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him easy here, because it can make him happy hereafter.

19. Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world; and if in the present life his happiness arises from the subduing his desires, it will arise in the next from the gratification of them.

Charity. A paraphrase on the 13th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians.

DID sweeter sounds adorn my flowing tongue,
Than ever man pronoune'd or angel sung;
Had I all knowledge, human and divine,
That thought can reach, or science can define;
And had I pow'r to give that knowledge birth,
In all the speeches of the babbling earth ;
Did Shadrach's zeal my glowing breast inspire,
To weary tortures, and rejoice in fire;
Or had I faith like that which Israel saw,
When Moses gave them miracles, and law:
Yet, gracious charity, indulgent guest,
Were not thy pow'r exerted in my breast;
Those speeches would send up unheeded pray'r;
That scorn of life would be but wild despair;
A cymbal's sound were better than my voice;
My faith were form; my eloquence were noise.

Charity, decent, modest, easy, kind,

Softens the high, and rears the abject mind;
Knows with just reins, and gentle hand, to guide
Betwixt 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 purpose dedicates its pow'r ;
And finishing its act, 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.

As through the artist's intervening glass, Our eye observes the distant planets pass; A little we discover; but allow,

That more remains unseen, than art can show; So whilst our mind its knowledge would improve, (Its feeble eye intent on things above,)

High as we may, we lift our reason up,
By faith directed, and confirm'd by hope;

Yet are we able only to survey,

Dawnings of beams, and promises of day;

Heaven's fuller effluence mocks our dazzl'd

sight;

Too great its swiftness, and too strong its light.

But soon the mediate clouds shall be dispell'd,
The sun shall soon be face to face beheld,
In all his robes, with all his glory on,
Seated sublime on his meridian throne,
Then constant faith, and holy hope shall die,
One lost in certainty, and one joy;
Whilst thou, more happy pow'r, 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.

A paraphrase on the book of Job-Supposed by historians to be as much greater than any other verses composed on any part of the Scriptures whatever as a clap of thunder is louder than a whisper.

Thrice happy Job, long liv'd in regal state
Nor saw the sumptuous earth a prince so great; ·
His worldly stores in such abundance flow'd,
His heart with such exalted virtues glow'd.

P

At length misfortunes took their turns to reign
Then ills on ills succeed a dreadful train ;
What now but death and poverty and wrong,
The sword's wide wasting, the reproachful
tongue.

The spotted plagues that mark'd his limbs all o'er,

So full of sores they wanted room for more.
A change so sad what mortal heart could bear,
Exhausted wo had left him nought to fear;
But give him all o'er to grief, lo earth he press'd
Wept in the dust and sorely smote his breast,
His friends all round the deep affliction mourn'd,
Felt all his groans and pang for pang return'd;
In anguish of their breasts their mantles rent,
And seven long days in solemn silence spent.
A debt of reverence to distress so great,
Then Job contain'd no more but curs'd his fate.
His day of birth, its inauspicious light,
He wishes sunk in endless shades of night,
And blotted from the year nor fears to crave
Death, instant death impatient for the grave.
That seat of peace, that mansion of repose,
Where rest and mortals are no longer foes.
Where counsellors are hush'd and mighty kings
O happy turn no more are wretched things,
His words were daring and displeas'd his friends,
His conduct they reprov'd, still he defends-

Now they kindle into warm debate,
Their sentiments oppos'd with equal heat.
Fix'd in opinion both refuse to yield,

And summons all their actions to the field;
Their arguments at length so far was brought,
They reach'd the last extent of human thought.
A pause ensu’d, at length heaven interpos'd,
And awfully the long contention clos'd

Full o'er their heads with terrible surprise,
A sudden whirlwind which blacken'd all the skies.
They saw and trembl'd and from the darkness
broke,

A voice of terror and thus the Almighty spoke. [Now the Almighty speaks to Job out of the whirwind as follows:]

Who gives his voice aloose so rude and vain, Censures my conduct and reproves my reign, Lifts up his feeble thought against me from the dust,

And tells the world's creature what is just.
Where didst thou dwell at nature's early birth?
Who laid foundations for this spacious earth?
Who on the centre did extend the line,

Its form determine and its bulk confine?
Who laid that corner stone, what hand declare,
Fix'd it on nought and fasten'd it on air?
When shouting sons of God the triumph crown'd,
And the wide concave thunder'd with the sound.

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