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INSCRIPTION FOR LOT'S WIFE.

"In this pillar I do lie,

Buried where no mortal eye
Ever could my bones descry.

"When I saw great Sodom burn,
To this pillar I did turn,
Where my body is my urn.

"You to whom my corpse I show,

Take true warning from my woe-
Look not back when God cries Go.'

"They that toward virtue hie, If but back they cast an eye, Twice as far from it do fly.

"Counsel then I give to those, Who the path to bliss have chose, Turn not back, ye cannot lose.

"That way let your whole hearts lie,
If ye let them backward fly,
They'll quickly grow as hard as I."

Thomas Jordan.

THE MEDITATION.

IT must be done, my soul, but 'tis a strange,
A dismal and mysterious change,

When thou shalt leave this tenement of clay,
And to an unknown somewhere wing away;

When time shall be eternity, and thou

Shalt be thou know'st not what, and live thou know'st not how.

Amazing tale! no wonder that we dread

To think of death, or view the dead.

Thou'rt all wrapp'd up in clouds, as if to thee
Our very knowledge had antipathy.

Death could not a more sad retinue find

Sickness and pain before, and darkness all behind.

Some courteous ghost, tell this great secrecy,
What 'tis you are, and we must be.
You warn us of approaching death, and why
May we not know from you what 'tis to die?
But you, having shot the gulf, delight to see
Succeeding souls plunge in with like uncertainty.

When life's close knot, by writ from destiny,
Disease shall cut, or age untie;

When after some delays, some dying strife,
The soul stands shivering on the ridge of life;
With what a dreadful curiosity

Does she launch out into the sea of vast eternity!

So when the spacious globe was delug'd o'er,
And lower holds could save no more,

On the utmost bough the astonish'd sinners stood,
And view'd the advances of th' encroaching flood;
O'er-topped at length by th' element's increase,
With horror they resign'd to the untried abyss.

John Norris.

HOPE

TRUE Hope is Jacob's staff indeed,
True Hope is no Egyptian reed

That springs from mire, or else can feed
On dirt or mud:

By Hope just men are sanctified,

In the same ocean safe at anchor ride,
Fearless of wreck by wind or tide,
By ebb or flood.

Hope's the top window of that Ark,
Where all God's Noahs do embark;
Hope lets in sky-light, else how dark
Were such a season!

Wouldst thou not be engulph'd, or drown'd,
When storms and tempests gather round,
Ere thou cast anchor, try the ground;
Hope must have reason.

Hope hath a harvest in the spring,
In winter doth of summer sing,
Feeds on the fruits while blossoming,
Yet nips no bloom;

Hope brings me home when I'm abroad,—
Soon as the first step homeward's trod—
In hope to Thee, my God! my God!
I come, I come.

Faithful Teate.

THE HEART ENLARGED.

WHAT a blessed change I find,
Since I entertain'd this guest!
Now, methinks, another mind
Moves and rules within my breast;
Surely I am not the same

That I was before He came ;

But I then was much to blame.

All the ways of righteousness

I did think were full of trouble;
I complained of tediousness,
And each duty seemed double;
While I served Him but from fear,

Every minute did appear

Longer far than a whole year.

But the case is alter'd now;

He no sooner turns His eye,
But I quickly bend and bow,
Ready at His feet to lie;
Love hath taught me to obey
All His precepts, and to say
Not "to-morrow," but "to-day."

Thomas Harvey.

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