"THE preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth."-ECCLES. xii. 10.
"A wise man will hear, and will increase learning, understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings."-PROV. i. 5, 6.
"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."-Ps. xix. 14.
VER. 1.-"By night on my bed I sought Him whom my soul loveth: I sought Him, but I found Him not."
STARS! that make beautiful the gloomy night
With God's (a) reflected splendour-Wondrous stars,
Mysteriously shining-who to us,
As the bright Shekinah to tribes of old,
Visibly testify the one Supreme;
Oh! were ye each an eye intelligent
To search and scan, from your exalted sphere,
Watchers beneath you; and the varied cause
Why health's light-treading handmaid, gentle sleep
Retards from each her spell-like influence,
How strange might seem your mingled narrative!
Banish'd from some (b) by anguish or by (c) care,
By others shunn'd, lest haply she abridge
(b) Deut. xxviii. 67; Job vii. 3, 4. (c) Eccles. ii. 23; v. 12.
The studious (d) vigil and the thought-fill'd page;
From princely dome and lustred hall repell'd,
Lest dissipation (e) falter in her course,
And (f) mirth be shorten'd, and the (g) jocund laugh ;
Fruitlessly courted, with oblivious pause,
To rest the over-thoughtful-vainly oft
Entreated to appease the storm of woe
Which rends the widow'd bosom; or the mind
Winging its way o'er oceans to a spot
Where lies, or lives, one dearer than itself
Dreaded by others, (h) lest "with sleep should come
Trains of wild horror o'er the open field
Of day-lull'd fancy, or lest conscience rave,
Betraying secrets (i) otherwise untold.
By lurking (k) felon, and intriguer foul,
And gamester mad, and dark conspirator,
Chased from their contact, till the blushing dawn,
Startling the rebels that (7) detest her beams,
Sends them, with all their forest-prototypes, (m)
To half-repose and dreams of future ill.
O Night! hadst thou indeed intelligence,
Using thy million eyes of brilliancy,
How wouldst thou gaze on those unresting ones
Of the still'd earth, that seems so slumbering!
(d) Eccles. xii. 12.
(f) Prov. xiv. 13.
(h) Job iv. 13, 14; vii.
(k) Prov. vii. 7-9;
(m) Ps. civ. 20.
(e) Job xvii. 12; Isa. v. 11, 12.
(g) Eccles. ii. 2; vii. 6.
13-15.
(i) Job xv. 20, 21, 24. (1) Job xxiv. 13—17.
Night hath no consciousness; nor yonder stars
Take knowledge of this planet and her sons—
Yet is the vast investigation made,
And made by One who fainteth not nor errs;
The vacant couch-the lids that weigh not down-
Are view'd, are known, (n) with scrutinizing truth,
By the vast ruling Mind of universe—
The Mighty-the Omniscient-to whose eye
Hearts are all open (0)—hidden things unveil'd!
And sees He not with deepest interest
That couch by slumbers (p) left unvisited,
Where-dark within, as all around is dark-
Depressed (q) and tempted struggles his poor child,
Debarr'd (r) awhile the greatly valued joy
Of his felt tenderness? (s) Perceives He not
Wrestlings in prayer, intense, importunate?
Wrestlings in hope!-yet still (t) unrealized
The blessed feeling, that the Lord is nigh
To cheer, to reconcile ?-Ah, yes! He sees, (u)
He secretly (v) upholds that striving soul.
Though with a semblant coldness He (w) reply
To all the mourner's pleadings, though He bear
Long with His own (x) elect, as night by night,
(n) Ps. cxxxix. 2, 3; Job xii. 22; xxxiv.
Ps. cxxxix. 12.
(q) Ps. lxxvii. 7—10.
(t) Ps. xxx. 7; lxxxviii. 14; Isa. xlv. 15. (u) Ps. cxlii. 3; cxlv. 18, 19.
(w) Matt. xv. 24; Mark vii. 27.
22; Dan. ii. 22;
(p) Ps. lxxvii. 4.
(s) Isa. xxvi. 8, 9.
(v) Ps. xviii. 6.
(x) Luke xviii. 7, 8.
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