24 'Twas thou that call'd me forth from nought, "Twas thou didst bid me be;

That gave a world for my support;
All glory be to thee.

25 'Twas thou that suffer'd in my stead;
"Twas thou that made me free,

When sin and death enslav'd my soul;
All glory be to thee.

26 When sorrows or temptations come,
Thou timely bid'st me flee,

Or giv'st me strength to stand my ground;
All glory be to thee.

27 All these thy general bounties, Lord,
Are free as light or air;

Of these, with all thy sons in Christ,
I've had a plenteous share.

28 A long detail of debts, untold,
To swell the list appear;
Of debts peculiar to myself,
Too great for thanks to clear.

29 of debts too many, and too great,
For catalogues to sum,
Receiv'd already, now enjoy'd
Or hop'd in time to come.

30 Thro' dangers countless as the sands
That spread the ocean's shore,
Conducted by thy hand I pass'd,
And hope to pass thro' more.

31 When in the midst of woes and fears
I pour'd my mournful prayer,

Thy providential pity lent

A kind indulgent ear.

32 When prosp'rous fortune smooth'd her face,

And spread her dang'rous wiles,
And tempted my unguarded heart,

With her seducing smiles;

33 'Twas then thy wisdom interfer'd, And loudly cry'd, 'beware! Behold the sting of sin, and death,

That lurks beneath her snare.'

34 Of all the Christian vineyard, I
Enjoy that very place,

On which superior brightness breaks,
Unclouded from thy face.

35 Here double portions of thy light,
With purer lustre flow;

Beam on the soul, awake its powers,
And bid its virtues grow.

36 I neither stand aloft, expos'd
On Fortune's giddy wheel,

Nor does my tortur'd spirit groan
Beneath th' oppressor's heel.

37 I neither dread the dang'rous storms
That thunder o'er the great,

Nor feel the pressures that are felt,
In a too abject state.

38 For I my own wants I have enough,
And something for the poor,

I've peace of mind, and in this world,
My God, I ask no more.

39 If counter to these comforts past
My future lot should`run,

Beneath thy chast'ning rod I'll bend,
And say, 'Thy will be done.'

40 If grief shou'd force a rueful groan,
That very groan I'll raise
In hallelujah's to thy name,

And make it mount in praise.

41 And when the gloomy hour of death
With fear and woe draws nigh,
I'll hail thee with my latest breath;
I'll sing thy praise, and die.

42 Die to this world, with all its fear,
Its woe, distraction, strife;
But live anew to thee, my God,
In Christ, my better life.

SENILIA.

DEDICATION.

TO THE READERS

OF

NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, REVIEWS, AND NOVELS.

MY DEAR ATHENIANS,

As you busy yourselves about nothing else, but to tell or hear some new thing;' as you are now almost the only readers among us; as your palates are too delicate for long concatenations of reasoning; as your digestion is not strong enough for more than two folio leaves of reading at a time; and as even of these you generally snap up but a morsel here and there; I here address to you a book, of no great size, consisting of things, more new to you than those of a weekly paper, or a novel, too concise to tire, too various, and, I hope, too spirited, not to entertain you a little. Every particular may be read by itself, as in your newspaper or magazine, without tempting you to the perusal of that which precedes or follows, for here all connexion of paragraphs, one with another, is industriously avoided. Open the book where you will, you shall find a scrap, not too long for a detention of more than from two to five or six minutes, excepting at numbers ten and twenty-two, not intended for your inspection, unless you are somewhat of a philosophical turn, or occasionally feel an appetite for a little hard and dry meat. Here nothing is racked a single line beyond its own natural length, so that your greatest compliment to the writer will be, to wish that on any one subject he had dwelt but half a minute longer. Having formerly published some little things, which he called his Juvenilia,' he calls these his 'Senilia,' written for your use, in his seventy-ninth year, hoping that either title might apologize for their numerous defects. His