Displeased, he answers, "Come what will,
Of present bliss I'll take my fill;
In vain you plead, in vain I hear;
Those joys are distant, these are near."
Thus perished, lost to worth and truth,
In sight of home, this hapless youth;
While beggars, foreigners, and poor,
Enjoyed the father's boundless store.
My fable, reader, speaks to thee:—
In God this bounteous father see;
And in his thoughtless offspring trace
The sinful, wayward human race.
The friend the generous father sent,
To rouse, and to reclaim him, meant,
The faithful minister you'll find,
Who calls the wandering, warns the blind.
Reader, awake: this youth you blame :
Are not you doing just the same?
Mindless your comforts are but given
To help you on your way to heaven.
The pleasures which beguile the road,
The flowers with which your path is strowed;
To these your whole desires you bend,
And quite forget your journey's end.
The meanest toys your soul entice,
A feast, a song, a game at dice;
Charmed with your present paltry lot,
Eternity is quite forgot.
Then listen to a warning friend,
Who bids you mind your journey's end;
A wandering pilgrim here you roam;
This world's your Inn, the next your Home.
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
IN THE MANNER OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
1. EACH man who lives, the Scriptures prove,
Must as himself his neighbor love;
But though the precept's full of beauty,
"Tis an impracticable duty:
I'll prove how hard it is to find
A lover of this wondrous kind.
2. Who loves himself to great excess,
You'll grant, must love his neighbor less;
When self engrosses all the heart,
How can another have a part?
Then, if self-love most men inthrall,
A neighbor's share is none at all.
3. Say, can the man who hoards up pelf
E'er love his neighbor as himself?
For if he did, would he not labor
To hoard a little for his neighbor?
Then tell me, friend, can hoarding elves
E'er love their neighbor as themselves?
4. The man whose heart is bent on pleasure
Small love will to his neighbor measure;
Who solely studies his own good,
Can't love another if he would,
Then how can pleasure-hunting elves
E'er love their neighbor as themselves?
5. Can he whom sloth and loitering please
E'er love his neighbor like his ease?
Or he who feeds ambition's flame,
Loves he his neighbor like his fame?
Such lazy or such soaring elves
Can't love their neighbor as themselves.
6. He whose gross appetites enslave him,
Who spends or feasts the wealth God gave him,
Full, pampered, gorged at every meal,
He cannot for the empty feel.
How can such gormandizing elves
E'er love their neighbor as themselves? 7. Then, since the man who lusts for gold, Since he who is to pleasure sold;
Who soars in pride, or sinks in ease,
His neighbor will not serve or please;
Where shall we hope the man to find
To fill this great command inclined?
8. I dare not blame God's holy word,
Nor censure Scripture as absurd;
But sure the rule's of no avail
If placed so high that all must fail;
And 'tis impossible to prove
That any can his neighbor love.
9. Yes, such there are, of heavenly mould,
Unwarped by pleasure, ease, or gold;
He who fulfils the nobler part,
By loving God with all his heart;
He, only he, the Scriptures prove,
Can as himself his neighbor love.
10. Then join, to make a perfect plan,
The love of God to love of man ;
Your heart in union both must bring;
This is the stream, and that the spring;
This done, no more in vain you'll labo
A Christian can't but love his neighbor.
11. If then the rule's too hard to please ye,
Turn Christian, and you'll find it easy.
"Still 'tis impossible," you cry;
"In vain shall feeble nature try."
'Tis true; but know a Christian is a creature Who does things quite impossible to nature.
THE WORLD SET UP TO SALE.
THE devil, as the Scriptures show,
Tempts sinful mortals, high and low;
And, acting well his various part,
Suits every bribe to every heart.
See there the prince of darkness stands,
With baits for souls in both his hands.
To one he offers empires whole,
And gives a sceptre for a soul;
To one he freely gives in barter
A peerage, or a star and garter;
To one he pays polite attention,
And begs him just to take a pension.
Some are so fired with love of fame,
He bribes them by an empty name;
For fame they toil, they preach, they write,
Give alms, build hospitals, or fight;
For human praise renounce salvation,
And sell their souls for reputation.
But the great gift, the mighty bribe,
Which Satan pours amid the tribe,
Which millions seize with eager haste,
And all desire at least to taste,
Is-plodding reader!—what, d'ye think?
Alas!-'tis money-money-chink!
Round the wide world the tempter flies,
Presents to view the glittering prize;
See how he hastes from shore to shore,
And how the nations all adore;
Souls flock by thousands to be sold,
Smit with the fond desire of gold.
See, at yon needy tradesman's shop,
The universal tempter stop;
"Wouldst thou," he cries, "increase thy treasures
Use lighter weights and scantier measures;
Thus thou shalt thrive;" the trader's willing,
And sells his soul to get a shilling.
Next Satan to a farmer hies.
"I scorn to cheat," the farmer cries:
Yet still his heart on wealth is bent,
And so the devil is content;
Now markets rise, and riches roll,
And Satan quite secures his soul.
Mark next yon cheerful youth so jolly,
So fond of laughter and of folly;
He hates a stingy, griping fellow,
But gets each day a little mellow:
To Satan too he sells his soul
In barter for a flowing bowl.
But mark again yon lass a spinning;
See how the tempter is beginning;
Some beau presents a top-knot nice;
She grants her virtue as the price :
A slave to vanity's control,
She for a riband sells her soul!
Thus Satan tries each different state :
With mighty bribes he tempts the great;
The poor with equal force he plies,
But wins them with an humbler prize;
Has gentler arts for young beginners,
And fouler sins for older sinners.
Oft, too, he cheats our mortal eyes,
For Satan father is of lies;
A thousand swindling tricks he plays us,
And promises, but never pays us:
Thus we poor fools are strangely caught,
And find we've sold our souls for nought.
Nay, oft, with quite a juggler's art,
He bids the proffered gift depart;
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