The Amaranth Or, religious poems; consisting of fables, visions, emblems, etc. Adorned with copper-plates from the best masters [by Walter Harte] |
The Amaranth | ||
31
4.
The man with christian perseverance fir'd
,
Check'd but not stop'd; retarded but not tir'd;
Straiten'd by foes, yet sure of a retreat,
In Heav'n's protection rests securely great :
Hears ev'ry sharp alarm without dismay;
Midst dangers dauntless, and midst terrors gay;
Indignant of obstruction glows his flame,
And, struggling, mounts to Heav'n, from whence it came:
Oppress'd it thrives; its own destroyers tires,
And with unceasing fortitude aspires.
When man desponds, [of human hope bereft,]
Patience and Christian heroism are left.
Let Patience be thy first and last concern;
The hardest task a Christian has to learn !
Life's pendulum in th'other world shall make
Advances, on the side it now goes back.
Check'd but not stop'd; retarded but not tir'd;
Straiten'd by foes, yet sure of a retreat,
In Heav'n's protection rests securely great :
Hears ev'ry sharp alarm without dismay;
Midst dangers dauntless, and midst terrors gay;
Indignant of obstruction glows his flame,
And, struggling, mounts to Heav'n, from whence it came:
Oppress'd it thrives; its own destroyers tires,
And with unceasing fortitude aspires.
When man desponds, [of human hope bereft,]
Patience and Christian heroism are left.
Let Patience be thy first and last concern;
The hardest task a Christian has to learn !
32
Advances, on the side it now goes back.
By force, a virtue of celestial kind
Was never storm'd; by art 'tis undermin'd .
Was never storm'd; by art 'tis undermin'd .
The Amaranth | ||