Who is among you that can truly say,
I found no blossoms on my lonely track,
No half-hid violet to sweeten it? (d)
Yet, were all swept,—were overwhelming sands
Rolling resistlessly, to bend and crush
All that is cheering, sympathizing, bright
Of earth's affections, and of social joys;
Engulf our comforts, devastate our homes,
Make the domestic hearth a wilderness, (e)
Could Hope survive them?
Could that desert bloom?
"I am the Rose of Sharon," saith the Lord;
My peace the world nor gives, nor takes away; (f) Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." (g)
The testimony mute of fragrant things,
Cheering the wilderness which sin has made,
May faintly witness that there yet is hope;
Those tiny footprints of creative skill
May hint encouragement, but Christ alone
Proclaims conclusively eternal life; (h)
He-Lily of Judea's tranquil vales,—
He-Rose of Sharon-makes the mercy known,
Which overflows in God's paternal breast
For man,-rebellious, deeply fallen man, (i)
Not dubiously, nor yet by inference,
But with the simple emphasis of truth,
Which all may hear and all may understand.
"For you, unworthy, perishing, unjust, (k)
For you the Father gives his equal Son,-
What boon, what blessing can ye ask in vain ?" (7)
The eye of faith beholds Him, and is glad;
He is that lovely One whose comfortings (m)
Make the dull waste incipient paradise ;
Whose odour fills the solitary place (n)
Of pining sickness, poverty, restraint,
With thoughts of blessedness; whose beauty cheers
The melancholy heart, deprived and reft,
With the felt presence of one living Friend,
Who never leaves, who never will forsake (0)
A soul that trusteth in His tenderness :
He is that lovely One whose comfortings
Make the doom'd martyr with unflinching eye (p)
Welcome the sword, the scaffold, or the stake,
Which sends him forth to that pure atmosphere-
Those never-ceasing ages-where he'll see,
With sense more fitted for the vast delight
In glory's full expansion, Sharon's Rose!
Frail, fading, quickly withering wreaths of Time,
It blooms in freshness (pp) when ye droop and die!
(k) Rom. v. 6, 8; 1 Pet. iii. 18.
(p) Acts vi. 15; vii. 55.
(1) Rom. viii. 32.
(0) Josh. i. 5. (pp) Heb. xiii. 8.
But though that Rose be sweetness-is its stem
Unarm'd against the hostile ? (q)-They must feel
The thorns acuter than a scorpion's sting,
The righteous indignation of the Lamb,
Who perseveringly reject his peace,
And kick, infatuate, against the pricks (r)
That hedge them in with much long-suffering.
Oh! men of this world, hemlock-loving men,
Who rather would inhale the treacherous scent
Of this world's pleasures than accept of Christ
The healing Lily, the life-giving Stem, (s)
Because to gain Him you must cast away
Your flowering nettles and your gaudy weeds,-
Hearken, Oh, hearken to the words of truth!
There is a desolation vast and wide,
Where bud of hope doth never germinate,
Where solace never comes, (t) nor pity woos ;-
Fools may deny it, ridicule, or slight,
And cheer each other on to darker woe;
But the strong Conqueror returns to crush (u)
The foes of good-the haters of his truth!
And all must yield to Him. (v) World-weighing thought!
May yield too late, too stubbornly refuse
Willing subjection to his easy yoke ;
(q) Matt. xxi. 44; 2 Thess. i. 8, 9.
Isa. xi. 1, 2; John xv. 5.
(u) Luke xix. 27.
(r) Acts ix. 5; Hosea ii. 6.
(t) Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. (v) Phil. ii. 9-11.
Then shuddering crouch beneath his awful curse!
Be not among them! (w)—" For your lives, escape!
O thou most merciful Immanuel!
While linger yet thy chariot-wheels of wrath,
While yet probation lasts and kindness waits, (x)
Soften thine enemies, (y) arouse thy friends, (2)
(a) Startle the careless, and the doubting fix;
Reclaim the wandered, (b) and uphold the weak;
Attract thy promised myriads to thyself. (c)
Oh, thou bright Rose of ever-living bloom!
Thou Lily of Judea's tranquil vales,
Whose leaves are for the healing of the lands; (d)
Plant of renown; unfading excellence,
Admired of all who meekly pause and look!
Best object of those eyes that truly see-
Doom not our souls to long for thee in vain,
Perennial Lily! hide not from our view.
VER. 2.-"As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters."
For, in thy sacred nearness only found,
Assimilation (f) to thy glorious self
Dawns in thy chosen ones: Is Sharon's Rose
Fragrant of charities ?-So they that dwell
Nearest within its genial influence
Are strongest to refresh the ambient air
With wafted hallowings
(g) Was Christ himself
The heaven-implanted Lily of the vales
(h) A witness to the nations that their God
Yearned for their welfare, worthless as they were?
So, a straight lily tending to the sky,
He sees his Church amid the daughters rise—
(i) A radiant thing, where all is gloomy else-
Florescent, where all else is barrenness; (k)
A blossom in the desert that proclaims
Man is no friendless outcast, hopeless doom'd
To traverse scenes of wickedness and grief,
But pilgrim as he is, has One who plans,
Not only to protect but cheer his way. (kk)
Oh, ever-testifying desert flower,
Still holding forth the story of God's (1) love,
How wonderful it is that busy throngs
Pause not to look on thee! that few reflect
On the strange fact of thine existence still,
A Lily among thorns—a life in death,
Distinct from, yet in contact with, the world, (7)
Burning, yet unconsumed; though cumber'd, free;
With glorious liberty! Thou art indeed,
Church of the Living One, predestined Bride, (m)
(g) Acts iv. 13; 1 John i. 3.
(i) Matt. v. 14, 15.
(k) 1 John v. 12, 19, 20. (4) 2 Cor. iv. 5.
(m) Eph. v. 25-27; Rev. xix.
(h) Isa. lv. 4; Matt. xxiii. 37; Luke xix. 41, 42.
(kk) 1 Pet. v. 7.
(1) John xvii. 15, 16. 7; 1 Pet. i. 2.
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