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JUDAS RETURNING THE THIRTY PIECES.
We bend the knee, record the vow, and breathe the fervent prayer:
How soon are prayer and vow forgot, amid life's crime and care!
The Saviour's passion, cross, and blood, of what avail are they,
If first that Saviour we forget, and next we disobey?
For pleasures, vanities, and hates, the compact we renew,
And Judas rises in our hearts—we sell our Saviour too.
How for some moments' vain delight we will imbitter years,
And in our youth lay up for age, only remorse and tears.
Ah! sanctify and strengthen, Lord, the souls that turn to thee;
And from the devil and the world our guard and solace be.
And as the mariners at sea still watch some guiding star,
So fix our hearts and hopes on thee, until thine own they are.
