A COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL AND SELECT SACRED POETRY. EDITED BY REV. S. F. SMITH. BOSTON: GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN. 1844. Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1844, BY GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. Stereotyped by PREFACE. TRUE poetry will always be sought after and admired. The greater part of that which comes from the press falls directly into deserved oblivion. But that which possesses sterling worth always attracts attention. Persons of cultivated and polished minds, who pass over almost everything which wears the form of verse, are alive to the beauties of an occasional gem, which sparkles, unexpectedly, in their way. Very few of these gems, however, find a place in our collections of the works of writers of poetry. The measured solemnity and dignity of a book seems unpropitious to the production of those fragrant flowers which occasionally blossom in humility by the road-side. The best pieces of our poets are generally those |