XXXVIII.

Yet might they err. Full many who have known
The power of vital godliness to wean

The heart from passing things, and have been shewn

The everlasting difference between

Earth's worshippers and those whose eyes have seen
God's claim upon their souls, have yet display'd
Th' anxiety with which the mind will lean

To those whom Nature's binding law has made Their earthly joy and solace: fain would they persuade

XXXIX.

Their yearning souls that they may turn their hate From fair Religion's consecrated way;

Or, foil'd in this, may yet assimilate

By outward rules which they might all obey,
Their sever'd courses; a restraint which they
Who love not God, will patiently endure;
Hating the cross, but loving its display.―
But are the Christian's duties still secure?

Are they who compromise them free?-retain they pure

XL.

That love which marks them followers of Him
Whose love is boundless? No, that love is gone:
That light which should give light to all, is dim:
Bright in the oneness of its holy dawn,
But broken by man's clouds ere yet 'twas morn,
Its scatter'd rays present a scene which gives
The infidel his solid ground for scorn.

The binding of the dead to that which lives;
Th' extension to the world of their prerogatives

XLI.

Whom the world owns not, to give strength to names

Which would eclipse the Saviour's, and assume Dominion o'er His people; the proud claims To lord it o'er their souls, or to illume By truer views of truth, the mental gloom Which God alone can dissipate; these things Have work'd the overthrow, the martyrdom, Of principles which Time's relentless wings Arm❜d with th' undying hate earth's generation brings,

XLII.

Had never injur'd.-When that Lord returns
Whose broken family thus idly plays

In forms (wherein the humbled soul discerns
So little of its Lord's soul-loving ways)

The separation of its purer days

From the God-hating world, then will He own Its faith and patience, and pronounce its praise? "Shall He find faith," the faith of God alone? Or cramp❜d by idle forms until all love be flown,

XLIII.

Is it already lost? To haunts of men

The Christian turns and seeks his brethren there;

But shrinks in sorrow to the wilds again:

God has a people, but he knows not where;

For, though he wander far, the sight is rare

Of those who cherish that eternal flame

Which marks His followers, and shines more fair Amid the darkness of that wide-spread blame

Which they have all incurr'd who to Christ's holy name

XLIV.

Have added man's distinctions. Rare indeed

The soul-delighting scene which they present
Who meet to praise their Lord: their only creed
That He in death hath seal'd the testament

Of their inheritance; the Innocent
Bequeathing to the guilty that pure life

Which is restored to men with the intent

That their existence should no more be rife

With evil thoughts and passions or heart-rending strife,

XLV.

But liken'd unto His by whom they live,

In holy meekness, wide-spread charity,

And love which shrinks from sin and yet will give

The hand of amity to those who see

However little of sin's malady:

Not to oppress them with some newer load

Of man's invention, but to set them free

From all the statutes of his dying code,

And bid them seek their God upon the narrow road

XLVI.

Which He has open'd: His eternal word
Their only standard, and His light their guide;
Imparted through the many who have heard
And learnt of Him; not by the voice of pride
Which claims the office, and would fain deride
All teaching but the cant of human schools;
Giving to earth's preceptors, pow'r to hide
That light which God has kindled, by the rules
Which limit Wisdom's voice to Revelation's fools,

XLVII.

And make man's lore the medium between

Th' Eternal and His people. But 'tis vain
To mourn Earth's wickedness: till He is seen
In might and glory to return again

Whose field is thus o'ergrown, it must remain
Oppress'd with tares. In vain the Christian's breast
Feels for Christ's scatter'd flock, and owns its stain:
In His fair world His people shall be blest

With everlasting peace: this, this, is not their rest.