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PRAYER,

UNDER THE PRESSURE OF

VIOLENT ANGUISH.

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THOU Great Being! what thou art
Surpasses me to know:
Yet sure I am, that known to thee

Are all thy works below.

Thy creature here before thee stands,

All wretched and distrest ;
Yet sure those ills that wring my soul

Obey thy high behest.

Sure

Sure thou, Almighty, canst not act

From cruelty or wrath :
O, free my weary eyes from tears,

Or close them fast in death!

But if I must afflicted be,

To suit some wise design:
Then man my soul with firm resolves

To bear and not repine !

THE THR

FIRST SIX VERSES

OF THE

NINETIETH PSALM.

O thou, the first, the greatest friend

Of all the human race!
Whose strong right hand has ever been

Their stay and dwelling place!

Before the mountains heay'd their heads

Beneath thy forming hand, Before this pond'rous globe itself

Arose at thy command;

That pow'r which rais’d and still upholds

This universal frame,
From countless, unbeginning time
Was ever still the same.
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Those

Those mighty periods of years

Which seem to us so vast, Appear no more before thy sight

Than yesterday that's past.

Thou giv’st the word: Thy creature, man,

Is to existence brought:
Again thou say’st, “ Ye sons of men,

• Return ye into nought!'
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Thou layest them, with all their cares,

In everlasting sleep;
As with a flood thou tak'st them off

With overwhelming sweep.

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They flourish like the morning flow'r,

In beauty's pride array’d;
But long ere night cut down it lies

All wither'd and decay’d.

TO TO

A MOUNTAIN DAISY.

ON

TURNING ONE DOWN WITH THE PLOUGH,

In April, 1786.

Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour ;
For I maun crush amang the stoure

Thy slender stem;
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,

Thou bonnie gem.

Alas! it's no thy neebor sweet, The bonnie Lark, companion meet! Bending thee ʼmang the dewy weet!

Wi' spreckl'd breast, When upward-springing, blythe, to greet

The purpling east.

Cauld