Come and possess me whole, Nor hence again remove; Settle and fix my wavering soul, My one desire be this, Thy only love to know, To seek, and taste no other bliss, My life, my portion, thou, Thou all-sufficient art; My hope, my heav'nly treasure, now Enter, and keep my heart. Rather than let it burn For earth, O quench its heat; And when it would to earth return, O let it cease to beat. Snatch me from ill to come, When I from thee would fly; SINKING underneath my load, Still I ask, nor yet receive, Knock at the unopen'd door; Still I struggle to believe, Hope, tho' urg'd to hope no more. Bearing, what I cannot bear, Hear in mercy my complaint, Fails the spirit thou hast made : Struggling in temptation's snare, Come then, O my Saviour, come, Waft me to that happy shore, Port of ease, and end of care; All my storms shall there be o'er, Grief shall never reach me there; Surely of my God possest, Safe in my Redeemer's breast.. RISE, my soul, the dawn appears, And mount, and soar away: Darting thro' this lower sphere, In the wedding garb of love, I shall soon sit down above, To my elder brother join'd, I shall there my partner see; The soul that twin'd with me. There we shall with transport meet, Moses, Jesus' song repeat, Bright as his, our bodies are, Like the head, the members shine; All our open foreheads bear, The glorious stamp divine. With the high, and lofty One, Banquet on angelic food, Father, Son, and Spirit know; Drink the joys that flow from God, And shall for ever flow. A FRAGMENT. Mixt with the guardian angels bend Happy, might I the grace receive, In thee my only friend confide, And desolate with thee abide, Surely, I now rely on thee, I know the prayer of faith is heard, LETTER ΤΟ MRS. GRANDIDIER. MY DEAR MRS. G St. John's, Antigua, 1775. THE long and steady friendship which has subsisted between us, in sickness and in health, in prosperity and adversity, ever the same without change or diminution, leaves me no room to doubt, that it will extend to my little family, and that you will be as ready, to the utmost of your power, to befriend them, as you have been the dear father already gone, and your friend, who is, perhaps, about to follow. If it should please God to take me away in my approaching confinement, I leave you and Capt. G. full power to do with and dispose of every thing in this house, and belonging to me in this Island, as you shall think most for the advantage of my little family. You know my extreme tenderness for their dear father made me unable to part with any of his clothes, but these can be of no consequence to me when I shall again have joined him for whose sake I kept them; you may therefore dispose of them, and also of my own, if you think what they will fetch will be of more service to the children. But I do not choose to leave any particular directions about my trifling effects; you will consult with other friends; and I know, I am |