MISERY.
Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away.—Job, xi. 16.
To every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him.—Ecclesiastes, viii. 6.
Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.—James, v. 1.
Till in our eyes another sight we met;
When fro my heart a sigh forthwith I fet,
Rueing, alas, upon the woeful plight
Of Misery, that next appear’d in sight.
His face was lean, and some deal pined away,
And eke his hands consumed to the bone;
But, what his body was, I cannot say,
For, on his carcase raiment had he none,
Save clouts and patched pierced one by one,
With staff in hand, and scrip on shoulders cast,
His chief defence against the winter’s blast.
His food, for most, was wild fruits of the tree,
Unless sometime some crumbs fell to his share,
Which in his wallet long, God wot, kept be,
As on the which full daint’ly would he fare;
His drink, the running stream! his cup, the bare
Of his palm closed; his bed, the hard cold ground,
To this poor life was Misery ybound.
Sackville.
I do believe myself the creature,
Subject, and soldier, if I so may speak,
Of an Almighty Father, King and Lord;
Before whose presence, when my soul shall be
Of flesh and blood disrobed, I shall appear,
There to remain with all the great and good
That e’er have lived on earth; yea, and with spirits
Higher than earth e’er owned, in such pure bliss
As human hearts conceive not,—if my life,
With its imperfect virtue, find acceptance
From pard’ning love and mercy; but if otherwise,—
That I shall pass into a state of misery,
With souls of wicked men and wrathful demons.
Joanna Baillie.