Palsied by penury, ascends to heaven;
While ponderous bequests of lands and goods
Ne'er rise above their earthly origin.
And should all bounty, that is clothed with power,
Be deemed unworthy?-Far be such a thought!
Even when the rich bestow, there are sure tests
Of genuine charity: Yes, yes, let wealth
Give other alms than silver or than gold,—
Time, trouble, toil, attendance, watchfulness,
Exposure to disease;-yes, let the rich.
Be often seen beneath the sick man's roof;
Or cheering, with inquiries from the heart,
And hopes of health, the melancholy range
Of couches in the public wards of woe:
There let them often bless the sick man's bed,
With kind assurances that all is well
At home; that plenty smiles upon the board,-
The while the hand, that earned the frugal meal,
Can hardly raise itself in sign of thanks.
Above all duties, let the rich man search
Into the cause he knoweth not, nor spurn
The suppliant wretch as guilty of a crime.
they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."-MARK, Xii. 41.-44.
Ye blessed with wealth! (another name for power · Of doing good) O would ye but devote
A little portion of each seventh day,
To acts of justice to your fellow men!
The house of mourning silently invites:
Shun not the crowded alley; prompt descend
Into the half sunk cell, darksome and damp;
Nor seem impatient to begone: Inquire,
Console, instruct, encourage, sooth, assist;
Read, pray, and sing a new song to the Lord;
Make tears of joy down grief-worn furrows flow.
O Health! thou sun of life, without whose beam
The fairest scenes of nature seem involved
In darkness, shine upon my dreary path
Once more; or, with thy faintest dawn, give hope,
That I may yet enjoy thy vital ray !
Though transient be the hope, 'twill be most sweet,
Like midnight music, stealing on the ear,
Then gliding past, and dying slow away.
Music! thou soothing power, thy charm is proved
Most vividly when clouds o'ercast the soul;---
So light its loveliest effect displays
In lowering skies, when through the murky rack
A slanting sun-beam shoots, and instant limns
The etherial curve of seven harmonious dyes,
Eliciting a splendour from the gloom :
O Music! still vouchsafe to tranquillize
This breast perturbed; thy voice, though mournful, soothes;
And mournful ay are thy most beauteous lays,
Like fall of blossoms from the orchard boughs,—
The autumn of the spring. Enchanting power!
Who, by thy airy spell, canst whirl the mind
Far from the busy haunts of men to vales
Where TWEED or YARROW flows; or, spurning time,
Recall red FLODDEN field; or suddenly
Transport, with altered strain, the deafened ear
TO LINDEN'S plain!-But what the pastoral lay,
The melting dirge, the battle's trumpet-peal,
Compared to notes with sacred numbers linked
In union, solemn, grand! O then the spirit,
Upborne on pinions of celestial sound,
Soars to the throne of God, and ravished hears
Ten thousand times ten thousand voices rise
In halleluias,-voices, that erewhile
Were feebly tuned perhaps to low-breathed hymns
Of solace in the chambers of the poor,--
The Sabbath worship of the friendless sick.
Blest be the female votaries, whose days
No Sabbath of their pious labours prove,
Whose lives are consecrated to the toil
Of ministering around the uncurtained couch
Of pain and poverty! Blest be the hands,
The lovely hands, (for beauty, youth, and grace,
Are oft concealed by Pity's closest veil,)
That mix the cup medicinal, that bind
The wounds, which ruthless warfare and disease
Have to the loathsome lazar-house consigned."
Fierce Superstition of the mitred king! Almost I could forget thy torch and stake, When I this blessed sisterhood survey,— Compassion's priestesses, disciples true
Of Him, whose touch was health, whose single word
Electrified with life the palsied arm,-
Of him, who said, Take up thy bed, and walk,-
Of him, who cried to Lazarus, Come forth.
And he who cried to Lazarus, Come forth,
Will, when the Sabbath of the tomb is past,
Call forth the dead, and re-unite the dust
(Transformed and purified) to angel souls.
Extatic hope! belief! conviction firm!
How grateful 'tis to recollect the time
When hope arose to faith! Faintly, at first,
The heavenly voice is heard: Then, by degrees,
Its music sounds perpetual in the heart.
Thus he, who all the gloomy winter long
Has dwelt in city-crowds, wandering afield
Betimes on Sabbath morn, ere yet the spring
Unfold the daisy's bud, delighted hears
The first lark's note, faint yet, and short the song,
Checked by the chill ungenial northern breeze;
But, as the sun ascends, another springs,
And still another soars on loftier wing,
Till all o'erhead, the joyous choir, unseen,
Poised welkin high, harmonious fills the air,
As if it were a link 'tween earth and heaven.
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