VII.

BONDAGE.

Oн prophet, tell me not of peace,
Or Christ's all-loving deeds;
Death only can from sin release,
And death to judgment leads.

Thou from thy birth hast set thy face
Towards thy Redeemer Lord;
To tend and deck His holy place,
And note His secret word.

I ne'er shall reach Heaven's glorious path;

Yet haply tears may stay

The purpose of His instant wrath,
And slake the fiery day.

Then plead for me, thou blessed saint,
While I seek round, and use

All man e'er guessed of work or plaint
To cleanse sin's deep grained hues.

VIII.

TERROR.

O FATHER, list a sinner's call!
Fain would I hide from man my fall-
But I must speak, or faint-

I cannot wear guilt's silent thrall :

"Sinner ne'er blunted yet sin's goad; Speed thee, my son, a safer road,

And sue His pardoning smile

Who walked woe's depths, bearing man's load Of guilt the while."

Yet raise a mitigating hand,

And minister some potion bland,

Some present fever-stay!

Lest one for whom His work was planned

Die from dismay.

"Peace cannot be, hope must be thine; I can but lift the Mercy-sign.

This wouldst thou? Let it be !

Kneel down, and take the word divine,
ABSOLVO TE."

IX.

RESTLESSNESS.

ONCE, as I brooded o'er my guilty state,
A fever seiz'd me, duties to devise

To buy me interest in my Saviour's eyes :
Not that His love I would extenuate,

But scourge and penance, and perverse self-hate,
Or gift of cost, served by an artifice

To quell my restless thoughts, and envious sighs
And doubts, which fain heaven's peace would antedate.
Thus, as I tossed, He said:" Even holiest deeds
Shroud not the soul from God, nor sooth its needs;
Deny thee thine own fears, and wait the end!"
Stern lesson! Let me con it day by day,
And learn to quail beneath the Omniscient Ray,
And kneel in silence while Truth's shafts descend!

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT.

X.

THE PAINS OF MEMORY.

What time my heart unfolded its fresh leaves
In springtime gay, and scatter'd flowers around,
A whisper warned of earth's unhealthy ground,
And all that's there faith's light and pureness grieves ;
Sun's ray and canker-worm,

And sudden-whelming storm ;—

But, ah! my self-will smiled, nor recked the gracious sound.

So now defilement dims life's memory-springs;
I cannot hear an early-cherished strain,
But first a joy, and then it brings a pain-
Fear, and self-hate, and vain remorseful stings:
Tears lull my grief to rest,

Not without hope, this breast

May one day lose its load, and youth yet bloom again.

d.

XI.

DREAMS.

OH! miserable power

To dreams allowed, to raise the guilty past,
And back awhile the illumined spirit to cast
On its youth's twilight hour ;-

In mockery guiling it to act again

The revel or the scoff in Satan's frantic train!

Nay, hush thee, angry heart!
An Angel's grief ill fits a penitent;
Welcome the thorn-it is divinely sent,

And with its wholesome smart

Shall pierce thee in thy virtue's home serene,

And warn thee what thou art, and whence thy wealth

has been.