Classic Poem

Hark ! the cock proclaims the morning,
Match the rhime, and strike the strings;
Heav'nly muse, embrace the warning,
Raise thy voice, and stretch thy wings.

Lo! the poor, alive and likely
Midst desertion and distress,
Teach the folk that deal obliquely,
They had better bear and bless.

If we celebrate Matthias,
Let us do it heart and soul;
Nor let worldly reasons bias
Our conceptions from their goal.

As the fancy cools and rambles,
Keep her constant, keep her chaste;
Ward from wine, and from the shambles,
Sight and appetite, and taste.

Tho' thy craving bowels murmur
And against thy pray'r rebell;
Yet be firmer still, and firmer
In the work begun so well.

Sick and weakly, pris'ners, strangers,
Cold in nakedness we lie;
Train'd in hunger, thirst and dangers,
As in exercise to die.

All avail not to dispirit
Toil, determin'd to succeed;
And we trust in Christ his merit,
As we have his woes to plead.

Yea, our lot is fallen fairer
Than the sons of wealth and pride;
While our Saviour is a sharer
In all hardships that betide.

Hard and precious are together,
Stripes and wounds are endless gain;
If with him the storm we weather,
With him also we shall reign.

We shall take the traitors places,
And their forfeit office hold,
And to Christ shall show our faces,
Not betray'd by us or sold.

Lord, our spirits disencumber,
From the world our hearts dismiss;
Let us reckon to the number
Of thy saints in fruitful bliss.

Let the few of Christ be hearty
In the cause they bleed to win,
And religion make her party
Good against the pow'r of sin.

Let us pray—by self-denial
Every sense to Christ resign,
Till we from the fiery trial
Pure as purity refine.