Till mild Religion, from above, Descends, a sweet engaging form, The messenger of holy love, The bow of promise in a storm! Then guilty passions wing their flight, Religion's yoke is soft and light, Ambition, pride, revenge, depart, And folly flies her chastening rod; She makes the humble contrite heart A temple of the living God. Beyond the narrow vale of time, To scenes eternal, scenes sublime, She points the way, and leads the soul. At her approach the Grave appears Her voice the watching Cherub hears, Baptized with her renewing fire, May we the crown of glory gain; Rise when the Hosts of Heaven expire, MONTGOMERY. ADDRESS TO CHARITY. Hail Charity! propitious pow'r, And shed the balm of downy rest. O! hear the suff'ring mourner's prayer, Kind Charity! celestial guest, Swift from the azure sky descend, Diffuse thy spirit through each breast, And all thy genial influence lend. HINDERWELL. ON THE SPRING. Lo! where the rosy-bosom' d Hours, Disclose the long expected flowers, And wake the purple year! The Attic warbler pours her throat, Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch A broader, browner, shade ; Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech O'er-canopies the glade, Beside some water's rushy brink With me the muse shall sit and think (At ease reclined in rustic state) How vain the ardour of the Crowd, How low, how little are the Proud, How indigent the Great! Still is the toiling hand of care: Yet hark, how through the peopled air The insect youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honied spring, And float amid the liquid noon : Some lightly o'er the current skim, Some show their gaily gilded trim Quick-glancing to the sun. To Contemplation's sober eye Such is the race of man; And they that creep, and they that fly, Shall end where they began. Alike the busy and the gay But flutter through life's little day, N |