SIN LAMENTED.

[From the New York Christian's Dlagazine.]

WHY swells my full heart, with sad presage o'erflowing
As lonely I muse o'er life and its woes ?

The storm's howl without, and the winds loudly blowing,
Are calm to the feelings that break my repose.

Ah, why busy Fancy, in haste to transport me

O'er the wide peopled earth to find sources of grief?
Why War's sanguin'd plains thus incessantly court me,
When thou, even thou, canst not picture relief?

Why lead me to prisons, to dungeons, to gallies,
Ard show me the victims of tyrannic power,
Where haughty Ambition and Passion's wild sallies
Make life's lengthen'd mis'ry the sport of an hour?

I need not thy visions to swell the sad measure,

Or point out the source of our pains and our woes: In each beating bosom lies hid the dark treasure,

Whence spring all the sorrows that break my repose.

Sin parent of evil of ev'ry description,

From thy baneful influence our miseries flow; Though fools make a mock,' and pronounce it a fiction, To thee all our tears and our anguish we owe.

In the childhood of Nature, in Eden's fair bowers,

Pale Care was a stranger while thou wast unknown;
On Joy's tranquil bosom soft stole the sweet hours,
Ere Sin was engender'd and Innocence flown.

How sad the reverse! Ah, how chang'd man's condition!
Now evils unnumber'd crowd life's little span;
While, urg'd by fell Malice and wanton Ambition,
Man plunges his sword in the bosom of man!

Ye children of Folly's enchanting delusions,

Do no secret terrors e'er break your repose,

While je harbour the fiend, whose destructive intrusions
Are the source of all crime, and of all mortal woes

But, oh! shail a soul that has tasted of pardon,

Has wept for the sorrows and sius of mankind, On Caiv'ry's sad mount, in Gethsemane's garden, Seen Justice and Mercy so sweetly combin'd! Shall a soul so enlighten'd, so favour'd of Heaven, Admit the foul monster, Humanity's stain? Tear open the wounds by stern Justice once given, And crucify Jesus again and again?

Heart sickening picture! yet let me review it

Till the veil shall be drawn from my own darken'd soul; Till, humbled in dust, sov'reign grace shall renew it, And the Spirit of Jesus enlighten the whole!

Then hasten, dear Jesus, our nature befriending,

To purge thine own children, and conquer thy foes;

To Earth's utmost limits thy banner extending,
O sign a release to Humanity's woes! -

LINES

to the Memory of a much-lamented Friend.
OFT have I heard the sullen tempest roll,

And seen the gathering clouds begirt the sky,
Give day's meridian orb a long controul,

And draw a veil o'er Nature's laughing eye;
Yet the revolving hours with int'rest large repay
Charms which a short lived frown had borne away.
But when the awful flash of fell disease

Precedes the long resounding peal of Death,
Ah! not th' uplifted heart, or bended knees,

Avert the stroke, or stay the flutt'ring breath!
Then God is deaf to prayer! Rash mortal stay,
Revolving years will bring the Resurrection Day!
Then will that mystic volume be unseal'd,

Which we in vain have sought to open here;
And sov'reign love and wisdom be reveal'd

In scenes where unbelief read wrath and fear;
And where our distant view suppos'd a tottering base,
Behold a fabric to Jehovah's praise!

That heart with pure philanthropy which glow'd,
Those lips whence Wisdom's heavenly dew-drops fell;
The head, the hands, which ceaseless toll bestow'd,
The baneful seeds of vice in youth t' expel;

The vital current chilled, no more they move

In works of sacred piety and love!

Ah, fatal stroke! Ah! why in life's full pow'r,
Must such a friend to virtue, grace, and truth,

Enter his rest ere yet the evening hout?

Who now shall watch, and warn, and guide our youth?'

Recall that question! God, that grace who gave,

Still lives, still reigns, omnipotent to save!

Well may we weep, and such a loss deplore;
Insensibility were here a crime:

But Faith's strong optics stretches to explore

Bright realms of bliss, beyond the lapse of time;

And though a pious, active, gen'rous mortal dies,
Seeks to the fount of bliss for new supplies!

My soul, the sad, the solemn stroke revolve,
Let sober recollection trace the past,
With holy grief, but with a wise resolve,

His course to follow, while the day shall last;

Catch the celestial fire, its influence find,
To expand, enlighten, rectify the mind!

Farewell to the World.

FAREWELL poor world! with all thy

toys,

And all thy transitory joys;
For ever may our friendship cease,
For in thy all I find no peace!

Farewell, poor world! for aye farewell!
No more in my affections dwell;
For ever hostile be my heart

To all, poor world, thou canst impart.

M. Y.

Farewell, poor world, I want no more
Thy fading glories to adore;
To seek for happiness in thee
In future, be it far from me!
Farewell, poor world, farewell to all
That thou dost Peace or Pleasure call!
In Christ I've pleasure, peace, and joy :
Thou canst not give, nor canst destroy.

6. AULD, Printer, Greville Street, London.

A. A.

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE.

OCTOBER, 1810.

BRIEF MEMOIR

OF

THE LATE REV. RICHARD PEARSALL.

RICHARD PEARSALL was born at Kidderminster, in Worcestershire, August 29, 1698: he received his academical education at Tewkesbury, in Gloucestershire. The first ten years of his stated ministry were spent at Bromyard, in Herefordshire; from whence he removed to Warminster, in Wiltshire, where he continued 16 years. His last abode in our world was at Taunton, in Somersetshire; at which place he was minister about 15 years, when he finished his course with peace and holy joy, Nov. 10, 1762. Where he was known he was respected as a man, beloved as a Christian, and revered as a minister. Few men have been more honoured with usefulness through life; and being dead, he yet speaketh in his valuable and highly-esteemed writings. As the design of this Memoir is not so much to eulogize the man as to glorify God in him, we will present our readers with a few extracts from his Diary. The following description of his views and feelings, in the prospect of engaging in the Christian ministry, we would earnestly recommend to the attention of students in similar cir

'Dec. 18, 1718. As I am now setting out as a candidate for the sacred office of the ministry, I would set apart this day for prayer, that God would be pleased, out of his infinitegoodness, to make me an instrument in his hand of promoting his honour and glory, and the good of souls! I am seusible of my own weakness and inability to perform this office aright: I am insufficient of myself to do any thing good or acceptable in the eyes of God, of God, I can be the author of nothing but sin! How much of that pollution, guilt, and sin, that naturally cleaves to every one, do I experience in every religious duty! If then I am not able to perform any good work of nyself, how much less to perform so great a work as that 3 E

XVIII.