Church poetry : or, Christian thoughts in old and modern verse . umphant yet, disturbed by war,And perish by the invading enemy ? Astrologers, who calculate Uncertain fate,Affirm my scheme doth not presageAny abridgement of my days :And the physician gravely says,I may enjoy a reverend length of age. But they are jugglers, and by sleight Of art, the sightOf faith delude : and in their schoolThey only practise how to makeA mystery of each mistake,And teach strange words, credulity to fool. For Thou who first didst motion give, Whereby things liveAnd time hath being ! to concealFuture events did
Church poetry : or, Christian thoughts in old and modern verse . umphant yet, disturbed by war,And perish by the invading enemy ? Astrologers, who calculate Uncertain fate,Affirm my scheme doth not presageAny abridgement of my days :And the physician gravely says,I may enjoy a reverend length of age. But they are jugglers, and by sleight Of art, the sightOf faith delude : and in their schoolThey only practise how to makeA mystery of each mistake,And teach strange words, credulity to fool. For Thou who first didst motion give, Whereby things liveAnd time hath being ! to concealFuture events didst think it fit,To check the ambition of our wit,And keep in awe the curious search of 258 HOLY DYING. Therefore, so I prepard still be, My God, for Thee :O the sudden on my spirits maySome killing apoplexy seize,Or let me by a dull disease,Or weakend by a feeble age, decay. And so I in Thy favour die, No memoryFor me a well-wrought tomb prepare,For if my soul be mong the blest,Though my poor ashes want a chest,I shall forgive the trespass of my DYING. 259 THE DEATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS. From the Baptistery. There is a spot beside a hill,Where sleep the dead in holy ground,Nor know I aught so sweet and stillAs is the peace which there is found. There, where beneath the churchyard wallAdown the glen the waters fall,Beneath a tapering ash-trees shadeThree graves are by each other laid.* # * * Beneath an ash-trees light green shade,There side by side the three are laid;Laid by that churchyard gate at last,Whereby they oft together ash puts on, and drops its leaves,When the dishevelPd Autumn grieves ;But no rude change again shall come,To reach them in their peaceful home. When Death first oped the silent door,The youth arose and went before ;And so from places of the blest, 260 HOLY DYING. Grief came to be his parents guest,To fit them for his happier rest. The Priest was such as Chaucer drewIn very lineament and hue ;Save when his love oer children be
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectreligio, bookyear1848
