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THOUGHT ON THE SEASONS.

FLATTERED with promise of escape

From every hurtful blast,

Spring takes, O sprightly May! thy shape,
Her loveliest and her last.

Less fair is Summer riding high,
In fierce solstitial power,
Less fair than when a lenient sky
Brings on a parting hour.

When earth repays with golden sheaves
The labours of the plough,
And ripening fruits, and forest leaves,
All brighten on the bough,

What pensive beauty Autumn shows,

Before she hears the sound

Of Winter rushing in to close
The emblematic round!

Such be our Spring, our Summer such;
So may our Autumn blend

With hoary Winter, and life touch
With heaven-born hope her end!

TO THE SUPREME BEING.

THE prayers I make will then be sweet indeed,
If Thou the Spirit give by which I pray :
My unassisted heart is barren clay,

That of its native self can nothing feed;

Of good and pious works Thou art the seed,

That quickens only where Thou sayest it may :

Unless Thou show to us thy own true way,

No man can find it: Father! Thou must lead:

Do Thou then breathe these thoughts into my mind,

By which such virtue may in me be bred,
That in thy holy footsteps I may tread;

The fetters of my tongue do Thou unbind,
That I may have the power to sing of Thee!
And sound thy praises everlastingly.

JEHOVAH THE PROVIDER.

AUTHOR of being! life-sustaining King!

Lo! Want's dependant eye from Thee implores The seasons, which provide nutritious stores; Give to her prayers the renovating Spring,

And Summer-heats all perfecting that bring

The fruits which Autumn from a thousand stores
Selecteth provident! when earth adores

Her God, and all her vales exulting sing.
Without thy blessing, the submissive steer

Bends to the ploughman's galling yoke in vain ;

Without thy blessing on the varied year,

Can the swarth reaper grasp the golden grain?
Without thy blessing, all is black and drear;
With it, the joys of Eden bloom again.

THE KIRK OF ULPHA1.

THE KIRK OF ULPHA to the Pilgrim's eye
Is welcome as a star that doth present
Its shining forehead through the peaceful rent

Of a black cloud diffused o'er half the sky:
Or as a fruitful palm-tree towering high

O'er the parched waste, beside an Arab's tent;

Or the Indian tree, whose branches downward bent, Take root again, a boundless canopy.

Ulpha is a small village on the river Duddon, in the south of Cumberland.

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How sweet were leisure! could it yield no more
Than 'mid that wave-washed churchyard to recline,
From pastoral graves extracting thoughts divine;
Or there to pace, and mark the summits hoar

Of distant moon-lit mountains faintly shine,
Soothed by th' unseen river's gentle roar.

LATIMER AND RIDLEY.

How fast the Marian death-list is unrolled!
See Latimer and Ridley, in the might

Of faith, stand coupled for a common flight!
One (like those prophets whom God sent of old,)
Transfigured, from this kindling hath foretold
A torch of unextinguishable light;
The other gains a confidence as bold:

And thus they foil their enemy's despite.
The penal instruments, the shows of crime

Are glorified, while this once mitred pair
Of saintly friends "the murtherer's chain partake,
Corded and burning at the social stake."
Earth never witnessed object more sublime
In constancy, in fellowship more fair

JEWEL AND HOOKER.

HOLY and heavenly spirits as they are,

Spotless in life, and eloquent as wise,
With what entire affection do they prize

Their new-born church! labouring with earnest care
To baffle all that may her strength impair;

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