Should I distribute all my store
To feed the bowels of the poor:
Or give my body to the flame
To gain a martyr's glorious name:

If love to GOD and love to men
Be absent, all my hopes are vain.
Nor tongues, nor gifts, or fiery zeal
The Work of Love can e'er fulfil.

ANOTHER.

CHARITY, decent, modest, easy, kind,
Softens the high, and rears the abject mind,
Knows with just reins, and gentle hand to guide,
Between vile shame, and arbitrary pride.
Not soon provok'd, she easily forgives,
And much she suffers, as she much believes.
Soft peace she brings, wherever she arrives :
She builds our quiet, as she forms our lives;
Lays the rough paths of peevish nature even;
And opens in each heart a little heaven.
Each other gift which God on man bestows,
Its proper bounds and due restriction knows;
To one fix'd
dedicates its power;
purpose
And, finishing its acts, exists no more.
Thus, in obedience to what Heaven decrees,
Knowledge shall fail, and prophecy shall cease;
But lasting Charity's more ample sway,
Nor bound by time, nor subject to decay,

In happy triumph shall for ever live,

And endless good diffuse, and endless praise receive.

Then constant Faith, and holy Hope shall die,
One lost in certainty, and one in joy:
While thou, more happy power, fair Charity,
Triumphant sister, greatest of the three,
Thy office and thy nature still the same,
Lasting thy lamp, and unconsum'd thy flame,
Shalt still survive-

Shalt stand before the host of heav'n confest, For ever blessing, and for ever blest.

ANOTHER.

How blest the man whose bowels move

And melt with pity to the

poor;

Whose soul with sympathizing love

Feels what his fellow saints endure.

His heart contrives for their relief

More good than his own hands can do ; He in the time of general grief

Shall find the Lord has bowels too.

- His soul shall live secure on earth,
With secret blessings on his head,
When drought, and pestilence, and dearth,
Around him multiply their dead.

G

Or if he languish on his couch,

God will pronounce his sins forgiv'n;
Will save him with a healing touch,
Or take his willing soul to heav'n,

The Prayer on Friday Evening.

For love and charity to all men.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, the

creator and governor of all things, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking; grant that all reasonable creatures who fear and obey thee, and are capable of understanding the greatness and glory of thy attributes, may unfeignedly admire and adore thee, and express their veneration and praises to thee, in ways most suitable to the condition of their nature, and the discoveries of thy divine will, revealed to us by thy Son Jesus Christ.

O Lord, who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth; send thy Holy Ghost, and pour into my heart that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which, whosoever liveth is counted dead before thee; more especially, as I have presumed to commemorate the unspeakable love of my blessed Saviour in dying for me, let not

my heart be destitute of love toward my brethren; extend thy mercy and forgiveness to all mine enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and turn their hearts; which I as sincerely beg for them, as I hope for mercy and forgiveness at thy hands.

Possess me with kindness and good will for all mankind, that my faith may work by love, and dispose my heart, according to my ability, to administer toward the wants and necessities of those, who are any ways afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate, and do unto all men as I would they should do unto me; that by doing good for evil, all men may know that I am thy disciple.

Oh! vouchsafe, I beseech thee, that all mankind may come to the knowledge and belief of thy true religion; that so the kingdom of Christ may be extended over all the earth; and the eternal laws of godliness, righteousness, charity, and sobriety, may be established throughout the whole world, to thy glory and the salvation of all mankind. For which end, grant that all who profess this thy true religion, may live in perfect obedience to the laws thereof; and that men, as the infirmi ties of their nature will permit, may obey thee with proportionable sincerity and constancy, as do the spirits of the blessed saints in heaven.

Bestow on us, O gracious Lord! every

day, through the remaining part of our lives, as many of the things of this present world, as are sufficient for our necessary subsistence, and for the useful and innocent conveniences of life, forgiving us our sins, and withholding the punishments we have thereby deserved; in like manner as we freely and heartily, for thy sake, forgive all those injuries and offences, which we have received from others.

Let all the causes and occasions of temptations cease from us, or else deliver us from the power of them; that we may not be moved either with the enticements of riches, honours, or pleasures; or with the fear of want, disgrace, or pain, to do any thing knowingly contrary to thy will; and deliver us from all the evils and calamities which either the malice of the devil, or the wickedness or the misfortunes of the world might bring upon us, and set us at variance with thee, our God, or thy servant our fellowcreature; and I most earnestly offer up these my petitions, because, O God, I know that thou canst and wilt do more for us than we can desire or deserve, who art infinite in power, glory, majesty, and bountiful mercy, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.