Saved from something.
See where it smokes along the sounding plain,
Blown all aslant, a driving, dashing rain,
Peal upon peal redoubling all around,
Shakes it again and faster to the ground;
Now flashing wide, now glancing as in play,
Swift beyond thought the lightnings dart away.
Ere yet it came the traveller urged his steed,
And hurried, but with unsuccessful speed;
Now drench’d throughout, and hopeless of his case,
He drops the rein, and leaves him to his pace.
Suppose, unlook’d-for in a scene so rude,
Long hid by interposing hill or wood,
Some mansion, neat and elegantly dress’d,
By some kind hospitable heart possess’d,
Offer him warmth, security, and rest;
Think with what pleasure, safe, and at his ease,
He hears the tempest howling in the trees;
What glowing thanks his lips and heart employ,
While danger past is turn’d to present joy.
So fares it with the sinner, when he feels
A growing dread of vengeance at his heels:
His conscience like a glassy lake before,
Lash’d into foaming waves, begins to roar;
The law, grown clamorous, though silent long,
Arraigns him, charges him with every wrong—
Asserts the right of his offended Lord,
And death, or restitution, is the word:
The last impossible, he fears the first,
And, having well deserved, expects the worst.
Then welcome refuge and a peaceful home;
O for a shelter from the wrath to come!
Crush me, ye rocks; ye falling mountains, hide,
Or bury me in ocean’s angry tide!—
The scrutiny of those all-seeing eyes
I dare not—And you need not, God replies;
The remedy you want I freely give;
The Book shall teach you—read, believe, and live!
‘Tis done—the raging storm is heard no more,
Mercy receives him on her peaceful shore:
And Justice, guardian of the dread command,
Drops the red vengeance from his willing hand.
A soul redeem’d demands a life of praise;
Hence the complexion of his future days,
Hence a demeanour holy and unspeck’d,
And the world’s hatred, as its sure effect.
Some lead a life unblameable and just,
Their own dear virtue their unshaken trust:
They never sin—or if (as all offend)
Some trivial slips their daily walk attend,
The poor are near at hand, the charge is small,
A slight gratuity atones for all.
For though the Pope has lost his interest here,
And pardons are not sold as once they were,
No Papist more desirous to compound,
Than some grave sinners upon English ground.
That plea refuted, other quirks they seek—
Mercy is infinite, and man is weak;
The future shall obliterate the past,
And heaven, no doubt, shall be their home at last.
Come, then—a still, small whisper in your ear—
He has no hope who never had a fear;
And he that never doubted of his state,
He may perhaps—perhaps he may—too late.
-good stuff from William Cowper's, Truth
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4 comments:
"Think with what pleasure, safe, and at his ease,
He hears the tempest howling in the trees;"
Difficult to imagine, but could this be a metaphor - imperfect and eventually breaking down - of how/why the redeemed will rejoice when the grapes of wrath are trod?
I think that works. His reference to "Crush me, ye rocks..." would go along with that.
I took it to mean at first impression the joy of having one's conscious set at ease upon conversion. It would then go along with these words:
A soul redeem’d demands a life of praise;
Hence the complexion of his future days,
Hence a demeanour holy and unspeck’d,
And the world’s hatred, as its sure effect.
Oh for sure, you're right as to the main meaning.
The first thing that came to my mind after "Think with what pleasure... he hears the tempest" was a portion from Sigurd Olson's Listening Point where he rejoices in the experience of riding out a rain storm in a tent. As both Olson and Cowper point out, unless you have shelter, the storm is miserable, treacherous, even deadly.
But if you have taken Shelter...
What if, what if, God's written revelation of Himself were not complete? How readily might this be ascribed as canon: pure, divine.
Is it a measure of transcendence that, ne'ertheless, falls short of heaven's breath? It is, it is.
Fears temporal, as so, hopes temporal, must yield to hope eternal, and then, and then, to sight.
Cowper is better, far better.
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