ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1789. -Placidâque ibi demum morte quievit.-Virg. There calm at length he breathed his soul away. 'O MOST delightful hour by man 'Worlds should not bribe me back to tres 'Again life's dreary waste, 'My home henceforth is in the skies, So spake Aspasio, firm possess'd The bosom of his God. He was a man among the few Sincere on virtue's side; And all his strength from Scripture drew To hourly use applied. That rule he prized, by that he fear'd, Nor ever frown'd, or sad appear'd, For he was frail, as thou or I, But, when he felt it, heaved a sigh, And loathed the thought of sin. Such lived Aspasio; and at last His joys be mine, each Reader cries, When my last hour arrives; They shall be yours, my Such only be your lives. rse replies, ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1790. Ne commonentem recta sperne.-Buchanan. He who sits from day to day, Hardly knows what he has sung. Where the watchman in his round So your verse-man I, and clerk, And the foe's unerring aim. Duly at my time I come, Publishing to all aloud Soon the grave must be your home. But the monitory strain, Oft repeated in your ears, Seems to sound too much in vain, Wins no notice, wakes no fears. Can a truth, by all confess'd Pleasure's call attention wins, Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell- O then, ere the turf or tomb Make us learn that we must die, ON A SIMILAR OCCASION, FOR THE YEAR 1792. Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari !-Virg. To their first cause, cast fear beneath his feet, THANKLESS for favours from on high, But he, not wise enough to scan To ages if he might. To ages in a world of pain, To ages where he goes Gall'd by affliction's heavy chain, And hopeless of repose. Strange fondness of the human heart, Strange world! that costs it so much smart, Whence has the world her magic power? Why deem we death a foe? The cause is Conscience-Conscience oft Then, anxious to be longer spared, "Tis judgment shakes him; there's the fear And must despair to pay. Pay!-follow Christ, and all is paid; ON A SIMILAR OCCASION. FOR THE YEAR 1793. De sacris autem hæc sit una sententia, ut conserventur.-Cic. de Leg. But let us all concur in this one sentiment, that things sacred be inviolate. He lives, who lives to God alone, And all are dead beside; For other source than God is none To live to God is to requite His love as best we may; To make his precepts our delight, But life, within a narrow ring Is falsely named, and no such thing, Can life in them deserve the name, For what poor toys they can disclaim Who, much diseased, yet nothing feel; Who deem his house a useless place, Who trample order; and the day, If scorn of God's commands, impress'd Such want it, and that want, uncured Till man resigns his breath, Speaks him a criminal, assured Of everlasting death. Sad period to a pleasant course' Yet so will God repay Sabbaths profaned without remorse, And mercy cast away. |