Christian Character

Ah! who can know the treasures of that soulWhere mildness sheds its sweet and soft control,And virtue, guarding with angelic care,The placid spirit saves from every snare:—Where blest benignity, with pious grace,And calm contentment dwells, with peacefulness;Where injured patience, smiling 'midst its pains,Endures affliction, every grief sustains;—And kind compassion lives, that fain bestowsIts bliss on others and partakes their woes;—Where sympathy's seraphic tenderness,In silence feels what words can ne'er express;—Where reason reigns, approved by spotless truth,And virtue blossoms in immortal youth;—Caution, discretion, and forbearance still,Dwell in each action and direct the will;While meekness bows beneath oppression's load,And resignation owns its Sovereign God.There blest Religion, with celestial love,And faith divine, transports the soul above;And glows expanded in that holy breast,Whose prayer imploring pleads for the distressed,For mercy's sovereign power to melt the soul,And Gilead's balm to make the sufferer whole:For blind and wretched, guilty and undone,The fervent prayer ascends to the high throneOf the Supremely Good, whose mercy savesThe bold offender, and the wretch forgives;While humble thanks and ardent praises rise,An incense-offering to the opening skies.O that the humble tribute of a verseMight these dear treasures of the soul rehearse.But far, too far inferior, dare I dreamTo ope the beauties of the sacred theme?For half concealed from human view they lie;—But, scanned with approbation from on high,The Power Supreme looks gently from above,And fills the spirit with celestial love;Encircles in a Father's kind embrace,And wraps in the Redeemer's righteousness.