Said I not so,—that I would sin no more?
Witness, my God, I did;
Yet I am run again upon the score:
My faults cannot be hid.
What shall I do?—make vows and break them still?
’T will be but labor lost;
My good cannot prevail against mine ill:
The business will be crost.
O, say not so; thou canst not tell what...
Is this a fast,—to keep
The larder lean,
And clean
From fat of veals and sheep?
Is it to quit the dish
Of flesh, yet still
To fill
The platter high with fish?
Is it to fast an hour,
Or ragg’d to go,
Or show
A downcast look, and sour?
No! ’t is a fast to dole...
Thou whose sweet youth and early hopes enhance
Thy rate and price, and mark thee for a treasure,
Hearken unto a Verser, who may chance
Rhyme thee to good, and make a bait of pleasure:
A verse may find him who a sermon flies
And turn delight into a sacrifice.* * * * *
When thou dost purpose aught (within thy...
Water Turned INTO WINE
THE CONSCIOUS water saw its God and blushed.
THE WIDOW’S MITES
Two mites, two drops, yet all her house and land,
Fall from a steady heart, though trembling hand:
The other’s wanton wealth foams high, and brave;
The other cast away, she only gave.
“TWO WENT UP TO THE TEMPLE TO PRAY”
Two went to pray? O,...
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent, which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
“Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?”
I fondly ask. But...
From “Paradise Lost,” Book V.
THE SERAPH Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single. From...
Dear, secret greenness! nurst below
Tempests and winds and winter nights!
Vex not, that but One sees thee grow;
That One made all these lesser lights.
What needs a conscience calm and bright
Within itself, an outward test?
Who breaks his glass, to take more light,
Makes way for storms into his rest.
Then bless...
From the Latin by John Mason Neale
“Urit me Patriæ decor.”
IT kindles all my soul,
My country’s loveliness! Those starry choirs
That watch around the pole,
And the moon’s tender light, and heavenly fires
Through golden halls that roll.
O chorus of the night! O planets, sworn
The music of the spheres
To follow...
O Beauteous God! uncircumscribèd treasure
Of an eternal pleasure!
Thy throne is seated far
Above the highest star,
Where thou preparest a glorious place,
Within the brightness of thy face,
For every spirit
To inherit
That builds his hopes upon thy merit,
And loves thee with a holy charity.
What ravished heart,...
There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;
Infinite day excludes the night,
And pleasures banish pain.
There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers;
Death, like a narrow sea, divides
This heavenly land from ours.
Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
Stand dressed in living...
