Sunday 8 April 2012

Ongar: An extract from the Commonplace Book of Edward Reeve c1860

Verses written in the first leaf of a Bible

Blessed is the man who by temptation tried,
In wisdom makes this holy law his guide,
Serene and undisturbed moments flow,
He does no wrong, and therefore feels no woe,
What tho’ adversity with powerful sway,
Clos’d for a time the sunshine of his day,
And o’er his head, while life’s horizon hours
Affliction, dark’ning, all her tempest pours
Calm is his breast, with conscious virtue warm
He bears, unmoved, the fury of the storm,
Taught by these flowing precepts from on high,
Learns how to live, and having liv’d to die.

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