REPENT, return, and live; He who no penitent disdains,

New heavens, new earth can give. Simple obedience shall restore

Green fields and sunny skies;

And hearkening to His voice, bring more
Than Eden to their eyes.

BERNARD BARTON

O LORD, my God, I wandered have

As one that runs astray,

And have in thought, and word, and deed,

In idleness and play,

Offended sore Thy Majesty

In heaping sin to sin,

And yet Thy mercy hath me spared,
So gracious hast Thou been!

O Lord, my faults I now confess,
And sorry am therefor;

But not so much as fain I would:
O Lord, what wilt Thou more?
It is Thy grace must bring that spirit
For which I humbly pray,

And that this night Thou me defend,
As Thou hast done this day.

And grant when these mine eyes and tongue
Shall fail, through Nature's might,

That then the powers of my poor soul

May praise Thee, day and night!

WHAT sadder scene can angels view

Than self-deceiving tears,

Poured idly over some dark page
Of earlier life, though pride or rage

The record of to-day engage,

A woe for future years?

WM. HUNNIS.

KEBLE

O BLEST Repentance, in thy weeping eye

Swim the pure beams of embryo-ecstacy.

And Faith, and Hope, and Love, and Joy, prepare
To still thy heart, and wipe thy bitter tear!
To thee alone the privilege is given,

By earthly woe, to kindle joy in Heaven,
For God Himself descends to soothe the heart
That weeps o'er sin, and struggles to depart;
And deeper transport swells the bliss above,
As seraphs sing the triumphs of His love.

J. K. MITCHELL

HE that lacks time to mourn, lacks time to mend.

Eternity mourns that.

'Tis an ill cure

For life's worst ills to

have no time to feel them.

HENRY TAYLOR.

CONFESS yourself to Heaven;

Repent what's past; avoid what is to come;
And do not spread the compost on the weeds
To make them ranker.
SHAKSPEARE,

O, turn, and be thou turned! The selfish tear,
In bitter thoughts of low-born care begun,
Let it flow on, but flow refined and clear,
The turbid waters brightening as they run.

Let it flow on, till all thine earthly heart
In penitential drops have ebbed away;

Then, fearless, turn where Heaven hath set thy part,
Nor shudder at the eye that saw thee stray.

O, lost and found! All gentle souls below
Their dearest welcome shall prepare, and prove
Such joy o'er thee as raptured seraphs know,
Who learn their lesson at the Throne of Love.

KEBLE.

No wounds like those a wounded spirit feels,

No cure for such, till God, who makes them, heals.
And thou, sad sufferer under nameless ill,

That yields not to the touch of human skill,
Improve the kind occasion, understand

A Father's frown, and kiss His chastening hand.

HEAVEN may forgive a crime to penitence,
For Heaven can judge if penitence be true.

As the fond sheep that idly strays,
With wanton play, through devious ways,
Which never hits the road of homę,
O'er wilds of danger learns to roam,
Till, wearied out with idle fear,
And passing there, and turning here,
He will, for rest, to covert run,
And meet the wolf he strove to shun :
Thus wretched I, through wanton will,
Ran blind and headlong on in ill.
'T was thus from sin to sin I flew,
And thus I might have perished too;
But mercy dropped the likeness here,
And showed and saved me from my fear,
While o'er the darkness of my mind
The sacred Spirit purely shined,

And marked and brightened all the way
Which leads to everlasting day;
And broke the thickening clouds of sin,
And fixed the light of love within.

DRYDEN.

PARNELL.

MORE shall thy penitent sighs

His endless mercy please,

Than their importune suits, which dream
That words God's wrath appease;
For heart contrite of faith

Is gladsome recompense,

And prayer fruit of faith whereby
God doth with sin dispense.

(See also CONTRITION.)

SURREY.

REPUTATION-CHARACTER-FAME.

LET another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thing own lips. PROVERBS, XXVii, 2.

They that forsake the law, praise the wicked; but such as keep the law contend with them. PROVERBS, Xxviii, 4.

Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets. LUKE, vi, 26.

Moreover, he must have a good report of them that are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. I. TIMOTHY, iii, 7.

Let not then your good be evil spoken of. ROMANS, xiv, 16.

The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot. PROVERBS, X, 7%

THE worthiness of praise distains his worth,

If that the praised himself bring the praise forth :
But what the repining enemy commends,

That breath fame follows; that praise sole, pure, transcends.
SHAKSPEARE.

Too much honour

O, 'tis a burden, 'tis a burden

Too heavy for a man that hopes for Heaven.

SHAKSPEARE.

NOR absolutely vain is human praise,

Where human is supported by divine.

YOUNG.

WHO court applause, oblige the world in this;

They gratify man's passion to refuse.

YOUNG

HONOUR'S a fine, imaginary notion,

That draws on raw and inexperienced men

To real mischiefs, while they hunt a shadow.

ADDISON.

Do not neglect the candour of thy name;

Thou should'st not stain thy clothes, much less thy fame :

Fine houses men will build, repair, and trim,

And keep them neat without, and fair within:

But little they regard, if by foul ways

They blot their names, and slubber o'er their days:

Such men in life are odious, and shall be

In death a scandal to posterity.

I'll tread a righteous path; a good report

Makes men live long, although their life is short.

FAME is the shade of immortality,

WATKINS.

And in itself a shadow. Soon as caught,

Condemned, it sinks to nothing in the grasp.

WHO worship fame commit idolatry;

YOUNG.

Make men their god, fortune and time their worth; Form, but reform not, mere hypocrisy ;

By shadows, only shadows bringing forth;

Which must, as blossoms, fade ere true fruit springs; Like voice and echo joined, yet diverse things.

LORD BROOKE.