years, 
 When here thou readst his name, let memory dwell 
 On me as one who loves his precious name. 
 And loves thee as redeemed with Jesus' blood. 
 From him may blessings ever round thy path 
 Fall like the summer dews; and with thine eye 
 On him thy guiding stai", thy pilgrim path. 
 Through the night shadows of this dreary life, 
 To heaven urge onward. When with sorrow sunk 
 Or toil, a traveller by life's dusty road, 
 
OCTORARA. 65 
 
 May He, the good Samaritan of heaven, 
 
 Then raise thy drooping head and cheer thy heart. 
 
 As thou in sorrow hast to others done. 
 
 And when thy tent is struck, and the last march 
 
 Of life awaits thee through death's fearful vale, 
 
 Where stands the king of terrors with his host, 
 
 "While the day's breaking o'er the distant hills; 
 
 Then, with his angels may He meet thy soul; 
 
 And, with his favour compassed as a shield, 
 
 Mayst thou, a conqueror through Jesus' blood. 
 
 With such triumphal escort, through the gates 
 
 Enter the new Jerusalem, and meet. 
 
 No more to part, the loved and lost of earth, 
 
 With Jesus in his glory there to rest, 
 
 In endless life, a king and priest to God. 
 
 This torch of truth, not by an angel's hand, 
 But by the Son of God brought down from heaven, 
 The sacred Scriptures in their fulness take, 
 A lamp to guide thy feet, light to thy way, 
 9 
 
66 OCTORARA. 
 
 Safe through the mazy darkness of this life, 
 
 And through the deadly fire-damp of the grave. 
 
 Here, truth and beauty in perfection glow; 
 
 Nor round can gather error's slightest shade. 
 
 A treas'ry of exhaustless truth, it feeds 
 
 With vigour of eternal life the mind; 
 
 The heart with love undying; while it sways 
 
 Th' imagination with those visions pure, 
 
 Which clarify the soul in every taste. 
 
 And form us to the poetry of heaven: 
 
 Of moral truth the standard; and no less 
 
 In poetry and taste a faultless rule. 
 
 Within the compass of this sea of truth 
 
 Revealed, — are depths which the profoundest mind 
 
 Can never fathom, pearls and shells and gems 
 
 More brilliant, beautiful, and numberless. 
 
 Than through all ages can the votaries 
 
 Of wisdom hope to gather. Who can tell 
 
 The crowns rich, brilliant, undecayed, that blaze 
 
 On brows of sons of genius, with the gems 
 
OCTORARA. 67 
 
 Gathered from these store -houses of the deep? 
 
 Yet undiminished are their treasures still, 
 
 As ocean by the shells and gems withdrawn 
 
 By divers of all ages, or by ships 
 
 Spice -laden from the far and palmy isles 
 
 Of greenei-y and fragrance, in the seas 
 
 Of India's sunny waters. All the minds 
 
 Inquisitive, through every future age, 
 
 May here explore, and with their sounding lines, 
 
 Search for fresh wonders, and fresh wonders find, 
 
 And in their spoils exult, while there remain 
 
 In these deep caves of Scripture, hoards of truth 
 
 And riches intellectual, which all times 
 
 And hosts of seekers ne'er can render less. 
 
 What multitudes have in these waters sought, 
 
 In ages past, the diamonds to adorn 
 
 Their spirits, and be worthy deemed to sit 
 
 With Jesus at the supper of the Lamb : 
 
 Yet fresh and full these treasures, as when came 
 
 First of the ransomed, Abel : we enrich 
 
68 OCTORARA. 
 
 Our spirits from the fulness then divulged. 
 
 And when the last of that long column bought 
 
 With Jesus' blood, have their white robes received, 
 
 And palms, and crowns, and passed beyond the gates 
 
 Of death, in primal fulness still shall roll 
 
 The depths of this blest ocean, in whose waves, 
 
 With their exhaustless riches, ever dwells 
 
 A pow'r more healing than Bethesda's pool. 
 
 Such truths substantial, which to humble toil 
 
 Of mental industry, a sure reward 
 
 Thus yield aboundingly, — like Gerar's meads 
 
 Which yielded Isaac's toil, the selfsame year. 
 
 An hundred -fold increase, — why should we leave 
 
 For fancies called by name of truth, the dream 
 
 Of intellects awake while judgment sleeps; 
 
 Fine theories spun from the mind and thrown 
 
 To float abroad and mystify the sense, — 
 
 An intellectual gossamer, as fine 
 
 And flimsy as the threads on autumn -morn 
 
 Across our way, amazing, as we gaze. 
 
OCTORARA. 69 
 
 By thought of skill which hung them useless there. 
 
 A priceless diamond, this blest volume burns 
 
 Throughout, in deepest gloom, with living light. 
 
 No humble shell found casual ou this shore, 
 
 But buried in its folds a priceless pearl; 
 
 And richer gold lies hid in every sand, 
 
 Than all the waters of Pactolus rolled. 
 
 Where ocean depths sparkle with diamond caves, 
 
 And bowers with sea- flowers hung, with sea -stars paved, 
 
 And shells in whose wreathed chambers loves to rest 
 
 The silvery moonbeam wandering through the deep ; — 
 
 Or when the morning sun flames through those halls 
 
 With pillars gold and blended pearls and gems; 
 
 No wandering nymph e'er gazed with joy so deep, 
 
 As felt, when by God's Spirit led, the soul 
 
 Lingers among these galleries of truth. 
 
 With every pillar, statue, fresco, gem. 
 
 Kindled to glory by the Shechinah. 
 
 The beauties of the structure reared for man 
 
 In revelation, by the hand which placed 
 
70 OCTORARA. 
 
 The temple on Mount Zion, can be known 
 
 Only by him who's led within the vail 
 
 By God the Spirit : when the vail which hangs 
 
 Before the carnal mind, has been withdrawn 
 
 By this divine hierophant, we gaze 
 
 Not on the terrors flashing through the gloom 
 
 In those dark mysteries at Eleusis seen, 
 
 But on the day-spring of the light which sleeps 
 
 Upon the heavenly hills. As o'er the brow 
 
 Of Olivet the weary pilgrim came 
 
 All sudden on the temple full in view, 
 
 He found him paused and gazing; through his heart 
 
 Deeper and more o'erflowing were the streams 
 
 Of holy admiration, when he paused 
 
 Beyond the holy place, and lowly kneeled 
 
 Prostrate before the cherubim : The view 
 
 Of Scripture in its compass, to the mind 
 
 Which views it only as a work of mind. 
 
 Nor looks beyond the walls reared with all grace 
 
 Of literary skill, — in glory sinks 
 
OCTORARA. 71 
 
 Farther below the burning visions hung, 
 
 On every side, around the soul which made 
 
 A priest to Jesus through atoning blood, 
 
 Reads clear the characters of truth enrolled 
 
 On page of Scripture by the Spirit's blaze, — 
 
 The letters written on the new white stone, — 
 
 The emblems by the Holy Spirit wrought 
 
 Upon the tapestry whose silvery folds 
 
 Hang round the golden shrine, the mercy -seat, 
 
 Where, hid in time of trouble, rests the soul 
 
 Beneath Jehovah's voice and sheltering wings. 
 
 Formed for God's glory by pursuit of truth, 
 
 Keeping his ways, and with enlightened love, 
 
 Enjoying what is beauteous in his works, — 
 
 Man was cut off by sin from all these springs 
 
 Of joy exhaustless, sentenced to the gloom 
 
 Of ignorance and error, in the cell 
 
 Of this dark earth our prison, with no rays 
 
 Of light and beauty, save the casual gleams 
 
 Caught through these dungeon -bars, while the bright world 
 
72 OCTORARA. 
 
 Of heaven and angels, deep enshrouded lies 
 
 By walls we may not pass. Yet in the soul, 
 
 Remain those native pow'rs, the thirst for truth 
 
 Springing from reason, and the thirst no less 
 
 For what is beautiful, whose source lies deep 
 
 In the imagination : reason feeds , 
 
 On truth; and the imagination feeds 
 
 On what is beautiful in truth, expressed 
 
 However various in the works of God. 
 
 Had man not sinned, these powers had ever stood 
 
 On high beside God's throne, where all the rays 
 
 Of glory through creation central burn, 
 
 And all is light of beauty and of truth. 
 
 Thus cast from his position, with a mind 
 
 Enfeebled, clouded, but of pow'rs unchanged, — 
 
 In lack of aliment of which the soul 
 
 Has been by sin defrauded, far we grope 
 
 In search of what is beautiful and true. 
 
 To satisfy the cravings of these powers, — 
 
 A craving so intense as to receive 
 
C T O R A K A . 73 
 
 Man's dreams witli gladness, when the massive truth 
 Of God's substantial wisdom is withheld. 
 What are the poet's song, the pictured page 
 By genius laboured, but the efforts made 
 To satisfy our faculties with truth 
 In beauty garnished ? When in darkness left, 
 For ages round his prison - walls to grope, 
 Man lingered restless and unsatisfied 
 With ore brought by philosophy from mines 
 Wrought deep with steady toil, and splendours seized 
 By genius in his tow'ring flights tow'rds heaVen; 
 God came in person through the human form 
 In Bethlehem born, and in the Scriptures gave 
 All we may know of glories which abound 
 In yonder sinless world, and which the mind 
 Failing to reach unaided, formed the dreams 
 Of poetry, — formed systems, in default 
 Of something better, called philosophy. 
 Hence, in the Scriptures does the heart exult 
 To find in heavenly richness, substance pure, 
 10 
 
74 OCTORARA. 
 
 All dreamed by sage and poet in the age 
 
 Of G-reece and Rome. Here are the golden fruits 
 
 Of the Hesperides, the tree of life 
 
 Laden with fruits perennial, living truths. 
 
 Here is divulged the island of the blest, 
 
 More glorious than Atlantis' fabled bowers; 
 
 The golden thread which the bewildered soul 
 
 Leads from the mazy labyrinth of sin, 
 
 And rescues from the Monitaur of death. 
 
 Here, for the shadowy wood - nymphs, we are met 
 
 By dazzling hosts at Mahanaim seen, 
 
 The ministry of angels. Here, the dream 
 
 Of an Apollo exiled from the skies 
 
 On earth in human form, we leave to gaze 
 
 On God, the Son, dwelling in Him who wept 
 
 On Olivet for sin, on Calvary died. 
 
 Here, we may come to more than Delphi's shades, 
 
 And e'en the humblest soul, a priest to God, 
 
 Receive a holy inspiration breathed 
 
 By God the Holy Spirit; here, the soul 
 
OCTORARA. , 76 
 
 Bathe in a purer than Castalian spring, 
 The fount of living waters; here a harp, 
 Transcending that of Orpheus, sweetly charms 
 Hearts petrified by sin, and while they hear, 
 Draws them entranced by mild constraint to heaven. 
 
 No relic more aft'ecting than the worn 
 And well used Bible of a friend in heaven. 
 Of earthly things this nearest lay the heart. 
 Through all the fortunes of a checkered life. 
 In joy and grief, in sunshine and in gloom, 
 When friends were numerous, and when friends decayed. 
 When the lone heart lay crushed, a bleeding wreck, 
 In silent anguish, by life's desert road; 
 When sins distressed, when heavenly visions smiled; 
 In spiritual gloom, and when our Lord 
 Walked in close converse with our burning hearts; 
 This precious volume was the only joy; 
 These truths the gloomy spirit's only light. 
 The crushed and wounded spirit's only balm. 
 
76 OCTORARA. 
 
 Here, with the wintry dawn of early clay, 
 Our straining vision searched for living truth • 
 And here, in summer -twilight's gathering shades, 
 This page of love our aching eyes perused. 
 And when mid foiling chill - dews of the grave. 
 The hand grew cold and nerveless, and forgot 
 Each earthly touch, it wandered still to find 
 This page of words of Jesus; and the heart, 
 When other loves grew cold, its tendrils warm. 
 In darkening death, strong round this volume drew, 
 Loved next to Jesus, the pure anmlet 
 Filled with the living perfume of his love. 
 There, cold and still the hand yet faithful lay, 
 True to its latest love, on the old book 
 Left now when faith is turned to sight in heaven. 
 These pencilled passages, these places worn, 
 These pages blotted with the frequent tear 
 Burst from contrition's eye of longing love. 
 Speak of a weai-y pilgrim's heavenward love, 
 Speak of a weary pilgrim soul at rest. 
 
OSeiSIOIiL FIE©S§ 
 
RETIREMENT WITH JESUS. 
 
 There will I give thee mt loves. — Song vii. 12. 
 
 Come to this tranquil shade 
 Of forest boughs in spring's rich freshness wove ; 
 And on this turf with early flowers inlaid, 
 
 Bring filled with fervent love, 
 
 The censer of the heart; 
 And oifer sacrifice of praise and prayer. 
 To ' Him whose Holy Spirit doth impart 
 
 Peace calm as this pure ' air. 
 
 Here are no rolling wheels, 
 No mammon's pomp, nor envy, strife, nor jar; 
 Unfelt the din of life around us steals, 
 
 Like the dull waves afar. 
 
80 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 From Salem's crowds at even, 
 To the loue mount was Jesus e'er withdrawn ; 
 There, with no voice to hear, he poured to Heaven 
 
 His prayer at early dawn. 
 
 There does he linger yet, 
 Revealed to faith's pure e^e, to meet and bless 
 Souls who, for his blest smiles and voice, forget 
 
 Earth's phantom happiness. 
 
 When rosy morning fills, 
 In heaven's dewy bowers, her golden urn, 
 And bright her altars on the eastern hills. 
 
 With balmy incense burn ; 
 
 When pensive eve doth gaze. 
 With wondering silence, on the starry throng. 
 That crowd the darkening courts of heaven, and raise 
 
 Their full adoring song; 
 
 Then haste, my soul, to meet 
 This confidential Friend, where none intrudes; 
 Feel Mary's joy, while falling at his feet 
 
 In these blest solitudes. 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. 81 
 
 Here, speaks He face to face, 
 With our o'erwlielmed and gladdened souls; our heart 
 He gathers to his bosom ; and his grace 
 
 In melting streams imparts. 
 
 The hidden manna here, 
 Our spirits find by more than angels given; 
 And brighter than on Tabor's mount, appear 
 
 O'erpowering gleams of heaven. ^ 
 
 In this divine retreat, 
 Where breathes the fainting soul reviving air, 
 The spirit healthful grows, and feels it sweet 
 
 Its toils and woes to bear. 
 
 And when my soul alone 
 Must pass away from earth, through death's dark shade, 
 He whom my heart has here so frequent known. 
 
 Will meet me with his aid ; 
 
 And gathered in his arms, 
 A trembling lamb, my trusting soul he'll bear 
 Safe through death's terrors and the grave's alarms, 
 
 His home in heaven to share. 
 
 11 
 
THE NAME OF JESUS, 
 
 The name which is above evert name. — PMl. ii. 9. 
 
 Jesus my Saviour, I have loved tliy namej 
 
 A charm invests it, which my listening soul 
 
 In breathless silence holds; a sea -gemmed shell 
 
 Brought from the depths of heav'n, whose murmurings 
 
 Whisper the fulness of the love which rolls 
 
 An ocean boundless in the far off skies : 
 
 A precious alabaster filled with balm 
 
 Drawn from the tree of life ; the heart made pure, 
 
 A spiritual casket, hoards thy name 
 
 As a bright jewel fallen to earth from heav'n. 
 
 In cloudless hours, when far o'er sunny seas 
 
 My soul would wander like a joyous bird. 
 
 And skim o'er sparkling waves, through beauteous bow'rs, 
 
 Jn worlds of poesy, and list the airs 
 
 Of fragrance and of song; or seek the fruits 
 
OCCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Of golden wisdom, on the earthly tree 
 Of knowledge; and would seek a clime where loves 
 And friends of earth, dove-like, are gathered far 
 From winter's blighting frost, in boundless spring; 
 Ah! then my spirit droops, the buoyant strength 
 Fades from its wing, the brightening eye grows dim 
 And listless, e'en through fairest scenes it roams: 
 Sickened and sad, from all that earth can give, 
 Of splendour, honour, learning, beauty, love, 
 My spirit longs for Jesus; and with wing 
 Quickened and strong from love intense, its course 
 Speeds to the clefts and rocks, the mount of myrrh 
 And frankincense, where he awaits his dove, 
 Gathers us loving, trembling to his heart. 
 And speaks the wondrous riches of his name. 
 In sorrow's flood, this name the ark where rests 
 The dove of the disti'essed and wearied soul; 
 The golden pot with hidden manna filled; 
 The cup of our salvation, whence is poured 
 The oil of gladness on the broken heart. 
 By Him the good Samaritan of heaven : 
 In sickness, this our health; in weakness, strength; 
 Our light, in darkness; and in death our life. 
 Where, in the holiest of the soul, doth dwell 
 Thy Spirit's cloud of fire, bright be thy name. 
 
84 OCCASIONAL PIECES.^ 
 
 Engraven on the altar. In the depths 
 
 Of being's fountain, lies thy name a gem 
 
 Than life more precious; — Jesus, thou my life: 
 
 And as thy name lies garnered in the streams 
 
 Of feeling springing in the heart, as pearl 
 
 Of price unspeakable in limpid rill ; 
 
 My soul, with bright'ning love,* shall rest a gem 
 
 In life's pellucid river from the throne 
 
 Of Grod the Lamb, the Spirit's crystal streams. 
 
LONGING FOR JESUS. 
 
 Whom have I in heaven bdi Thee. — rsalm Ixxiii. 25. 
 
 Jesus my precious friend, 
 
 With thee alone I'm blest, 
 In thee all my affections blend, 
 
 On thee my spirit rest. 
 
 Withdraw my heart from earth, 
 
 Fix my desires on heav'n; 
 Each hour may holier thoughts have birth, 
 
 New views of Christ be given. 
 
 My soul is sick of love. 
 
 My spirit pants for thee; 
 On angel -wings would soar above, 
 
 From all things earthly free. 
 
 Before thy heavenly throne, 
 
 My longing soul would fall, 
 And know Thee as myself am known; 
 
 Feel Jesus all in all. 
 
THE MORNING STAR. 
 
 AnB I -WILL GIVE HIM THE MORNING STAR. — Rev. ii. 28. 
 
 Lone pilgrim, raise thy weary eyes 
 
 To yonder eastern hills,. 
 Where deepest night's dark shadow lies, 
 
 And fail its coldest chills : 
 What hlaze above that mountain brow, 
 This gloomy vale so richly now. 
 
 With streaming radiance fills ? 
 Bright burst its beacon -beams afar, 
 Day's harbinger, the morning star. 
 
 couldst thou, with unfettered wing, 
 Rise from these gloomy shades, 
 
 To that unfallen world, whose spring 
 No wintry chill invades; 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. 87 
 
 Where grief nor grave has cast a gloom, 
 Where flow'rs in Eden's freshness bloom, 
 
 Nor hue the softest fades : 
 Far from these stormy scenes, how blest 
 Within those realms of light to rest. 
 
 But should of worlds that brightest gem 
 
 Be given as thine own. 
 Its pearls and gold, its diadem, 
 
 Its indisputed throne : 
 Its distant climes their tribute bring; 
 Its willing nations hail thee king. 
 
 All glorious, loved, alone : 
 From death released, from envy's frown, 
 To wear for e'er so rich a crown; 
 
 wouldst thou earth's neglect and scorn. 
 
 With more than gladness bear; 
 And cheer thy heart, with sorrow worn. 
 
 By hope of glory there. 
 How slight the griefs of brighted earth, 
 Its thrones and crowns how little worth, 
 
 When of such bliss the heir : 
 How would thy gladdened spirit long 
 To mingle with that starry throng. 
 
88 OCCASIONxlL PIECES. 
 
 But what that pure, unfallen world, 
 
 Its throue, its crown, its bliss ; 
 What all those stars in heav'n impearled, 
 
 More bright, more blest than this : 
 Can all, with Him, in worth, compare, 
 Who placed those worlds of glory there, 
 
 Whose thrones, whose pow'r is His ? 
 Around whose one eternal throue, 
 All, Him their Maker, Sovereign own ? 
 
 Kouse, care-worn saint; though, poor, distressed, 
 
 To thee thy God has giv'n 
 More than all worlds thou deeflist so blest 
 
 In yonder star -gemmed heav'n: 
 His Son who formed those worlds. He gave, 
 Thy wrecked and sinking soul to save. 
 
 On sin's dark surges driv'n : 
 Jesus, whose yonder glories are, 
 Is giv'n us in ''the Mornin'>; Star." 
 
LINES WRITTEN IN A NEW HOME, 
 
 We will come unto him, and make our abode with him. — John xiv. 23. 
 
 Come thou, the dear -loved treasure of my heart; 
 In whom are garnered all my fervent loves; 
 My precious Saviour, to this dwelling come, 
 And with my loying, longing soul abide. 
 Thou art the great attraction of my home; 
 'Tis desolate without thee; but thy smile, 
 Thy voice, thy presence can a temple make 
 E'en of the rocky wilderness where slept 
 The exile patriarch ; how happy, then, 
 This peaceful, well-appointed home, thy gift 
 To thine unworthy servant. In this room. 
 My study, while arranging, I have thought 
 With holy trepidation, — Here will come. 
 And meet, and dwell with me, my dearest love, 
 Jesus; to whom my soul's betrothed; who waits, 
 In his own home prepared for me in heaven, 
 12 
 
go ^ OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 The day of our espousals; and meanwhile, 
 Till the daybreak and shadows flee away, 
 Comes o'er the dark ravines and bleetling cliffs 
 Towering between these prison - grounds of earth 
 And the wide, sunny palace - grounds of heaven ; 
 And gives me sweet expressions of his love 
 The world can never know. Oh, other spots 
 On earth are rendered sacred, other homes, 
 By memories of meetings there with Thee, 
 And lengthened visitations; — here abide. 
 With the same glory, tenderness, and love. 
 More than a welcome. Saviour, will I give : 
 All throw I open to Thee, house, arms, heart; 
 All that I have is treasured up for Thee. 
 Where ere Thou art, blest Jesus, is my home; 
 Nor earth, nor heaven has home apart from Thee. 
 
ASPIRATIONS. 
 
 Mt soul thirstetii foe God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear 
 BEFORE Gob. — Psalm xUi. 2. 
 
 The pure in heart may feel, no tongue can tell, 
 What joy unspeakable pervades the breast, 
 When our affections on the Saviour dwell. 
 And his pure Spirit has the soul possessed: 
 Then, gathered in our opening graces, rest 
 Truths purer than the dew of Hermon's hill, 
 In flowers that Gilboa's springs invest; 
 The deep'ning peace of heav'n the soul doth fill, 
 And from the tree of life a healing balm distil. 
 
 Mild as the opening rose of Sharon's vale, 
 Our love for heav'n and Jesus silent grows; 
 Gloom flees, as clouds, when o'er the sinking gale 
 The summer sun his evenino- radiance throws: 
 
92 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 Then, from the broken spirit, gently flows 
 Contrition's crystal fountain, — sighs and tears 
 The Spirit's sacred presence that disclose; 
 While we, like him of Patmos, save his fears. 
 Fall at his feet who in such loveliness appears. 
 
 then the spirit longs to spread the wings 
 Of an unbodied angel, and to soar 
 To yon bright realms of bliss, where earthly things 
 Can weary and oppress the heart no more ; 
 To be what we have groaned to be; to pouv 
 The spirit forth in perfect love; to see 
 And tell Him how we love Him ; to adore 
 As they adore in heaven ; to know me free 
 To love, adore, and praise through blest eternity. 
 
 Thou, whom my spirit loves, tell me where 
 Thou dost thy chosen, in this wilderness. 
 Feed with these heavenly visions : Let me share 
 Such scenes as did the exiled patriarch bless : * 
 We may not see, yet may we feel no less, 
 By thy blest Spirit, Thee in glory near: 
 
 * Gen. xxviii. 12. — xxxii. 2.— xxxii. 30. 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. 93 
 
 flood my soul with love, till it oppress 
 With fulness my affections; and appear 
 
 In glory bright as these frail earthly powers can bear. 
 
 1 know thou wilt my large desires fulfil, 
 
 And bless my soul with grace as grace I need; 
 Nor leave me, till on Zion's holy hill, 
 With the Lamb slain and his redeemed, I feed 
 By the still waters. Lord, my spirit lead 
 In ways thy love and wisdom knoweth best; 
 For thee 'tis sweet to labour; sweet to read 
 Thy goodness in our woes; yet, make me blest 
 With fulness of thy love, till I in heav'n shall rest. 
 
WHERE I ABIDE THERE THOU SHALT BE. 
 
 Where I am, theee shall also my servant be. — John xii. 26. 
 
 "Where I abide, there thou shalt be, 
 
 And mid my glory ever dwell; 
 Its mysteries e'er unfolding see, 
 
 And all its wondrous riches tell. 
 
 Where I abide, there thou shalt be, I 
 
 ... ) 
 
 Removed from sin's last blighting shade; ■ 
 
 Thy breast from conflicts ever free, 
 
 In peace its surging passions laid. 
 
 "Where I abide, there thou shalt be, 
 
 And all that chills thy love removed; 
 My deepest love I'll show to thee, 
 
 And me thou love as thou art loved. 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. 95 
 
 Where I abide, there thou shalt be, 
 
 3Iy coming and my throne to share ; 
 My kingdom's glorious triumphs see. 
 
 Its crown of love and glory wear. 
 
 Where I abide, there thou shalt be, 
 
 And meet each cherisbed earthly frieud ^ 
 
 Their loves more deeply blest to thee, 
 As all in me more deeply blend. 
 
 Where I abide, there thou shalt be. 
 
 And on my bosom ever rest; 
 My spirit e'er rejoice o'er thee, 
 
 And thou in me for ever blest. 
 
JESUS OUK REST. 
 
 Tms IS MT REST FOR EVER. — Psalm cxxxii. 14. 
 
 When shall my soul repose, 
 All pure and glorious on my Saviour's breast; 
 As 'neath morn's opening eye, tlie full-blown rose 
 
 Gives the lone dew-drop rest. 
 
 Ne'er can I rest, nor feel 
 My soul at home, till Him in heav'n I find; 
 And heavenly glory in my heart anneal 
 
 The graces there inshrined. 
 
 Sick with this fervent love, 
 How turns the spirit from all earthly things; 
 And longs to sink away a pearl above, 
 
 In heaven's pellucid springs, 
 
 Lost as a radiant gem, 
 In Jesus' heart, the depths of love divine; 
 My soul impearled in bliss, his diadem 
 
 Its sainted, glorious shrine. 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. 97 
 
 O when in lonely gloom 
 Of sleepless midnight, darkest clouds of care 
 His smiles make glorious; how shall they illume 
 
 Heaven's sinless, cloudless air. 
 
 Rich are the melting tears, 
 Which full the heav'nward eye of faith suflFuse, 
 As Jesus' tones the listening spirit hears, 
 
 And hrightening glory views. 
 
 take me to his feet ; — 
 There let me bathe with tears and kiss the wound 
 Borne on the cross; and glad my love repeat 
 
 To angels listening round. 
 
 How can the richest tone, 
 That e'er from angel - lips or harp distilled, 
 Entrance my heart that Jesus' love has known. 
 
 And with his voice been thrilled. 
 
 No, not the streets of gold, 
 Nor gates of pearl, nor Salem's silvery dome. 
 Nor scenes on Zion's heavenly fields unrolled; — 
 
 These, these are not my home. 
 13 
 
98 , OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 My disembodied soul, 
 Ye kindred angels, take to Jesus' breast; 
 There, dove-like, seeks my heart its final goal; 
 
 There, only, longs to rest. 
 
A LOVED ONE IN HEAVEN. 
 
 There Ton shall enjoy tour friends again that are gone thither before you. 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress 
 
 When shall I be witli Jesus? Wlien my love 
 
 To this best friend, — a flower 'mid earth's drear gloom, 
 
 Unfolding 'neath the Spirit's dews its leaves 
 
 As softly dawn awakens, — be revealed 
 
 In full-blown richness, and my heart o'erfilled 
 
 With glory from the risen sun of heaven, 
 
 Lost in a sea of light and love, exhale, 
 
 As a pure censer, incense of the skies ? 
 
 This love he fondly fosters ; as a plant 
 
 In his own garden, he has set my heart : 
 
 And though this growth of earthly joys that creep 
 
 Like weeds around me; and the purer flowers 
 
 Of ease and friendship; and the tendril frail, 
 
 But beautiful and lovely, that did creep 
 
 Around me and into my very heart. 
 
 Part of my being; — all are torn away; 
 
 'Tis thus, because he loves me, and would urge 
 
 My love to stronger, healthier growth, and raise 
 
100 OCCASIONAL PIECES. ; 
 
 A flower more beautiful, wlien from tliis wild 
 
 He moves me to the paradise of God. 
 
 Oh ! with what fond and longing love, I turn 
 
 To yonder hills of frankincense and light, | 
 
 Where he awaits his chosen : and my heart 
 
 Doth melt with tenderness, my longing soul 
 
 Dissolve in tears of love, contrition, peace. 
 
 Thanks that the stream of life so rapid shoots 
 
 And bears me to his bosom; that the wells 
 
 Opened so numerous in this desert world. 
 
 Tasted, are bitterness; the soul thus driven. 
 
 By sweet compulsion, to the smitten Rock. 
 
 The rills of earthly friendship which have rolled 
 
 Around our way, like streams from Lebanon, 
 
 So pure, refreshing, have been made to fail; 
 
 Lest for their beautous bowers, our souls forsake 
 
 The fount of living waters. Long there cheered 
 
 My pilgrim heart, an angel sent from heaven ) 
 
 In human guise : — with milder tone, and eye 
 
 Purer than of this world : In hours of gloom, 
 
 Her presence was a hallowed light; the mould 
 
 Of earth was so transparent, that the gleam 
 
 Of God's blest Spirit burning on her heart 
 
 Shone softly luminous on all around ; 
 
 And utterances, such as heard in heaven, 
 
 I 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. 101 
 
 Fell on my ear, scarce broken : When my heart 
 
 Was sunk with sorrow, those pure tones distilled 
 
 As music from the skies; the fallen head 
 
 That gentle hand has raised; and to her breast, 
 
 Gathered, and pillowed 'ueath her seraph eye, 
 
 In hours of deep contrition, I've forgot 
 
 Surrounding sorrow : at the throne of grace, 
 
 We've kneeled and longed for heaven; by the bed 
 
 Of sickness has she ministered, and read 
 
 The truth of Jesus, sweeter in the voice 
 
 Of her his angel. When fresh violets, 
 
 With step unheard, had gathered to announce, 
 
 In their soft breatfe of sweets, the coming Spring 
 
 Crowned with the peach -bloom and the numerous rose, 
 
 Her sense, so delicate, was first to hear 
 
 And lead me, glad, to meet those harbingers 
 
 Of thronging pleasures, that with flowers crowned 
 
 And leafy chaplets, cheered us with their smiles, 
 
 Till the late autumn shades : those violets 
 
 Are here once more in beauty, and their breath 
 
 Yet sweetly whispers of the rosy hours ; 
 
 But she they loved to flock around, is gone. 
 
 And gloom creeps o'er their gladness. Oft when Spring 
 
 Was fresh and fragrant, have we paused mid flowers; 
 
 And talked of Paradise, where flowers ne'er fade. 
 
102 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 And wlien the summer moon looked through the bloom 
 
 Of the rich locust, wet with evening dews, 
 
 She stood beneath this honeysuckle's shade 
 
 And loaded perfume, and we spoke of heaven; 
 
 And wondered where, amid those stars, might dwell 
 
 Our common Saviour with his saints in light, 
 
 With some we here had loved ; — where, we might meet 
 
 Beyond the tomb. Now, she, alas, has gone : 
 
 Gone, never to return; and left my soul 
 
 To grope its way, in loneliness and tears : 
 
 <jrone to her native skies, there to await 
 
 My heavenward spirit : gone, to take from earth 
 
 Its last attraction for my broken heart. 
 
 And place that strong attraction in the skies. 
 
 Where dwells my blessed Saviour. All I love 
 
 Is gathered now in heaven, — my precious Lord, 
 
 And friends loved well as life. Fond would I' gaze 
 
 On that bright constellation, — lesser stars 
 
 Burning around the morning star; and glad 
 
 To bear, and feel not, these dark ills of earth. 
 
 As felt the blest assurance, — soon our soul 
 
 Shall from this body burst, bright with the rays 
 
 Of Christ our righteousness, and rise to shine 
 
 A star amid the morning stars of heaven. 
 
 April 1849. 
 
THE NEW YEAK 
 t 
 
 The silvery Spring, witli clustering roses crown'd; 
 Summer, with brows in wheaten chaplets bound; 
 Benignant Autumn, 'mid his fruitful shades; 
 And Winter's rustling leaves and windy glades, 
 Again are passing; — and we gather here, 
 To hail a welcome for the coming year. 
 
 The ocean -wanderer, with homeward eye, 
 
 Beholds with earnest joy the evening sky; 
 
 Not that the clouds in drapery of gold, 
 
 O'er purple waves the setting sun infold; 
 
 A deeper joy his wearied spirit feels, 
 
 As with the falling shades a whisper steals, — 
 
 His wanderings nearer to a close are come. 
 
 This marks his course as one day nearer home : 
 
 The parting year, upon the wintry breast. 
 
 Of life's dark ocean, calmly sinks to rest ; 
 
104 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 While memory's autumn - twilight lingers there, 
 And makes the scene of gloom a beauty wear; 
 Where shipwrecked hopes and faded joys a grave 
 Have found beneath the dark tumultuous wave. 
 As thus we gaze upon the parting year, 
 With mingled joy and sorrow, hope and fear; 
 While gladness greets the loved ones of the heart, 
 And there afresh the springs of pleasure start; 
 While gathered round the bright domestic hearth. 
 We feel the purest, holiest bliss of earth; 
 Be this our deepest joy on New Year's even. 
 To feel that we are one year nearer heaven; — 
 Nearer the friends we mourn, at rest above ; 
 To Jesus nearer, whom unseen we love; 
 With whom alone our pilgrim heart can rest; 
 Our only home upon his loving breast. 
 One year the less of earthly grief remains; 
 One year the less of earthly toil and pains; 
 Of deadly strife with sin and Satan's power; 
 Of dark exposure to temptation's hour ; 
 One year the nearer sin's eternal close ; 
 The end of death, that last of human woes; 
 The long hoped coming of our lord to reign. 
 And shed o'er earth her Eden bliss again. 
 What though our years fade, in their gloomy flight, 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. ' 105 
 
 Swift as a shooting meteor of the night; 
 
 tell me not that time too swift can move, 
 
 In bearing me to heaven and Jesus' love. 
 
 "V^hile the hearth, blazing, throws 
 O'er twilight's deepening gloom a mellow glare, 
 Let household friends in narrowing circle close, 
 
 And leave one vacant chair, 
 
 For her the loved and gone. 
 Who shed a blessing as we lingered here. 
 In the glad family gathering hither drawn, 
 
 To hail the opening year. 
 
 There let the vacant toy, 
 The gift - book on the table quiet lie, 
 Which last New Year our dear departed boy 
 
 Scanned with such cheerful eye. 
 
 ! not to think of those, 
 The loved, departed, on such night as this, 
 Would in the heart the deepest fountains close 
 
 Of tenderest earthly bliss. 
 
 The memories of the blest. 
 As morning dews on the unfolding flowers. 
 Steal o'er our drooping loves with gloom oppressed; 
 
 As the Aurora's hues, 
 
 O'er Autumn's fading bowers; 
 14 
 
lOQ OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 As angels hovering on silvery wings, 
 
 O'er the soul's temple with its ruined towers, 
 
 And love's deep - welling springs. 
 
 ! sweet the gathering tear. 
 To know they wait to welcome us away. 
 Where the day breaks on heaven's new ceaseless year, 
 
 The shadows flee away. 
 
 For us 'tis sweet to know. 
 That when this gathering hails another year, 
 If we are gone, each heart with love will glow, 
 
 Still hold our memory dear. 
 
 While quiet rests the snowy pall 
 
 Of Winter over dale and hill, 
 Unbroke save by the red bird's call. 
 
 And murmur of the snow - fringed rill ; 
 While lone the moon her starry way 
 
 Keeps through the silvered clouds of heaven, 
 And cold the stars with brighter ray, 
 
 Gruard the hush'd silence of the even ; 
 Within, screened from the chilling night, 
 Around the central shaded lisilit. 
 Safe from the world's tumultuous jar. 
 Heard like the surging waves afar; 
 A hush the social talk succeeds, 
 
 i 
 
OCCASIONAL PIECES. 107 
 
 While the last news some loved one reads ; 
 Not from the poisoned sheets that come 
 Death - ladeu to the virtuous home ; 
 But columns, in whose healthful tone 
 Virtue's rich seeds are broadcast sown : 
 Or read some book, such as the press, 
 
 Controlled by piety, now showers, 
 Like flower seeds on the winds, to bless 
 
 The nations with its healing powers. 
 Shall parents guard, with jealous eye, 
 The son's, the daughter's company; 
 Exclude the coarse, ill-mannered clown, 
 On the profane and heartless frown, 
 And the loved household shelter less 
 From converse with a poisonous press? 
 Leave inexperienced youth to choose. 
 Where ignorantly they may lose 
 So much — their all; not grace, address, 
 But moral worth and happiness. 
 Ne'er is the heart so off its guard. 
 The way for vice so low unbarred, 
 As when we eager read alone, 
 A book with dangerous doctrines strown : 
 And many a volume seeming fair. 
 Has a dark serpent lurking there ; 
 
108 OCCASIONAL PIECES. 
 
 As, coiled within the luscious food, 
 
 The deadly asp of Egypt's Queen, 
 And noticed not till the mad blood 
 
 Speaks the death -fever fired within. 
 The lonely seed borne to some distant isle, 
 O'erspreads the whole with rankest growth the while; 
 A single volume — nay, a single thought — 
 Oft with a harvest of destruction's fraught. 
 Blest the parental love that watchful weaves 
 
 Deep hedges round the young heart's virgin soil; 
 And scatters there the seeds of future sheaves, 
 
 In heaven a harvest for his tears and toil. 
 
 Again we part; each on life's dusty road. 
 
 To bear of toil and grief his portioned load; 
 
 Yet when the nightfall of the closing year 
 
 From toil releases, will we gather here; 
 
 The friendly love of by -gone days renew; 
 
 The joys and sorrows of the year review ; 
 
 Yet still more blest, if on nest New Year's even, 
 
 We greet' each other, saints redeemed, in heaven. 
 
 January 1, 1856. 
 
44 
 
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