Classic Poem

Alexander Mack kept a journal or private diary in which he wrote business accounts, records of the affairs of his congregation and of the community with which he was personally connected, and also many of his private meditations. It was truly a book of the heart. It is a volume of 277 pages though not quite all of these are filled.
On his birthday, January 28, 1772, he began the custom of composing a poem in commemoration of the anniversary of his birth, a custom which, with but few omissions, he continued until his death in 1803.
These poems, twenty-four in number, and varying from six to fifteen or more lines each in length, are written in praise to God for His loving care and great blessings in this life.
While these verses may not appear of very great literary merit, they show the unselfish, devoted, and gentle spirit of the author. They show too an unusual clearness of vision and vigor of thought to the very end of a long life.
Sixty years have flowed away
like the river's rapid flood;
As an arrow that is shot
does not stop on its short way,
So has Eternity hurried me through
this short span of life
And helped me bravely over
so very many temptations.