310 HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE, IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI Voice of sweet song! Awake, my heart, awake! Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn! Thou first and chief, sole sovran of the vale! Or when they climb the sky or when they sink: And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad! Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy, And who commanded (and the silence came), Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven God! sing, ye meadow-streams with gladsome voice! Ye pine-groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds! Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost! Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise! Thou, too, hoar mount, with thy sky-pointing peaks! Slow travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears, THE PRAISE OF MEN. Trench. Augustine. "Cum laudaris, teipsum contemne.” WHEN men exalt thee with their flatteries, Think, too, that now thou dost in peril fall COUPLETS. — Trench. To halls of heavenly truth admission wouldst thou win? Oft Knowledge stands without, while Love may enter in. Lovingly to each other sun and moon give place, Else were the mighty heaven for them too narrow space. Despise not little sins; for mountain-high may stand The piled heap made up of smallest grains of sand. Despise not little sins; the gallant ship may sink, Though only drop by drop the watery tide it drink. God many a spiritual house has reared, but never one Where lowliness was not laid first, the corner-stone. Rear highly as thou wilt thy branches in the air, care. Sin, not till it is left, will duly sinful seem; A man must waken first, ere he can tell his dream. When thou art fain to trace a map of thine own heart, As undiscovered land set down the largest part. Wouldst thou do harm, and yet unharmed thyself abide? None ever struck another, save through his own side. God's dealings still are love,- his chastenings are alone Love now compelled to take an altered, louder tone. From our ill-ordered hearts we oft are fain to roam, As men go forth who find unquietness at home. Why furnish with such care thy lodging of a night, And leave the while thy home in such a naked plight? When thou hast thanked thy God for every blessing sent, What time will then remain for murmurs or lament? Envy detects the spots in the clear orb of light, And Love the little stars in the gloomiest, saddest night. man's lot is ser Thou canst not choose but serve, vitude, But thou hast this much choice, a bad lord or a good. Before the eyes of men let duly shine thy light, Wouldst thou go forth to bless, be sure of thine own ground, Fix well thy centre first, then draw thy circles round. Sin may be clasped so close we cannot see its face, Nor seen nor loathed until held from us a small space. If humble, next of thy humility beware, have care. How fearful is his case whom now God does not chide When sinning worst, to whom even chastening is denied! God often would enrich, but finds not where to place His treasure, nor in hand nor heart a vacant space. O, leave to God at sight of sin incensed to be ! Sinner, if thou art grieved, that is enough for thee. Set not thy heart on things given only with intent Ill fares the child of heaven, who will not entertain On earth the stranger's grief, the exile's sense of pain. Mark how there still has run, enwoven from above, Through thy life's darkest woof, the golden thread of love. Things earthly we must know ere love them: 't is alone Things heavenly that must be first loved and after known. The sinews of Love's arm use makes more firm and strong, Which, being left unused, will disappear ere long. Wouldst thou abolish quite strongholds of self and sin? Fear can but make the breach for Love to enter in. When God afflicts thee, think he hews a rugged stone, Which must be shaped, or else aside as useless thrown. |