The Pilgrim's Farewell to the world. “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” F AREWELL, poor world! I must be gone; Thou art no home, no rest for me: Till I a better world may see. Why art thou loath, my heart? Oh why Dost thou recoil within my breast? Grieve not, but say, farewell, and fly Unto the ark, my dove ! there's rest. I come, my Lord, a pilgrim's pace; Weary and weak, I slowly move; Longing, but can't yet reach the place, The gladsome place of rest above. I come, my Lord; the floods here rise, These troubled seas foảm naught but mire ; My dove back to my bosom flies: Farewell, poor world !-Heaven's my desire. a “Stay, stay,” said Earth ; “ Whither, fond one? Here's a fair world, what wouldst thou have ?” Fair world! oh no, thy beauty's gone, A heavenly Canaan, Lord, I crave. I Thus th'ancient travellers—thus they, Weary of earth, sighed after Thee : They're gone before—I may not stay, Till I both Thee and them may see. Put on, my soul, put on with speed ! Though the way be long, the end is sweet: Once more, poor world, farewell indeed! In leaving thee, my Lord I meet. [These pious and beautiful lines are from a very scarce old book, "The Young Man's Calling," London, 1683. The excellent Bishop Ken was living at that time, and they are so much in his spirit, that it is not improbable they are by him.] Heaven a place for those who have not succeeded upon Earth. CONFESS that increasing years bring with them an increasing respect for men who do not succeed in life, as those words are commonly used. Heaven is said to be a place for those who have not succeeded upon earth; and it is surely true that celestial graces do not best thrive and bloom in the hot blaze of worldly prosperity. Ill success sometimes arises from a superabundance of qualities in themselves good—from a conscience too sensitive, a taste too fastidious, a self-forgetfulness too romantic, a modesty too retiring. I will not go so far as to say, with a living poet, that “the world knows nothing of its greatest men," but there are forms of greatness, or at least of excellence, which “die and make no sign;" there are martyrs that miss the palm, but not the stake; there are heroes without the laurel, and conquerors without the triumph. GEORGE S. HILLARD. Reverie in a forest of Nortly Carolina. GB039 N the wild, still woods I love to stray, its God. On the tall strong Oak I love to look, And I love to list the moaning breeze Oh ! it soothes my soul like the whispered song, And oft down the valley I lonely love, And here, while the sere leaves around me fall, J. W. B. GARRETT. |