To thy blest service! gladly to proclaim Glory to God on high, on earth good will To man; to pour my grateful soul before thee: To sing thy pow'r, thy wisdom, and thy love, And every gracious attribute: to paint The charms of heav'n-born virtue! So shall I (Tho' with long interval of worth) aspire To imitate the work of saints above, Of Cherub and of Seraphim. My heart, My talents, all I am, and all I have, Is thine, O Father! Gracious Lord, accept The humble dedication! Offer'd gifts Of slaughter'd bulls and goats sacrifical Thou hast refus'd: but lo, I come, O Lord! To do thy will; the living sacrifice
Of an obedient heart I lay before thee:
This humble off'ring more shall please thee, Lord, Than horned bullocks, ceremonial rites,
New moons and sabbaths, passovers and fasts! Yet those I, too, will keep; but not in lieu Of holiness substantial, inward worth ; As commutation cheap for pious deeds And purity of life, but as the types Of better things; as fair external signs Of inward holiness and secret truth.
But see, my father, good old Jesse, comes! To cheer the setting evening of whose life, Content, a simple shepherd here I dwell, Though Israel is in arms; and royal Saul, Encamp'd in yonder field, defies Philistia.
Jes. Blest be the gracious Pow'r who gave my age To boast a son like thee! Thou art the staff Which props my bending years, and makes me bear The heavy burden of declining age,
With fond complacence. How unlike thy fate, O venerable Eli! But two sons,
But only two to gild the dim remains
Of life's departing day, and bless thy age, And both were curses to thee! Witness, Heav'n, In all the cruel catalogue of pains
Humanity turns o'er, if there be one
So terrible to human tenderness
As an unnatural child!
Long may'st thou live, in years and honours rich, To taste and to communicate the joys, The thousand fond endearing charities Of tenderness domestic; Nature's best
And loveliest gift, with which she well atones The niggard boon of fortune.
Jes. Oh! my son! Of all the graces which adorn thy youth, I, with a father's fondness, must commend Thy tried humility. For though the seer Pour'd on thy chosen head the sacred oil In sign of future greatness, in sure pledge Of highest dignity, yet here thou dwell'st Content with toil, and careless of repose; And (harder still for an ingenuous mind) Content to be obscure; content to watch, With careful eye, thine humble father's flock!
O earthly emblem of celestial things!
So Israel's shepherd watches o'er his foid: The weak ones in his fost ring bosom bears; And gently leads, in his sustaining hand,
The feeble ones with young.
Dar Know'st thou, my father, Aught from the field? for tho' so near the camp, Tho' war's proud ensigns stream on yonder plain, And all Philistia's swarming hosts encamp, Oppos'd to royal Saul, beneath whose banners My brothers lift the spear,-I have not left My fleecy charge, by thee committed to me, To learn the various fortune of the war.
Jes. And wisely hast thou done. Thrice happy realm,
Who shall submit one day to his command Who can so well obey! Obedience leads To certain honours. Not the tow'ring wing Of eagle-plum'd ambition mounts so surely To fortune's highest summit as obedience.
A distant sound of trumpets. But why that sudden ardour, O my son? That trumpet's sound (tho' so remote its voice, We hardly catch the echo as it dies.)
Has rous'd the mantling crimson in thy cheek, Kindled the martial spirit in thine eye; And my young shepherd feels an hero's fire! Dav. Thou hast not told the posture of the war? And much my beating bosom pants to hear.
Jes. Uncertain is the fortune of the field.
I tremble for thy brothers, thus expos'd To constant peril; nor for them alone
Does the quick feeling agonise my heart. I feel for all! - I mourn that ling'ring war Still hangs his banner o'er my native land, Belov'd Jerusalem! O war! what art thou? At once the proof and scourge of man's fall'n state ! After the brightest conquest, what appears Of all thy glories? for the vanquish'd, chains! For the proud victor, what? Alas! to reign O'er desolated nations! a drear waste,
By one man's crime, by one man's lust of pow'r, Unpeopled! Ravag'd fields assume the place Of smiling harvests, and uncultur❜d plains Succeed the fertile vineyard; barren waste Deforms the spot once rich with luscious fig And the fat olive-Devastation reigns. Here, rifled temples are the cavern'd dens Of savage beasts, or haunt of birds obscene: There, pop'lous cities blacken in the sun, And in the gen❜ral wreck, proud palaces Lie undistinguish'd, save by the dun smoke Of recent conflagration. When the song Of dear-bought joy, with many a triumph swell'd, Salutes the victor's ear, and soothes his pride, How is the grateful harmony profan'd
With the sad dissonance of virgins' cries,
Who mourn their brothers slain! of matrons hoar, Who clasp their wither'd hands, and fondly ask, With iteration shrill, their slaughter'd sons! How is the laurel's verdure stain'd with blood! And soil'd with widow's tears!
Yet when our country's sacred rights are menac'd,
Her firm foundations shaken to the base; When all we love, and all that we revere, Our hearths and altars, children, parents, wives, Our liberties and laws, the Throne they guard, Are scorn'd and trampled on—then, then, my father! 'Tis then Religion's voice, then God himself Commands us to defend his injur'd name, And think the victory cheaply bought with life. 'Twere then inglorious weakness, mean self-love, To lie inactive, when the stirring voice Of the shrill trumpet wakes the patriot youth, And, with heroic valour, bids them dare The foul idolatrous bands, e'en to the death.
Jes. God and thy country claim the life they gave; No other cause can sanctify resentment.
Dav. Sure virtuous friendship is a noble cause ! Oh, were the princely Jonathan in danger, How would I die, well pleas'd in his defence ! When, 'twas long since, then but a stripling boy, I made short sojourn in his father's palace, (At first to soothe his troubled mind with song, His armour-bearer next,) I well remember The gracious bounties of the gallant prince. How would he sit, attentive to my strain, While to my harp I sung the harmless joys Which crown a shepherd's life! How would he cry,
Blest youth! far happier in thy native worth, Far richer in the talent Heav'n has lent thee, Than if a crown hung o'er thy anxious brow. The jealous monarch mark'd our growing friendship; And as my favour grew with those about him, His royal bounty lessen'd, till at length,
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