Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/53

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TRUST IN GOD.
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"So not a word that flows from me
Shall ineffectual fall;
But universal nature prove
Obedient to my call.

"With joy and peace shall then be led
The glad converted lands:
The lofty mountains then shall sing,
The forests clap their hands.

"Where briers grew 'midst barren wilds,
Shall firs and myrtles spring;
And Nature, through its utmost bounds,
Eternal praises sing.'

Trust in God Under Severe Earthly Privations.

Habakkuk iii. 17-18.

What though no flowers the fig-tree clothe,
Though vines their fruit deny,
The labour of the olive fail,
And fields no meat supply?

Though from the fold, with sad Surprise
My flock cut off I see;
Though famine pine in empty stalls,
Where herds were wont to be?

Yet in the Lord will I be glad,
And glory in His love;
In Him I'll joy, who will the God
Of my salvation prove.

He to my tardy feet shall lend
The swiftness of the foe;
Till, raised on high, I safely dwell
Beyond the reach of woe.

God is the treasure of my soul,
The source of lasting joy;
A joy which want shall not impair,
Nor death itself destroy.

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