Classic Poem

AFTER A YEAR OF SCARCITY .

Great God! when famine threaten'd late
To scourge our guilty land,
O did we learn from that dark fate
To dread thy mighty hand?

Did then our sins to memory rise?
Or own'd we God was just?
Or rais'd we penitential cries?
Or bow'd we in the dust?

Did we forsake one evil path?
Was any sin abhorr'd?
Or did we deprecate thy wrath,
And turn us to the Lord?

'Tis true, we fail'd not to repine,
But did we too repent!
Or own the chastisement divine,
In awful judgment sent?

Though the bright chain of peace be broke,
And war, with ruthless sword,
Unpeoples nations at a stroke,
Yet who regards the Lord?

But God, who in his strict decrees,
Remembers mercy still,
Can, in a moment, if he please,
Our hearts with comfort fill.

He mark'd our angry spirits rise,
Domestic hate increase;
And for a time withheld supplies,
To teach us love and peace.

He, when he brings his children low,
Has blessings still in store;
And when he strikes the heaviest blow,
He loves us but the more.

Now frost, and flood, and blight no more,
Our golden harvests spoil;
See what an unexampled store
Rewards the reaper's toil!

As when the promis'd harvest fail'd,
In Cannan's fruitful land;
The envious patriarchs were assail'd
By famine's pressing hand!

The angry brothers then forgot
Each fierce and jarring foud;
United by their adverse lot,
They lov'd as brothers should.

So here, from Heaven's correcting hand,
Though famine fail'd to move;
Let plenty now throughout the land,
Rekindle peace and love.

Like the rich fool, let us not say,
Soul! thou hast goods in store!
But shake the overplus away,
To feed the hungry poor.

Let rich and poor, on whom are now
Such bounteous crops bestow'd,
Raise many a pure and holy vow
Of gratitude to God!

And while his gracious name we praise
For bread so kindly given;
Let us beseech him all our days,
To give the bread of heaven.

In that blest prayer our Lord did frame,
Of all our prayers the guide,
We ask that " Hallow'd he his name, "
And then our wants supplied.

For grace he bids us first implore,
Next, that we may be fed;
We say, " Thy will be done, " before
We ask " our daily bread. "