Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Thoughts on Returning from Church

4049323Zinzendorff and Other PoemsThoughts on Returning from Church1836Lydia Huntley Sigourney


THOUGHTS ON RETURNING FROM CHURCH.


The listening ear the hallow'd strain
    Has caught from lips devoutly wise,
But what my heart has been thy gain
    From all these precepts of the skies?

Contrition s lesson have they taught?
    The oft-forgotten vow renew'd?
Or gently touch'd thy glowing thought
    With the blest warmth of gratitude?


Say, from the low delights of time
    Thy best affections have they won?
Inciting thee with zeal sublime
    Earth's fleeting pilgrimage to run?

If not, how vain the band to join
    Who toward the house of God repair,
To pour the song of praise divine
    Or kneel in pharasaic prayer;

And ah! how vain when Death's cold hand
    Shall sternly reap time's ripen'd field,
How worse than vain when all must stand
    The last, the dread account to yield.