Shall finish what his short-liv'd Sire begun ;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sow'd, shall reap the field.
The swain in barren deserts with surprise
See lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise;
And start, amidst the thirsty wilds to hear
New falls of water murm'ring in his ear.
On rifted rocks, the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplex'd with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn.
To leafless shrubs the flow'ring palms succeed,
And od'rous myrtle to the noisome weed.
The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead,
And boys in flow'ry bands the tiger lead;
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet,
The smiling infant in his hands shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleas'd the green lustre of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rise;
Exalt thy tow'ry head, and lift thy eyes!
See, a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons, and daughters yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on ev'ry side arise,
Demanding life, impatient of the skies!
See barb'rous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings,
And heap'd with products of Sabæan springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heav'n its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor ev'ning Cynthia fill her silver horn;
But lost, dissolv'd in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts; the Light Himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd His word, His saving power remains,
Thy realm for ever lasts, Thy own MESSIAH reigns.
Alexander Pope.
THINK not that you are no Enthusiast then:
All men are such, as sure as they are men.
The thing itself is not all to blame :
"Tis in each state of human life the same.
The fiery bent, the driving of the will,
That gives the prevalence to good or ill;---
You need not go to cloisters, or to cells,
Monks, or field preachers, to see where it dwells.
It dwells alike in balls and masquerades ;
Courts, camps, and 'Changes, it alike pervades.
That which concerns us, therefore, is to see,
What species of Enthusiasts we be;
On what materials the fiery source
Of thinking life shall execute its force:
Whether a man shall stir up love or hate,
From the mix'd medium of the present state;
Shall choose with upright heart and mind to rise,
And reconnoitre Heaven's primeval skies;
Or down to lust and rapine to descend,
Brute for a time, and demon at its end.
ENTHUSIASM DEFINED.
"Fly from Enthusiasm!" Yes, fly from air,
And breathe it more intensely for your care.
Learn, that, whatever phantoms you embrace,
Your own essential property takes place :
Bend all your wits against it, 'tis in vain,
It must exist, or sacred, or profane.
For flesh, or spirit, wisdom from above,
Or from this world, an anger, or a love,
Must have its fire within the human soul:
'Tis ours to spread the circle, or control;
In clouds of sensual appetites to smoke,
While smoth'ring lusts the rising conscience choke;
Or-with a true celestial ardour fir'd,
Such as at first created man inspir'd,
To will, and to persist to will, the light,
The love, the joy, that makes an angel bright,
That makes a man, in sight of God, to shine
With all the lustre of a life divine.
When true Religion kindles up the fire,
Who can condemn the vigorous desire,
That burns to reach the end for which 'twas given,
To shine and sparkle in its native Heaven?
What else was our creating Father's view?
His image lost why sought He to renew?
Why all the scenes of love that Christians know,
But to attract us from this poor below;
To save us from the fatal choice of ill,
And bless the free co-operating will?
Blame not Enthusiasm, if rightly bent;
Or blame of Saints the holiest intent,
The strong persuasion, the confirm'd belief,
Of all the comforts of a soul the chief;
That God's continual will, and work to save,
Teach, and inspire, attend us to the grave:
That they, who in His faith and love abide,
Find in His Spirit an immediate Guide:
This is no more a fancy, or a whim,
Than that we live, and move, and are in Him.
Let Nature, or let Scripture, be the ground,
Here is the seat of true Religion found.
An earthly life, as life itself explains,
The air and spirit of this world maintains:
As plainly does an heav'nly life declare
An heav'nly spirit, and an holy air.
What truth more plainly does the Gospel teach,
What doctrine all its missionaries preach,
Than this, that every good desire and thought,
Is in us by the Holy Spirit wrought?
For this the working faith prepares the mind;
Hope is expectant, charity resign'd.
This faith, and this dependance, once destroy'd,
Man is made helpless, and the Gospel void.
He that is taught to seek elsewhere for aid,
Be who he will the teacher, is betray'd:
Be what it will the system, he's enslav'd;
Man by man's Maker only can be sav'd.
In this one fountain of all help to trust,
What is more easy, natural, and just?
Talk what we will of morals, and of bliss,
Our safety has no other source but this:
Led by this faith, when man forsakes his sin,
The gate stands open to his God within:
There, in the temple of his soul, is found
Of inward, central life, the holy ground;
The sacred scene of piety and peace,
Where new-born Christians feel the life's increase,
Blessing, and blest, revive to pristine youth,
And worship God in spirit, and in truth.
THE OLD CHURCH IN A STORM.
SEE yonder hallow'd fane; the pious work Of names once fam'd, now dubious or forgot,
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