Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: STANZAS TO A YOUNG FRIEND, WHO HAD REQUESTED OF THE AUTHOR " TO STRKVV A FLOWER ON THE WAY-SIDE OF A YOUNG PILGRIM, WHO LOOKS FOR MANY THORNS, BUT WHO KNOWS THERE JS RALM IN GILEAD." No mortal .hand can scatter flowers, To soothe or bless the mourner's way, But such as, cull'd from earthly bowers, Are found as briefly bright as they: For evejy blossom born of earth Is doom'd to wither from its birth. Yet even these—if fed by dew Which silently descends from heaven,— Indebted for each brighter hue, To Light its glorious Sun has given,— And freshen'd by its gentlest breeze,— Thus rear'd—e'en earthly flowers may please, t I will not say, my youthful friend, That such may fitting emblems be Of aught that I have ever penn'd, Or now presume to offer thee: But as a bard, my highest bliss Were to approximate to this. To touch, to please, to win the heart, To calm and virtuous feelings prone, Not by mere rules of minstrel art, Or fancied genius of my own,— But by those holier charms, whose birth Is not of man, nor caught from earth. Yet were I gifted thus,—O how Could I thy path with flowers adorn,— When grief too often clouds my brow To find my own has many a thorn, Whose rankling wounds a pledge might be How little I could succour thee ? But " there is Balm in Gilead!"—There The Great Physician can be found, Whose Love and Mercy still prepare An antidote for every wound:— His hand can scatter flowers divine, And Faith in Him may make them Thine !TO A YOUTHFUL PUPIL IN THE SCHOOL Ot ADVERSITY. ' No chast'ning we may rest assured, While suffer'd—joyous seemeth; And yet, if patiently endured, With heavenly fruit it teemetli. 1 Peaceable fruits of righteousness, A prize beyond expression! Of fa... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.