A

PRAYER,

UNDER THE PRESSURE OF

VIOLENT ANGUISH.

O THOU Great Being! what thou art
Surpasses me to know:

Yet sure I am, that known to thee
Are all thy works below.

Thy creature here before thee stands,
All wretched and distrest;

Yet sure those ills that wring my soul
Obey thy high behest.

Sure

:

Sure thou, Almighty, canst not act
From cruelty or wrath :

O, free my weary eyes from tears,
Or close them fast in death!

But if I must afflicted be,

To suit some wise design:

Then man my soul with firm resolves
To bear and not repine!

THE THE

FIRST SIX VERSES

OF THE

ΝΙΝΕΤΙETH PSALM.

• THOU, the first, the greatest friend
Of all the human race!

Whose strong right hand has ever been
Their stay and dwelling place!

Before the mountains heav'd their heads
Beneath thy forming hand,
Before this pond'rous globe itself
Arose at thy command;

That pow'r which rais'd and still upholds

This universal frame,

From countless, unbeginning time

Was ever still the same.

Those mighty periods of years
Which seem to us so vast,
Appear no more before thy sight
Than yesterday that's past.

Thou giv'st the word: Thy creature, man,
Is to existence brought:

Again thou say'st, ' Ye sons of men,
' Return ye into nought!'

Thou layest them, with all their cares,
In everlasting sleep;

As with a flood thou tak'st them off
With overwhelming sweep.

They flourish like the morning flow'r,
In beauty's pride array'd;

But long ere night cut down it lies
All wither'd and decay'd.

WEE, modest, crimson-tipped flow'r,

Thou's met me in an evil hour ;

For I maun crush amang the stoure

Thy slender stem;

To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonnie gem.

Alas! it's no thy neebor sweet, The bonnie Lark, companion meet! Bending thee 'mang the dewy weet!

Wi' spreckl'd breast,

When upward-springing, blythe, to greet
The purpling east.

Cauld