THE OLD CHURCH IN A STORM.
And buried 'midst the wreck of things which were;
There lie interr'd the more illustrious dead.
The wind is up: hark! how it howls! Methinks,
Till now, I never heard a sound so dreary :
Doors creak, and windows clap, and night's foul bird, Rock'd in the spire, screams loud—
Quite round the pile, a row of reverend elms
(Coeval near with that) all ragged show,
Long lash'd by the rude winds. Some rift half down
Their branchless trunks; others so thin at top,
That scarce two crows can lodge in the same tree.
Strange things, the neighbours say, have happen'd here;
Wild shrieks have issued from the hollow tombs;
Dead men have come again, and walk'd about;
And the great bell has toll'd, unrung, untouch'd.
Oft in the lone churchyard at night I've seen,
By glimpse of moonshine chequering thro' the trees,
The school-boy, with his satchel in his hand,
Whistling aloud to bear his courage up,
And lightly tripping o'er the long flat stones
(With nettles skirted, and with moss o'ergrown)
That tell in homely phrase who lie below.
Sudden he starts, and hears, or thinks he hears,
The sound of something purring at his heels;
Full fast he flies, and dares not look behind him,
Till, out of breath, he overtakes his fellows,
Who gather round, and wonder at the tale
Of horrid apparition.
COMMERCE-A HELP TO RELIGION.
Hot India's zone with gaudy pencil paints,
And drops delicious tints o'er hill and dale,
Which Trade to us conveys. Not tints alone;
Trade to the good physician gives his balms;
Gives cheering cordials to th' afflicted heart;
Gives, to the wealthy, delicacies high;
Gives, to the curious, works of nature rare ;
And when the priest displays, in just discourse,
Him, the all-wise Creator, and declares
His presence, power, and goodness, unconfin'd,
'Tis Trade, attentive voyager, who fills
His lips with argument. To censure Trade,
Or hold her busy people in contempt,
The clearest sense of Deity receive,
Who view the widest prospect of His works,
Ranging the globe with Trade thro' various climes;
Who see the signatures of boundless Love,
Nor less the judgments of Almighty Power,
That warn the wicked, and the wretch who 'scapes
From human justice; who, astonish'd, view
Etna's loud thunders and tempestuous fires;
The dust of Carthage; desert shores of Nile;
COMMERCE-A HELP TO RELIGION.
Or Tyre's abandon'd summit, crown'd of old
With stately tow'rs; whose merchants, from their isles, And radiant thrones, assembled in her marts;
Whither Arabia, whither Kedar, brought
Their shaggy goats, their flocks, and bleating lambs;
Where rich Damascus pil'd his fleeces white,
Prepar'd and thirsty for the double tint,
And flow ring shuttle. While th' admiring world
Crowded her streets; ah, then the hand of pride
Sow'd imperceptible his poisonous weed,
Which crept destructive up her lofty domes,
As ivy creeps around the graceful trunk
Of some tall oak. Her lofty domes no more,
Not ev'n the ruins of her pomp, remain,
Not ev'n the dust they sunk in; by the breath
Of the Omnipotent offended, hurl'd
Down to the bottom of the stormy deep.
THE old apart, upon a bank reclin'd,
Attend the tuneful carol, softly mixt
With ev'ry murmur of the sliding wave,
And ev'ry warble of the feather'd choir;
Music of Paradise! which still is heard,
When the heart listens.
THESE, as they change, Almighty Father, these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee. Forth in the pleasing Spring
Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and love.
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm;
Echo the mountains round; the forest smiles;
And every sense, and every heart, is joy.
Then comes Thy glory in the Summer-months,
With light and heat refulgent. Then Thy sun
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year:
And oft Thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks;
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve,
By brooks and groves, in hollow-whispering gales.
Thy bounty shines in Autumn, unconfin'd,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.
In Winter, awful Thou! with clouds and storms
Around Thee thrown, tempests o'er tempests roll'd,
Majestic darkness! on the whirlwind's wing,
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