Exhortation to Prayer

Not on a prayerless bed, not on a prayerless bed   Compose thy weary limbs to rest;     For they alone are blest       With balmy sleep       Whom angels keep;     Nor, though by care opprest,       Or anxious sorrow,   Or thought in many a coil perplexed     For coming morrow,       Lay not thy head       On prayerless bed. For who can tell, when sleep thine eyes shall close,   That earthly cares and woes     To thee may e’er return?       Arouse, my soul!       Slumber control,   And let thy lamp burn brightly;     So shall thine eyes discern   Things pure and sightly;     Taught by the Spirit, learn       Never on prayerless bed       To lay thine unblest head. Hast thou no pining want, or wish, or care,   That calls for holy prayer?     Has thy day been so bright       That in its flight     There is no trace of sorrow?     And thou art sure to-morrow         Will be like this, and more Abundant? Dost thou yet lay up thy store   And still make plans for more?       Thou fool! this very night       Thy soul may wing its flight. Hast thou no being than myself more dear,     That ploughs the ocean deep,     And when storms sweep       The wintry, lowering sky,     For whom thou wak’st and weepest?     Oh, when thy pangs are deepest,   Seek then the covenant ark of prayer;   For He that slumbereth not is there—       His ear is open to thy cry.         Oh, then, on prayerless bed         Lay not thy thoughtless head. Arouse thee, weary soul, nor yield to slumber,     Till in communion blest     With the elect ye rest—   Those souls of countless number;       And with them raise       The note of praise,   Reaching from earth to heaven—   Chosen, redeemed, forgiven;     So lay thy happy head,     Prayer-crowned, on blessed bed.