The last Composition of the Rev. CH. WESTLE
IN age and feebleness extreme,
Who shall a helpless worm redeem?
JESUS! my only hope thou art,
Strength of my failing flesh and heart:
Oh! could I catch a smile from thee,
And drop into eternity!
ON BROTHERLY LOVE.
By the late Rev. Mr. ELLIOT.
S all believers Christ embrace,
And all are justified by grace;
So should their hearts and aims be one,
Knit in the bands of love alone.
The strong should yield unto the weak,
Nor his own will and pleasure seek;
The weak believer, he again,
Should fear his brother to condemn.
We dare not boast, and stir up wrathi,
Despising one another's faith:
Rather to God ourselves approve,
And dwell in peace, and live in love:
WRITTEN BY A LADY, AT EARLY DAWN.
WELCOME to me this soft, this silent dawn, To pure devotion may'st thou sacred be:
My waking heart, with the returning morn,
In grateful praise, my God, I'd raise to thee.
II.
In wonder lost-Ah, where shall I begin,
Or how recount the myst'ries of thy love?
That love which pardons all-atrocious sin,
The love of Christ which I so sweetly prove!
While thus my days with smiling peace are crown'd,
And I am shelter'd in thy love's embrace;
O may my heart with joyful praise resound,
At every sacred season, time and place.
Jesus, thy love shall be my darling theme,
At early dawn, or solemn midnight hour;
Or when the sun first darts his genial beam,
Or when he shines in full meridian pow'r.
In blooming spring, I'd celebrate thy praise ;
The varied seasons, as they roll along,
Shall all bear witness to my artless lays,
Till I shall join the heav'n-enraptur'd throng.
Then shall I praise thee in sublimer strains, And learn the notes yon brighter seraphs sing; Shall share the glories of those blissful plains, And thee adore through one eternal spring.
From a FATHER to his CHILDREN.
To you, my children, I these lines address, That ye may follow in the heav'nly road. Happy the youth(more than can tongue express) Who give the morning of their lives to God;
And walk in wisdom's ways---O fear His name ; His word believe..-His faithful promise claim. That Grace which taught my early youth to flee Those paths which souls to sure destruction bring:
"Who loved me---and gave himself for me ;" His loving-kindness I essay to sing.
My God-my children's God-forever near,
Our souls to bless, your pray'rs, & mine,to hear.
The Royal Prophet, by experience prov'd,
No happiness, in things of time and sense
Could e'er be found, while o'er the earth he rov'd
And felt of false delights the vain pretence :
But sums up
all in one decisive rule,
'The fear of God'--first step in Wisdom's school.
O may this fear be on your hearts imprest,
By His Almighty Spirit-as on mine.
In youth and riper years, supremely blest
And happy-you in life and death shall shine;
Like him,† of old, who " gave with Christ to
reign,
"His golden years in prison, and in pain.”
Blest man of God! whose plain and artless lays,
In strains pathetic, on his children call,
To imitate their sire in pray'r and praise,
And live to Him, who freely died for all.
His lines evince the pow'r of heav'nly grace ;
The same-howe'er remote the age or place.
From earliest infancy, I fix the date
The Blessed Spirit wrought within my breast
ROBERT SMITH-who was burnt in the reign of Queen Mary; and while in prison, wrote an Exhortation to his Children.-See 3d Vol. of Fox's Martyrology.
And taught my soul the grosser sins to hate,
And in transgression's ways to take no rest.
Shall I this feeble knowledge then despise !
Or praise my God, and all his goodness prize?
O praise the Lord, my soul, for this and all
His mercies manifest in riper years:
When farther favor'd with His gracious call,
To know, to feel, and to lament with tears
Thy fallen state--His voice to Jesus led
Thy feeble steps, and banish'd fear and dread.
How many streams unite to swell the sea
Of mercy, boundless as the God of Love!
His Word--- His Ministers-His Spirit-He
To sinners freely gives, that they may prove
His gracious promise, ever to receive
All who to Jesus come, that they may live.
Therefore, my children, by the written Word,
Try every inward and external call;
Prove men and doctrines, whether they accord
By this criterion, let them stand or fall.
Be it through life, your resolution fix'd,
To search the soul-converting, sacred text.
Next to his Word, his Ministers revere;
His ordinances constantly attend:
Nor cease t' approach his throne with fervent pray'r,
Looking to Jesus to attain the end :
The end of precious faith-Salvation sure---
Present salvation-Sin's effectual cure.
Put on the heav'nly armor of your GOD,
That Satan's fiery darts you may repel :
Be sure, temptations will beset your road,
If ye sincerely strive to 'scape from hell.
Yet, still proceed-on Jesu's grace depend―
His promise, pow'r, and love, will keep you to
the end.
On reading the Rev. Mr. JAMES BROWN's Pam
phlet, on the
RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.
HAIL kindred spirit, so alike to mine!
Methinks we shall eternally entwine :
Or, if we part to spread the glorious flame,
Wide as creation's bounds; yet, there, the same
Shall bind us as irrevocably one,
One in the Saviour, the Eternal Son.
Oh, were our Missionaries* all agreed,
Like thee to sow the heav'nly gospel seed;
The wiser Braminst in the Indian land,
Could not from reason right, their words with-
stand,
But with the Greenlanders,‡ would all obey,
Own the sweet sound, & chant the heav'nly lay.
High as the heav'ns, and deep as hell they'd cry, Wide as time past, and broad as to time come;
* Mr. BROWN was late a Missionary from the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts, and Chaplain of the British Garrison at Savannah, Georgia.
† Eternal damnation has been a doctrine preventing their acces sion to the faith. They believe just the contrary; viz. the Uni
All the Greenlanders are now added to Christianity.
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