VANITY.

AH! why should vanity enslave
A mortal journeying to the grave ?
Ah! why should pride inflate a breast,
So soon beneath the clods to rest?
Yet still we yield to folly's reign,
And strive to break her sway in vain.

O holy Saviour, hear our prayer,
Behold our toil, our fruitless care,
And let thy Spirit crush the foes
That so disturb our soul's repose..

DECEPTION.

WHO can detect the bosom's hidden pain,
When peace, and love, and beauty, light the scene,
Ah, who can tell what sins the heart may stain
When smiles of mirth and pleasure deck the mein?

For oft hypocrisy will smile serene,
Veiling her falshood with a semblance fair,
Soothing her victim while she toils unseen,
To wind him fast in her destructive snare,
While disappointed hope and misery are there.

PSALM CXIX.

"Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction."

HAD not thy righteous law been my delight, When friends forsook and earthly comforts fled, And cruel foes display'd their envious spite, Most surely I had sunk among the dead, And cold oblivion's dew had rested on my head.

Yet still I live, Oh, let my praise arise,
To Him who, cloth'd with majesty and might,
And seated in his temple of the skies,

Sends gifts to man, with peace, and life, and light;
But thou, my soul, art vile and sinful in his sight.

Oh, lead me from those paths with error fraught, Whose snares too oft my heedless steps betide;

Restrain the hasty speech, and roving thought, And fear of feeble man, and causeless pride, And all the secret ills that in my heart reside.

ON HEARING A TOLLING BELL

CAST out and banish'd from thy sight,
I cannot live without thy love,
I cannot dwell without thy light,
In earth below, or heaven above.

Cast me not off: my strength is small;
What can I in the day of death?
Forsake me not, or else I fall,

My life is but an airy breath.

TO A FRIEND ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE NEW YEAR.

AS the strong oak, when its green boughs are riven,

Firm on its base still lifts its head to heaven,
As the pure stream which, rushing from its source,
Bounds o'er the rocks which seek to bar its course,
So meet the ills of life; until the sea

Of time, shall meet the tide, of vast eternity.

ON THE DEPARTURE OF MRS. NOTT, WITH THE MISSIONARIES FOR INDIA.

ADIEU to her to whom my soul was dear,
Of life unblemish'd, and of heart sincere,
A long adieu! for never, never more,
Must that lov'd footstep press its native shore.
Friend of my heart! now parted far from me,
Borne on the bosom of the faithless sea,
Thou soon must o'er the wilds of Asia stray,

Where the rude Hindoo holds his devious way.
Where'er thou art, my spirit flies to thine,
Bound with the cord of sympathy divine,
And faith still looks beyond this scene of pain,
Where holy friendship's bands shall ne'er be rent
again.

FRIENDSHIP.

The emotions arising from mutual, unlimited friendship and entire confidence, are

SOMETHING than pleasure dearer, more elate Than doubtful hope; more pensive too than joy; More pure than love. They form a band of such Confirm'd alliance, so constrain the will,

Sooth the rough passions, mingle with such art The hopes, the fears, the raptures of the soul, That selfishness is lost, and one free aim Inspires two spirits, while one magic band Entwines each heart, and so unites their strength That pressing onward they despise the front