His heart was stung with deep dismay,
With anguish, and tormenting fears,
Which like a trumpet night and day,
Did sound this sentence in his ears,
“Thou never canst thy crime conceal,
Remember thou hast broke thy Seal!”
He thought the Almighty from on high,
Would soon his red hot lightnings pour,
And he, a sinner doom’d to die,
Might then expect the hottest shower;—
God would on him his wrath reveal,
For he had broke the fatal Seal!
He more than either once or twice,
With heavy heart and tearful eye,
Went to a preacher for advice,
Who soon his sickness did descry;
By what his conscience seem’d to feel,
His heart was broken with his Seal!
The preacher then without delay,
Did point him to the sinner’s friend,
Exhorting him to watch and pray,
And on the Son of God depend,
Whose efficacious blood could heal
His soul, though he had broke his Seal!
One day in agonizing prayer,
Believing on the Son of God,
On the dark borders of despair,
He found redemption in His blood,
And from the transport he did feel,
He bless’d the day he broke the Seal!
THE STONE:
Composed to gratify a Scottish Rhymer, and brother mason.
A stone!—and what about a stone?
What sense is there in that?
I answer, in itself there’s none:
But hold, I’ll tell you what!
Oft while in craggy woods I’ve been,
All silent, and alone,
A thousand beauties I have seen,
Conceal’d within a stone!
While passing through life’s troubled scenes,
O’erwhelm’d with care and grief,
A stranger in this wilderness,
And needful of relief:
Not wishful then to every one,
To make my troubles known,—
The thing most useful in this world,
I’ve gained it by a stone!