Sleep, self-lovers, is for you- ON THE SAME. SEASON of my purest pleasure, Find, in watching, my repose. Silence all around prevailing, Nature hush'd in slumber sweet, No rude noise mine ears assailing, Now my God and I can meet: Universal nature slumbers, And my soul partakes the calm, Breathes her ardour out in numbers, Plaintive song or lofty psalm. Now my passion, pure and holy Shines and burns without restraint Which the day's fatigue and folly Cause to languish, dim and faint: ; Charming hours of relaxation! How I dread the ascending sun! Surely, idle conversation Is an evil match'd by none. Worldly prate and babble hurt me; Neither teach me nor divert me; I have ears for none but love. Simple souls, and unpolluted By conversing with the great, 'Tis the secret fear of sinning Checks my tongue, or I should say, When I see the night beginning, Henceforth, the repose and pleasure. Night affords me I resign; And thy will shall be the measure, Wisdom infinite! of mine: Wishing is but inclination Quarrelling with thy decrees; Wayward nature finds the occasion'Tis her folly and disease. Night, with its sublime enjoyments, Neither time nor place impedes; ON THE SAME. NIGHT! how I love thy silent shades, While sleep instils her poppy dews In every slumbering eye, I watch to meditate and muse, In blest tranquillity. And when I feel a God immense With every proof he can dispense, My native meanness I lament, His purpose and his course he keeps ; When in the dust, its proper place, Thou whom I serve, and whose I am, How wretched is the creature's state The night, when pass'd entire with thee, Then sleep has no delights for me, Lest thou shouldst disappear. My Saviour! occupy me still In this secure recess; Let reason slumber if she will, Let reason slumber out the night; THE JOY OF THE CROSS. LONG plunged in sorrow, I resign That hand shall wipe my streaming eyes; My sole possession is thy love; I have no other store; And, though with fervent suit I pray, My rapid hours pursue the course And I thy sovereign will, Without a wish to escape my doom; And doom'd to suffer still. |