TO AMELIA OPIE (1817)

JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY

The sympathies that all thy bosom fill
The charity that speaks and thinks no ill,
The temper, genial as the western breeze,
The haste to help, the watchfulness to please.--
*****
But most I love to mark devotion's flame
Rise from thy bosom in thy Maker's name:
O how I bless the ray of love divine
That first within thee, taught that flame to shine,
From mists of error drew thy steps away,
And bade thee freely own a Savior's sway!
*****
And canst thou join the unsubstantial dream,
Where pleasure's idle votaries vainly gleam?
And must thou with the painted crowd, be hurled
Down the gay eddies of a thankless world?
Shall fashion's lure, shall flattery's heartless smile,
Thy higher, better, safer hope beguile?
Ah think again! that Saviour bleeding see;
That thou might'st live to him, he died for thee:
He died to save thee from a world of woe,
Tricked in the flippant pageantry of show.
Though in sweet chine its gilded fetter ring,
Thou know'st its sorrows, thou hast felt its sting.
Ah! think again! And from the busy strife,
The gay delusion and the pride of life,
Let Israel;s God thy pliant footstep lead
By the still waters in the verdant mead!
Thine be the spirit willing to obey,
The faithful watching and the narrow way;
Thine be the Christian's daily cross to bear,
His labour and his burden thine to share!
Light is the burden, easy is the yoke,
Rest for thy soul, a meek Redeemer spoke,
Rest for thy soul, and peace without alloy,
And overflowing balm, and everlasting joy.